A Scoutmaster's Blog

The Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast (MSPP) which features videos of Boy Scouts performing skits and singing songs, and videos of Buttons the radical Boy Scout, has been found on the iTunes music store since the beginning. Once nice feature about the iTunes store is that viewers can rate the podcasts and leave comments. I enjoy reading the comments. They keep me fired up about producing new videos. The comments and videos also help to increase the podcast’s ranking in iTunes which then gives the podcast more visibility. I like it when I can help Scouting receive more visibility. Here are a few of the comments posted on iTunes.

Scouterbill writes, “Buttons is definitely the most ‘Radical Boy Scout’. My Den loves Buttons. Keep up the good work.”

saxman104 wrote, “My Scouts enjoy watching Buttons. He is also very helpful in teaching young Scouts about Scouting. Steve does a wonderful job in his acting and writing of material. Highly recommend watching them.”

ake… writes, “How can you have anymore fun than watching videos with Scouts? Better then TV.”

and the comment made by GCostigan made me giggle, and then got me thinking about merchandising when he wrote, “Something that I can have my Scouts watch and enjoy. Now they want Buttons patrol patches.”

I would like to thank you all who have taken the time to leave a comment at iTunes, Youtube, and PTC Media. I also want to thank those of you who dropped me an email to comment about the videos. I do read them all and appreciate them. Keep them coming!

Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, talks about the Outdoor Code in this post to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. Not only does he recite it but he also covers the four “C’s” of the code: clean in the outdoors, careful with fire, considerate in the outdoors, and conservation-minded. It is a code that all Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts should follow whenever you are in the great outdoors, like when you are camping or hiking or just having fun.

Buttons would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment to this post, or at the PTC Media forums, which is holding a drawing through the month of February. It would also be great if you left a comment and rate the podcast at the iTunes music store which helps Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast get a higher rating and thus, make it more visible to people who search for Scouting podcasts. You can also leave a comment at Digg.com. Thanks for watching.

Download Podcast
Watch Video on the troop’s website.
Subscribe through iTunes.

The 2008 Laughs For Lunch Show is now part of history. Once again the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 did a great job of performing skits and songs before a live audience. Approximately 70 people attended the show, including family members, friends, and even Scouts and adult leaders from neighboring communities.

After our final practice Saturday afternoon, the troop gathered at my house for a supper of pizza and sodas before heading back to the school auditorium for the actual show. We even had enough free time to watch about fifteen minutes of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

While we were in my basement family room eating pizza, I told the boys that I had heard that a Hollywood talent agent, who happened to be in St. Cloud, had heard about our show and was planning to come to Melrose and watch it. Of course, most of the older boys did not believe me, but the younger ones were not sure if I was telling the truth or not. After a few minutes, I confessed that I was kidding.

As people arrived for the show, I noticed that the chairperson for this year’s Ripley Rendezvous, a council event held at the Camp Ripley National Guard Base in central Minnesota, had arrived to see the Scouts perform. She had emailed me earlier in the week to ask if the troop would be interested in doing a few skits and songs during the evening program at Ripley. I invited het to attend the show and see if this type of thing was what she was looking for.

So, in a way, a talent scout was sitting in our audience, just not from Hollywood. I did inform the Boy Scouts about our special guest before we started the show, but once the curtains opened I do not think they gave it another thought.

The Ripley chairperson came down to the stage after the show to chat with me. She was very pleased with the Scouts’ performance and would like them to be part of the Ripley program. I steered her to our senior patrol leader to discuss the matter with him. I am sure this will be a topic during our next patrol leader council meeting.

It has been a few years since Troop 68 has performed at a council or district event. We do participate in the closing campfire program at summer camp, but the Ripley Rendezvous will have a much larger audience, two to three times that of summer camp, and ten times the size of the Laughs For Lunch crowd.

Will the Boy Scouts be able to handle that? I know they can. A little more practice, along with a little more encouragement, and they will be able to perform for anyone. Even the president of the United States.

That time of year has arrived when the Naguonabe Lodge of the Order of the Arrow is holding elections around the council. Even though Troop 68 has only one Boy Scout eligible we need to contact the lodge and set up an election date.

The troop currently only has three members of the O.A., two Scouts and myself. Neither of the Scouts has been very active. In fact, neither Scout has done anything with the lodge since they completed their Ordeal weekend, so you could say they are inactive at this point. Yes, I am a member of the lodge. I try to keep my dues paid, but if I do not attend a lodge function during the year then, I admit, my dues do not get paid.

Why are the boys inactive? I am sure there are several reasons. I do not think they are aware of when lodge activities are held. The lodge attempts to print a quarterly newsletter, but it does not always happen. I understand the challenges of printing a regular newsletter. When you are dealing with several people from across the council things sometimes just do not get accomplished.

Communications about lodge functions must start with the lodge, of course. Yes, a scoutmaster can do his part to try to keep O.A. members informed, but he can only do that when he is informed. As a scoutmaster, I would not mind receiving a letter a couple weeks before each activity to remind me to talk the the troop’s members. But mailings take time and money, so I have a feeling this is not something that will happen very often. Maybe they could start an email mailing group. That would not cost much to do. I did find a website that was started for our lodge, but nothing has been posted to it since April of 2007.

