Scoutmaster Musings

A lot of Scouters I know seem to be the Do-It-Yourself types, I know I am. At the OA Conclave, my chainsaw was having problems so another Scouter had a look at it. 'Looking at' also included taking it apart which resulted in a lost bolt. We had scouts helping us scour the ground, but no luck.

Fortunately, I had the nut and found a 70 cent bolt to replace it at the local hardware store. That was a cheap fix. I've been involved in other 'fixes' that weren't so cheap. For example, our furnace stopped working a couple years after we moved in. I played with it and discovered that the ceramic starter was broken. For $55, I got a replacement part but in my clumsiness of installing it, I cracked it. I swear I barely touched it, but as they say knowledge is power and if I had known how fragile it was, I could have done better. As it turned out, I bought a second one and installed it just fine. The cost of two parts still saved me about $75 over having someone else come and take care of it.

I think that might be why the kind of folks that scout also do things themselves. We like to believe we are self-sufficient and I think that 'thrifty' comes into play there quite often. It's amazing how many scoutmasters keep old gear working and operational long after 'normal' people would have thrown it out. The same goes for their homes - why buy new when I can get this thing fixed?

There are thousands of articles about home improvement projects on various web sites. Whether you want to repair your troop trailer or get ideas for Eagle Scout projects, it doesn't hurt to read a bit before tackling the task. If you're more of a Watcher than Reader, getting an instructional DVD can also improve your results, it probably would have helped me with my cracked ceramic starter.

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I've been volunteering at my son's school to set up computers for state testing in the morning. As I was walking down the hall, I saw one of the scouts in our troop and the look on his face was priceless when he saw me. It was like - "WHAT!?! are you doing here?" "This isn't right. You don't have your uniform on and we're not camping. Huh???" And, then he got a big smile and said Hello.

So far, I've seen 4 scouts in the halls the past couple days. After the first one, I've had my eye open for them. A couple I've seen way before they noticed me and it was great to see how they interact with their buddies. I can't help but compare them to other kids, and being completely unbiased :-) I must say they look like good kids to have as friends.

I even saw a boy that was in scouts but dropped 2 years ago. It was nice to say 'hi' and remember his name and ask how things were going. He seemed to be doing just fine without scouting, but I'm pretty sure I detected a slightly sheepish look about him while we talked. I think that's common in scouts that dropped the program so I never bring up scouting when I see them. I just say it's good to see them and ask how school's going and how their folks are. That's usually safe and easy for them.

Keep your eyes open for scouts wherever you may be.

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This summer at Boy Scout camp, we had the usual racoons roaming the campsites. I went to each tent and asked if they had any food or smellables or anything at all that they wanted me to store away in the lockbox for the night. Every one said, "No, thank you."
Well, I woke up at about 1:30 hearing a bunch of grunting, snarling, and scuffling about. I got my little LED flashlight, slipped on my mocassins, and went out. There was the cutest, little darling (NOT!) of a racoon tearing apart a scout's daypack getting at his baggie full of GORP.
I chased the little rascal off and then woke the scout and his buddies, who were still sound asleep. I gave them the choice of getting up now and taking care of the mess or having this rabid, 28 pound ball of fury and gnashing teeth come back looking for more snacks where he had found this one. It didn't take them long to get it cleaned up. :-)

I've thought it would be really cool to have a pair of night vision binoculars at times like these. Then, I could really see what was going on without bothering the wildlife until I needed to stop some mischief. Some night goggles would also be very useful on Friday nights when our troop always seems to be setting up camp in the dark.

There's an interesting article on this page about how night vision works.

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You can help find Steve Fossett, National Eagle Scout Association president, if you just have some free time and your PC. In coordination with those involved in the search efforts in Nevada, BSA volunteers are being asked to join the search by using the Internet to study recent satellite images of the area where the adventurer disappeared September 3.

To sign up to help, visit mturk.com and follow the instructions. You need to sign in to aid in the search. The Web site assigns an image of a 278-foot-square section of the 6,000 square miles being searched. After studying the image, the user simply clicks "yes" or "no" as to whether there is any sign of Fossett's airplane that might warrant further investigation in that section. Anything larger than two or three feet will appear in the image, and instructions and examples help users understand what viewing. The flagged images are passed to the search team coordinating the flights over the area.

