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2010 was a pretty good year.

• We took a family road trip to Texas to see a niece and nephew that had moved there from Colorado. Got to see Cadillac Ranch and the Big Texan on the way there and spent a morning at the National Scouting Museum



• I finished my PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and my family (including my Mom, yay!) was able to make it to my graduation.
• Learned how to Geocache and introduced it to family, friends and the Wolf den.



• Took a family road trip around Wyoming, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We even found some geocaches along the way.



• Traded in my Tiger Den Leader role for a Cubmaster role in my son’s Cub Scout Pack.
• Took my son to the Central Wyoming Council’s Centennial Rendezvous with his cousins and Grandpa.



• Volunteered for two days at Adventure Base 100 when it came to Denver, and took the family on the day I didn’t work there.



• Attended University of Scouting for the second year, actually getting to take classes this time, since I spent the whole day in BALOO training in 2009.
• Continued my outdoor training by taking the Webelos Leader Outdoor Training and Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills combined course.
• Had a fantastic Thanksgiving with my side of the family in Wyoming.
• Had an equally great Christmas my my wife’s family at home in Colorado.



• …and now a quiet New Years at home with my wife and kids.

2011 is shaping up to be a good year too.

• I have been invited back to my hometown troop to give the sermon on Scout Sunday.
• I’m signed up for the spring Wood Badge course WE5-61-11-1
• We’re going on a family trip to San Francisco to visit my sister and her family.
• A summer full of scout camps, including Cub Scout Day Camp with our District and Cub Scout Resident Camp in Long’s Peak Council
• I signed up the whole family to go to the Philmont Training Center in July so I can take a Cubmaster Training class

While 2010 was a pretty great year, I am excited for the potential of 2011. Looking at all the plans we have it may be busy, but I am sure it will be worth it in the end. I wish each of you health and happiness for you and your families as we start off in 2011, and when we look back on it a year from now I hope we will all see it as time well spent.

Happy New Year!

Scouting stuff collects. Over the years I have collected scout stuff. Not really intentionally, but it just sort of happened. When I was a scout, there were things that I wanted to remember, or that were important enough to keep together in a box. Then I got a box of things from my Dad’s scouting journey. And a box of things from the journey of a Scouter that had a big role in my youth that had died. And then there were the things that were my Grandfather’s when he was a Scouter. Over all, it adds up to a lot of scout stuff, and a lot of that stuff is books.

Now that my son in in Cub Scouts the stuff collection has picked up again. Just before I took the Introduction To Outdoor Leader Skills (ITOLS) class last month I decided I needed to pick up the most recent Boy Scout Handbook. I had one when I was a Scout, but that was back in the days of skill awards, when belt loops weren’t just a Cub Scout thing so I figured I should see what the Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, and 1st Class requirements were these days.

I started consolidating all of this stuff into something more organized, and noticed I had quite a few Boy Scout Handbooks. So this week I put them together in one place. Many of these books have writing in them, and some are not in great shape. I doubt if they are worth much in terms of monetary value, but having a Handbook with my grandfather’s signature increases its value in my eyes, while a collector might see it differently.

Starting from the most recent edition, here’s the Boy Scout Handbooks currently in my house.

The 12th Edition (left) through the 10th Edition (right) of the Boy Scout Handbook

Then there’s more:


The 9th, 8th and 7th Editions

…and more

6th, 5th, 4th and 3rd Editions

Then I found this in a small box. I put the 1988 reprint of the first edition next to it to help distinguish some of the cover drawing.

First Edition Reprint, 1988 (left) and First Edition, 1913 (right)

As cool as it is to look through these handbooks, my favorite is still this one:

My well worn handbook

Used so much I had to add duct tape to the cover to keep it together. I had not noticed before that the 9th edition (the one I used as Scout) was the last one authored by Green Bar Bill. If you are interested in a detailed description of the changes in the Handbook over the last century, Troop 97 in Ft. Collins Colorado has a pretty good review on their website.

This was in the Calvin and Hobbes RSS feed yesterday.

I think it applies equally well to Dads and Scoutmasters.

Robert Baden-Powell. Ernest Thompson Seton. Daniel Carter Beard. James E. West. William D. Boyce. These names are all over the history of the Boy Scout movement in the United States. Councils and awards are named after these men. They are the beginning of the Boy Scouts of America. The history of Scouting has many stories, from the “beginnings” of the Scouting Movement with Sir Robert Baden Powell to the unknown scout that helped William Boyce in the fog of London that resulted in Boy Scouts being brought to the United States. Not surprisingly, when someone looks into it, not only are these stories not entirely true, but some probably didn’t happen at all.

