Winter Outing

The weather was perfect as the Boy Scouts of Melrose Troop 68 gathered for their winter outing on Friday, February 22. The seven Scouts and three adult leaders were looking forward to a weekend of winter fun.

Camp Stearns is owned by the Northern Star Council, which is headquartered in the Twin Cities. The camp is located east of Fairhaven, Minnesota. The camp borders on a few lakes, has some great wooded camping areas, and plenty of open areas for various activities, including a disc golf course.

The Melrose troop stayed in one of the heated buildings during the weekend, but they spent a lot of time outdoors enjoying the mild winter temperatures on Saturday. In the morning the Scouts worked on various advancement requirements, including an orientation course.

The troop headed out to the rink after lunch for a game of broomball. The temperature was warm enough, and the action was intense enough, that winter coats soon started to pile up along side the rink. The Scouts had a great time playing this non-skating version of hockey. The boys even took the time to film a few scenes for a new video which should appear online sometime in March as part of the Melrose Scouting Productions Podcast. The video may also appear on Youtube.

The highlight of the weekend came after chapel service and supper. It was time to head to the hills! The sledding hill, that is. Camp Stearns has a great sledding hill that is lit for evening use. And boy, did the Scouts from Troop 68 put it to use. The Scouts were able to move along at pretty good speeds, and able to get some pretty good air from the jumps. (See the picture) Of course, there were a couple good wipe-outs to go along with it. The long steep hill prompted one Scout to comment that there should be a tow rope to get back up the hill. The evening ended with watching a movie before heading off to the sleeping bags.

In The Newspaper

I have written hundreds of newspaper articles about the troop and its functions during the last three decades. When I write the articles I concentrate on the Boy Scouts and what they are doing. I try to leave myself out of the stories as much as possible. I do not want to promote myself. My job is promote the boys and Scouting.

So when I local newspaper reporter contacted me a year ago for an interview about being a scoutmaster for over twenty-five years, I kind of shrugged her off and said I would do it someday in the future. Well, I guess the future arrived. She remembered that I said I would do it later, so called me about it again earlier this month. She wanted to run an article for the issue that came out during Scout Week, but we could not find a time to meet. She did not give up though. The article finally came out in this week's issue.

I thought I would bite the bullet and let you all (or at least those of you who would be interested) read it on the newspaper's website. It can be found HERE. Don't laugh to hard when you read it, okay?

100th Anniversary Logo Chosen

The logo to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America has been chosen, and it was designed by Philip Goolkasian, a seventeen year old Eagle Scout from California. Philip's design was chosen from over 4000 entries.

The logo looks pretty sharp. I like it. The BSA will be using the logo for promotions during the next couple of years. Check it out HERE or on the BSA website HERE.

Lunar Eclipse

Even though it is -18 degrees outside (I am in Minnesota, you know) I did get outside to watch the last moments of the bright moon moving to hide into the shadow of the earth. In fact, I even set my video camera outside to record it. Once the camera warms up again I will watch it and see how it turned out.

To bad it did not happen this weekend during our troop outing. We will be staying at Camp Stearns for our annual winter outing. Luckily, we should have temps in the twenties, and maybe even hit thirty or higher. That will allow us to enjoy our activities even more. What activities, you ask? Broomball, disc golf, and sledding, of course. There is a great lighted sledding hill at camp. We will also find time to work on some advancement requirements Saturday morning, and watch a movie before hitting the sleeping bags in the evening. Maybe, if there is enough snow, a couple of the guys may try to build a snow quanzee to sleep in overnight.

Well, enough writing. Time to check out the camera, and maybe sneak another peak at the hidden moon.

Tenderfoot and the Bully

By now you may have heard that the Boy Scouts of America have taken a stand against bullying by changing a Tenderfoot requirement to read, "Explain the importance of the buddy system as it relates to your personal safety on outings and in your neighborhood. Describe what a bully is and how you should respond to one."

The BSA website (scouting.org) has a good explaining of this requirement for Boy Scouts and troop leadership. It states:

A bully is someone who wants to hurt another person. Bullying can be physical, verbal, emotional, social, behavioral, or any combination. Bullying can also take place just about anywhere: on the bus, at school, at soccer practice, even online, via the Internet. However, bullying can be stopped. Help put an end to the bullying by taking action first yourself.

• If ignoring the bully doesn't work, stand up for yourself with words. Rehearse what you want to say to that you will feel in control of your emotions when you confront the bully.
• Tell the bully how hurtful it feels to be bullied, and ask why you are the target. Ask the bully to stop.
• Sometimes, agreeing with the bully and having a ready response will work ("So what if I have a face full of zits. What's it to you?").
• Hang out with a couple of friends; try not to be alone.
• Tell an adult you trust, such as a parent, teacher, or coach.

This requirement is described on page 57 of the 2008 edition of the Boy Scout Handbook.

