[MysticCat]

Thanks, Dionysus -- reading through that thread was helpful.

So far as I know, the SAE/BSA link is the fact that many of the founders of APO, which started as a service fraternity for Eagle Scouts, were SAE's. I don't think there is any specific link other than that.

Probably the strongest influence on the Scouting movement has been the military. Lord Robert S. S. Baden-Powell, who founded the Scouting movement in England, was a veteran of the Boer War, and scout life follows something of a military model. One can also detect a strong influence of the writings of Rudyard Kipling on both British and American Scouting. American Scouting, of course, also draws heavily from Native American lore.

That said, I think that both Scouting and GLO's reflect the fact that young people (and not so young people) are naturally drawn to distinctive handshakes, signs and salutes, mottos, and the like as both identifying and distinguishing marks and as intangibles that encourage unity and esprit de corps. My 2 cents.