A Scoutmaster's Blog

Here are a few interesting facts about the Boy Scouts of America. As of December 31, 2005, the total membership of Boy Scouts and Varsity Scouts was at 943,426 young men, nearly one million strong. The were 50,996 Boy Scout troops and Varsity teams. There were 543,971 registered adult volunteers.

Think about that for a moment. Over one half of a million adults in this country believed in the ideals, spirit, and goals of Boy Scouting so much that they were willing to give their time to help the BSA accomplish its goals to our young men. That is quite a statement.

So, what are the goals of the Boy Scouts of America? The BSA was incorporated in 1910 to provide a program that offers effective character, citizenship, and personal fitness training to our boys and young men. To quote the official BSA website (www.scouting.org), “…the BSA endeavors to develop American citizens who are physically, mentally, and emotionally fit; have a high degree of self-reliance as evidenced in such qualities as initiative, courage, and resourcefulness; have personal values based on religious concepts; have the desire and skills to help others; understand the principles of the American social, economic, and governmental systems; are knowledgeable about and take pride in their American heritage and understand our nation’s role in the world; have a keen respect for the basic rights of all people; and are prepared to participate in and give leadership to American society.”

That is an ambitious set of goals for any organization to meet, especially one that has been designed for boys. The BSA has been accomplishing these ideals for over 97 years. The organization is able to meet these goals through eight methods: Ideals (the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan, and Motto), Patrols, Outdoor program, Advancement, Association with adults, Personal growth, Leadership development, and the Uniform.

Many of the half million adults are parents of Scouts who wish want their boys to get the best experience out of their local Scouting unit. There are many more adults who do not have sons involved in the program. They are college students, middle age workers, retirees, single and married. They come from all walks of life.

On Tuesday, September 25, Cub Scout Pack 68 and Boy Scout Troop 68 of Melrose will be holding their annual fall “School Night To Join Scouting”. This meeting will begin at 7:00 pm at the Melrose High School Cafeteria. Boys in the first grade through fifth grade are invited to join the Cub Scout Pack. Boys in sixth grade or higher are invited to join the Boy Scout Troop. Boys must be accompanied by a parent.

So… Why not Scouting? Why not enroll your son in a program that has over 95 years of experience in helping our boys and young men develop into tomorrow’s outstanding citizens? And have fun while they are doing it! We hope to see you and your son at School Night To Join Scouting on Tuesday, September 25th.

(This is an article that was sent to our local newspapers to promote School Night.)

As the new program year begins once again for Cub Packs and Scout Troops, I thought it would be time to review a blog post from one year ago. It is called “Ten Reasons To Be An Adult Leader“. The article lists ten reasons to become a leader of your pack or troop.

Everyone always seems to have plenty of reasons not to be a leader. I always thought there should be more reasons to become a Scout Leader then reasons to avoid being a leader. After all, these are our kids we are talking about. This is the next generation that (hopefully) will be taking care of us as we get older. If we (the parents and adults of today) do not take the time now to spend the time with our boys and train them to be physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight, then who is going to do it? We certainly cannot trust our school systems to do it.

Scouting gives us adults a perfect opportunity to help our youth become good leaders. Scouting teaches our boys many things that will help them throughout their lives. The question is, are we ready to take the challenge? Are you ready to to take on the responsibility? I think it is time that parents, and other concerned adults, take the time to invest into our youth, and quit trying to find reasons not to get involved.

Click HERE to read “Ten Reasons To Be An Adult Leader.”

In 1996 the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 held their first Laughs For Lunch Show. There have been quite a few since then, eleven in all. The boys have a great time doing them, and the audience seems to have a lot of fun watching the shows.

This video is part of that very first show. It is the Echo System skit, which is one of the oldest skits in Scouting. At least I think it is an old skit. It has been one of the favorites of the troop’s, and very easy for the younger Scouts to learn. In this version we used a “remote control” to turn the echo system on and off.

One thing that always scares me a little when the boys do this skit is that I never know what line they will come up with for the punchline. It often changes from performance to performance. But that is okay, as long as they keep it clean.

