A Scoutmaster's Blog

The first of the four new videos featuring Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, has been posted. This one features a of troop member’s brother trying to teach Buttons the Cub Scout Promise. Of course, things do not go as planned, and hairy issues arise. The other three videos will be posted in the weeks to come.

You can view it in two places….
http://melrosetroop68.org/videobuttonsCub1.html
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMLSNj4UHFE

All the videos are of Michael, the Cub Scout, trying to teach Buttons the Cub Scout Promise. The plan was to only make one video. We did four takes, thinking to edit them into one good video. However, each of the four takes ended up having their own style, even though each one covers the Cub Scout Promise. So, keep a watch out as I post all four versions. I will probably post them about 2-3 weeks apart.

It was the weekend of Mike’s Eagle court of honor. I awoke Saturday morning with a song in the head that I thought would be great for the opening credits of the video I planned to create from taping the ceremony. I sat down at my computer, scanned some pictures of Mike from his years in Scouting, and began to edit the opening to the video.

I began taping troop courts of honor and Eagle courts of honor shortly after our city started a community access television station. I thought it would be a great way to add further recognition for the achievements of the Scouts, and it would be one more way to keep Scouting in the public view.

I always gave the Eagle Scouts a copy of the tape of their award ceremony. I felt that it would make a nice souvenir they could watch later in life. Did any of them ever watch the tape? I don’t know, but I hope they did.

Back to Mike’s court of honor….

Later that morning I received a phone call from Mike’s mother. One of the guest speakers had called her to tell her that he may be a little late arriving at the ceremony. She asked if I had any ideas what could be done to fill some time if he came late. I explained that I was editing a slideshow of pictures of Mike for the opening in his video. I could add more photos and lengthen the slideshow, thus making it into a four or five minute presentation. She liked the idea and offered to find some pictures of Mike from his years as a Cub Scout.

Thus, my two minute video opening became a four and one half minute presentation. The guests attending the ceremony enjoyed the slideshow, as did Mike and his family.

Since then, I have had to make a slideshow for each of the troop’s Eagle Scouts for their ceremonies. I have also had three Scouts from other troops ask me to edit a show for their court of honor. The slide shows have become quite popular. When I find the time, I have been making shows for the previous Eagle Scouts from our troop.

To date, I think I have done twelve Eagle Scout slideshows. Yes, they take some time to put together, but the smiles and chuckles from the guests, the families, and especially the Eagle Scouts, have made the time seem well spent.

Several of the slideshows can be seen on our troop’s website. Check them out at:
http://melrosetroop68.org/EagleHall.html
There are slideshows for about half of the troop’s Eagle Scouts so far, with more coming in the future.

Back in 1986, some folks in Melrose decided to start using the television access channel given to the city by the cable company. They formed the first board of directors for what became known as Mel-TV 3.

It started as a primitive operation by today’s standards. (I currently have much more editing power in my computer at home then the station did back then.) No one on the board had any television or editing experience. It was a “learn as you go” type of training employed. The station was run completely by volunteers. Programs had to be loaded manually into tape decks at the time the program would be aired. Nothing was automated.

I was the scoutmaster of the Boy Scout troop at the time. (And still am the scoutmaster.) I had played around with a video camera and thought this new Mel-TV 3 station would be a great way to get some free PR for the Boy Scouts and let the public see what the Scouts have been up to. The people at Mel-TV 3 were happy to air any programming I gave them. They needed anything they could get at the time. A local business sponsored the programming.

We began by taping our courts of honor. The only editing required was to add some titles at the beginning and the end of the program. I took on the editing responsibilities and discovered I liked doing it. I had found a new hobby.

I began bringing a camcorder along on camping trips and to summer camp. I edited pictures from our Philmont trips into slide-shows with the boys doing the narration. The Scouts and I even did some original programming. The troop became a regular source of material for the television station.

Well, here it is, twenty years later. The troop still provides programming for Mel-TV 3. In fact, we provide from five to ten shows per year for them. Things have changed a bit though through those years. VHS is out, digital is in. I do the editing on my home computer instead of going to the station’s studio. And much of the programming from the last couple of year’s is burned to dvd format.

I have never had a parent complain about the Scout programming. The Scouts and their parents enjoy watching the shows. They really like the dvd’s produced throughout the year. The tapes and dvd’s have made great keepsakes.

Yeah, it is work to film the events and edit the programs. But I think it is worth it to keep Scouting visible in the community. I would suggest that you look into doing the same in your community.

There is an interesting video that was produced by the BSA that promotes Boy Scouting to parents. Unfortunately, I think that most of the parents that saw the video already had boys in Scouting because, as far as I know, the dvd with the video was only sent to Scoutmasters. I thought it was a shame that more people would not see it so I uploaded it to youtube.com. If you would like to see it go to: