A Scoutmaster's Blog

The Patrol Leader Council of Troop 68 recently held their yearly planning session to create the agenda for the 2022-2023 program year. They did a great job, and I believe they had fun doing it. They did take it quite seriously.

As a start to the session, the five Scouts were given a sheet to rate the troop on 22 subjects. They rated each one on a scale of one to five, One being the most in need of work and Five being the high score. The Scouts were asked to be truthful as they rated each subject. The scores were then added up to create an overall score. We also took the individual scores and added them up together to create an average score.

The Scouts gave the troop good scores. Fourteen subjects had an average score of 5. Seven subjects had a score of 4. One subject had a score of 3. Five of the subjects received an unanimous 5 points. Of a possible 110 points, the Scouts gave their troop an average score of 101 points. Not bad when you think about it.

So, what are the questions? I am so glad you asked. Here are the 22 subjects. Give the “test” to your youth leaders and see would they rate your troop and program. If you dare!

a) Are parents involved with the troop?. 5 4 3 2 1

b) Do we have good youth leadership? 5 4 3 2 1

c) Scoutmaster and adult leadership? 5 4 3 2 1

d) Good example being set by youth and adult leaders. 5 4 3 2 1

e) Fundraising, Available funds. 5 4 3 2 1

f) Is good sportsmanship demonstrated? 5 4 3 2 1

g) Cooperation between troop members. 5 4 3 2 1

h) Number of members (scouts). 5 4 3 2 1

i) Good communication within troop. 5 4 3 2 1

j) Is there Positive encouragement within the troop? 5 4 3 2 1

k) Confidence shown by leaders and Scouts. 5 4 3 2 1

l) Is there Good Effort shown by the membership?. 5 4 3 2 1

m) Is the troop Seriousness when it needs to be? 5 4 3 2 1

n) Uniform used and worn properly. 5 4 3 2 1

o) Setting goals, attaining of goals. 5 4 3 2 1

p) Good attendance at meetings and outings. 5 4 3 2 1

q) Has there been good advancement? 5 4 3 2 1

r) Does the troop have Good Activities. 5 4 3 2 1

s) Do the Scouts have a Good attitude. 5 4 3 2 1

t) Is the troop Well organized? 5 4 3 2 1

u) Is the program FUN!!! 5 4 3 2 1

v) Is bullying avoided within the troop? 5 4 3 2 1

I have been collecting the Hallmark Scoutmaster Snoopy ornaments for about 15 years now so I was looking forward to picking up this year’s ornament today at my local Hallmark store. I saw the ornament online a couple weeks ago and it looked like a great addition to the collection. According to the Hallmark website:

Scoutmaster Snoopy and his Beagle Scouts know that great days are ones spent fishing with friends. Celebrate the timeless tradition of scouting with this cute Peanuts Christmas tree ornament featuring Snoopy, Woodstock and their yellow feathered friends.

I thought it was a great idea for the design. I was really looking forward to buying two of them, like I usually do every year. I walked into the store, gazed at all the various ornaments on display, and then found Scoutmaster Snoopy. I guess you could say the feeling I felt when I first saw it was… disappointment.

The design was great, but the ornament was very small. And I do mean small. It looked to be about half the size of last year’s ornament which was already a bit smaller then the year before. All the other ornaments on the display wall looked to about about the normal size that we have come to expect from Hallmark. So why was this Snoopy ornament so much smaller than the others?

By the way, this year’s ornament was the same price as last year’s ornament, even though it was so much smaller.

When I got home I took out the last two previous years ornaments to see just how much smaller this year’s was. The feeling began to change from disappointment to a little bit of anger. The 2022 model seemed to be about 40% smaller than the 2021 model. Take a look at the pictures below and see for yourself.

If this is how Hallmark plans to treat this series in the future then I may be done collecting Scoutmaster Snoopy ornaments. Yes, I bought this year’s decoration but I only bought one, not the usual two. I could not bring myself to buy a second one because I felt like I was being ripped off by Hallmark.

What do you think of this year’s ornament? Do you plan to buy one? What do you think of the size of it? Leave a comment and let me know if you like this year’s “The Peanuts® Gang Fishing Friends Ornament”.

Thank you for stopping by A Scoutmaster’s Blog.