A Scoutmaster's Blog

Well, the Youtube Scouting Video Day experiment did not accomplish the goal of getting a Scouting video or two to the top five “views” pages on Friday, February 8th. I do appreciate everyone who participated in the project. We gave it a good run, but we just did not have the numbers needed to do it. Here is a brief summary of the results.

The views received by each of the four suggested videos varied by the hundreds. The Cub Scout commercial featuring Steve Young only received 201 hits on Friday, as near as I can tell. The Boy Scout commercial about Jim Lovel did better, receiving 367 views.

The “What Parents Say About Scouting” did better then I expected when compared to the other videos. I thought it would come in with the lowest number of views since it was the longest of the videos. It received 271 hits, seventy more then the Cub Scout video.

The “Scout Zone” received the most hits, which was something I expected. It was watched 533 times, far more then the other videos. I would guess that was because it was the first video listed, and that it was a music video which was fun to watch.

The experiment failed to get any of these videos to the front pages, but I would not call it a complete failure. Dozens, or even hundreds, of people watched these videos for the first time and may have been introduced to other Scouting videos found on Youtube. I would call that successful, wouldn’t you?

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the project and spread the word to others. Maybe we can try it again next year, or maybe make this a yearly occurrence.

PS – After writing this article this morning, I took another look at the numbers around 10:00 am. Either Youtube is playing with me, or a lot of people watched the videos since 7:00 am. The numbers of views for each of the videos has gone up by the hundreds! Take a look at these numbers:
The Cub Scout Commercial (Young) – 223 more views.
The Boy Scout Commercial (Lovel) – 346 more views
What Parents Say About Scouting – 221 more views
The Scout Zone Video – 470 more views.
I think these videos have received more views in 36 hours then they normally receive in two months!

Happy Birthday Scouting (BSA)!

Wow, has it been 98 years already? It seems like just a few years ago when that unknown Boy Scout in England helped William Boyce find his way in the fog of London. And look what the BSA has accomplished since then. Ten of millions of boys have been involved with Scouting. Hundreds of millions of hours of community service has been done around the country. And look at all the boys who earned Scoutings highest award, the rank of Eagle Scout. I ask, has there been any other youth group in the history of this great country that has accomplished as much as the Boy Scouts of America?

And to think, it all begin in the USA because of the good turn of one Boy Scout in England! It just goes to show that you never know what that daily good turn could lead to, do you?

And do not forget to watch the videos on Youtube that were listed in a previous blog entry. Let’s see if we can get something shown on the front page today.

In one of the Scouting forums, someone accused me of just trying to get a video on the front page of Youtube when I suggested that we try this “Youtube Scouting Video Day” experiment on February 8th. Before I saw the comment someone had already replied to him that that was the point. I had to chuckle to myself. That was the purpose of the experiment, but I do not think he understood the reasoning behind my idea.

The way I see it, if we can get a video or two to the Youtube front page then the chances are pretty good that more boys and parents will see it then these commercials were ever seen when they aired on local television stations at 2:00 in the morning. Besides, many of the Youtube users are teenagers. Aren’t they the ones we want to know about Scouting?

So yes, I am trying to get these videos on the front page. I am trying to promote Scouting, and I need everyone’s help to accomplish this. And this way of doing it does not cost any council or district a dime to have people watch it.

By the way, if I was going to try just to get a video to the front page to boost my ego, don’t you think I would have suggested one of my own original videos? I am trying to promote Scouting, not myself, with this experiment.

I would like to conduct an experiment, and I am going to need your help to do it. As most of you know, February 8th is the 98th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. I would like your help to celebrate it in a unique way.

Currently, there are a few thousand videos on Youtube that feature Scouts or are about Scouting. Most of these videos never receive more then a couple hundred views, if they even get that many. Only a few have ever hit the 10.000 views mark. I do not think a Scouting video has ever made it to the daily top five pages.

