Scoutmaster Musings

Last spring, my son took a tour with his classmates to Washington D.C. and had what he called an 'Excellent' time. These educational student tours are a super way for high school students to explore the country and get to know the other students in their group.
My son was in a social studies group, but there are tours for theatre classes, musical groups, and even custom tours. If your troop is large enough, something like this might be a viable way to explore part of the country you normally would not visit, or a way to cut down on vehicles and adults required. If you're really ambitious, you might even go on a tour to another country - remember World Jamboree 2011 is in Sweden.
If your son asks about going on an educational tour, I'd recommend promoting that as much as possible. I was pessimistic and figured it would just be a waste of money, but my son had a great time and learned a lot about the government.

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As part of the planning for our backpacking trek this summer, the scouts needed to figure out how much food to bring. I let them know that I was a lazy old man and didn't want to carry any more than necessary, but didn't want to go hungry either.

This was actually a great learning experience in many ways, most important is that they will hopefully be prepared to pass on their experience to the 2008 trek crews we send out.

We spent some time discussing how many calories are needed in the average day, and how trekking days are not quite 'average'. We also defined calories as being units of energy and found out that 'calories' in food are actually kilo-calories with 3500 kilo-calories in one pound of fat. We discovered that larger people required more calories and carrying a pack requires still more calories.

Then, being some analytical types, the scouts figured a 150 pound person takes about 100 calories to walk 1 mile. They figured all our weights together (plus estimated pack weights), how far we'd be hiking, how many days we'd be on the trail, the elevation we'd gain, and came up with a huge total number of calories required.

Once they had an idea of how many calories we'd need, they set to work dividing that into carbohydrate, protein, and fat calories. Then, they looked for food that would fulfill the calorie needs, pack well, prepare easily, taste good, be relatively inexpensive, and somewhat healthy.

When the dust had settled, we found that you can get a darn good menu off the shelves at normal grocery stores. The menu was carbohydrate heavy with more empty sugar and fat calories than normal, but was pretty good. We had dinners of noodles & beef, spaghetti & dehydrated hamburger, mac/cheese & tuna, teriyaki rice & salmon, noodles & chicken.

When the trek was over, we found that we had packed too much breakfast food and trail food, but pretty much right on for lunches and dinners. We had just about 10 pounds of food for each person for a 5.5 day trek, so we could have trimmed 1 or 1.5 pounds off that.

There is a fairly accurate Calorie Calculator at HikingDude.com along with some other good food ideas.

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My Morrell boots had another couple hundred miles put on them this summer from practice hikes, campouts, and two weeks backpacking in Wyoming.

There's a wide range of boot brands to choose from and it can be challenging to find the best one for you. The best thing to do is go to a store and try on a wide range of brands. I especially like the Rocky boots and am thinking of adding those to my birthday list.
My current boots have a real nice Philmont brand on them, but since I'll be going there again next summer, maybe I can brand a fresh pair of hiking boots.
If you do need new boots, be sure to purchase them well before your hike so you have plenty of time to get your feet used to them. Many boots don't really need much breaking-in time these days, but your feet do need to get used to the fit and extra weight.

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Well, the fish were biting, the boats didn't leak, and the weather was great. Practically a perfect weekend campout for the scouts, all in all.

A few scouts caught their two fish for the Fishing merit badge and wound up frying some northern pike in ShoreLunch batter for breakfast on Sunday.

The Canoeing merit badge went great on a calm lake with sunny skies.

The Flyfishing badge was more difficult. We'll be trying a few local spots to catch some fish in the coming month since we found it a bit tippy to cast from a canoe. :-)

But, what a great campfire with a few new songs that I'll be adding to the database here on the site.

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I've been fortunate in my few years as scoutmaster to work with scouts that really seem to have it together. Some of them are more naturally leaders and others tend to follow along, but none have had serious personal problems that have surfaced. We've dealt with some issues, but nothing that a plan with parents and scout could not solve.

I expect some day a parent might ask me for help with some problem for which I'm neither trained nor prepared. For times like that, I think it's good to have an idea of alternate avenues of support for families. I've checked our local area for teen support groups and family health organizations so I can mention them to families.

Become aware of the support system in your community for teens. Maybe it's not specifically a part of the scouting program, but it's another resource for you to have at your disposal.

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Sometimes you might wonder why you keep spending so much time volunteering for scouting. Once in awhile, you get a great big knock upside your head that reminds you why. This past weekend was a big 'THUMP!' for me.

The Penguin patrol planned a good agenda, actually right down to the 5 minute level, which of course is impossible to follow, but a good schedule to shoot for. With a thorough agenda, whenever a scout asked me 'What are we doing next?', I would just say, 'Ask Sam'. Sam is the patrol leader of the Penguins. This was his first experience with leading the troop.

