Scoutmaster Musings

The end of this month starts the annual Scouting Popcorn Sales drive. If folks in your troop or pack are interested in something different that might net them a couple bucks, how about these ideas? ...

• Scouts can enter ideas and tips to Boys' Life
  
  • $10 - 'Collecting' ideas. Recent collections submitted include bolo ties, hat pins, farm toys, stamps, pencil lead, fortune cookie fortunes, and even video games. I'm pretty sure they'll accept absolutely anything.
  • $10 - Tip about anything. Recent tips include bringing along a deck of cards in the car to keep from being bored and don't wear sneakers on a hiking trip.
  • $2, Scout handbook, or Fieldbook - Jokes for the Think & Grin section.
• Boys' Life Reading Contest gives away $100, $75, and $50 prizes the end of 2007.
• Adult BSA members contribute to Scouting magazine:
  • Photo Contest - Enter up to three photos in their contest before Oct. 1, 2007 for a chance to win $400, $300, $200, $100, or $25 prizes.
  • Front Line - submit a question to the Front Line Stuff column and get $50.
  • Worth Retelling - submit a personal short story about scouting to the Worth Retelling column and get $25.
• Units that have 100% Boys' Life subscriptions by Nov. 30 are automatically entered in a drawing by BSA for 12 Bass Pro Shops packages which include a $500 gift card and 20 Eagle Claw fishing poles.

Check your Boys' Life and Scouting magazines for details or go to their boyslife.org and scoutingmagazine.org sites.

Well, you won't get rich, but it's better than a kick in the rear.

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We made what I hope is a step forward in the troop tonight. A short meeting of the current Assistant ScoutMasters (ASMs) to present a shift in the program.

Our troop was around 16 scouts when the previous Scoutmaster started his term. I learned what I know from him, so I just did what he had done. Unfortunately, with 55 scouts, his way of managine a 16 scout troop has not been working so well. So, tonight we're starting to distribute the Scoutmaster duties to the ASMs. It will take effect with the new SPL and patrol leaders elected at the end of this month.

Each patrol will have an ASM that has volunteered to mentor its patrol leader and help guide its progress. This ASM will be aware of the rank and needs of each scout in the patrol and will encourage the patrol leader to hold regular patrol meetings, help patrolmates succeed, and contribute to the troop.

I am extremely excited to see how this goes for the next 6 months. 6 of our 8 patrols have an ASM, but I'll continue to mentor the two older patrols unless someone else steps up. (Our patrols are age-based). This isn't a huge change in program, but I'm hoping that defined direction for the ASMs will have a positive impact on the participation, retention, and advancement of the scouts.

If you would like a copy of my notes on ASM duties, just give me a holler and I'll send you a short Word doc.

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When camping with scouts, getting close enough to actually see an animal or bird can be a challenge. Of course, trying to minimize our impact on the local inhabitants, we don't try to get too close. But, we seldom have to worry about 'trying' to get too close - they hear us coming long before we're there. It would be nice to really see what made that squeek and then disappeared sometime.
I'll often take along a small pair of binoculars so I improve my chances. Since I'm usually up before the scouts, I can take my binoculars and go for a short walk. I'm not much of a birder, but bringing deer, elk, and even bear closer through optics is safer and less intrusive than physically moving closer.
I have Nikon binoculars, but Bushnell, Leopold, and others are also good quality. Optics are one place you shouldn't go for the low price option since they are precision instruments and you have to pay for that.
Binoculars are also useful for the Birds and Mammal Studies merit badges.

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Starting on September 1st, Bob Mazzuca has taken the reins of the Boy Scouts of America as their 11th Chief Scout Executive. He replaces Roy Williams who held the position for seven years.
Mr. Mazzuca is an Eagle Scout with 36 years of serving the BSA in various postitions. See the News Release for more details.

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Each year, our troop purchases new tents for incoming scouts. By the time the scouts finish their time in the troop, the tents are usually too worn out to pass on to the next generation.

To help keep the scouts dry, we have traditionally added blue poly tarps to each tent that the quartermaster distributes. The thought is that this extra layer of plastic will help when it really rains and the water is saturating the ground.

Just last year, one of our more experienced scouts mentioned that he figured a sheet of clear plastic would be just as good since it would be lighter and more waterproof. Some scouts have moved over to the clear plastic while others stay with the stronger, more durable, blue tarps.

