A Scoutmaster's Blog

A year ago I wrote about my trip to a Hallmark Store before Christmas and discovering an ornament featuring Snoopy, the Beagle Scout, roasting marshmallows around a campfire with Woodstock and a couple of his friends. I left the store with two of the ornaments, one to hang on the tree and one to store away.

Out of curiosity, the other day I decided to check the Hallmark website to check if there was a new Snoopy ornament this year. Guess what? There is! The new ornament is called “Beagle Scout Day Out” and features Beagle Scout Snoopy canoeing with his yellow bird friends. It is pretty cool.

On Saturday I will be traveling to St. Cloud for an activity with the Boy Scout troop. You can bet that I will try to find a minute or two to stop at a Hallmark store to pick up a couple of these new ornaments. Of course, if I really wanted to, I could order it online at the Hallmark website, but why wait for it when I can get it sooner.

Up until now, Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, has always been about the Boy Scouting program. He has talked about the Scout Oath and Law, being physically fit, how to tell when you know you are a Boy Scout, and has interviewed a Cub Scout and an assistant scoutmaster. Today, he begins to expand his Scouting knowledge into something he has never talked about before – Girl Scouting!

In the United States, boys and girls have separate Scouting programs (except for Exploring). Boy Scouting and Girl Scouting are very different programs even though they share many of the same goals. In both programs the members may chose to earn the highest award available to them. In Boy Scouting that would be the rank of Eagle Scout. In Girl Scouting it is the Gold Award.

I recently had the honor of attending the Gold Award ceremony of my niece and two other Girl Scouts. It was very impressive, and I learned a few things about Girl Scouting that I did not know. I video recorded the ceremony at the request of my sister, and we plan to broadcast it over our local community television station.

After the ceremony, I had the chance to congratulate each of the girls, and ask them if they would be willing to be interviewed by Buttons, the radical Scout. They had all seen a Buttons video or two so they knew what I was asking. To my pleasant surprise, they all said yes to the idea.

This video posting to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast is the first of these videos. Ali Kociemba, one of the Gold Award recipients, is the first Girl Scout to be interviewed by Buttons. They discuss the different age groups of Girl Scouting, what some of the awards are, service projects, what Ali did for her Gold award, and what her favorite troop activities were. It turned out to be a nice introduction to Girl Scouting.

You are invited to leave a comment using the link below, or at the iTunes Music Store, or at the PTC Media forums. Drop me an email at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org. It really is great to hear what you think about the podcast videos.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast through iTunes.
or at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
Check out other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.

My friend Jerry, who writes a blog called The Scoutmaster Minute, recent wrote about an experience he had while waiting to checkout in a store. Jerry was wearing his Scout uniform. A lady next to him started a conversation with him and began expressing her negative opinions about the Scouting program. She began complaining about the new uniform, then shifted gears to God, gays, and guns. It appears that she was looking to provoke an argument with Jerry. But Jerry kept his cool and answered her questions in a well mannered and professional manner.

To read about Jerry’s experience check out his blog at The Scoutmaster Minute.

You have got to check this out. Mike Rowe, the star of the television show Dirty Jobs, recently wrote a post to his blog in response to a letter written by a parent of a Boy Scout who wants to quit Scouting because it is not “cool” to his friends. Mike, who happens to be an Eagle Scout, wrote an excellent article. You can check it out at:
http://blogs.discovery.com/mike_rowe_answers/2008/11/mike-offers-a-p.html

Here is a small except from it:
“Your Dad asked me to drop you a line and say something inspirational that might persuade you to dig down deep and find the determination to make the rank of Eagle Scout. It’s a reasonable request, from a father who obviously wants to see his son succeed. But here’s the thing – The Eagle Award is not really meant for people who need to be dragged across the finish line. It’s meant for a select few, and I have no idea if you have the guts to see it through.”
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Okay, okay. If you have been reading this blog and watching these podcasts you probably know about a skit the troop developed based on the song Star Trekking by The Firm. It became one of the most popular skits ever made up by Troop 68. The skit became so popular that we thought we needed to come up with something more. Thus we developed a new version of the skit based on the second Star Trek series. Thus I present to you Star Trekking: The Next Generation.

Star Trekking: The Next Generation was fun trying to put together. First, we had to pick which characters from the show would be a part of the skit. We could not include them all because the skit would become too long. We cut it down to six, which seemed to work well during the first skit. Second, we had to come up with lines that would be readily identifiable with each of the characters. Third, we needed a action for each of them.

