A Scoutmaster's Blog

I have been collecting Scouting memorabilia for over 40 years and I thought it might be fun to share some my Scouting collection with you. I have been writing down ideas for several videos featuring different parts of my collection. From patches and uniforms parts, to handbooks and novels, even movies and plush animals. I believe there may be something of interest in this series for anyone involved with the Scouting program.

This episode, the first one, features the committee and scoutmaster handbooks I have collected. There are even a few scoutmaster minute booklets. As I was going through the book I discovered a couple with a special tie in to our home troop. You can watch the video here:

These videos will be posted on Youtube on the Melrose Scouting Productions channel. Be sure to subscribe and click the notification bell you that you know when new videos are added.

He has been hiking, and climbing, and canoeing, and many other things. Scoutmaster Snoopy and his Scout Troop of Woodstock and his friends have been depicted in many Scouting activities in the annual Hallmark ornaments over the years. In 2021 they have decided to relax.

This year’s ornament depicts the famous Beagle Scout and his friends relaxing in a pool of water at the end of a great day at camp. When I first saw this I did not really care for it but the more I look at it and think about it the more I like it. This also represents a great part of the Scouting program, kicking back and enjoying life.

I picked up two of these ornaments today, one to keep in the box and one to hang on the tree during the holiday season. It is a great addition to the collection of Scoutmaster Snoopy ornaments I have collected for over a decade.

The ornaments are now on sale at your local Hallmark store. They are $17.99 each. They can also be ordered online at https://www.hallmark.com/ornaments/keepsake-ornaments/the-peanuts-gang-taking-a-dip-ornament-1799QXI7305.html

Do you plan to pick one up for that Scout in your household? Do you plan to add this to your own collection?

The camp rouser song states, “Many Point Scout Camp. That’s the place to be. It’s where the best of Scouting is, and that’s the place for me.” Six Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 discovered how true those words are when they spent the week of July 4th at the camp and had a great time.

The Scouts were kept very busy at camp. In the morning they would work on advancement and earn merit badges. In the afternoon they participated in troop activities around the camp. All program areas were open in the evening so the Scouts were able to choose how they wished to spend their time.

The beach and aquatramp were very popular during the hot days. The two climbing towers were also a favorite of the Scouts. A visit to the camp’s museum and 100 foot high fire tower, followed by a round of disc golf, kept the troop busy one afternoon.

Other activities included the archery, rifle, and shotgun ranges, nine square and Gaga ball games, DELTA team building challenges, and the favorite greased watermelon competition. Three of the older Scouts were able to participate in the camp’s ATV program one afternoon.

Attending the camp were Troop 68 members Austin E., Emmett M., Ethan Z., Logan R., Isaiah G., and Noah Z. Adults leaders were assistant scoutmaster Steve G. and committee member Matthew Z. Steve B. also attended for a few days.

The Scouts may have had a fantastic time while at camp but they were ready to return home on Saturday and relax for the rest of the weekend.

The Scouts had a blast during the DELTA team building exercises, and even surprised the camp staff with their problem solving skills.

The Scouts were all smiles after climbing to the top of the 100 foot fire tower and looking above the tree line.

I was fortunate to be chosen as the scoutmaster of Troop 1417 for the B.S.A. 2001 National Jamboree. I had a great time at the event and shared it with a great troop of Boy Scouts and adult leaders from the Central Minnesota Council. I took home plenty of pictures and a lot of memories.

When I discovered that Boys’ Life magazine had created a video on VHS tape featuring many of the events and activities I had to buy it. Yes, you read that correctly. It was a VHS tape. DVDs had just arrived on the market but had not become popular in homes yet.

If I remember correctly, I bought the program as part of a three tape collection. Each tape featured a different Jamboree. The set included the events from 1993, 1997, and 2001. All three were created by Boys’ Life magazine.

I recently did a search on the Boys Life Scoutshop website and discovered that these videos are now available as DVDs. There are also DVDs available for the 2005 and 2010 Jamborees. If you wanted them all you could buy the set of 5 DVDs and save yourself a few bucks. You can find these at this link:

https://magazines.scoutshop.org/catalogsearch/result/?q=Boys%27+Life+Jamboree+Souvenir+DVD

Since I only have the VHS tapes I am very tempted to order the 5 disc set. The individual event DVDs sell for $11.95 each while the DVD set is only $40.00. That is like getting one event DVD for free!

I did not see any DVDs available for the 2013 and 2017 National Jamborees. I do not know if they made one for those events or not but there was not any listed on the website. That would be sad if there are not videos created for those two years.

