A Scoutmaster's Blog

You may have noticed recently that you were not able to access this blog or the troop’s website. The site was offline for a few days to transfer everything to a new server since the old server was having issues. It was an older server and was wearing out.

David, an alumni of Boy Scout Troop 68 who hosts our website, put in a fair amount of work getting everything transferred properly. The reason it took awhile was due our troop’s website being huge. In fact, he set me an email telling me how big it was. How many troop websites do you know of that have 17 gigabytes of data!

There are two reasons for the size of the site. One, there are thousands of photos posted in the galleries. Two, there are over 100 videos posted to the site featuring the Boy Scouts performing skits and songs, interviews with former members adult leaders, old Scouting promotional videos I have come across, and plenty of videos featuring the puppet known as Buttons, the radical Boy Scout. Many of these videos were posted in the early 2000’s.

Everything was successfully transferred and is view-able once again. Some day I am going to have to go through the site and start revising and deleting certain things that are sort of obsolete these days. Maybe when it gets cold this winter and I have nothing better to do.

http://www.melrosetroop68.org

Wow. I just realized I missed the anniversary of this blog. It is hard to believe all the years that I have been sharing my thoughts, activities, and special events with you through this site known as A Scoutmaster’s Blog. How many years is that, you ask? Well, let’s see. The first blog article was posted on May 18, 2006. This blog is now ten years old! Again, I say WOW! (Do I get a ten year pin for this?)

I never would have dreamed back in 2006 that I would still be writing articles about Troop 68 ten years later. I have shared a lot of articles about the comings and goings of the local troop. I have also shared a lot of my own thoughts during the last decade. When I started this blog there were not many Scoutmasters who had one. There still are not many, but there are a few others out their nearly as old as this one, and probably much better than mine.

Here are a few statistics of this blog. There have been over 1000 articles written. Most have been written by me, but I did allow a few troop alumni to write articles about their memories of being a Boy Scout. Hundreds of pictures have been shared with you. The blog has received nearly half a million page views, which I think is something to be proud of. This blog got me into podcasting both a video and an audio podcast for several years, and introduced me to other Scouting themed podcasters. Together we formed PTC Media, a network of Scouting themed podcasts.

I sometimes think I should take all these articles and form them into a book format, but when I think about all the work that would involve I forget about it and move onto something else. Maybe after I retire and find I need something to do with all that time I will have on my hands…

After I retired as the scoutmaster of Melrose Troop 68 at the end of 2011, I thought about changing the name of the blog, but I decided to keep it. It is where people have come to know me and I did not want to ruin that. I figure that after spending 35 years as a scoutmaster I maybe deserve the right to keep the name of this blog as it is. Even though I do not write as often as I used to, I still write most of my articles about Boy Scouting.

Will I be writing for another ten years? I have no idea. Probably, if I am still involved with Scouting. After all, it only takes an hour a week you know.

This note is more for myself then anyone, but “A Scoutmaster’s Blog” reached a total of 150,000 visits yesterday (since the counter began in June 2007). It has only been a little over seven months since it reached 100,000 visits. The daily visits have been increasing nicely. The blog averages 200-300 hits per day. It will be interesting to see how long it takes to hit 175,000 views.

I would like to thank you all for coming to this site and reading the blog.

It began on May 18, 2006. There was this scoutmaster (me) who thought it would be a great idea to start an online journal (blog) about his career as a Scout leader (only one hour a week). Since then he has posted 45 entries (this one is #46) covering a variety of topics.

Now, the question is…. is it worth it?

One of the frustrating things about writing a blog is wondering if anyone actually reads it, and what they think about it when they do read it. During the last eight months I have received approximately a dozen comments left on blog entries. I have also received several emails from people relating to the blog. I get the impression that these people have been enjoying the blog.

There have been a couple high points. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that the “Ten Reasons To Be An Adult Leader” was popular enough to be linked to from a couple other websites. Recently, I was reading one of the Scouting forums in which I am a member, when I noticed that someone commented that this blog was a “must read for all”. I smiled to myself a few days after reading that one.

I do not consider myself to be a great writer. I know I will never make a living from writing. I have had people tell me that I write like I speak, and that is just fine with me. I have no intention to be anyone other then who I am.

Now, I have a few questions for you, the reader of this blog. Who are you? Where are you from? Do you hold a position in Scouting? Are there some topics you would like to see covered in this blog? Do you like it just the way it is?

Answer the question. Leave a comment or two. I would love to hear from you. Thank you for stopping by and taking the time to read “A Scoutmaster’s Blog”.