A Scoutmaster's Blog

Earlier this year, a few adult troop leaders from neighboring communities got together after a roundtable and began talking about having a mini-camporee. The goal was to get the local troops together for a weekend, line up a few activities, and let the Scouts get to know each other. I missed the first and only organizational meeting due to a family matter, so it was emails and phone calls from there on.

Each of the four troops was responsible for an activity. The activities would be conducted in a round robin fashion from Saturday morning to the early afternoon. The Sauk Centre troop prepared a blind soccer activity. The troop from Albany planned theirs around orienteering. Avon put together a first aid demonstration.

I wanted Troop 68 to do something unique, something that most of the Scouts had not done before. My troop owns two blowguns so I brought up the idea to the membership about setting up a blowgun target range. They liked the idea and thought it would be fun.

A little over a week before the camporee I visited the land where the camporee would be held with one of the adult leaders from the Albany troop which was hosting the event. It was privately owned land about 3 or 4 miles southeast of Albany. There was a great wooded area for camping, and a large grassland for activities. It would work very well for our outing. The owner of the land was very supportive and told us that two of his sons had earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

The date of the camporee was chosen by the Albany and Avon troops so it would not take place during their school’s homecoming weekend. Unfortunately, the weekend they chose happened to be the weekend of Melrose’s homecoming weekend. It did not present any problem though. The Scouts from Troop 68 went to the camporee early Saturday morning instead of Friday evening. There was not any program planned for the outing on Friday night so it worked out well.

As the weekend approached I bought some targets and a large blue tarp to act as a backdrop for the range. After all, I did not want to lose any of the small darts in the brush if I did not have to. I also began watching the weather forecast. It looked like it could be a cool and wet weekend. I do not like camping on cool and wet weekends anymore after twenty eight years of Scouting. Oh well, too late to back out now.

(To be continued…)
.

The first time the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 scheduled a trip to southern Wisconsin to spend a weekend at Eagle Caves we had one young Scout who was very excited about going spelunking. In fact, after a month about hearing him talk about nothing except spelunking we finally had to turn down his excitement a bit because it was getting on everyone’s nerves.

Eagle Caves is a large privately owned cave. Scouts and youth groups can make arrangements to spend the weekend camping in and exploring the cave. Campgrounds, a shower house, and a dining hall are all located on the site. We visited the cave during the winter months so we chose to stay inside the cave, along with a couple dozen other troops.

Due to the seven hour trip from Melrose to Eagle caves we did not arrive until after 11:00 Friday evening. The staff placed us just inside the entrance to the cave. The entrance had a door to keep the cave at a constant year round temperature.

After breakfast in the dining hall Saturday morning, the boys began their spelunking experience. The cave was quite large and they were many nooks, crannies, and tunnels to explore. The main areas of the cave were large and easy to walk through. Other areas, especially the tunnels, could be so small that you would crawl on your belly to get into them. It did not take long for the boys’ clothes to be covered in cave dirt and slim.

Jeff, the father of one of the boys, and I were relaxing in the cave when his son and another Scout ran up to us. They were excited about a tunnel they found and they wanted us to follow them and explore it. Okay, we were game.

The tunnel entrance was small, like crawling on your hands and knees small. The boys charged into the tunnel, leaving Jeff and me to follow. We were starting to have second thoughts but we got down to the floor and followed them. Soon, we were flat on our bellies creeping through the shrinking tunnel. We could hear the squeals of delight ahead of us. The tunnel finally opened into a small area in with Jeff and I could stand at an angle, but the tunnel continued through another small opening.

As we stood there in that tight little area, I had a completely random thought. “What if an earthquake would happen?” I asked Jeff. That was the last straw. We were done. We could back on our bellies and shimmied our way back out of the tunnel.

Jeff and I did not explore anymore tight tunnels that weekend, but the boys had a great time.
.

The Patrol Leader Council has created the Troop 68 program for the September 2008 to August 2009 year. I think they did a pretty good job. It is not quite as ambitious as past years, but that is okay. Several of the Scouts wish to attend the 2010 National Jamboree so they scaled down the program a bit, but they still let it include plenty of opportunity to have fun and experience great Scouting. Here is a brief summary of the upcoming program year.

September 2008 – The theme for the month is Freaky First Aid. The fall breakfast fundraiser kicks off with the Scouts preselling tickets. The outing will see the troop camping at one of their favorite spots south of town, on Hellermann’s property. The month ends with a court of honor held at the city hall.

October 2008 – The theme this month is Tweaked Out Training, with leadership training as the goal. Two service projects will be held on October 4 as the Scouts participate in the Scouting For Food Drive, and do their annual fall road-up project. The fall breakfast fundraiser will be held on October 5. The troop plans to camp with other troops in the area during a small mini-camporee held later in the month.