Luckily, Troop 68 has not had many instances of bullying within the troop during the last several years. When it does happen we try to "nip it in the bud" by talking to the Scout doing the bullying. I think it is a decent requirement to add to the Tenderfoot Rank and will allow us an opportunity to talk to Scouts about the subject.

Buffaloeagle's Hope For America

With this blog entry I would like to steer you to another Scouting blog for just a moment. Buffaloreagle at the Lone Star Scouter blog wrote an excellent post that I think you might find interesting. He called it "Last, Great, Best, Hope For America. Here is a portion of it:

"You are the last, great, best, hope for America. You are! You believe in HONOR, in a world where honor has lost much of its meaning. You believe in doing your duty to God and your Country, in a country where school prayer has been outlawed and many Americans don’t even bother to vote. You believe in a scout law, with 12 very demanding and very specific points, and you commit to ALL of them….when your non-scout friends commit to NOTHING."

I agree totally with his blog post. Check it out at the Lone Star Scouter Blog.

Watch What You Say

I once wrote that as an adult Scouter we need to watch the language we use, and be sure to not use bad language in front of the boys. After all, if we use foul language then what right do we have to tell the boys not to use it?

We also need to be aware of the words we use in regular speech. Be aware of what you are actually saying, and how you say it. Younger Scouts may believe virtually anything you say and could take it very literally. I am sometimes amazed that things I say "off the cuff" are the things that the Scouts remember.

Beware of how you pronounce your words, or you may find your Scouts picking up your bad speech habits, or worse yet, start teasing you about them. Here are a couple examples that happened to me.

I was invited for supper by a family that had two boys in the troop. As we sat around the table for the meal, I noticed the younger of the two Scouts begin to use the word "basically" a lot. In fact, he was drawing attention to the word as he used it. And he was using it a lot. It suddenly dawned on me that I had been using the word quite a bit when I talk to the Scouts. This Scout was poking fun at me! We all had a good laugh about it, but needless to say, I basically stopped using the word for awhile.

The Cougar Patrol made a career of picking up my little language quirks. I never realized that I answered the phone by saying "yellow" instead of "hello" until they started using it on me.

The troop, lead by the Cougars, once worked one of my ways of speaking into a skit during our annual Laughs For Lunch Show. It seems that I would say "not chet" instead of "not yet". All the boys involved with the "Is It Time Yet?" skit said chet instead of yet during the skit. They thought the inside joke was hilarious. I think the audience thought they had a speech impediment.

The best example of young Scouts believing everything a scoutmaster says happened to me during a troop committee meeting. During a discussion, one of the mothers stated that her son said something like, "Well the scoutmaster said it, so it must be true." Another mother chimed in that her son was the same way. "The scoutmaster said it so that must be the way it is." It was at that moment I realized the power that language has over the younger Scouts, and the power that a scoutmaster has in general.

Peter Parker's uncle said in the first of the Spiderman movies, "With great power comes great responsibility." Well, I do not know if being a scoutmaster counts as one having great power, but I do know the position comes with great responsibility. We need to think before we speak, and talk good, or basically we can expect to have the Scouts talking just like us. Whether we like it or not.

What Have You Done Today To Feel Proud?

A newer video (2006?) by the Boy Scouts of American can be found on Youtube. It is a two song music video that features Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts participating in Good Turns across America. The First video asks, "What have you done today to made you feel proud?" It is a catchy song. The second song I think you will recognize from several years ago. Watch the video, then post a comment about your thoughts.

Totin Chip

Safety first! That is the motto of Scout leaders as we take the boys into the outdoors. The BSA has plenty of rules, regulations, and guidelines to follow as we head into the woods. One guideline is for the Scouts to earn their Totin Chip card before they use pocket knives, axes, hatchets, and saws. I agree. Troop 68 has used the Totin Chip nearly since the troop started in December of 1979. We take safety seriously and so far, knock on wood, we have had very few injuries during the last three decades.

Think you know your Totin Chip safety? Check it out! Take the test at the Melrose Troop 68 site and see how you do. You will find it HERE.

Take the test and then check your answers. No cheating! Let me know what you think of it, and if you are not shy, post your score for others to beat by posting a comment to this blog. Have fun.

20,000 Visitors

This note is more for myself then anyone else. The counter hit 20,000 visitors this morning. It has only been a little over three months since hitting the 10,000 mark, which took five months to hit. Thanks everyone!

Youtube Experiment Results

Well, the Youtube Scouting Video Day experiment did not accomplish the goal of getting a Scouting video or two to the top five "views" pages on Friday, February 8th. I do appreciate everyone who participated in the project. We gave it a good run, but we just did not have the numbers needed to do it. Here is a brief summary of the results.

The views received by each of the four suggested videos varied by the hundreds. The Cub Scout commercial featuring Steve Young only received 201 hits on Friday, as near as I can tell. The Boy Scout commercial about Jim Lovel did better, receiving 367 views.

