A Scoutmaster's Blog

Has it really been five months since I last posted a video to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast? I guess so. Time to get busy with that once again. After all, I do have a few more videos to share with you.

This video is a slideshow of the Scouting life of Eagle Scout Thomas Schwinghamer. Thomas became an Eagle Scout early last year and held his court of honor outdoors in the spring. Unfortunately, this video was not a part of the court of honor since it was an outdoor ceremony, but I did include it on the DVD of the event. Just in case you are wondering, the song used is Faith Of The Heart by Russell Watson.

The video can also be found on his Eagle Scout page on the troop’s website. Thomas was a member of two troops as a Scout, finishing his Eagle Rank while a member of Melrose Troop 68. Thomas in now in college but still helps with troop activities a few times a year.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
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or through iTunes  (and rate the show).
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If you have been involved with the Cub Scout or Boy Scout program for a year or longer you have probably seen a group of Scouts perform the I Wish I Was A Boy Scout skit. Or maybe you have already participated in performing the skit already. Either way, you have discovered that it is a silly skit, easy to learn, and fun to do. It is the type of skit that is easy for newer Scouts to learn. I have discovered that even if the performers get the words or actions wrong it will still be a hilarious skit.

The video is an oldie but a goody. It is from Boy Scout Troop 68’s Laughs For Lunch Show held in January 2000 at the Melrose High School auditorium. These five older Scouts put a lot into the skit and had a lot of fun with it, as did the audience watching them. It is a short skit, only about three minutes long.

This video features Alex, Andy, Ben, Chris, and Jesse.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
Subscribe to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast
at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
or through iTunes  (Please take time to rate the show).
Leave a comment below, or at the iTunes store.

I was contacted tonight on Facebook by a fellow Scouter from Illinois. Kevin Miller was wondering what is going on with PTC Media these days. For those of you new to this blog, PTC Media was a website featuring a collection of Scouting related podcasts, featuring shows about Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting. At its peak the site featured six podcasts, with another one or two short lived shows. I created two podcasts, the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast (MSPP), which was a video show, and Around The Scouting Campfire, an audio program hosted by myself and Buttons, the radical Boy Scout. I also co-hosted the Leaders Campfire with Cubmaster Chris. The site can be found at http://www.ptcmedia.net/ .

Unfortunately, the answer to Kevin’s question was that not much is happening these days at the website. Many of the podcast hosts have moved on to other things, and some are not involved with the Scouting program any longer. Fortunately, Cubmaster Chris, the caretaker of the PTC Media, has decided to keep the site up and running so people can still listen to or watch the many podcast episodes created during the last eight years. Many of them hold information that is still relevant to today’s Scouting program. I still post a new video to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast occasionally.

Kevin really liked the podcasts and PTC Media. He liked them so well that he made one of the points of his Wood Badge ticket to hold a Podcast Awareness Day featuring the shows found at PTC Media. And boy, did he go all out. In 2010 he created audio cd’s of the shows, over a 100 for each of the main shows, and had a banner created for his booth. (See in the picture above.) He also created business cards, srtickers, half sheets, and full sheets to promote the shows. I am sure his efforts gave a nice boost to our downloads, and it was great to see someone who really appreciated our time and effort into creating the shows.

After a short online chat with Kevin this evening it almost made me feel guilty about not creating more podcast episodes on a regular schedule. I do still have a few videos to finish editing and post to MSPP. I have even thought about doing another episode or two for Around The Scouting Campfire. My idea was to actually record a couple stories as I tell them to the Boy Scouts around a campfire some night. (I should have recorded last Saturday’s Purple Gorilla story.) I just don’t know if people would like to download them and listen to them, if it would be worth my time and effort.

Kevin has given me permission to use his photos for this blog post. What do you think about his podcast promotion? I think it is awesome.

Click on the pictures for a full size version.

We all have our favorite campfire skits. Sometimes they are short ones and other times they are a bit on the long side. They usually make us chuckle or laugh out loud. If they are really a good one, it will be one we want to be a part of when it is performed in front of an audience. Today’s post to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast is one of my favorite skits, and yes, it does include me as one of the performers.

I first saw the “I Want To Marry The Princess” skit while I attended summer camp as the troop’s scoutmaster during the 1980’s. The staff did such a good job performing it that the Scouts and adult leaders in attendance where laughing hard and very loudly. It was a skit I immediately learned to add to our troop’s repertoire. As we began to learn the skit we decided to try to make the first act nice and slow, pronounced well, and acted perfect. But when it came time for the second act we threw everything out the window and went for speed. The faster we did it, the better the audience liked it. If we made mistakes, and we often did, the audience laughed even harder.

This video to the podcast features Jay and myself performing the skit during our 2000 Laughs For Lunch Show. Usually, the Boy Scouts would have performed this skit but I wanted to be a part of it that year. Jay and I really got into it. In fact, I was so much into character the at one point a forgot where the chair was and landed on the floor. Well, when you watch it I am sure you will understand.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
Subscribe to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast
at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
or through iTunes  (Don’t forget to rate the show).
Leave a comment below, or at the iTunes store.

