A Scoutmaster's Blog

Twenty years ago, when I worked in a lumber yard in Melrose, a salesman came in to speak to one of the owners. I explained that she was busy at the moment but should be available in a minute or two. We started small talk and he began telling me about his kids and family. He asked me how many kids I had. Without hesitation I told him that I had twenty boys, and then walked away because the owner had arrived. After seeing the shocked look on his face she had to explain to him that I was single, had no children of my own, and that I was talking about the boys in my Boy Scout troop. It was a great moment.

Twenty years later, I am still single without any kids. Just like Lem Siddens in the movie Follow Me Boys I consider the Boy Scouts to be my boys. I like to joke with people that I have a great arrangement. “When I want some kids in the house I make a few phone calls. When I am tired of them I send them home.”

Once in a while, I find myself talking to someone new. When they find out I am a scoutmaster they will usually ask me, “How old are your boys?” When I tell them I do not have any, they give me a look that seems to say, “Are you crazy? Why are you a scoutmaster if you do not have any boys in the program?”

Sometimes I ask myself that very question. The simple answer is that I believe in the program. I always have. After nearly three decades of being a Scout leader I can honestly say that I have seen the good that come from Scouting. I wish more boys would try Scouting. I think they would find that they would enjoy the program and actually have fun learning new skills.

I also think that more parents should consider Scouting as a program for their sons and family. Many parents do not understand the benefits of the program, which really is a shame. I think it is encouraging that the National Office plans to increase the promotion of the Scouting programs.

There have been nearly 250 boys in my extended family over the decades. There have been a lot of movies watched, pizzas eaten, and Dungeons and Dragons games played. I have been to dozens of graduation parties, and even several weddings. I have seen the boys grow up, begin lives of their own, get married, and start their own families.

Yep, the Boy Scouts are my boys. And in most cases, they are also great friends.

Shortly after I started writing this blog I registered it with a site called Blog Patrol which had a nice little counter for the site and kept statistics for one week. It was fun watching the daily stats climb, but not so fun watching them drop. It was like watching a slow moving rollercoaster. Most days I would get around 150 visits or so. I smiled a little brighter each day I received over 200 visitors. It is nice when people find your blog something they enjoy reading.

This past week I have noticed more people coming to the blog. Today, something happened that has never happened before. This blog has received over 300 visitors! In one day! And the daily forecast shows that it could hit 340 visits. Wow.

Now I realize for many bloggers out there that this is no big deal. Some blogs receive thousands of hits per day, even tens of thousands. This is not one of those blogs. I realize that my blog topic fits a narrow range of people out there, and that is alright. I am not a writer for the Wallstreet Journal or anything like that. I just write about Scouting, something that has been a part of me for most of my life.

I just wanted to take a moment and thank you all for coming to this site and checking out the blog. I really do appreciate it.

It will soon be time for the 2010 National Jamboree. Boy Scouts have begun making their plans to attend, and save money to make those payments. Adult leaders are in training to become the scoutmasters and assistants for this huge event. Councils across the country are trying to get plans finalized and transportation arranged for nearly 40,000 participants. The National Office is planning to make this a special event to celebrate the 100th year of the Boy Scouts of America.

In 2001, I attended the National Jamboree as a scoutmaster of one of two troops the Central Minnesota Council sent to the event. Nine youth members and one young assistant scoutmaster from Troop 68 went along to Fort A.P. Hill. We had a great time. (To read more of the experience click HERE, HERE, and HERE.)

I took a lot of pictures with my 35mm camera. My first assistant scoutmaster, Randy, had a new digital camera, and he took even more pictures then I did. A few weeks after we arrived home I began planning the video of the Jamboree. Using the pictures Randy and I took, and narration done by two of my Boy Scouts who participated in the event, I put together a 21 minute video for everyone to view. This video was also shown on our local access television station. I was pretty happy with the way it turned out.

With thousands of Boy Scouts and leaders planning to attend the 2010 National Jamboree I thought this would be a great time to add this video to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. I believe this is the longest video I have ever added to the podcast so give it a little time to download. I am sure you will find it worth the wait.

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.

Eymard Orth, assistant scoutmaster of Melrose Boy Scout Troop 68, recently was recognized by Troop 68 for his twenty years of service. Eymard become an assistant scoutmaster when his son, Peter, was a member of the troop in 1988. Since then, Eymard has attended hundreds of troop meetings and weekend activities. He has not missed a week of summer camp in twenty years. Steve Borgerding, the troop scoutmaster, presented the plaque during a court of honor held on December 15, 2008. (Local Newspaper)

Eymard is quite an individual. He was never a Boy Scout himself, but when his youngest son joined Boy Scouting and he was asked to help out as an assistant scoutmaster he stepped up to the plate and (almost) never looked back. Even though he celebrates his 82nd birthday this year he still looks forward to going camping with the boys, something that other people his age think is crazy. But Eymard truely enjoys working with the boys and finds it to be quite rewarding. He has been a great leader of the troop and we look forward to the next twenty years of his tenure.

In addition to Scouting, Eymard is also very active in his local church, the MCCL, and the local Republican party. He and his wife tend a large garden during the summer months. They enjoy family outings which tend to be quite large with their ten children, and numorous grandchildren. Eymard recently wrote an auotbiography which has been quite popular locally.

Nearly two years ago, Eymard was interviewed by Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, during one of the troop’s outings. You can view that interview by clicking this THIS LINK.

UPDATE: The local papers have also picked up this story, the Melrose Beacon.