The "What Parents Say About Scouting" did better then I expected when compared to the other videos. I thought it would come in with the lowest number of views since it was the longest of the videos. It received 271 hits, seventy more then the Cub Scout video.

The "Scout Zone" received the most hits, which was something I expected. It was watched 533 times, far more then the other videos. I would guess that was because it was the first video listed, and that it was a music video which was fun to watch.

The experiment failed to get any of these videos to the front pages, but I would not call it a complete failure. Dozens, or even hundreds, of people watched these videos for the first time and may have been introduced to other Scouting videos found on Youtube. I would call that successful, wouldn't you?

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who participated in the project and spread the word to others. Maybe we can try it again next year, or maybe make this a yearly occurrence.

PS - After writing this article this morning, I took another look at the numbers around 10:00 am. Either Youtube is playing with me, or a lot of people watched the videos since 7:00 am. The numbers of views for each of the videos has gone up by the hundreds! Take a look at these numbers:
The Cub Scout Commercial (Young) - 223 more views.
The Boy Scout Commercial (Lovel) - 346 more views
What Parents Say About Scouting - 221 more views
The Scout Zone Video - 470 more views.
I think these videos have received more views in 36 hours then they normally receive in two months!

Happy Birthday & Youtube Scouting Video Day

Happy Birthday Scouting (BSA)!

Wow, has it been 98 years already? It seems like just a few years ago when that unknown Boy Scout in England helped William Boyce find his way in the fog of London. And look what the BSA has accomplished since then. Ten of millions of boys have been involved with Scouting. Hundreds of millions of hours of community service has been done around the country. And look at all the boys who earned Scoutings highest award, the rank of Eagle Scout. I ask, has there been any other youth group in the history of this great country that has accomplished as much as the Boy Scouts of America?

And to think, it all begin in the USA because of the good turn of one Boy Scout in England! It just goes to show that you never know what that daily good turn could lead to, do you?

And do not forget to watch the videos on Youtube that were listed in a previous blog entry. Let's see if we can get something shown on the front page today.

Youtube Scouting Video Day

In one of the Scouting forums, someone accused me of just trying to get a video on the front page of Youtube when I suggested that we try this "Youtube Scouting Video Day" experiment on February 8th. Before I saw the comment someone had already replied to him that that was the point. I had to chuckle to myself. That was the purpose of the experiment, but I do not think he understood the reasoning behind my idea.

The way I see it, if we can get a video or two to the Youtube front page then the chances are pretty good that more boys and parents will see it then these commercials were ever seen when they aired on local television stations at 2:00 in the morning. Besides, many of the Youtube users are teenagers. Aren't they the ones we want to know about Scouting?

So yes, I am trying to get these videos on the front page. I am trying to promote Scouting, and I need everyone's help to accomplish this. And this way of doing it does not cost any council or district a dime to have people watch it.

By the way, if I was going to try just to get a video to the front page to boost my ego, don't you think I would have suggested one of my own original videos? I am trying to promote Scouting, not myself, with this experiment.

Boy Scout Anniversary Experiment

I would like to conduct an experiment, and I am going to need your help to do it. As most of you know, February 8th is the 98th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. I would like your help to celebrate it in a unique way.

Currently, there are a few thousand videos on Youtube that feature Scouts or are about Scouting. Most of these videos never receive more then a couple hundred views, if they even get that many. Only a few have ever hit the 10.000 views mark. I do not think a Scouting video has ever made it to the daily top five pages.

There are millions of Boy Scouts in the USA, and tens of thousands of adult leaders and professionals. Add the Scouts and leaders from around the world and we have a staggering membership. Even if we get a small percentage of the Scouts and leaders with internet access to participate in this I think we could make this work.

So here is my idea. Let's make a "Youtube Scouting Video Day" on February 8th. Let's try to get as many Scouts, adult leaders, friends, and family members to watch Boy Scout videos as we are able. Let's see if we can get a video or two to appear on the Youtube front pages and really help to promote Scouting to the internet masses, or at least the Youtube viewers.

To make this the most effective I think we need to concentrate our efforts on just a few videos, but I encourage you to watch as many as your time table allows. Here are the videos I would suggest we watch:

In The Scout Zone Video (2:24)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKFnGDRaMQU
The BSA Commercial featuring Jim Lovell (0:30)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNq6WsYIAFI
A Cub Scout Commercial featuring Steve Young (0:30)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqnkjBArjUo
and finally, the "What Parents Say About Scouting" (5:52)
at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1axj3lNc0Q

This would amount to approximately ten minutes of your time if you watched all four videos, ten minutes to help promote Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting on a popular internet site. Would you be willing to spend ten minutes trying to bring Scouting videos to the light of day for one day?

So, I ask that you spread the word about "Youtube Scouting Video Day". Copy this message and send it to other Scouts and leaders. Let's see if we can't get these videos highlighted to the internet masses and promote Scouting on February 8th.