On this campout, the Senior Patrol Leader did not attend, nor did the Asst. SPL. When that happens, the SPL must pick a scout to take over his duties. For this campout, he chose a scout that had just earned Star rank and has been an Instructor for the past 5 months. This was his first time leading the whole troop.

With a substitute SPL and a scout-in-charge, there was some confusion about who was really in charge - I learned a lot this weekend and have a lot of notes for the next troop leadership training! The substitute SPL (my younger son) did his very best and performed well, but his patrolmates tended to not give him the respect due the position. We had some time for his patrol to talk and I'm confident we'll work past any issues just fine.

Other than the leadership confusion, the weekend was a blast. We caught lots of fish - northern pike, sunfish, bullheads, and bass. A few scouts caught and cooked (and even ate) the fish required for the Fishing merit badge. We got a start on the Flyfishing merit badge and a couple scouts nearly completed Canoeing.

It was great having my son the Life Scout back from camp. He led the troop in a couple new songs at the campfire and taught them some new camp skills. This was really good for the first year scouts to see a much older scout enjoying scouting and giving it his best and having fun doing it.

If I start to wonder if it's worth the time and effort, I just start looking back through the troop photo gallery and see how the scouts have grown. That's enough to snap me out of it and look forward to the next troop meeting or campout where I have high hopes for another big 'THUMP!'

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We leave in a couple hours for the troop's first 'WaterWorks' campout! We're offering the Fishing, Flyfishing, and Canoeing merit badges at a local Lutheran camp on a lake. They have canoes, rowboats, and paddleboats with PFDs for us to use.

We have 3 adults that have completed Safety Afloat and Safe Swim Defense and are certified in CPR. All scouts have passed the BSA Swimmer test at summer camp and the camp has a designated swimming area in the lake. So, I think we're pretty well set.

The weather forecast is 75 degrees and 10% chance of rain tomorrow so this has the potential for a practically perfect weekend. If the scouts just wake up early and get some fish for breakfast, that'll be great!

The Penguin patrol planned this campout and they have a packed agenda that should keep everyone busy for two days. It's really enjoyable to see a patrol work together to lay out a trip and get the other patrols to contribute campfire skits, stories, and songs and help with instructing skills where needed.

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Being pro-active, I set aside a weekend for our new troop leaders to get trained the end of September. The next day, I learned the Popcorn Sale starts that Saturday - no way the scouts will want to miss the first morning of selling. Plus, the high school has homecoming that Friday. So, I moved the training to the next weekend. It appears to be open so we'll see if any other conflicts arise.

I took a look at the school calendar today and to avoid conflicts during the week, we'd need to have scout events on Sunday - every other day has some school meeting or activity. Of course, church is on Sunday and Wednesday with some youth group events on weekends.

Then, there are sports, band, and theater schedules to contend with, not to mention normal holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. Makes it challenging to figure out when to schedule a campout 14 months from now, but that is what the scouts leading the troop do every 6 months.

As we get closer to the date and learn of other events that will take scouts away, we consider changing the date. Sometimes it's easy to shift the schedule, other times we just go with it and see who shows up.

I've concluded that being flexible for other family commitments so parents can balance family, school, church, and scouts helps the program in the long run. Sometimes we have low participation on outings, but we do what we can. I'm always trying to figure out better ways to schedule, but it's one of the more challenging parts of supporting a troop, I think.

This coming weekend we have the Waterworks campout - fishing, flyfishing, canoeing, and swimming. Kind of the last blast of the summer. This is the first time our troop has done this so I'm excited to see how it goes. The weather is supposed to be great, the patrol planning it has done a super job, and we have merit badge counselors on the trip.

Unfortunately, we have about 30% of the scouts going due to end-of-summer family weekend trips and various other reasons. We figured this would be a good weekend since families are supposed to take that last fling on Labor Day, but I guess that's not the case any more.

Well, I'll let you know how many fish get caught when I get home on Sunday.

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On Monday, we drove to camp to retrieve our Life Scout that was on staff all summer. Well, actually, he started the summer as a 'Counselor In Training' (CIT) which is a 5-week program. The 4th week, they hired him as staff so he got paid for 6 weeks! That was a nice nudge to his ego, especially since he was the only one to get hired.

So, for the past 5 weeks, he's been the merit badge counselor for First Aid. He also worked on the water front, climbing tower, scoutcraft, and various other areas of the camp. He's already informed me that he plans on working scoutcraft next summer, so I guess he enjoyed 10 weeks in a canvas tent with mosquitos.

