Transatlantic Council

American Scouting overseas
Boy Scouts at Camp Tama, Japan
Girl Scouts and Brownies from two troops in Singapore pass Girl Scout cookie boxes up the brow of the rescue and salvage ship USS Safeguard (ARS 50) as part of Operation Thin Mint.

Far East Council
Owner	Boy Scouts of America
Headquarters	Okinawa
Country	Japan
Founded	1953
Website fareastcouncil.org

Transatlantic Council
Owner	Boy Scouts of America
Headquarters	Brussels
Country	Belgium
Website tac-bsa.org

USA Girl Scouts Overseas
Owner	Girl Scouts of the USA]
Headquarters	New York
Country	United States
Website Official website

There have been American Scouts overseas since almost the inception of the movement, often for similar reasons as the present day. Within the Boy Scouts of America, these expatriate Scouts are now served by two overseas Councils and the Direct Service program. Within the Girl Scouts of the USA, the USAGSO serves such a purpose.

The Direct Service is a program service of the Boy Scouts of America's International Division, created in 1955 to make the Scouting program available to citizens of the United States and their dependents living in countries outside the jurisdiction of the Transatlantic Council (headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and serving American Scouts in Europe, Africa and the Middle East), the Aloha Council (serving youth residing in much of the eastern and Central Pacific as well as Guam, American Samoa, and several Hawaiian islands) and the Far East Council (headquartered in Japan, serving several nations in the western Pacific.)

According to BSA records and Reports to Congress, BSA overseas councils were referred to as "Extra Regional"—being outside the BSA's then-twelve Scouting regions in the states, which were consolidated in 1973 to six and again to the current four in 1993. Overseas councils were organized in the Panama Canal Zone (1923), Peking, China (1923), Philippines (1924), and Guam (1947). The "Direct Service Council" was formed in 1956, as a result of conversations within the BSA's national office in New Jersey. Several Scouting associations, on behalf of their American citizens living in those countries, wanted to have American Scouts and Scouters to serve as part of their associations while overseas. In fact, the high commissioners in Japan, Europe, and Panama invited BSA to send commissioned Scout executives to help create a program for Americans living overseas. International Scouting accords discouraged such memberships except via wartime criteria that allowed for a small number of youth to take part in local programs when no program of their own host nation existed. The BSA's response was to create within the International Division a "local Council equal" which would do many if not all the services which the BSA provides to communities in other areas of the world and within the United States. These services include membership accounting, unit chartering and rechartering, advancement reporting and filing, insignia and badge issuance, certification of awards and advice on where to conduct Scouting-related activities (mostly camping or ways that the BSA's requirements to "visit community agencies", for instance, could be met while in Zaire or the Isle of Man or in Peru). Direct Service Council did not include Transatlantic, Far East, Aloha, or Canal Zone Councils which had BSA charters to operate as councils since the early 1950s.