Scoutmaster Musings

If your troop uses the Scoutmate software, it was announced last month that the folks that make it are throwing in the towel after 16 years. They sent an email to registered users, but things change quickly in some units so you may not be the registered email they have.

This would be a good time to consider using TroopMaster since they are offering a discount to past Scoutmate users. The Scoutmate site even recommends that you check into the move and there are instructions for converting your Scoutmate data to Troopmaster.

Now, that's nice to see companies working together for the ultimate good of the customers. I hate to see a product pulled from the market because that lessens the urgency of competition and tends to result in fewer choices with higher prices.

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A couple days ago, I mentioned being 'thrifty' and doing things myself. Sometimes, it's hard to distinguish between thrifty and cheap, according to my wife.

One area where I've learned that I need to be very thrifty is the stock market. Years ago, I set aside some money that I could invest however I wanted - kind of like play money, but it was real. It was something I had always been interested in, but was afraid I didn't know how to do it. So, having a set amount that I could lose or grow put limits on my involvement.

I did ok and any money I made I set aside out of the playing field. I made a few poor investment choices and the original funds got used up so my game was over. I pretty much broke even, making a little bit but not much, and that taught me that I'm not really very good at that.

Now, if it was just pretend money, it still might be a fun game. I was looking for resources for the American Business merit badge and I came across an interesting site called MyWallSt.net where they are having a rookie challenge that is free to register and participate. The idea is that you start with $100,000 in virtual money to invest in real stocks. You get to compare the results of your investments against other players. Now, that's my kind of investing. :-) And, they even have weekly winners of real cash. The site says they give away $1000 each week.
Well, it's a good way to learn about trading stocks with no risk. If an American Business merit badge counselor approved of it, scouts could use the site to buy and track their stocks for that requirement. Since they're under 18, they wouldn't eligible to win any real money so they might want their parent to register.

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So, I've been volunteering to set up computers at my son's school in the morning for their barrage of annual testing. It's pretty much monkey work - push buttons and type the same words over and over for each computer. It sure isn't difficult, but it takes about 30 or 45 minutes to do a room, so I'm freeing up a staff person for other work.

I've discovered that there can be a ton of unexpected benefits to volunteering for short-term tasks like this...

• I see some of my son's friends and some scouts in a different setting.
• I'm walking to the school so I get 45 minutes of exercise each day.
• My son thinks its fun to walk with me because he gets to school early and helps push the buttons - extra time with him is always a good thing.
• The school staff seem to genuinely appreciate the help - it's good to feel appreciated.
• I wear a different one of my umpteen Scouting t-shirts each day, so I might be noticed by some non-scouting boy - no inquiries yet.

Church, school, and other community groups always seem to be looking for more volunteers. I've made my commitment to Scouting for now, so I usually have to turn down the other opportunities - they're usually long-term needs and I put way too many hours into Scouts. But, short-term tasks are a great way to help out and try something new. Give it a try!

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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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