A Scoutmaster's Blog

The Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 have had a lot of fun performing at campfires over the years. They have been doing it since attending summer camp at Crow Wing Scout Camp in 1981. Then in 1996, they began doing a yearly campfire-style show for the community that they call Laughs For Lunch.

The performances have really improved over the years. During that first summer camp in 1981 the troop sang a country music song called Running Bear. The only change the troop made to the song was to substitute camp staff names for Running Bear and Little White Dove. We did nothing very fancy, just stood in front of the campfire and sang the song for the campers, but the Scouts loved it. I think we embarrassed the male staffer we picked on though, although the female staffer thought it was funny.

The next year the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 wanted to do better. We rewrote the lyrics to The Battle of New Orleans, and created a song we called The Battle of Plenty Coup, named after our campsite at Crow Wing. Instead of a song about battling the British, our song was about battling the mosquitoes. The troop was invited to perform the song at the Friday night closing campfire. Imagine our surprise when we received a standing ovation! We were all grinning from ear to ear as we returned to our seats.

The performing bug had bit us! We were determined to sing again at the closing campfire the next year. We wrote the Battle of Plenty Coup, Part 2. This time we battled the staff instead of the bugs. Once again, it was a hit with that week’s campers.

During the following years we created more songs, and even developed a few skits. Our repotour began to grow. The troop began performing at camporees and other Scout gatherings. By the late 1980’s Troop 68 had become well know throughout the district and council.

Scouts and other leaders began asking us for the words to the songs we created, and the scripts to the skits. When I began forming the idea for a troop website I thought this would present a great way to share these songs and skits with other units. I posted them into two categories. The first was our troop’s original songs and skits. The second included our favorites that we had picked up over the years.

You can check out these songs and skits by going to our troop website at http://melrosetroop68.org/campfirestuff.html
We also have a lot of songs and skits videotaped that can be seen at our troop’s video site:
http://melrosetroop68.org/videos.html

So tell me, does your troop (or pack) like to perform songs or skits at meetings or campfire programs? What are their favorites?

Wow, I did not even realize this until today, but a few posts ago I hit a milestone with the blog. I had posted my 250th article to A Scoutmaster’s Blog! This post is actually the 255th article. I guess it goes to show how well I have been paying attention to things, huh?

I just want to thank you all for reading my ramblings. I hope you have enjoyed them as much as I have enjoyed writing them.

Let’s face it, as an adult leader in Scouting there are times when you can get pretty feed up with things and become rather grumpy. We have all been there. We have all done that. Some more then others.

PTC Media, the net-site of Scouting related podcasts, features such shows as The Leader’s Campfire (audio), An Hour A Week (audio), and Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast (video). This past week they have added one more show to their line up – Grumpy Old Leaders (audio).

Grumpy Old Leaders is an audio podcast that has been talked about for a few months. The first show was finally posted on Wednesday, April 9. The podcast will feature adult Scouters, both from Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting, who are cubmasters, scoutmasters, committee members, and unit commissioners. The show will be an outlet for adults to discuss the things they are finding difficult within their Scouting programs, things they find frustrating. It is not a show meant for Scout-age ears.

During the last few months I have found myself become a co-host for The Leader’s Campfire, since Bob, the regular co-host, needed to take a leave of absence. I have had a great time doing the podcast with Cubmaster Chris. During the last two months we have been discussing creating the Grumpy Old Leader podcast as a way to cover things that did not fit well into The Leader’s Campfire format.

Well, that first Gumpy hour-long episode has now been posted, and to tell you the truth, it has done pretty well. Within the first four days it has received over 100 downloads from the website, plus who knows how many from iTunes Music Store. It seems to have hit a spot with a lot of people who were waiting for this type of show. In fact, when we recorded our second show last Friday, Chris and I were shocked, and pleasantly surprised, to discover other leaders who wanted to be a part of the show. By the time we ended the recording session we had five other leaders from around the country joining us, and three more hour-long shows almost ready to go. (Watch for them in the next few weeks.)

It will be interesting to watch as this show develops. Chris and I really did not have a clue what to do with a format for the show, or even if the show should have one. We did not even know if anyone would listen to it. Well, it looks like it might become a popular PTC Media podcast, and we already have several more topics to discus in future episodes. Be sure to check it out and let us know what you think about it. Feedback will be important to this podcast’s development.