November 2008 – This month’s theme sounds a little strange, “Go Games Sports”. Popcorn orders will be taken. The outing is the LPMRB, which is an acronym for laser tag, pizza, movie, rollerblading, and bowling. This makes for a long day.

December 2008 – Personal Safety is the theme this month, including internet safety. Activities include a day of downhill skiing at Powder Ridge Ski Resort and the troop’s Christmas party. The troop will hold a court of honor before taking a break over the Christmas holidays.

January 2009 – Swimming safety is the theme. You know, like Safe Swim Defense and Safety Afloat. The Order of the Arrow Lodge will hold its winter banquet this month. The troop’s activity will be an overnighter with plenty of games and movies. Unfortunately, there will not be a Laughs For Lunch Show this year.

February 2009 – Arctic Adventure is the cool theme for the month. The Scouts will participate in Scout Sunday on February 8. The winter outing will see the boys at Camp Stearns. Don’t forget to bring your sleds.

March 2009 – The subject of March will be Wild Wilderness. Things like the Outdoor Code and the Wilderness Pledge will be discussed. The troop plans to go to a waterpark for its activity. The month will end with the first court of honor of the new year.

April 2009 – Low Impact Camping will continue the camping theme started last month. The troop’s spring breakfast fundraiser will be held on April 5. The troop will be participating the the council annual Ripley Rendezvous which will be held at the Camp Ripley National Guard Base in central Minnesota.

May 2009 – Let’s learn a few more dishes to cook up as we hit the theme of Crazy Cool Chef. The local Order of the Arrow Lodge will have its spring conclave this month. The troop will be going to Camp Watchamagumee for a three night mega-weekend toward the end of the month.

June 2009 – Cycling is this month’s theme. Time to get some work done for the merit badge. The troop will travel to King’s Lake for a weekend camping trip. The troop will also help out the community by cleaning up the park during the city’s summer festivities. And don’t forget this month’s court of honor.

July 2009 – We will be spending a week at Many Point Scout Camp in the middle of this month. Lots of fun and activities, and maybe even the chance to learn a few new things.

August 2009 – The program year wraps up with a theme of Medieval Madness. I think we may be looking back in time toward the middle ages. The month’s activities will fit in well when the Scouts go to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival and Valleyfair Amazement Park. The patrol leader council will hold its annual planning conference early in the month to plan the next program year.

So, that is the Troop 68 program for the next twelve months. How does it stack up to your troop’s program?

The post I wrote a week ago about how our troop plans its yearly program seems to have created a little buzz with some of you. I have received a few comments and emails asking about the form we use to rate our troop. So, being the swell guy that I am, I created a pdf file to share with those of you who are interested in seeing this. Keep in mind that this is a troop form, not something that was created by the national office. It has come in handy to give the Scouts a guide to looking back and seeing how the program and troop is doing. I have even used it with the parents a few times.

The form can be found here:
http://melrosetroop68.org/forms/TroopRanking.pdf

I would be interested in hearing what you think of it. You can leave me a comment through this blog or email me at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org.

The Yearly Planning Session (YPS) is an activity held by the Patrol Leader Council of Troop 68 the first weekend of each August. During this session the PLC, under the supervision of the scoutmaster, will plan the troop’s program for the next twelve months.

Boy Scout Troop 68 has conducted these sessions in different ways over the last twenty six years. Sometimes they are weekend events held at a resort or cabin. Sometimes they are a simple one day event that ends with a movie or game. However we do the session, we always try to mix in a little fun with the work.

The troop usually begins the session with the Scouts rating the troop on how it has done during the past year by filling out a questionnaire. The form covers about twenty-plus areas and gives us a good look at where improvement is needed and where we have been doing well.

The PLC will take several minutes to review the previous year’s program. What went well? What did not? What were the popular outings? Which ones had low participation, and why? Were any activities canceled? If so, what was the reason? Based on these evaluations the junior leaders will set goals for the next year. These goals will be incorporated into the next year’s program.

By this point the guys usually need a break. If we are conducting a weekend session the break may be followed by some leadership training.

Now it is time to brainstorm ideas for monthly themes and activities. Each junior leader will make a list of ideas he thinks should be part of a great program. The patrol leaders include any ideas from the patrol members. All these ideas are then written onto a white board for the whole PLC to see.

This list of dozens of ideas for activities and monthly themes must now be narrowed down to twelve months of program. This will take two or three rounds of voting. During the first round each Scout will vote for twelve activities and themes. Ideas that receive no votes or only one vote are eliminated from the list. During the second round the boys will only vote for eight ideas. If a third round is needed they will vote for six ideas.