We have two factions in the troop divided on the best way to keep scouts dry in a tent. One side says the tarp should go on the inside, the other side says on the outside.

I grew up as an 'outsider' rather than an 'insider'. But, when I became scoutmaster, the scouts were all insiders, so I went along with that. The reasoning for having the tarp inside is that there is no opportunity for water to collect on it if it is larger than the tent footprint and it stays clean. The main reasons for having the tarp outside is that it keeps the tent bottom cleaner.

This is just another opportunity for scouts to discuss how they might do things and then decide for themselves what works. Either way will be ok, but if they decide, then they're leading rather than just doing what the old man says.

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Our troop had a scout go to the World Jamboree this month in England. He said it was great, but there was a Jambo song that got a little old. Actually, I believe he said someone would yell, "JAMBO!" and everyone else around the area would yell back, "HELLO!" - hundreds of times a day.

Here's a video of the Jambo song.


More info about the World Jamboree is at thejamboree.org

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I've checked out other troops' web sites and notice that quite a few (especially back East) have their own Scout Hut or meeting place. We are quite crowded in the basement of a church so it hinders the activities the scouts can do at troop meetings in winter or bad weather.
It would be so cool to have our own meeting area where we could have large group games.

When a troop has a place it can call its own, I believe the scouts are more productive in meetings. Each patrol can have its own 'corner' and motivational items can be left displayed rather than removed after every meeting. An area with a high ceiling, such as a gym or open beam structure gives more room for activities. I believe we will be looking for new space in a year or so and that is what I'll be hunting for.

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I imagine most of you have some Purell or similar product in patrol boxes or troop trailer. The gel magically kills 99.99% of germs and makes your hands nice and clean - or so the scouts seem to believe. :-)

I have an ongoing battle to train scouts to wash before preparing meals. In our troop, everything is done by patrol so I'm not directly involved with their meal preparations. But, I do see most of the patrols open their cooler and patrol box and start making a meal right after playing a wide game or doing some other activity. Seldom will a scout remember to wash his hands first.

Quite often, I'll see a scout squirt some Purell on his hands, rub them together and then declare he's ready to eat. The fingernails are still black and the dust has now become more defined as lines and splotches, but he's convinced his hands are clean.

We've had some scouts mysteriously develop bad cases of 'flu' right after a campout. And, it's usually just a 12 hour flu - their bodies dump everything out both ends and then they're ok. It sounds much more like food poisoning to me and I believe it is caused by lack of proper sanitation.

"A Scout is Clean" is an area where I will be asking our next SPL to concentrate on improving the troop. He'll know that we can have contests, games, prizes, whatever he wants to try to change the habits of the troop. I'm looking forward to see what his team comes up with and if it makes a difference carrying into next summer.

I'm even contemplating having him declare Purell as the official fire-starter rather than hand sanitizer. No, just kidding! In case you were not aware, Purell and similar products are about 2/3 alcohol and do a great job as a fire starter. During the day, the flame is very hard to see so accidental burns are a real problem. At night, I must admit it's pretty cool to squirt a line of it on a rock, light it, and watch the pretty blue flame dance away.

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Having scrambled up Cloud Peak at 13,167 feet twice this summer, I was pretty pleased with myself. But, it's just a bump compared to the real mountains of the world. There's a young man locally here who is working on climbing the tallest peaks on each continent - now that's ambitious! He tried Mt. Aconcagua at the start of 2007, but had to turn back.
Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina is the highest peak in the southern and western hemispheres at 22,831 feet. It's actually the highest mountain outside Asia.
I ran into a site called Tusker Trail that leads climbs of both Aconcagua and Kilimanjaro (19340 feet). There's a pretty cool video on the site about Kilimanjaro and the guide that has climbed it over 30 times now.

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If you remember in previous post, I mentioned that I though having a scout spend time on camp staff was a great thing. Here's an example.

The scoutmaster of Troop 68 in Melorse, MN has a video of the Many Point Camp Staff leading the Many Point Rouser at the opening of their week of camp. It's inside because of a serious rainstorm, but that doesn't appear to have slowed them down.

See it at Video Page.

My son is actually one of those hooligans running around, he's wearing a yellow neckerchief. :-)

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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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