Am I active in the lodge? I am as active as the boys in my troop. I have had years when I have been quite active, and I have had years when I did not attend a single lodge activity. The Order of the Arrow is a youth organization, not an adult club, so I do not attend unless members from my troop do. I usually end up being the driver because most of the time the Scouts are too young to have a license.

Am I proud to be a member of the Order of the Arrow? Yes I am. I think it is a great organization. Unfortunately, I was never a youth member so I was never able to participate at that level. I do encourage current troop members to be active, and to complete the Brotherhood membership, but it is their decision, not mine.

In an ideal lodge all members would participate in most events. Unfortunately, in the real world there are family functions, jobs, sporting events, and troop activities that get in the way. Forgetting about those funtions does not help either.

I would not mind being a more active member of the O.A. I wish my Scouts were more active. As a scoutmaster, I can only do so much. I do have a life outside of Scouting, after all. I think the lodge leadership could be more active in promoting the lodge to its members. With a little help and encouragement from the council I think that could happen.

I just discovered tonight, as I was checking out some Scout forums, that the BSA national office appears to be looking for a new site to hold the National Jamborees. Don’t worry about the 2010 Jambo, that one will still be at Fort A.P. Hill. But future ones may not be. It is not about the military pulling their support of the Jamboree. They are not. In fact, it sounds like they will probably continue their support at the new Jambo site.

It appears that a letter has been sent to councils asking for their assistance in finding a new new site. This letter explains the reasons for moving the Jamboree away from Fort A.P. Hill, and what requirements must be met by a new site. You can read the letter for yourself by clicking HERE.

The next National Jamboree is only two and one half years away! It is time to start thinking about whether or not I intend to attend as an adult leader.

My decision will be based on the Boy Scouts of my troop. If several of them decide to attend then I will apply to be one of the troop leaders. If they don’t, then I won’t. But I think it would be great to attend another Jamboree.

I was the scoutmaster of Troop 1417 during the 2001 National Jamboree. I participated in a lot of meetings to prepare for that trip. But it was worth it. I was lucky to have a great team of assistant scoutmasters and junior leaders. I was also blessed to have a great group of Boy Scouts in my Jambo troop. Things went so well that during the reunion meeting held a few weeks after returning from the trip, I told the parents that I never want to attend another Jamboree again. The Scouts and leaders of Troop 1417 set the bar so high that I was sure I would never have another troop as good as this one.

Well, several years have now gone by and the itch to attend another Jamboree needs scratching. Of course, this being the Jamboree celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America is just one more reason to attend.

As far as I know, the Central Minnesota Council has not formed a Jamboree committee yet. I hope they do soon. I know it takes nearly two years to prepare for a trip of this magnitude. I would expect the transportation to be one of the biggest issues.

In 2001, the council sent two troops to the Jamboree. In 2005, the council was able to send three troops to Virginia, which was nearly ten percent of the Boy Scouts in our council. (We are not a large council.) It would be great to see our council send three troops in 2010. Or even four troops. Of course, the problem could be finding enough adults to accompany the troops. Just one more reason for the council to get started early.

The 2010 National Jamboree promises to be the biggest event in the BSA’s history. I think it would be great to be one small part of it. Now, I just have to convince my Boy Scouts.

I am always looking around the internet looking for new places to visit and bookmark about Scouting. Here are a few Scouting blogs I recently discovered. I invite you to check out:

http://KISMIF.org (A very good Cub Scouting blog)
http://thecubscoutleader.blogspot.com/ (another good Cub Scouting Blog) and
http://halfeagle.com (A collection of various Scouting blogs in one place.) The author of this blog has included the blogs of PTC Media, of which the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast is a part of.

Okay, I just had to pass this along to you all. There is a story in the Saturday edition of the Washington Post about eleven Tigers Cubs who stayed together through Cub Scouting, into Boy Scouting, and all recently attained the rank of Eagle Scout. They were described as cry babies when they entered the troop, but through Scouting they grew into outstanding young men. Here is just a small piece of the article:

As Cub Scouts, they were so wild that the exasperated leaders insisted that their parents attend the meetings to keep things from getting out of hand. Their first hike as Boy Scouts became notable for the “strike” when the boys lay down side by side on an easy trail and refused to go on after having covered about the length of the Mall.

But something happened to these 11 whiny, quick-to-say-quit goofballs from Boy Scout Troop 681 in Falls Church. It happened somewhere along the way between pinewood derbies and knot-tying in the Scout House, the log cabin where the group met three times a month under the glassy eyes of a stuffed moose. And it happened on 50-mile hikes and canoe trips, under the watch of scoutmasters such as the retired lieutenant colonel who spun war stories and taught them how to set up an L-shaped ambush, Ranger-style.

I hope the Post leaves the article online for quite awhile, and that this gets picked up by national news organizations. Read about it HERE.