There are millions of Boy Scouts in the USA, and tens of thousands of adult leaders and professionals. Add the Scouts and leaders from around the world and we have a staggering membership. Even if we get a small percentage of the Scouts and leaders with internet access to participate in this I think we could make this work.

So here is my idea. Let’s make a “Youtube Scouting Video Day” on February 8th. Let’s try to get as many Scouts, adult leaders, friends, and family members to watch Boy Scout videos as we are able. Let’s see if we can get a video or two to appear on the Youtube front pages and really help to promote Scouting to the internet masses, or at least the Youtube viewers.

To make this the most effective I think we need to concentrate our efforts on just a few videos, but I encourage you to watch as many as your time table allows. Here are the videos I would suggest we watch:

In The Scout Zone Video (2:24)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKFnGDRaMQU
The BSA Commercial featuring Jim Lovell (0:30)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNq6WsYIAFI
A Cub Scout Commercial featuring Steve Young (0:30)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqnkjBArjUo
and finally, the “What Parents Say About Scouting” (5:52)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1axj3lNc0Q

This would amount to approximately ten minutes of your time if you watched all four videos, ten minutes to help promote Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting on a popular internet site. Would you be willing to spend ten minutes trying to bring Scouting videos to the light of day for one day?

So, I ask that you spread the word about “Youtube Scouting Video Day”. Copy this message and send it to other Scouts and leaders. Let’s see if we can’t get these videos highlighted to the internet masses and promote Scouting on February 8th.

The Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast (MSPP) which features videos of Boy Scouts performing skits and singing songs, and videos of Buttons the radical Boy Scout, has been found on the iTunes music store since the beginning. Once nice feature about the iTunes store is that viewers can rate the podcasts and leave comments. I enjoy reading the comments. They keep me fired up about producing new videos. The comments and videos also help to increase the podcast’s ranking in iTunes which then gives the podcast more visibility. I like it when I can help Scouting receive more visibility. Here are a few of the comments posted on iTunes.

Scouterbill writes, “Buttons is definitely the most ‘Radical Boy Scout’. My Den loves Buttons. Keep up the good work.”

saxman104 wrote, “My Scouts enjoy watching Buttons. He is also very helpful in teaching young Scouts about Scouting. Steve does a wonderful job in his acting and writing of material. Highly recommend watching them.”

ake… writes, “How can you have anymore fun than watching videos with Scouts? Better then TV.”

and the comment made by GCostigan made me giggle, and then got me thinking about merchandising when he wrote, “Something that I can have my Scouts watch and enjoy. Now they want Buttons patrol patches.”

I would like to thank you all who have taken the time to leave a comment at iTunes, Youtube, and PTC Media. I also want to thank those of you who dropped me an email to comment about the videos. I do read them all and appreciate them. Keep them coming!

Buttons, the radical Boy Scout, talks about the Outdoor Code in this post to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. Not only does he recite it but he also covers the four “C’s” of the code: clean in the outdoors, careful with fire, considerate in the outdoors, and conservation-minded. It is a code that all Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts should follow whenever you are in the great outdoors, like when you are camping or hiking or just having fun.

Buttons would love to hear from you. Please leave a comment to this post, or at the PTC Media forums, which is holding a drawing through the month of February. It would also be great if you left a comment and rate the podcast at the iTunes music store which helps Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast get a higher rating and thus, make it more visible to people who search for Scouting podcasts. You can also leave a comment at Digg.com. Thanks for watching.

Download Podcast
Watch Video on the troop’s website.
Subscribe through iTunes.

The 2008 Laughs For Lunch Show is now part of history. Once again the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 did a great job of performing skits and songs before a live audience. Approximately 70 people attended the show, including family members, friends, and even Scouts and adult leaders from neighboring communities.