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I attended our Order of the Arrow chapter conclave this weekend. We had about 60 Ordeal candidates that 'enjoyed' their weekend of providing service at a local camp. We all woke up Saturday morning to frost on tents or tarps since it dropped to about 30 degrees overnight.

I really did enjoy my day of cheerful service - I got to run a chainsaw all day, making firewood from downed trees for the camp's 3 lodges. In all, the scouts stacked almost 3 cords of split wood (4x4x8 feet). Other teams put a new metal roof on a lodge, packed the summer's Webelos camp tents away for winter, and pruned trees.

The tree pruning was interesting. Everything below 6 feet was lopped off to retard fires. The hope is that a fast-burning grassfire will rip through and not generate enough heat to ignite the branches higher up. Plus, it allows scouts to walk through the woods and under the trees. Well, it looks a little too manicured to me, but I hope the fire-prevention doesn't ever get tested.

Our troop had 4 scouts and 1 adult added to the order this weekend.

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Through the Internet, I've had the pleasure of meeting and conversing with a wonderful Scouter living in Colorado named Tom Sholes. Tom has written a book about his life as a Scoutmaster in Wisconsin and then in Colorado over a 40 year career. He sent me a copy of "Rocks In My Backpack" to review and asked me to let him know how I liked it.

I've read other books that people write about their 'stories' just because they enjoy the memories so much they figure other people will like them too. It often doesn't work out that way. But, for my 2 cents, "Rocks In My Backpack" is the most entertaining book about Scouting I've ever read. I could relate so many of Tom's scouts with guys in my own patrol it made me believe that boys will always be boys, generation after generation.

I was so impressed with Tom's writing and all the years he's put in with Scouting that I've decided to promote his book on this site.

If you're looking for a gift for your troop's Scoutmaster, ASMs, Committee Chair, or any voluteer at any level in Scouting, I believe this book would be greatly enjoyed. The summer is winding down and Christmas isn't that far away so please consider supporting a Scouting veteran's efforts and reward your favorite Scouting volunteer with a fun present.

- Buy It - > < - Buy It -

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I was asked, "Do you need to do all requirements for each Bear elective?"

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The very last page in the Bear Scout Handbook is a blank Arrow Point Trail Record where the scout can list the achievements and electives he completes for arrow points. That chart asks for number and letter of the elective.

That means each individual item in an elective counts towards an arrow point and when any 10 items are complete, an arrow point is earned.

For example, a scout may do requirements b, c, and d in the Electricity elective, a, c, d, and f in Aircraft elective, and a, b, and c in Masks elective to earn his gold arrow point. He didn't do all the requirements for any of those electives, just the things that were interesting to him.

Also, requirements in the Achievements that were completed but not used to fulfill the requirements for the achievement can be counted towards arrow points. For example, "The Past is Exciting and Important" achievement has 6 requirements and the scout needs to complete 3 of them for the achievement. If he visits a library, talks to an old-time cub scout, makes a pack scrapbook, traces his family tree, and writes a journal - he can use two of those as arrow point items.

The Wolf arrow point trail is different. Wolf scouts have 12 achievements to complete to earn their Wolf rank. A few of those achievements have optional requirements, but they are not used for arrow points.
There are over a hundred Wolf Electives which count towards arrow points when done by the scout. Just like Bears, each individual item counts, not the entire elective. So, if a Wolf Scout did all the items in "Be An Actor" and "Make It Yourself", that would be 10 items and an arrow point.

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Our troop has its hands full of Life Scouts. They are beginning to ask about the Eagle process and what they need to do and when things are due and, and, and ...
Fortunately, we have a great Eagle Advisor in the troop that is happy to help them along the trail. In addition to that, the district offers an 'Eagle Preview' session every spring and fall.
These sessions are open to all Life and Star scouts to learn about the Eagle process and start getting their ducks in a row. They last about 90 minutes and include a lot of good information. I think they mostly scare the bejeebers out of the scouts. :-)

Check with your unit commissioner or district executive to see what guidance is offered for Life Scouts just starting towards Eagle. It might save you a lot of headaches down the road.

