The Bloggers
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I cracked this book, Follow the Arrow by Patrick Flaherty, open the other day to give it a read. It is a compilation of motivational quotes related to the authors thoughts on the Order of the Arrow (OA). It is broken into four topics: (i) Brotherhood & Friendship, (ii) Love of the Outdoors & Respect for Nature…
I found this newspaper clipping in some of the stuff I saved from my father's scouting materials. It didn't have the date, but I suspect it was from the 1980's or 90's, either from the Lake County News Herald or the Painesville Telegraph (likely the latter). I neat little piece of history.
On this date in 1894, Norman Rockwell was born. Those that were Boy Scouts, or have ever seen an iconic painting of a Boy Scout, have probably seen his work. He is probably most reknowned for his paintings depicting classic scouting scenes.
A question came up the other day in one of our units on fundraising, dues, scout accounts, & incentives. The BSA gives some guidelines, but no firm rules on what a unit should budget for or how much dues should cost.
The Commissioner's Corner by F. Darnall Daley Jr. is another Christmas gift I asked for and received this year. It is a collection of essays and articles originally published in a council newsletter. He wrote the articles during his tenure as the Council Commissioner over the span of a few decades, and republished them as…
Read a story about how Mikano Lodge received a letter from Astronaut (and Eagle Scout) Jim Lovell. The letter included a lodge flap that went into space with him on a mission (he was a member of the lodge as a scout). A fitting story to tie in NASA's Day of Remembrance .
Today is NASA's " Day of Remembrance " to honor those astronauts who've lost their lives in our pursuit of science and exploration. I mention it here because many astronauts start out as Boy Scouts, and many were Eagle Scouts. There's a pretty thorough list at USSSP .
January 24th, 1908: Robert Baden-Powell publishes the first installment of Scouting for Boys and begins the Boy Scout movement (Brownsea was held earlier in 1907 though, so that might be considered the start). What follows over the course of the next century is incredible. Find out more by visiting the History Channel
That is all. Carry on.
I just wanted to say "farewell" to all the Webelos II that bridged over into Boy Scouts tonight. You've completed and awesome journey and more adventures await. The pack will miss all the fun and crazy energy your den had.
Boy scouting in the 1980's. Oscar de la Renta design uniforms. Red berets. Wow! Here are some pics from a canoe trip we took when I was a youth. I don't remember which river it was, somewhere in Northeast Ohio during the summer.
I got picked by my lodge as one of the adult leaders to go help get the scouts to and through NOAC this year. I'm super stoked! Being the 100th anniversary of the OA, this one is bound to be amazing.
Many sources will tell you doing too much will cause leader burnout. Don't let one person do all the work or take on too much, they'll burn out. Many hands make light work, so spread the load. That may be well and true, and I know having help is good and necessary.
I turned on the comments capability to everyone, since I seem to have a small following. If you care to comment, go right ahead. Just keep it clean and scout-like. It is moderated to keep out spam, so your comment may not show right away. Cheers!
Did you know Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Boy Scout? Read about it here . It is also the National Day of Service . Of course its not a day off work for me, but we do have a troop meeting tonight, so I'll be helping others at some point today.
I few months back I posted a pic from my first trip to Philmont . Then I found 4 of my long, lost crew mates and patrol members through Facebook (well, they weren't really lost, I just moved away for college and then across the country for a job and lost track of everyone).
I recently took my councils "Cold Weather Awareness" class, or at least the indoor lecture part, the practical outdoor session is later this month. A recommended resource for the class is the BSA's Okpik: Cold Weather Camping book. It is still in print as you can see from the link, but I haven't seen it…
Thing 1's troop is at a rock climbing overnight class. So I'm sitting here watching them, trying to stay awake. Trying to do the ideal scoutmaster thing and just sit here and observe, watch for safety issues, and just let them do their thing.
I went to our district Roundtable meeting tonight to hear about the Cub Scout program changes schedule to go into effect on June 1 this year. Cub Scouts as we currently know the program will significantly change the advancement portion of the program, and modify the ideals slightly.
The lottery application period is open for the next 30 days for Florida Sea Base treks in 2016. My troop is definitely going to put in for some options. I'm waiting to hear back from the scouts on which ones we should do.
Each year all (I assume) of the local BSA councils have a "Friends of Scouting" campaign to raise money to support the daily administrative functions the council provides, as well as maintain their camps and facilities that the scouts use for summer camp and such activities.
So the big day final came, the Pinewood Derby. Now, this wasn't my first rodeo, I've run the event since 2010 for my son's pack. But this year I helped train some other guys and let them run the show, which was a pretty big relief.
One of my eagerly anticipated Christmas gifts to get into was Scoutmaster Clarke Green's A Scouting Journey. At a little over 100 pages, it is a short and easy read (I got through it during the 6-hour ride from Sacramento to Los Angeles during a vacation trip).
So with the Pinewood Derby tomorrow we themed the pack meeting by bringing in a real race car driver and his car. Now, we aren't talking NASCAR, but a local SCCA driver with his totally suped-up Honda Fit. The kids still got real excited about it, particularly when he was talking and answering questions and…
Tomorrow is the Pinewood Derby for Thing 2's pack. Just put the final touches on his car and marked in the wheels. We'll see how he does. He never wants to put that extra effort in to really sand it down smooth, go crazy with the paint, or put that extra glossy finish on it.