Enjoy it and let us know what you think of it by leaving a comment.
Download Podcast
Watch Video on the troop’s website.
Subscribe through iTunes.

Our troop and pack will be holding the annual fall “School Night To Join Scouting” just as many troops and packs around the country will be doing. It’s like, you know, a tradition or something.

The cubmaster and I (the scoutmaster) have already spoke on the phone a few times coming up with ideas to get the word out to both the boys and their parents. Here are a few of the ideas that we came up with. If you have other ideas I would like to hear them also.

School Visits – Since the cubmaster and I have full time jobs that would make this hard to do we leave this up to the district executive. He goes to the elementary schools and talks to the boys about Scouting. (My gripe is that he concentrates on Cub Scouting, and not much about Boy Scouting.) Unfortunately, not every school in the area will allow him to talk to the boys. Would you believe the Catholic school will not let anyone in to talk about Scouting? The D.E. will hand out flyers for the boys to take home to their parents.

Posters – Another part of the plan is to get posters displayed in the school and around town. The posters in school are to remind the boys. The posters around town are to remind the parents. Banks, credit unions, grocery stores, and other popular places of business would be good places for posters.

Newspapers – There are three local weekly newspapers found in our area. All of them would be happy for us to place an ad, of course, but that would have a cost with it. Luckily, they all except stories about Scouting if we take the time to write them. They will print articles at no charge. Add a picture to the article and I think it would attract as much, if not more, attention then an ad would.

Yard Signs – I have collected several yard signs for School Night overs the years. They are sort of generic and do not have a date on them. The trick will be to place them in strategic places around town, high traffic areas.

Church Bulletins – By putting a short, simple note in local church bulletins we can reach hundreds of families… for free!

Mailings – Yes, we could mail a flyer to each family in the area with a Scout-age boy, that it is expensive and time consuming. The troop tried it several years ago. We were not pleased with the result of our efforts.

Community Access Television – We regularly make use of our local access television station. We video tape out courts of honor and other Scouting events to be played on the air. The station also has a bulletin board that plays between programs that lists local meetings and events. We will be sure to get School Night listed on that.

Bank and Business Marquees – The credit union and both banks have electronic marquees outside of their buildings. We hope that each will agree to place a notice for a few days before School Night.

Well, there you have it. A few low cost ways to get the word out about School Night to Join Scouting that we intend to employ. I will write an article in a few weeks to let you know how it turns out.

The Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 are beginning their 2007-2008 program year with a few service projects that will be conducted during the next few weeks.

CLOTHING DRIVE
The Boy Scout Troop will be conducting a clothing drive in Melrose on Saturday, September 15. It is a great opportunity for you to clean out your closets of those clothes that are out of style, or that just do not fit well anymore. Please donate only gently used clothing. This drive is not meant to be used as a garbage or junk collection. All clothing should be bagged or boxed and placed on the street curb by 10:00 that Saturday morning. Clothing set out too late will not be collected. Proceeds from the clothing drive will be split between the Boy Scout Troop and a disabled veterans group.

SCOUTING FOR FOOD DRIVE
This year marks the twentieth year the Boy Scout troops and Cub Scout packs across the country will participate in the annual Scouting For Food Drive. Hundreds, if not thousands, of people locally, and hundreds of thousands of people nationally have benefitted from the Scouting for Food Drives. All food items collected will go to the local food shelf. This year’s food drive will be held on Saturday, October 6.

ROAD CLEANUP
Another project the Boy Scouts of Troop 68 have done for nearly twenty years is to clean up the ditches of a three mile stretch of County Road 13 south of Melrose as part of the Adopt A Highway Program. This project will also be done on Saturday, October 6.

The Boy Scouts are proud to be a part of their community. It makes them proud of their community when its citizens support their projects. Please help the Scouts have a successful clothing drive and food drive this fall.

Here are a few pictures from summer camp at Many Point Scout Camp.