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We have a photo gallery on our troop web site. It's pretty good, with tons of photos, but they are just static photos, one after another. Our Troop Historian is responsible for getting them online and then parents can look at what their scout did over the weekend.

I've been looking for some way to make it more interesting and there is a new tool at Qlip Media that looks awful promising. It's beta right now, but they have a lot of examples that folks have created.

You can create a running audio stream and import photos to create a slideshow with dialog. Now, that is much more interesting to parents and scouts that couldn't attend than just plain photos. You can even draw on the imported images to point out key parts, like Johnny doing something funny in the background.

These little videos are called Qlippits and they can be emailed or stored on a web page.




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I was asked today: Is a 'code of conduct' for Cub Scouts like there is for Boy Scouts or does each Pack create its own?

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Just like the Boy Scouts have the Scout Oath and Law as their 'code of conduct', the Cub Scouts have the Law of the Pack and the Cub Scout Promise. Those are the only codes needed to describe how scouts act.

There are many techniques that den leaders have employed to help manage the bahavior of scouts. A common one is the 'Den Candle' which burns as long as the den is behaving. When the candle is burned up, the den gets a prize of some kind. These can be useful for promoting expected behavior, but they don't define that behavior.

Scouts know how they should act, but that does not mean they will always act that way. While a Tiger, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos den leader, I was fortunate to have very few behavioral problems. I believe that was because I was blessed with an exceptionally great den of scouts and because they did not have time to get in trouble. I had more activities planned for a meeting than we could possibly do and then had a couple extra games 'just in case' that we never got to. I tried to never have the scouts sitting still for more than 10 minutes - longer than that feels too much like school.

I found that the best way to alter behavior was to simply ask which part of the Law of the Pack the scout was practicing - was it following Akela, helping the Pack go, or giving goodwill? Occasionally, a more in-depth discussion of better ways to practice was necessary was required. The couple of times that didn't work, calling a parent, explaining the situation, and handing the phone to the scout solved the problem.

Sometimes troops or packs write down some guidelines which help define a process, such as how the trailer gets packed or how to air out and store tents. These are useful and unique to that unit. When we start writing down 'behavioral' restrictions, then we've crossed a line that will cause nothing but grief.

Codes of conduct will stifle creativity and foster the need to push against the restrictions and find loopholes and uncharted territory. We'll soon hear, "But, the code of conduct didn't say I COULDN'T do it!" and then we'll have to add that to the list. If we just stick to the Law and Oath, the scouts have a well-defined set of guidelines and room to play.

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Here's a great resource I found, especially for Den Leaders putting the Cub Scout Academics and Sports program into their annual scouting program. Check out the instructional guide for sports at playsportstv.com

There's hundreds of short videos demonstrating and teaching skills for football, soccer, baseball, basketball, tennis, and other sports. If you're a den leader trying to learn good ways to present basic skills to your scouts, these can be a nice way for you to pick up some new drills.

There is an emphasis on good sportsmanship and examples of how to help young athletes enjoy the practices and become better team players. That seems to be somewhat lacking in youth teams I've watched in our area recently - the winning can sometimes become more important than the playing.

Besides the videos, there are also blogs by coaches with additional tips and advice. Quite a long list of coaches, too, and the soccer coach's blog had some real positive bits of information about really young players and good sportsmanship.

Hey, you might even want to let your son's football or hocky coach know about the site. Maybe s/he will pick up a couple ideas.

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diacetyl - sounds better than C4H6O2, I guess. There's been a suggestion by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health that diacetyl, when used in artificial butter flavoring, may be hazardous if heated and inhaled over long periods of time.
That artificial butter flavoring is what's used in microwave popcorn, which we heat and then inhale its aroma.
With scouts around the country gearing up to sell microwave popcorn door-to-door, you can expect this concern to come up in your pack or troop. To prepare for that, the BSA has issued a Press Release letting folks know the Trails End popcorn is safe. That release says that the popcorn suppliers have "voluntarily started removing diacetyl from their products". Hmmm, 'started' removing it?
So, I checked the Trails' End web site and they have a big link on their home page that takes you to their press release. It says they have removed diacetyl so everyone can be happy now.

Whew! Now, I can inform the scouts that the popcorn they are selling is diacetyl-free. I don't suppose we can actually call it 'Healthy' though, can we? :-)

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