A Scoutmaster's Blog

The Cub Scout Meeting.

I went to Cub Scout Pack 68’s pack meeting tonight. At least, I thought it was a pack meeting night. You could say it was more of a den meeting involving the whole pack.

The pack meets at the meeting room at the city firehall. Two volunteer firemen were there to give the Cub Scouts a tour of the firehall and show them the various fire trucks. The boys’ attention spans were short tonight so we quickly moved from one truck to the next. The tour ended with a chance for the boys to sit in a couple of the trucks. They really enjoyed that.

The second part of the meeting paired the boys were their fathers (or one of the fathers if their own was not able to make it.) The groups were given uncooked spaghetti and large  marshmallows  and told to create towers. It was like playing with a cheap tinker toy set. The dad’s help the boys to understand the need for diagonal bracing to create stronger “structures”. Some teams created tall towers while others creates strong structures that could carry nearly a pound of rocks before collapsing.

To tell the truth, I think the dads had just as much fun as the Cub Scouts.

The PLC Meeting.

The patrol leader council held their monthly meeting today to review April and plan for May’s meetings and activities. Although they did get sidetracked a few times, they were able to plan next month’s meetings and service project.

There was one thing that came up that I was disappointed to hear. The program, menu, and duty roster for this weekend’s camping trip had not been planned yet, and more Scouts decided they would like to attend the outing, even though they should have been registered two weeks ago.

It looks like we may have to postpone the camping trip one week to get everything planned out at next Monday’s troop meeting. Luckily, it is a local campout held on some nearby private land.

Boy Scout Troop 68 and Cub Scout Pack 68 held an open house on Monday, April 18, at St. Mary’s School gym. Flyers were sent to the schools. Posters were hung around town. An article was printed in the newspaper. We were set to welcome new boys into the Scouting program.

I had set up three tables of troop pictures and memorabilia. The Cub Pack had set up one table. The Boy Scouts had four activities planned for new boys to play. We had a fire truck in the parking lot. Most of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts were in attendance. Even the district executive had come to our open house. All we needed was some new boys and families.

Unfortunately, no one showed up. No new boys. No new parents. No new families. The only people who stopped by was a gentleman who was the troop’s committee chairman in the early 1980’s, and his wife. Needless to say, I was very disappointed. I was hoping to see at least a few Cub Scout age boys stop by. But nope. No one. Notta. Zilch.

It was time for plan B. We sent the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts out to the parking lot to check out the fire department’s ladder truck. The boys had a great time climbing on it, sitting in it, and looking over the equipment. We were able to get some great photos and video (which I hope to post to the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast.)

By 7:20 we realized that no one was probably going to show up so I had the Cub Scouts go through the four activities planned by the Boy Scouts. The Cub Scouts had fun, and the Boy Scouts had a chance to work with and get to know the younger boys. I guess you could say it was a win/win situation for both groups. The Cub Pack committee used the time to meet and plan for this summer’s activities. The district executive walked around with my camera taking pictures while I used my iPod to record video of the stations. Parents took some time to look through the troop photo albums I had brought along.

Even though we did not get any new boys join the pack or troop we were able to fun evening for the boys. I guess you could call that our silver lining. But I am still very disappointed with the turnout.

100 Days of Scouting: Day #75.

Our local weekly newspaper, the Melrose Beacon, has been working for a few weeks on an article about the 100th anniversary of the first Boy Scout troops formed in Melrose. Herman, the writer of the article, has sent me a few emails requesting information and the chance to proofread the story which was printed in the April 13th edition. The article began on the front page, lower left corner, and continued on page 3. It included pictures of the current Boy Scout troop and Cub Scout pack. (Unfortunately, the newspaper’s website in down so I cannot post a link for you to see the article.)

The Melrose Beacon has supported the local Scouting program for over three decades. Coverage began in 1980 with short articles written by one of the troop committee members and myself about what the Boy Scouts were doing during their troop meetings. Once a month, we would submit an article about the troop’s activity, along with a picture or two. It was a great way for the community to see what the Boy Scouts were doing.

We do not submit weekly article these days. Usually, it is once a month, covering our weekly activity or a special event like a court of honor, a service project, or an Eagle Scout ceremony. Articles will still include a picture or two.

I have written hundreds of article over the past 30 years. (I guess you could call them my blog before there was blogging.) I would write the stories by hand and then drop them off at the Beacon office. These days it is all done by email.