Did you attend one of these Jamborees? Is this something you would consider buying? Leave a comment below and let us know of your opinion.

Let’s face it. The year 2020 was a tough year for Scout Troops. Troop outings were minimal, if your state even allowed your troop to have an outing. Meetings were tough. A Zoom meeting only holds a Scout’s attention for so long. Besides, how many Scouts wanted to be part of an online meeting when they spent several hours during online schooling?

So, just for fun, here is a look back at 2014 when it was easier to have a fun outing. The boys had a great time climbing the walls at St. Cloud State University. Hopefully things will get back to somewhat normal this new year.

#scouts #scouting #scoutsbsa #boyscouts

Mel-TV was a cable access television channel of Melrose, Minnesota. It began broadcasting in 1986 and continued for about 25 years before the city council voted to close it down and use the cable franchise fees for the city’s general fund. A lot of people, including myself, were disappointed with the decision at the time. I thought it was a great asset to our community of 3000 people. When the station closed its doors the collection of VHS tapes and DVDs of local programming was given to the Melrose Area Museum.

I was a member of the Mel-TV board of directors for 20 years. I joined shortly after the station began and left the board a few years before it was closed. Almost immediately I saw the potential to use the station as a promotional tool for the local Scouting program. I began recording courts of honor to air on the station. I took the bulky VHS camera to troop outings and summer camp. It was a great tool to show the community what the Scouting program of Troop 68 offered to the local youth. Some Boy Scouts became active with the station, helping with filming and editing various programs, or creating their own shows.

I am now a member of the board of directors for the Melrose Area Museum. I have been helping with some of the displays, both rearranging them and creating some new ones. One of the projects I did was to finally get all the old Mel-TV tapes out of the cardboard boxes stored in various rooms and closets, and put them back on the shelving racks that were used at the television station. I also organized the tapes by number and/or subject matter. It came pretty natural for me to do this project since I had worked so closely with the television station but it did take quite a few evenings to complete this task.

I recently started entering the program information into a computer spreadsheet. There are nearly 1700 tapes in the collection. I am only a little over a third of the way complete with this project. One thing I noticed very quickly was the number of tapes that were about Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Girl Scouts. I would be willing to bet there will be over 100 programs about the Scouting program. That is a pretty high percentage when you think about it. Unfortunately, some of the early tapes were recycled so there is no longer a copy of some courts of honor or events but many of them still exist.

Another museum board member, who also happens to have a son in the troop, has begun transferring these old VHS tapes to a digital format. This is going to be a long process since each tape has to be played at normal speed to be recorded by the computer. I have made sure that some of the earliest Scouting programs were part of the first tapes to be transferred.

Some of the Mel-TV shows have been uploaded to YouTube so that the citizens of Melrose can watch the old programs once again. I plan to upload some the more interesting Scouting programs to the Melrose Scouting Productions channel.

I attended the 2001 National Jamboree as a scoutmaster for one of the two troops from our council. I had a great time and had great Scouts participate in my troop. It was an excellent experience. This video brings back a few memories from that experience. Did you attended the 2001 National Jamboree?

https://youtu.be/UA-PHbJy_XI

It is that time of year. It is time to make the DVDs for the Scouts of Troop 68. Not that is a requirement by any means. But it is kind of a tradition that I began once I started taking digital photographs. It was easy to take the digital photos, convert them into slideshows, and burn to a DVD, so why not share them with the troop?

This year, for 2020, I decided to make an annual dvd for both the troop and for the Cub Scout Pack. The Cub Scout DVD will contain four slideshows featuring the January Pinewood Derby, and the February, July, and October Pack meetings. The Boy Scout DVD will contain 6 slideshows featuring activities, troop meetings, and a special advancement outing.

The Boy Scouts will receive a bonus DVD featuring this year’s Egg Drop Competition held at Camp Watchamagumee in June. I just recently got around to editing the footage so I thought it would make for a nice surprise.

Every year at this time I keep asking myself if I should continue to create these videos, and every year I seem to keep doing them. The first one was done in 2003, so that means this is the 18th year. I have often wondered if anyone ever takes the DVDs off their shelf to watch them years later but I have talked to a few people, especially parents, who like to go back and watch them once in awhile.

I usually hand these out to the Scouts at the troop’s Christmas party but, of course, due to the virus we will not be holding the annual event, so I may need to drop them off at each Scout’s home. Luckily we live in a small town.

Does your troop do something like this each year? Do your troop families enjoy watching them?