It was game time during the troop meeting and the Boy Scouts were ready to play. It was a beautiful evening in the city park. The Scouts needed to burn off some calories. Unfortunately, the boys in charge of the game forgot to bring the gear needed to play it. One requirement of being a scoutmaster (though it really not listed anywhere) is the ability to think fast and create a plan B on the spot. That trait was about to come in handy.

The troop meets at the city’s Jaycee Park during the summer months. We would gather in the back of the park near the outdoor hockey rink. The tall pine trees provided us with shade. A small clearing gave us a spot to play various games.

I walked to the back of my car and opened the trunk looking for something that could be used by a couple dozen boys to play a game. There was not much to chose from, just a tennis racket, some tennis balls, and a few frisbees. As I stood there and looked at the hockey rink I had a moment of inspiration. I grabbed the racket, a tennis ball, and the frisbees. An idea was forming in my head. It was time to play Tennis Baseball.

The game would be played inside the hockey rink with its four foot tall wooden sidewalls. The frisbees became the four bases, with home plate located toward one end of the rink, and second base near the center. The rink would serve as our ball field. The tennis racket would be our bat. The tennis ball would be our baseball.

The game would be based on the rules of one-pitch softball, a game our Boy Scouts were already familiar with playing, but there would be a couple of rules changes. First, the ball had to stay inside of the hockey rink. If a player hit the ball hard enough to fly or bounce out of the rink before a field player touched it, then the batter would be out. Second, the ball was in play anywhere within the rink. There would not be any foul balls. If the ball hit a hitter’s teammate standing on the sidelines then the batter would be out.

The Scouts loved playing the game and it was added to the list of games to be played when we met in the park. Ten years later the boys would still be playing Tennis Baseball. Amazing what a little quick thinking and inginuity can do, isn’t it?

Cubmaster Chris and I were talking about the PTC Media podcasts the other night when he brought up an interesting idea. He thought I should take some of the Melrose Scouting Productions videos, convert them to mp3 files, and begin an audio podcast. Of course, not every video would make a good audio podcast. For example, most of the videos which feature the Boy Scouts doing a skit would not transfer well because they are too visual, you need to see what the boys are doing. The songs and interviews may transfer pretty well with just a small amount of editing. Many of the videos featuring Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, would make for decent audio files.

Unlike the other PTC Media audio podcasts which are anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes long each, the Melrose Scouting Productions Audio Podcasts (that is a long name, isn’t it?) would be pretty short, probably about 3-10 minutes each. My guess right now is that only 30 of the current videos would be able to become an audio show.

Chris made the point that an audio podcast would provide another way to present different topics to an audience without having to create video footage to go along with it. Maybe even create a “radio program” featuring Buttons or the Boy Scouts.

The biggest advantage to doing an audio podcast is that an mp3 file is much easier to take with you away from your computer. There are many ways to make an audio file portable. They can be burned to a cd, or placed an a portable mp3 player, like an iPod. An audio file can be listened to at any time; while you are walking, or driving, or excercising. You do not need a monitor carried with you, like you would if you wanted to watch a video podcast.

So, here is the question. Is there an audience for this type of podcast? Would it be something that you, a reading of this blog, would subscribe to? Would this be a worthwhile project, or would I be wasting my time? I do not want to create something for which there would be only twelve subscribers. Leave a comment here, or drop me an email at stevejb68@yahoo.com.

A fellow Scouting friend of mine, Jeff Cummings, writes a blog called The Trainer’s Corner. It is one of the many Scouting blogs I visit and read. Recently he wrote an article about the reasons we as adult Scouters of the BSA should earn our knots. You know, those little patches we can wear on our uniforms over our left pocket. They are the awards that we as adults can still earn. Our merit badges or ranks, if you think about it.

Jeff wrote about four good reasons that we should consider earning the knots: quality, consistency, recognition, and roundtables. All are good reasons. I would encourage you to go to his blog and read them. You can find it at http://tinyurl.com/74u92s

After reading Jeff’s blog I pulled out my uniform and looked at my knots. I have six of them. The first two I earned were training awards: The Scouter’s Key and the Scout Leader’s Training Award. The next one I received was the Scoutmaster Award of Merit. Those were earned during my first decade as a scoutmaster. Since then I have added the Distinguished Commissioner Service Award, the District Award of Merit, and the Silver Beaver Award. They add a little color to my uniform.

To tell the truth, I doubt that I will be earning any more knots and that is all right by me. I have pretty much done all I can in the current position of scoutmaster, and I do not plan to accept any other positions in the foreseeable future.

Now, here is a quick quiz for you. The six knots pictures with this blog post are the knots I have earned. Can you put the right names to the right knots?

It has been over three months since we have last seen them on the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast, but they are finally back. Buttons, and his friends Randall and Bones, return for what is the last of the trilogy of bad jokes. That’s right, no more bad jokes to be told by Buttons to his laid back friend, Randall.

With each of the three shows, I have tried to find something for Randall to be doing as he gets interrupted by Buttons. In the first video Randall was reading a book. In the second he was listening to his music. In this new video Randall has a new puppy that he has named Dragon. We had a lot of fun filming Randall with the puppy (yeah, it is a stuffed toy dog.) For some reason we kept falling into fits of laughter. Randall looked too real as he was petting the dog. I think the video footage looks pretty good, but I would like to hear what you think.

As the new year gets underway, plans are for Buttons to return doing more Scouting themed videos. I want like him to go back to the Scout Oath and Law and explain what the different points mean in his own unique manner. I would also like to find a few more people for Buttons to interview. It might be fun to film him with a group of Cub Scouts.

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.

Please leave a comment using the link below, at the iTunes Music Store (were we could really use some more reviews), or at the PTC Media forums. Drop me an email at webmaster@melrosetroop68.org. It is great to hear what you think about these podcast videos.