The Melrose Beacon has recently come under new ownership. There is also a new editor. I am thankful that they still plan to continue supporting the local Scouting program. In addition to the recent 100th anniversary article, they will soon be publishing an article about our latest Eagle Scout and one about our waffle supper fundraiser. This week’s newspaper included a story about the troop’s weekend outing at Camp Stearns. I plan to submit a photo of the Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts taken in front of the Fire Department’s ladder truck taken during the troop’s open house last Monday.

Does your local newspaper support your Scouting program? Do you need to submit your own articles or does the paper send someone out to cover the event?

100 Days of Scouting: Day 74.

And now, it is time for a little musical number from a place known as Philmont Scout Ranch in a land called New Mexico. Let us watch and listen to a group of minstrels that go by the name of the Rayado Ruffians as they play the little tune, “Cindy”.

(This tune was posted to Youtube in 2009 by TheMrRayado.) 696

100 Days of Scouting: Day 71.

The first thing you notice when you see the Boy Scout handbooks from the 1950’s is ghost of the American Indian as he rises above the campfire. This is the fifth edition of the Handbook for Boys. By the time the January 1957 version came out they had been a total of 15, 500,000 handbooks printed. They are still a small encyclopedia of outdoor knowledge. I own a few editions of this version.

This one, like the previous editions, includes advertising on the front and back inside covers, and ads within the index in the back of the book. One thing I like about the book is that it lists the merit badge requirements for all the awards. All the drawings in the book are black and white. There are no photographs. I do like the chapters on Scoutcraft and cooking. They include more information then the current handbooks.

Have you been lucky enough to add a 1950’s Handbook to your Scouting memorabilia collection?

100 Days of Scouting: Day 70.

I have finally completed a major part of a goal I have which is to scan all the Scouting pictures I have taken over the years. On Friday, I finally scanned the last of the pictures from the 1980’s. That is over 2050 photographs that use over 1.5 GB on the hard drive. I have already backed them up onto two other hard drives, and plan to copy them all to a data-dvd. I also plan to post many of them to my Flickr account as another way to back them up, and to allow other Scouts and leaders to visit our troop of the past.

It has been a lot of work, but also fun reliving memories that come from looking at those photos again. Many of the Scouts from that time have families of their own. I know of a couple who have boys in the Cub Scout program. Some of them are now friends of mine on Facebook. Unfortunately, I have lost touch with many of them. I know of three of them who have died since they left Scouting.

Now it is time to start working on the photos from the 1990’s, and I know there will be even more photos to scan than I had from the 1980’s. As the years went by I began taking more photos during troop activities. I would be willing to bet that the number of pictures will be between 3500 and 4000. The pictures from the 2000’s will not take as long to scan because in 2004 I switched from film to a digital camera. Of course, with the digital camera I began to take 3 to 4 times as many pictures.

If you would like to see the pictures from the 1980’s that I have posted to Flickr go to: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevejb68/sets/

100 Days of Scouting: Day #68.

There was a fairly decent turnout for this spring’s Boy Scout Troop 68 sponsored Dad’s Belgium Waffle Supper fundraiser that was held Friday night, April 15th. We served 296 people in all, not counting the Boy Scouts who worked at the supper. We served Dad’s Belgium waffles (which are the size of a plate) along with strawberries, fruit cups, a variety of syrups, and refreshments. Since it was a Friday during Lent, and this is a mostly Catholic community, we did not serve any meat with the meal.

We really tried to promote the fundraiser better this year. We also took one meeting night and set the boys out into town to sell tickets, sort of our ticket sales kick-off. We sold over $400.00 in tickets that first night with six Scouts being taken to different parts of town by their parents. After that, the boys (and parents) were on their own to sell tickets before the meal.

One of our new Scouts, Alex, really did an outstanding job pre-selling tickets on his own. In fact, he sold over $900.00 in tickets, more then all the other Scouts combined (not counting that first night). I understand he had a little help from his parents and grandfather, but Alex did most of the selling. Only two other Scouts in the troop sold over $100 worth of tickets on their own.

Each of the boys receives credit toward camp based on the number of tickets they pre-sell. Even if a Scout only sells tickets during the first sales kick-off event, he receives some credit. The credit from the first night sales is evenly divided among all the boys, no matter how many tickets they sold in their area of town. That first night of sales earned each Scout a credit of $9.30, which is not really bad for a little over an hour’s worth of work.

We still have one bill to pay, but it looks like the troop did well. It appears we will made a profit of around $1200.00. Of this, nearly $400.00 will be going into the boys’ individual accounts to be used for camp costs. The balance will go into the troop’s general fund.

100 Days of Scouting: Day #67.