Here's a difference from scouting of my dad's era and today. This is an image out of the fifth edition handbook, circa 1948. It shows a similar left handed handshake, but with interlaced little fingers ("pinky finger"). Interesting!
Preview some Yummies! I can't wait! Thing 3 will be taking orders starting Saturday!
So I have what is close to a 5-year plan. And I've had one for several years, and it slowly evolves as the years tick by. But I've often wondered if it is a selfish plan, you see most of it simply involves what awards I can earn for myself.
In my career field, a classic tome is Sutton's Rocket Propulsion Elements , which covers a broad range of academic theory and experimental results from industry. It is a good starter primer on the topic. However, at work we have a presentation called "What Sutton didn't tell you" to cover a lot of the practical application…
I made some minor updates to the blog today, adding labels to all the posts so that areas of interest can be found in the history. For instance maybe you only want to see articles on "Cub Scouts" or the topic of "Leadership".
Scout is alive and well in the world, and it all ties back to the basic principles started by Baden-Powell. I'm very novice on my knowledge of scouting outside of the USA, I'm sure the basic concepts are similar (following a Scout Oath and Scout Law).
...or so they say (note the laughter of the other scouters in the picture). Now I know scouting is what you make it. So one hour a week might work for some. But if you are really engaged and active, it's probably more than that.
At mass the other day, the priest gave is homily reflection on the Gospel reading that had just been heard, about Jesus being born in the manger. He reflected on how the story is ancient, thousands of years old, yet we hear it again each year and it is made new.
I mentioned in my last post the ninth edition was the one I grew up on. Because of that personal experience, to me it epitomizes the scouting experience. Though I do like the current version as well, there are somethings it doesn't seem to cover as well (though I'm sure it has better information on…
So did you get any holiday gifts with a scouting theme? With cold weather upon us, some good polyester or wool clothing is a good idea. There are several good books for scouters to be read. And camping gear is always good, particularly if found on sale this time of year.
The ninth edition of the Boy Scout Handbook was the one I used as a scout. It holds a special place in my heart because of that. I've read that is one of the better versions, written by "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt.
Like most packs I imagine, ours is bad about keeping records and passing info along. I hope our website and handbooks do some of that, but some details get lost over the years (for instance, just about anything prior to 2009 when our first son joined is unknown to me).
Season's Greetings & Happy Holidays to all Scouts, Scouters, & families around the world! Visit Scout.org for more greetings cards.
I thought I'd share the newsletter templates I use for anyone looking for a good resource. Back when Thing 1 was a Tiger, I thought our pack could use a good newsletter to get messages out, rather than just old emails.
Thing 1, 2, & 3 all went to the local food bank the other day with Thing 2's pack to lend a hand and provide some service to the community. Very proud of all of them and the other cub scouts, giving a lending hand. And they said they had fun doing it as well. Awesome.
Our troop participated in a dutch oven cook-off today with another local troop. It is an annual event they've been doing for years to have an easy event in the busy holiday months. Earlier in the year a couple of us Scoutmasters kicked around the idea of making it a joint event this year, though…
If you had trouble viewing the Christmas caroling video, I've moved it to YouTube and it should work better now. Please visit the original post.
Thing 3's Daisy Troop had a gift exchange or their holiday party their recent troop meeting. They used a story from another scouting website that I had come across just a few days earlier. The wife had mentioned the gift exchange at dinner one night, and I had just visited the site with the same…
A little cross-posting from the troop's blog. A bit old news, but good to share. Troop 117: Newest Eagle Scout : Congratulations to the Troop's newest Eagle Scout who successfully completed his board of review on 11/4/14!
I don't think I have ever gone caroling as a kid, it snowed in the winter where I grew up and going out in the cold never seemed too fun. But our Daisy scouts sure got a kick out of it, particularly with the tad warmer climate.
So on just about this day, 23 years ago, I earned the Communications Merit Badge, one of the last ones I needed for Eagle. Back then, I probably had no idea how important communication realy is in our daily lives.
Thing 2's pack took part in the local holiday parade this past weekend. Thing 1 & Thing 3 joined the group as well. The weather was perfect this year, not to warm, not too cold, no rain or snow which we've had in years past.
(insert sarcasm) I'm not sure if our Cubmaster was trying to decorate for the holidays or what, but blood doesn't make a good choice, even if it is red. Well, what really happened started as an interesting idea for a game at the pack meeting.
So I spent the holiday week in Phoenix, AZ visiting family. But we had the opportunity to take some side trips and hiked one of the local trails. A recommended one was in the Phoenix Sonoran Desert Preserve . Now this isn't specifically a scout trek, but being a Scouting family (even in the in-laws) we…
For today's Throwback Thursday we look at uniforms of two Eagle Scouts from different generations. One in the 1950's, another of the 1990's. The first one on the right is some of my dad's memorabilia. I had his sash, some patches, and his medals, but not his uniform shirt.