With our 20 new scouts in the troop, he is a valuable resource to teach and sign off on all their first aid requirements up to First Class. The SPL will be talking to him about taking advantage of his new skills to help advance the troop.

I'd highly recommend a stint on camp staff for any scouts that have led your troop and are looking for something new. He'll miss a summer of doing things with the troop, but he'll meet new scouts and gain a lot of experience that might be a good boost for your troop. Just be sure to have a re-entry plan for him to integrate back into the troop, as an Instructor or JASM makes sense.

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If you're a scoutmaster going to have a conference with a scout, or if you're just in any leadership role and want to have a stress-free chat with someone, here's an idea.

I really like to whittle. I think every boy likes the feel of a blade slicing through wood and being able to physically change the appearance of something. Scouts in our troop love getting the Totin' Chip (many of them get it on the first campout) and then just sitting and carving a point on a stick for 15 minutes or more. That's a powerful way to create a bond with a young scout.

When I'm sitting down to chat with a scout, I often try to have a piece of wood with me, and I always have my knife. Usually, I have a small whittling project under way so I work on that. I'll chip away at it while I ask questions and talk about 'stuff'. It gives the scout something to focus on and he'll usually be more open with his answers. It's a little less intimidating than having this big dude sitting there grilling him about how he's been doing. :-)

By having a simple, mindless activity going on, whether it's whittling, tying hemp bracelets, braiding grass, or whatever, I believe it relieves a bunch of stress. You should give it a try the next time you need to have a talk with someone and see if it makes a difference.

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You can ask my neighbors and they'll tell you I've just about always got some silly experiment going on in my yard. For example, last summer I left a 10x10 square of grass unmowed all summer to see how it would reseed. This summer, I pulled weeds by hand except for one area that I sprayed. So, I'm just interested in finding out how well things really work.

The principles of Leave No Trace attempt to minimize our impact when we're exploring the outdoors. Most of them are obviously helpful and don't require much effort in convincing people that they are a good idea.
But, I've been interested in how well cat holes really work for disposing of human waste. The concept is that you dig a 6 inch hole in organic soil (not sand or mineral soil), deposit your waste, cover it back up, and then it quickly decomposes. So, I wondered if this really works or if we're just burying our waste so it's out of sight.
The past three years, I've backpacked in an area of Wyoming, with a church group and our scout troop. We've camped a night in the same general area each trip so I've had an opportunity to see catholes in action. I found a secluded spot that was very far from camp, minimizing the probability of anyone else walking that far to use it. After digging and using the cathole, I marked it with a stick.
The next year, I found the spot. The sparse ground cover looked healthy and the hole was unidentifiable except for the stick. I dug it up and there was no visible trace of waste or toilet paper.
So, I used the hole again, covered it up, and marked it. The third year, I found it again and it was still unrecognizable except for the stick. I couldn't see any reduction in the vegetation and the waste had 'vanished'.
From this simple experiment, I'm much more confident that by using catholes my impact is really reduced. I believe it is important to find good locations for catholes (in organic duff by trees or bushes), use minimal toilet paper, and carefully replace the ground cover when finished.

As your scout troop explores the outdoors, taking responsibility for their impact falls under the Outdoor Code as well as the Scout Law. They need to be trained in Leave No Trace ethics so they understand and adopt the need to minimize their impact. The Leave No Trace award is a great way to learn, practice, and embrace the LNT principles.

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Does your troop sell popcorn each year?

I just received our council's '2007 Popcorn Sales Guide' yesterday. It's eleven pages of instructions, tips, and mostly encouragement to participate - win prizes, get a scholarship, have a great program, support the council, have fun, ... and so on.

There are 12 product items, ranging in price from $9.00 to $50.00 Yes, that's $50.00 for a tin of popcorn - covered in chocolate, but still popcorn. In the past few years, the prices of the popcorn have really popped. We used to have a $5.00 item and $35.00 was the biggest.

It's pretty difficult to encourage scouts to sell items that are priced about 3 times what they are worth. The $14.00 microwave popcorn has 15 packets in it. I can buy a 3-pack at the grocery store today for $1.19 - that's $6.25 instead of $14.00 In the BSA fundraising guidelines, we are supposed to offer a product or service in a way that customers get their money's worth. That no longer seems to be the case with popcorn sales.

Our troop sells popcorn at the same time we sell wreaths. Every year for the past 5 years, the percentage of sales from popcorn has steadily decreased while sales of wreaths has held steady. Neighbors like supporting the scouts and they enjoy having beautiful wreaths delivered that are fairly priced. Unfortunately, I've had a few tell me the prices of the popcorn are out of line and they'll no longer purchase it for that reason.

I can't blame them.

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