Nearly every spring in the past twenty years the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 have spent a weekend at Camp Watchamagumee, usually in May. The camp is actually privately owned forty acres found north of Melrose. The land owners have allowed the troop to clear out campsites and create our own camp setting. The site currently has three patrol sites, an adult leader site, a scoutcraft open area, a treehouse, and a troop campfire area. We camp near a small pond. A short hike from the campsites is an open field in which the troop has played softball, volleyball, and disc golf. It quickly became one of the troop’s favorite camping sites.

A tradition has developed over the years, the annual Egg Drop Competition. Each Boy Scout, or team of Scouts, is given a raw egg. He must build a package for the egg usually only natural materials found around the camp. This package must protect the egg when it is dropped from various heights. The winner is the Scout who’s egg survives the highest drop without breaking. The boys must use their imagination to create a package that will not only withstand the actually drops, but also cushion the egg to keep it from becoming scrambled. I have seen a lot of various packages over the years using a wide variety of materials from bark, grasses, moss, mud, and sticks. This year one Scout even used a cow pattie.

This post to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast features the video taken during the 2013 Egg Drop Competition. Six Boy Scouts were part of the contest. An added feature to the rules this year was that the package must fit inside a plastic wash basin. Some boys did very well. Other did not make it past the first round. Watch the video to see who winds and how his package was created.

Oh, and since the new Star Trek movie had hit the theaters the same weekend as the outing I decided to use a Star Trek theme at the start of the video to introduce the Boy Scouts and their packages. Let me know what you think of it.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
Subscribe to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast
at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
or through iTunes  (Don’t forget to rate the show).
Leave a comment below, or at the iTunes store.

The Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 used to be very good with performing campfire songs and skits. The troop looked forward to performing at camporees and summer camp campfire programs. There were many times we would take a popular skit or song, change it up a bit, and make it something new. Today’s post to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast demonstrates one example of that trait.

Our troop had been attending a week of camp at Many Point Scout Camp in northern Minnesota for a few years when we came up with the idea for a new song to perform. We wanted to do something that poked some fun at the camp, and something the campers could identify with. We picked the popular song by the Village People because everyone knew the tune to YMCA. We completely changed the lyrics and the actions and came up with our version of M.P.S.C.  The song was a hit when we performed it at the closing campfire.

This video features the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 performing this song during their 2000 Laughs For Lunch Show, held at the Melrose High School auditorium. So get out of that chair, stand up, and join the Scouts as they sing their version of M.P.S.C.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
Subscribe to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
or through iTunes  (and rate the show).
Don’t forget to leave a comment below, or at the iTunes store.

Ah, the Laughs For Lunch Shows. They were a yearly campfire-style program that the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 performed for our community for 13 years, the first one held in 1996. We had a lot of fun doing them and I believe the audiences really enjoyed them. An extra bonus was that the Scouts received experience in public speaking (and singing) which was something that would help them later in life.

I recently transferred the 2000 show from a VHS tape to DVD. As I was doing some touch up editing and chapter marking for the DVD I noticed the Boy Scouts did some really good performances doing the show. I decided to clip some of the better songs and skits and share them with you for this podcast.

The first post from this show for the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast is the campfire favorite, the Dirty Sock Song. How dirty do your socks get? How smelly do they become? Do they get strong enough to give your tent an awful scent or could they be used as a method of rat population control? The Boy Scouts chose a few members of their audience to poke some fun at during this song.

Has your troop used this song during a campfire program? Or have you seen it performed by another troop? How did your Boy Scouts like it?

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
Subscribe to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
or through iTunes  (and rate the show).
Don’t forget to leave a comment below, or at the iTunes store.

Here it is, the last post to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast for the year of 2012. The goal has always been to post at least one video each month, or at least twelve per year. This podcast will keep that twelve per year goal.

When the Cub Scouts of Melrose Pack 68 met for their December pack meeting, they knew it was going to be fun. The parents knew it could get a bit messy. The cubmaster knew he had a lot of baking to do. The Cub Scouts, along with help from their parents, were going to make gingerbread houses and decorate them with lots of candies, crackers, and other building accessories. Each one ended up being a masterpiece, but a couple of them did not make it home in one piece. I think they could have used a little more mortar (frosting) to hold them together.

This video post to the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast includes video of the boys and their parents creating the houses and photos of the Cub Scouts with their finished projects. It is eight minutes long. I hope you enjoy it. Maybe this would be a good project for your Cub Scout Pack next Christmas.

Click here to DOWNLOAD and watch this Podcast.
Watch it online at the Melrose Scout Productions Podcast channel at PTC Media.
Subscribe to Melrose Scout Productions Podcast through iTUNES  (and rate the show)
or at http://feeds2.feedburner.com/melrosescoutingproductions
Don’t forget to leave a comment here, at iTunes, or on the forums at PTC Media.