Scouting: Leave Some Trace!

How will you be remembered when the Bicentennial of the BSA comes around in 2110?
What will the future scouts say about what we did and how we ran the scouting program?
Interesting questions?
I, for one, hope  that the scouts of the future will follow some of the same program ideas we have followed set by Lord Baden Powell's example so many years ago.
I would like to think that the future scouts will still be going on campouts in our nation's forests and will still be able to canoe and backpack, and be able to lash camp gadets and tools like we still do.
I would like to ask the readers and scout leaders to begin to mark their place in time by making a time capsule recording events and activities that we enjoy today so that those living in the future will know exactly what we did and what we enjoy doing today.
Leave Some Trace.
I think that it would be wonderful if we could travel through time and really get a first hand view of scouting in progress and be able to know what Baden Powell would say about what we are doing today and what lays ahead in the future.
The best guarantee is to leave something behind for our future scouts to look back on and in this case...Leave Some Trace.

BSA Drops the Ball on Centennial Program

The Boy Scouts of America recently announced the new "Heritage Merit Badge program," which was unrolled for the Centennial celebration and National has now placed this program on hold as the announcement was made prematurely.
Plans are still being made to release these merit badges at some point during the scouting year but a deadline has yet to be announced.
The National Council is also going to rework the Commissioner's Unit Tracking program as well as make some changes to the Scouting Community and some of the other facets on the National website.

5 Star College

Yesterday, I received my Master's Degree in Scouting by completing my second year attending
5 Star University in Delafield, WI.

5 Star University is a one day training session that will give you additional training for scouters, (specifically designed for Commissioners) and adult volunteers within the BSA program.
The event is set up with (7) 45 minute classes and a lecture/lunch included in the day's activities.
You receive you B.S. degree upon completing your first 7 classes and should you complete the next 7 classes the following yr., you will received your Master's degree in Scouting.
Doctorate degrees are available through additional course work and a thesis or project is required for your Doctorate's degree.
I had the pleasure in seeing my wife receive her Bachelor's Degree as well as two of my good friends receive their Master's Degree as well.
For leaders that wish to provide a quality program and gain further insight and information about the Boy Scouts of America program; I would encourage all to attend the 2011 5 Star University next January.
You will be glad that you did.

Walt Disney and Camp Tesomas

Walt Disney and Camp Tesomas

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Announcement, Anouncement, Anouncements

The following Leaders within the Voyageur District have been nominated for the National Scouters Hall of Fame:

Roy La Pean, who currently serves as the Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner (among other postions).
Jerry Tilton, Scouter with 73 yrs. continuous experience in all facets of scouting.
Wayne Gunville, Scoutmaster (retired).
Keith Westergaard.

Webelos Woods 2010

"It's Alive, it's alive, it's A L I V E!" to coin a phrase from Gene Wilder in "Young Frankenstein."
I am very pleased to announce that the first annual Webelos Woods event will take place this coming Sept 11, 2010, which will replace the Webelos event held two years ago at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.
This event will introduce the Webelos scouts to a sample of Boy Scout programming which will offer an insight to camping as well as allowing the Webelos scouts to work on some of their own advancement requirements as well as be able to test out their cooking skills and make their own lunch.
The event was, in 2008, an attempt to help promote the transitions program and was a successful event but the event did not happen in 2009, due to unfortunate circumstances.
This event has now evolved into Webelos Woods 2010 and has already seen several volunteers jump at the chance to make the event bigger and better than ever.
The event will be held at the Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary in Green Bay, WI, and is one of the best wildlife refuges in the country and is the perfect setting to introduce the camp environment to new scouts without leaving the city.
The event will close with a closing campfire and will recap information presented that day as well as promote the great outdoors during the new century in Scouting.

The Year of the Centennial

Tonight I listened to the BSA Centennial Kickoff program and I was pretty excited about the things to come within the BSA program and yet I was saddened to think that there would be no time to reflect back on scouting's past 100's .
I understand that we need to keep moving forward but today's scout, at least here in the U.S.A., really has a vague knowledge of Lord Baden Powell and I won't dare mention Daniel Carter Beard, Thomas Seton, or James E . West.
With the centennial coming in February; I had hoped that at least scouting supply would have brought back some of the old scouting gear for the nostalgic value for those of us that collect scouting things.
I do miss the red berets and the heavy weight patrol cook kits. I do miss the old Bobcat pins and the neckerchiefs that you could actually do something with...and yes, I do actually miss the knee socks with the garter tabs.
Anyone remember the boy scout Morse code transmitters and receivers? How about the semaphore flags? How about the Boy Scout Kodak camera that oddly enough was called a 'Brownie?" Talk about an oxymoron.
Thinking back, and it wasn't so long ago, my cub pack once had 3 dens for each rank in cub scouting and the boy scout troop once had 5 patrols.
I remember a time when your class A uniform consisted or shirt, pants, socks, shoes, belt, hat, and neckerchief and sash (for those in boy scouts).
We also had the official mess kits, first aid kits that hung on your belt, boy scout belt loop awards, flashlights, pocket advancement books, boy scout utensils, reflector ovens, and the boy scout pup tents.
We read from the Scout craft books and learned more about the outdoors from our scoutmasters.
We skinned our knees and had accidents not incidents.
So what do we have to look forward to in the next 100 years?
I will look to the next latest and greatest merit badges that will rival composit materials merit badge, watching scouts learn their knots, learning about global positioning systems and how they work, jamborees, camping, storytelling and campfire cooking.
As time marches on, I do wonder what the scouts 100 years ago would think of us?
Did they picture us in silver space aged uniforms that could have been something from the Jetson's cartoon show or something out of a Jules Verne novel? Or would they have fit in with what we do now?
Could we have fit in with them if allowed to go back in time?
One common factor with scouting is that we grow with the movement and the movement grows with us. Scouting is a living and breathing thing and this program will never die as long as we treasure the past and look to the future.