A Scoutmaster's Blog

The weather was perfect as the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 gathered for their winter outing on Friday, February 22. The seven Scouts and three adult leaders were looking forward to a weekend of winter fun.

Camp Stearns is owned by the Northern Star Council, which is headquartered in the Twin Cities. The camp is located east of Fairhaven, Minnesota. The camp borders on a few lakes, has some great wooded camping areas, and plenty of open areas for various activities, including a disc golf course.

The Melrose troop stayed in one of the heated buildings during the weekend, but they spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the mild winter temperatures on Saturday. In the morning the Scouts worked on various advancement requirements, including an orientation course.

The troop headed out to the rink after lunch for a game of broomball. The temperature was warm enough, and the action was intense enough, that winter coats soon started to pile up along side the rink. The Scouts had a great time playing this non-skating version of hockey. The boys even took the time to film a few scenes for a new video which should appear online sometime in March as part of the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. The video may also appear on Youtube.

The highlight of the weekend came after chapel service and supper. It was time to head to the hills! The sledding hill, that is. Camp Stearns has a great sledding hill that is lit for evening use. And boy, did the Scouts from Troop 68 put it to use. The Scouts were able to move along at pretty good speeds, and able to get some pretty good air from the jumps. (See the picture) Of course, there were a couple good wipe-outs to go along with it. The long steep hill prompted one Scout to comment that there should be a tow rope to get back up the hill. The evening ended with watching a movie before heading off to the sleeping bags.

I have written hundreds of newspaper articles about the troop and its functions during the last three decades. When I write the articles I concentrate on the Boy Scouts and what they are doing. I try to leave myself out of the stories as much as possible. I do not want to promote myself. My job is promote the boys and Scouting.

So when I local newspaper reporter contacted me a year ago for an interview about being a scoutmaster for over twenty-five years, I kind of shrugged her off and said I would do it someday in the future. Well, I guess the future arrived. She remembered that I said I would do it later, so called me about it again earlier this month. She wanted to run an article for the issue that came out during Scout Week, but we could not find a time to meet. She did not give up though. The article finally came out in this week’s issue.

I thought I would bite the bullet and let you all (or at least those of you who would be interested) read it on the newspaper’s website. It can be found HERE. Don’t laugh to hard when you read it, okay?

The logo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America has been chosen, and it was designed by Philip Goolkasian, a seventeen year old Eagle Scout from California. Philip’s design was chosen from over 4000 entries.

The logo looks pretty sharp. I like it. The BSA will be using the logo for promotions during the next couple of years. Check it out on the BSA website HERE.

Even though it is -18 degrees outside (I am in Minnesota, you know) I did get outside to watch the last moments of the bright moon moving to hide into the shadow of the earth. In fact, I even set my video camera outside to record it. Once the camera warms up again I will watch it and see how it turned out.

By now you may have heard that the Boy Scouts of America have taken a stand against bullying by changing a Tenderfoot requirement to read, “Explain the importance of the buddy system as it relates to your personal safety on outings and in your neighborhood. Describe what a bully is and how you should respond to one.”

The BSA website (scouting.org) has a good explaining of this requirement for Boy Scouts and troop leadership. It states:

A bully is someone who wants to hurt another person. Bullying can be physical, verbal, emotional, social, behavioral, or any combination. Bullying can also take place just about anywhere: on the bus, at school, at soccer practice, even online, via the Internet. However, bullying can be stopped. Help put an end to the bullying by taking action first yourself.

• If ignoring the bully doesn’t work, stand up for yourself with words. Rehearse what you want to say to that you will feel in control of your emotions when you confront the bully.
• Tell the bully how hurtful it feels to be bullied, and ask why you are the target. Ask the bully to stop.
• Sometimes, agreeing with the bully and having a ready response will work (“So what if I have a face full of zits. What’s it to you?”).
• Hang out with a couple of friends; try not to be alone.
• Tell an adult you trust, such as a parent, teacher, or coach.

This requirement is described on page 57 of the 2008 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook.

Luckily, Troop 68 has not had many instances of bullying within the troop during the last several years. When it does happen we try to “nip it in the bud” by talking to the Scout doing the bullying. I think it is a decent requirement to add to the Tenderfoot Rank and will allow us an opportunity to talk to Scouts about the subject.

With this blog entry I would like to steer you to another Scouting blog for just a moment. Buffaloreagle at the Lone Star Scouter blog wrote an excellent post that I think you might find interesting. He called it “Last, Great, Best, Hope For America. Here is a portion of it:

“You are the last, great, best, hope for America. You are! You believe in HONOR, in a world where honor has lost much of its meaning. You believe in doing your duty to God and your Country, in a country where school prayer has been outlawed and many Americans don’t even bother to vote. You believe in a scout law, with 12 very demanding and very specific points, and you commit to ALL of them….when your non-scout friends commit to NOTHING.”

I agree totally with his blog post. Check it out at the Lone Star Scouter Blog.

I once wrote that as an adult Scouter we need to watch the language we use, and be sure to not use bad language in front of the boys. After all, if we use foul language then what right do we have to tell the boys not to use it?

We also need to be aware of the words we use in regular speech. Be aware of what you are actually saying, and how you say it. Younger Scouts may believe virtually anything you say and could take it very literally. I am sometimes amazed that things I say “off the cuff” are the things that the Scouts remember.

Beware of how you pronounce your words, or you may find your Scouts picking up your bad speech habits, or worse yet, start teasing you about them. Here are a couple examples that happened to me.

I was invited for supper by a family that had two boys in the troop. As we sat around the table for the meal, I noticed the younger of the two Scouts begin to use the word “basically” a lot. In fact, he was drawing attention to the word as he used it. And he was using it a lot. It suddenly dawned on me that I had been using the word quite a bit when I talk to the Scouts. This Scout was poking fun at me! We all had a good laugh about it, but needless to say, I basically stopped using the word for awhile.

The Cougar Patrol made a career of picking up my little language quirks. I never realized that I answered the phone by saying “yellow” instead of “hello” until they started using it on me.

The troop, lead by the Cougars, once worked one of my ways of speaking into a skit during our annual Laughs For Lunch Show. It seems that I would say “not chet” instead of “not yet”. All the boys involved with the “Is It Time Yet?” skit said chet instead of yet during the skit. They thought the inside joke was hilarious. I think the audience thought they had a speech impediment.

The best example of young Scouts believing everything a scoutmaster says happened to me during a troop committee meeting. During a discussion, one of the mothers stated that her son said something like, “Well the scoutmaster said it, so it must be true.” Another mother chimed in that her son was the same way. “The scoutmaster said it so that must be the way it is.” It was at that moment I realized the power that language has over the younger Scouts, and the power that a scoutmaster has in general.

Peter Parker’s uncle said in the first of the Spiderman movies, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Well, I do not know if being a scoutmaster counts as one having great power, but I do know the position comes with great responsibility. We need to think before we speak, and talk good, or basically we can expect to have the Scouts talking just like us. Whether we like it or not.

A newer video (2006?) by the Boy Scouts of American can be found on Youtube. It is a two song music video that features Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts participating in Good Turns across America. The First video asks, “What have you done today to made you feel proud?” It is a catchy song. The second song I think you will recognize from several years ago. Watch the video, then post a comment about your thoughts.