It happened on September first. Roy Williams, our national chief Scout executive for the past seven years, retired. I believe Mr. Williams had a rough seven years. At least I would call them rough. The BSA has had its share of problems lately. And, at least at the troop level of the organization, I really have not seen a lot of leadership from the national office lately, though I will give them credit for sticking to the principles and ideals of Scouting during all the media hub-bub and not backing down. I wish there would have been more done and said by national, but for some reason they decided to stay pretty quiet during these last few years.

We now have a new chief Scout executive. His name is Robert “Bob” Mazzuca, and according to his profile found at scouting.org he has held a lot of district, council, regional, and national positions during the last 36 years. While this may be a good thing for the BSA at the national level, I am afraid that those of us “in the trenches” may not see much of a change in the national organization. Here is a piece of the news release:

“Mazzuca’s most recent position was with the National Council of the BSA as assistant Chief Scout Executive, a position he’s held since 2006. He received a bachelor of arts in history from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He and his wife Nanette have two sons. Bob began his Scouting career in 1971 in Modesto, Calif., as a district executive and an Exploring executive. He became the Exploring director in Sacramento in 1975 and eventually served as a field director and the director of field service. In 1983, Mazzuca became the Scout executive in Stockton, Calif. In 1987, Bob became area director in the Western Region and he was promoted to Scout executive of the Golden Empire Council in Sacramento in 1988. In 1992, he was named assistant region director for the Southern Region and in 1995, the Scout executive in Pittsburgh.”

Of course, this is just my opinion, but I think Mr. Mazzuca may have been out of touch with Cub packs, Scout troops, and Venture crews for too long. I fear that someone who has been on the regional and national level for as long as Mr. Mazzuca has been could be out of touch with the real reason for Scouting, namely, the boys. Has he gotten so involved with the politics on the national level that he will fail to help the program of Scouting? Has he become so entrenched with other national officers and pencils pushers that he will forget about the volunteers at the troop and pack level? Will he be a leader who’s number one concern is financial, or will he concentrate on the Scouting program and lead us into a new resurgence of Scouting?

Mr. Mazzuca, I have a few suggestions for you. First, take the time to meet the volunteers on a local level from across the country. Get out and meet the scoutmasters, and Cubmasters, and crew advisers. Listen to their concerns. See how things are going from their perspective. There is no way to get this type of information by sitting behind a desk in Texas.

Second, I would like to see National begin to promote Scouting more on a national level. The BSA has been beat up a bit during the last several years. It is time to start promoting the good that Scouting does locally and nationally. The BSA has done well informing it’s councils and regions about how well things are going, but I think it is time to start letting the common folk know about Scouting. Advertise! It is not a dirty word. Yes, it may cost some money, but I think this organization is worth it, don’t you? Use the internet! I have posted Scouting videos on YouTube and our troop’s website. And guess what? People do watch them. I think national has mostly overlooked this avenue of communication.

Third, how about making things less costly within the Scouting organization. Oh, I am not talking about our yearly fees. I think they are reasonable. I would like to see the cost of Scout uniforms and equipment come down in price to a more reasonable level. Requiring us to pay $35-$40 dollars for the uniform shirt is pretty high, especially for the quality of the shirt. I pay less for dress shirts. And don’t even get me started on the pants and shorts. I can buy two or three pairs of great quality jeans for the cost of one Boy Scout trouser that will not wear near as long. If you want the boys to dress in the full Scout uniform then make it affordable for the boys and adult leaders.

Well, that is enough of my personal opinion for the moment. I know that Mr. Mazzuca will probably never see this blog, but it feels good to at least write about a few of my concerns. And if you do read this, Mr. Mazzuca, I invite to post a response and let us know what you have planned for the Boy Scouts of America.

The month of August is over. The means the time of the drawing for the dvd-r of Scouting promotional videos has arrived. I went back through the month’s comments, discovered who left a comment, and put each person’s name into a hat (up to two times).

The winner of the dvd-r is… Tom! Tom left a comment to the Hour A Week post I made on August 22nd. Tom, you will need to contact me and give me your address so I can send you the dvd-r.

I appreciate all the comments I receive from the readers of this blog. I hope you will continue to write and let me know what you think about this blog and it’s subjects. I wish all of you the best as your new Scouting program year begins. Happy Scouting!