When we performed the skit/song for the first time we discovered we did a pretty good job. The audience at summer camp enjoyed it, as did the Star Trek fans in the crowd. It quickly became a part of the troop’s repertoire. Here are the character’s line of the skit:

Data – “I wish I was a human, human, human, I wish I was a human. It’s elementary.”
Geordi – “I cannot find my visor, my visor, my visor. I cannot find my visor. Help!”
Worf – “The phaser’s set for kill, for kill, for kill. The phaser’s set for kill. Can I push the button now?”
Riker – “I’m leading the away team, away team, away team. I am leading the away team, ’cause I am Number 1.”
Picard – “Let’s set a course for Dagobah, for Dagobah, for Dagobah. Let’s set a course for Dagobah. Engage!”
Villan Q – “Humans are so childish, so childish, so childish. Humans are so childish. Why can’t I ever win?”

This video was taken from the troop’s Laughs For Lunch show, probably about ten years ago. Have fun with it. I hope you enjoy it.

You are invited to leave a comment using the link below, or at the iTunes Music Store, or at the PTC Media forums. Drop me an email at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org. It really is great to hear what you think about the podcast videos.

Click here to DOWNLOAD this Podcast
Subscribe to Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast through iTunes.
or at http://feeds.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
Check out other Scouting podcasts at PTC Media.

There are some people in our society that think children should play games in which there are no clear winners. They think everyone should be a winner so that nobody’s feelings get hurt. There are some people in Boy Scouting that share these same thoughts. Everyone wins, no one loses.

Sorry, but I do not share that sentiment. Life is made up of winners and losers. Just ask the guy that got the job that the other guy really wanted. Or the high school basketball player who missed the winning shot. Or the Cub Scout who won the Pinewood Derby.

Having winners and losers is not the problem. How we act when we win or lose is more important. Or, as parents and adult leaders, how we treat the winners or losers is the most important thing.

Professional sports is all about winning or losing. I can understand this since these sports are actually an entertainment business. Millions of dollars are on the line. But the players, coaches, and team owners do not always set a good example of graceful winning or losing.

I do not like that same attitude used at the high school level. I am not a fan of parents, coaches, and schools applying a “win or nothing” attitude on their teenage players. Get rid of that “only winners count” attitude. It can be extremely stressful to the players. Yes, there should be competition, and yes, there needs to be a winner and a loser, but how we adults treat the two will demonstrate whether we provide a harmful environment or a growing environment for the students and players.

In the Scouting program we try to provide a growing and learning environment. We do not want to provide an atmosphere where winners mock the losers. Ideally, we want the winners to help the others to do a better job the next time. We want the winners to help the losers become winners also! We want everyone to “do their best”.

We play a lot of games in our troop, both by team and individually. Each team and Scout tries hard to win. He does his best to win. Yes, we do have winners and losers. The difference is that we do not let the winners gloat over the losers. Oh, there might be a minute of high fives, or a couple of comments, but the boys do it in the spirit of fun, not out of spite. In three minutes they don’t even care anymore because they have moved on to the next activity. To tell the truth, there have been many times when the Scouts are playing a game when they do not even try hard to keep a score. They are more concerned about having fun than they are about a scorecard.

I guess you could say the boys have learned the lesson. Winning or losing is not as important as having fun and being with your friends is. And as adults we need to remember that how we treat the winners and losers is the the most important thing of all. Our attitudes can make winners out of the losers too.

In honor of the fiftieth video posted to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast at the beginning of October, we decided to hold a drawing. One person who left a comment at the iTunes Music Store, or a comment at PTC Media under forums post MSPP #50, during October would win a dvd of Buttons videos. It is time to announce the winner.

The winner is… LibertyF.

LibertyF left a comment at the iTunes Music Store. I now need LibertyF to contact me with an address to send the dvd.

I would like to thank those of you who took the time to leave a comment at iTunes or the PTC Media forums. I really do read them and appreciate you leaving the feedback.

I recently received an email from Greg Jameson asking me to review a new “widget” on his website that allows Scout leaders to create certificates for all kinds of functions, activities, and awards. I took a quick look at it, and to tell the truth. I was a bit impressed. The site includes a lot of options.

You begin with choosing a template, either vertical or horizontal. There is 48 horizontal options, and 40 vertical options. All of them look sharp. Next, you choose from 68 “gold seals” for your certificate, and then one of six colors of ribbons for the seal. In the fourth step you choose what will be printed on the final certificate. I did some quick math and discovered there are over 107,000 variations of the backgrounds, seal, ribbons, and ribbon locations. (88 x 68 x 6 x 3) Wow!

Now you just need some nice parchment on which to print the certificates, and wallah, you have a great looking presentation for your pack or troop. Give it a try and see what you think of it. I think Greg did a great job. You will find this resource at:
http://www.cyberbasetradingpost.com/docs/create-a-certificate1.cfm
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