Once this list is narrowed done it is time to place the themes and activities into a monthly schedule. Dates are chosen for meetings, activities, fundraisers, service projects, and other events. This new program is then reviewed one last time and tweaked a little if it needs it. The final step is for the senior patrol leader to present the program to the troop committee at their next meeting for their stamp of approval. The committee then calls for a parents meeting to review the program and find chairpeople for each event.

This is a very brief description of the process in Troop 68. It has worked well for us. How does your troop plan its program year? Do you have any other ideas to share?

Four Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 attended a week of summer camp at Many Point Scout Camp near Pondsford, Minnesota, during the week of July 13-19, 2008. They worked on advancement during the morning hours, had various troop activities in the afternoon, and participated in open programs during the evening.

The Boy Scouts of Troop 68 continued their theme of cooking during the June troop meetings. The first meeting we worked on breakfasts (see previous post). The second meeting’s topic was easy desserts.

Cooking has never been a strong point with the Scouts of Troop 68 for some reason. At times, I get the feeling they would rather be doing anything then cooking or cleaning up. (I do not know if your troop is like ours, but some of the loudest patrol arguments happen when it is time for meal clean-up.) That is one reason we decided to work on our cooking skills this month.

The seven Scouts who attended the month’s second meeting divided into three teams. Each team was in charge of making one dessert. Everyone would get a chance to try each dessert at the end of the meeting. The three desserts for the meeting were chosen to show the boys how quick and easy it was to prepare some desserts. The first was a cheesecake. The second was a chocolate pudding pie. The third was a cake with frosting.

The cheesecake and pie were very easy to prepare. Both were made using a pre-made graham cracker pie crust. Once the ingredients were mixed they were spread evenly in the pie crusts and then placed into the refridgerator for thirty minutes. Of course, on a camping trip they would have been placed in a cooler. The cake took a little more work since a dutch oven was needed. I had started the coals about 15 minutes before the troop meeting began. By the time the cake mixture was poured into the pan the dutch oven was heated and ready to use.

As the cake baked and the other desserts cooled the Scouts played a game of football. I took the time to mix the frosting for the cake and prepare the plates and silverware for the taste testing. By the time the boys finished their game the desserts were ready to be eaten. They began with the pie, then the cheesecake, and finally the frosted cake. There was not much left after the boys, two adult leaders, and two parents had eaten their fill.

Then came the magical moment. A fourteen year old Scout who is known within the troop as being very “energetic” made the comment that, “I am full of sugar.” His stomach was full and he could not eat another bite. Luckily, we did not have sodas for the boys to wash it all down with. They were already on enough of a sugar high when they left the meeting.

Hopefully, we will start seeing some desserts made with supper on upcoming camping trips.
.

It has been a long time (April 1980) since I asked the scoutmaster if he could could some help with the Boy Scout troop. Little did I know that I would be an adult leader with that troop for the next 27 years. It has been quite a ride, with both highs and lows.

I have been taking photographs of the Boy Scouts during the outings, meetings, and courts of honor since I began attending troop functions. In the late 1980’s, I took a number of photographs from the years of 1980-1985, had slides made from them, wrote a script, and recorded a few Scouts as they read it. This became a slideshow Troop 68: The Early Years that was shown at a court of honor. It was the first Scout show I produced, and soon lead me into videotape and editing.

When a public access television station began operating in Melrose I saw the opportunity to produce Scouting shows for a wider audience. This slideshow was soon videotaped and slightly edited for television viewing. Unfortunately, it looked liked a slideshow that was videotaped off a movie screen. It got the point across, but the quality was not very good.

Fast forward several years. I now have a computer at home that can do digital editing. It was time to give this early show a face lift. The original photographs were scanned into the computer and more photographs were added to the show. Unfortunately, I only had the original soundtrack. The boys had all grown up by this time and had moved away from town. I really did not want to redo the soundtrack anyway. It had a quaint charm all its own.

Now, thanks to the magic of the internet, you can take a trip back in time to Scouting during the first half of the decade we call the 1980’s. Yes, the uniforms have changed. Yes, the shorts are not as short these days. But you will see that boys back then had just as much fun as do the Boy Scout of today’s program. So sit back, relax, and enjoy watching this entry to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast, Troop 68: The Early Years.

Watch this video post of Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast, and then leave a comment if your troop has done anything similar to this. You can leave a note below by clicking on the COMMENTS link, or at the PTC media forums.

If you leave a comment at the iTunes Music Store you will help the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast climb higher in the ratings.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast through iTunes.
Check out the other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.