Check out all the PTC Media podcasts HERE.

There are not very many Scouting podcasts found on the internet yet, and most of the ones you find seem to be Cub Scouting related, not that there is anything wrong with that. My own Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast (MSPP) covers both Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting, but it is heavy on the Boy Scouting. MSPP is geared toward the entertainment and fun of Scouting. It does not hit the leadership and training side of things very much.

A new entry has recently joined this small group of Boy Scout related podcasts. Jerry and friends at The Scoutmaster Minute (http://www.thescoutmasterminute.com) have developed and produced a podcast that talks about Boy Scouting. I have listened to this podcast and I think they are doing a great job.

As I write this, Jerry has posted five audio podcasts so far. The average podcast is about 30-40 minutes long, probably as long as your commute to work. Topics have covered such areas as cold weather camping, bullying, the Scout Oath, and the Order of the Arrow Representative. It sounds like Jerry and company have quite a few more shows planned, which I think is great.

You can download his podcast from his website (see above) or from iTunes at
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=278092418

It is the nature of boys. They like gross stuff. They like to get dirty. That’s why so many of them like Scouting. It gets them outside where they can explore, play around, sit around the campfire, and have fun.

Okay, I don’t know why I missed this, but last Thursday was the one year anniversary of the first post to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast (MSPP). That first video introduced Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, to many people who had not yet seen him on Youtube.

Have you ever noticed that there are not many websites that contain Scouting-related desktop and wallpaper pictures? When I discovered this a few years ago I decided to do something about it. I created a wallpaper area to our troop’s website.

The first challenge was to find pictures that would work well as desktop wallpaper pictures. Many people have icons on their desktop so I wanted to find pictures in which the icons would not cover the main subject of the picture. I also had to keep in mind that the icons on Windows-based computers are found on the left side of the screen, while Macintosh computers place them on the right side.

The next thing I needed to consider was the size of the photos. When I first started preparing photos there were people still using 800 x 600 pixel screen sizes. Now, many screen sizes are 1152 x 870 or 1280 x 1024. Many of the photos have been sized to meet a few screen sizes. I have not prepared any photos for the widescreen monitors yet, but I suppose I will in the future.

I have divided the desktop photos into six sections: Philmont, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the High Knoll Trail, Many Point Scout Camp, General, and Campfires. The Philmont, BWCA, HKT, and MPSC sections feature photos taken for troop trips to those areas. The General area contains random Scout photographs. The Campfires sections contains photos of, you guessed it, campfires.

The Melrose Troop 68 desktop wallpaper page can be found HERE. If you want to go to one of the sections quickly, then click on the following links:
Philmont, BWCA, High Knoll Trail, Many Point Scout Camp, General, Campfires.

I invite you to check them out and let me know what you think it. Is this a worthwhile project, or am I just wasting my time?

Last year I wrote a few blog entries about Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting making appearances in various comics like Peanuts and Garfield. Did you know the BSA has also produced its own comic books? Oh, they are not usually the funny style comics that you would see in Boy’s Life magazine (although a comic book collection of Peewee Harris could be interesting). These comics usually tell Scouts about important lessons.

Currently, through Scoutstuff.org, there are three short comic books for Cub Scout age boys featuring the three Cub Scout characters T.C., Akela, and Baloo. The comics deal with some serious issues, and are priced low enough (only 20 cents each) that you may consider getting a copy of each book for each boy in your Pack. Here is a quick explanation of each book taken from the scoutstuff.com site:

Power Pack Pals #1: Bullying Comic Book
These eight page comic books feature T.C., Akela, and Baloo talking to kids about bullying. Publication is collaboration between the BSA® and several leading youth protection advocacy groups to help address the problem of bullying among youth.

Power Pack Pals #2: Internet Safety Comic Book
This comic book is the second in a series of youth protection comics for Cub Scout aged kids featuring Akela, Baloo, and T.C. addressing dangers kids could encounter on the Internet and how to avoid them.

Power Pack Pals #3: 4 Rules for Safety Comic Book
This 8-page comic is the third in a series of youth protection comics for Cub Scout aged kids featuring Akela, Baloo, and T.C. It illustrates scenarios that advise kids about the dangers of strangers and inappropriate behavior by adults toward children, and what to do in scary situations.