After our final practice Saturday afternoon, the troop gathered at my house for a supper of pizza and sodas before heading back to the school auditorium for the actual show. We even had enough free time to watch about fifteen minutes of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

While we were in my basement family room eating pizza, I told the boys that I had heard that a Hollywood talent agent, who happened to be in St. Cloud, had heard about our show and was planning to come to Melrose and watch it. Of course, most of the older boys did not believe me, but the younger ones were not sure if I was telling the truth or not. After a few minutes, I confessed that I was kidding.

As people arrived for the show, I noticed that the chairperson for this year’s Ripley Rendezvous, a council event held at the Camp Ripley National Guard Base in central Minnesota, had arrived to see the Scouts perform. She had emailed me earlier in the week to ask if the troop would be interested in doing a few skits and songs during the evening program at Ripley. I invited het to attend the show and see if this type of thing was what she was looking for.

So, in a way, a talent scout was sitting in our audience, just not from Hollywood. I did inform the Boy Scouts about our special guest before we started the show, but once the curtains opened I do not think they gave it another thought.

The Ripley chairperson came down to the stage after the show to chat with me. She was very pleased with the Scouts’ performance and would like them to be part of the Ripley program. I steered her to our senior patrol leader to discuss the matter with him. I am sure this will be a topic during our next patrol leader council meeting.

It has been a few years since Troop 68 has performed at a council or district event. We do participate in the closing campfire program at summer camp, but the Ripley Rendezvous will have a much larger audience, two to three times that of summer camp, and ten times the size of the Laughs For Lunch crowd.

Will the Boy Scouts be able to handle that? I know they can. A little more practice, along with a little more encouragement, and they will be able to perform for anyone. Even the president of the United States.

That time of year has arrived when the Naguonabe Lodge of the Order of the Arrow is holding elections around the council. Even though Troop 68 has only one Boy Scout eligible we need to contact the lodge and set up an election date.

The troop currently only has three members of the O.A., two Scouts and myself. Neither of the Scouts has been very active. In fact, neither Scout has done anything with the lodge since they completed their Ordeal weekend, so you could say they are inactive at this point. Yes, I am a member of the lodge. I try to keep my dues paid, but if I do not attend a lodge function during the year then, I admit, my dues do not get paid.

Why are the boys inactive? I am sure there are several reasons. I do not think they are aware of when lodge activities are held. The lodge attempts to print a quarterly newsletter, but it does not always happen. I understand the challenges of printing a regular newsletter. When you are dealing with several people from across the council things sometimes just do not get accomplished.

Communications about lodge functions must start with the lodge, of course. Yes, a scoutmaster can do his part to try to keep O.A. members informed, but he can only do that when he is informed. As a scoutmaster, I would not mind receiving a letter a couple weeks before each activity to remind me to talk the the troop’s members. But mailings take time and money, so I have a feeling this is not something that will happen very often. Maybe they could start an email mailing group. That would not cost much to do. I did find a website that was started for our lodge, but nothing has been posted to it since April of 2007.

Am I active in the lodge? I am as active as the boys in my troop. I have had years when I have been quite active, and I have had years when I did not attend a single lodge activity. The Order of the Arrow is a youth organization, not an adult club, so I do not attend unless members from my troop do. I usually end up being the driver because most of the time the Scouts are too young to have a license.

Am I proud to be a member of the Order of the Arrow? Yes I am. I think it is a great organization. Unfortunately, I was never a youth member so I was never able to participate at that level. I do encourage current troop members to be active, and to complete the Brotherhood membership, but it is their decision, not mine.

In an ideal lodge all members would participate in most events. Unfortunately, in the real world there are family functions, jobs, sporting events, and troop activities that get in the way. Forgetting about those funtions does not help either.

I would not mind being a more active member of the O.A. I wish my Scouts were more active. As a scoutmaster, I can only do so much. I do have a life outside of Scouting, after all. I think the lodge leadership could be more active in promoting the lodge to its members. With a little help and encouragement from the council I think that could happen.