Archive for May, 2015


2015 NOAC patches of Naguonabe LodgeThe Naguonabe Lodge of the Central Minnesota Council began handing out patches to its members that are attending the 2015 National Order of the Arrow Conclave during this weekend’s spring conclave. Once again, it will be a two patch set, but unlike previous year’s these patches do not match into each other and do not feature Paul Bunyan and Babe the blue ox. But that is okay. After all, this year marks the 100th anniversary of the Order of the Arrow so something different needed to be done.

The pocket flap patch is our lodge’s official patch to recognize the anniversary. The pocket patch is for the NOAC event and seems to feature a wolf spirit watching over the campsites. I like the colors used on the pocket patch. The picture is of the trading patches. The participant patches have a different color border on each of them.

I was able to receive two sets of the trading patches for my collection thanks to a Scouting friend of mine. I had to work this weekend so I was not able to attend the conclave. If they have any sets after the conclave I plan to get a few more sets. I would like to add a set of the participant patches to my collection, but since I will not be attending I do not think I will be able to do that.

What do your lodge’s patches for the the 2015 NOAC look like?

Good News AwardThe Central Minnesota Council has several special awards they present each year at their recognition banquet. I received an email from Mary at the council office asking if I was planning to attend. The way she worded the email made me a little suspicious, so I gave her a call. I attended the recognition banquet.

One of these special presentations is the Good News award. The council usually gives the award to a newspaper, radio station, or television station who have done a great job covering Scouting events and promoting the program. Our local newspaper, the Melrose Beacon, has received this award. So did our community access television station. Unfortunately, the city has closed the tv station, but the Melrose Beacon continues to include articles about Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting events.

This year the council decided to give the award for promoting Scouting on social media. They looked at local troop and pack Facebook pages and chose two who they felt did an outstanding job covering their local program and activities. One of those two units was Troop 68 of Melrose. And that is why Mary was wondering if I was going to attend the banquet. She knew I was the administrator of the site and did most of the posting to the troop’s Facebook page. She wanted me to accept the award on behalf of Troop 68.

A week later I “received” the award again at the Scenic district’s annual program kickoff and award presentations. It is not often you can receive the same award twice. 😉

It is nice to realize that the council has noticed our work promoting the local Scout program. It is really nice to receive recognition for the the years of work toward that purpose. Troop 68 would like to thank the Central Minnesota Council for this award.

Scoutmasters are proud of their Scouts.  They welcome them as they come into the troop as a 10 or 11 year old, sometimes frightened, Webelos graduate from a Cub Scout Scout Pack and than watch them grow as they develop Scouting skills and become leaders within the troop. Sometimes they even acheive Scouting’s highest honor, the rank of Eagle Scout. But there are many more ways a scoutmaster becomes proud of his Scouts. Many of them come to pass after the young man leaves the troop.

On example is when a scoutmaster receives word that a former troop member does well with his chosen occupation. I have two alumni, that I know of, that now work for the Boy Scouts of America. Keith works in Texas at Boy’s Life magazine, after spending several years at Northern Star Council. When Keith moved on his position opened up and another alumni of Troop 68 applied for the job, and got it. Sergio is now a Communications Specialist at Northern Star Council.

Sergio recently posted a new video to Youtube that he created about Scouting. This video was shown at the Northern Star Council, Boy Scouts of America 2015 Annual Meeting. The name of the video is Vitamin N. You will understand after watching this three minute video.

Great job Sergio!