On the recommendation of Clarke Green I picked up a copy of The Scouting Party: Pioneering and Preservation, Progressivism and Preparedness in the Making of the Boy Scouts of America by David C. Scott and Brendan Murphy.



As the 100th anniversary celebration of the Boy Scouts of America draws to a close, a look back at how this organization started has been fascinating. Even today, discussions about the latest changes in the Boy Scouts of America often result is someone stating that it isn’t what Baden Powell/Boyce/Beard/etc. intended when they started the Scouting movement, and this thoroughly researched book gives the reader a good sense of what each man’s vision was for Scouting.

Seton wanted to bring boys out of cities and modern life and teach them woodcraft and Native American customs. Beard wanted to inspire the work ethic and Americanism of the pioneers as they pushed forward under Manifest Destiny. Baden Powell wanted to teach the boys to be productive and useful men in society, with skills developed in small groups.

While The Scouting Party documents the various goals of Scouting as seen by these three juggernaut personalities, a reoccurring theme in the correspondence is the controversy over who deserved credit for Boy Scouts. Drawing from the contemporary communications between the parties, the dispute between the three is handled from the objective view of history. The Scouting Party may even be the book that Daniel Beard was hoping for when he wrote to James West late in life:

“I would like to see a real, unbiased history of the evolution and growth of the Movement itself, written by some outside party. Such a history is bound to be written sooner or later, by someone who will not be influenced by the personal claims of Ernest Thompson, Baden-Powell, or Dan Beard. This will probably be done when you and I have the grass growing over our coverlid, and when we cannot make much of a kick, so why worry?”

Fantastically researched, the references used throughout the book appeal to my need for knowing sources for the claims and conclusions put forth in the book. The quotes from contemporary sources help the reader to understand the mindset of each participant, and gain insight into the environment where the Boy Scouts of America was forged.

The roles of James West and William Boyce are also covered in The Scouting Party, as a supplement to the struggle for credit involving Beard, Seton and Baden Powell. West’s management as the Chief Scout Executive put the BSA on a solid footing as the fledgling organization gained traction in the United States. His leadership was instrumental in the early success and stability of the BSA. The role of William Boyce seems more distant, apart from his part in bringing Baden-Powell’s Scouting Movement to the U.S., he financed much of the early days of the BSA. Not to make light of anyone’s contribution to what must have been a monumental task, the dedication to helping American boys grow to be great men was substantial in all that helped create the Boy Scouts of America.

By the end of the book I felt I had gained much in understanding how all of these men, these names that permeate Scouting, all added their own personalities to the organization that has helped millions of young men in this country. I wholeheartedly recommend it for reading, and I look forward to reading some of the other titles by David C. Scott and Brendan Murphy.

If you would like more information, Clarke Green has an interview with David C. Scott on his Scoutmaster Podcast #20.

Nothing says “Boy Scout” quite like knowing your knots. And it is no wonder either; starting early in Cub Scouts there are requirements or electives related to knot tying and they continue well into Boy Scouts. Knots and lashings are one of the things that are learned in scouting but are useful later in life, just one aspect of “being prepared”.

“To tie a knot seems to be a simple thing, and yet
there are right ways and wrong ways of doing it,
and scouts ought to know the right way.”

Baden-Powell
Scouting for Boys, 1915

Admittedly I am a bit of a knot nut. Knowing the correct knot to use in different situations is useful not only when camping in the back country, but tying down a load of lumber at Home Depot. Two of my summers in high school were spent at Camp Buffalo Bill where I taught the Pioneering merit badge. There are great memories of each week taking a group of scouts, teaching the knots and lashings while we worked on a week-long project like a 15-20 ft signal tower or a trebuchet to fling water balloons across the meadow. Good times, and as they say, if you want to really learn a thing, teach it.



I’m still fascinated by knots and lashings to this day. So much so that my Mother-in-Law gave me the Ashley Book of Knots for my Christmas present last year. That book is amazing; it is the last word on anything knot or lashing related! A work of art as well as a reference book, it has illustrations on more than 2,000 different knots and includes the history and uses of each. Step by step instructions and thousands of fantastic illustrations mean there isn’t a knot out there you won’t know how to tie.

Of course, the be all end all isn’t exactly the best book for learning knots, and Scouter Mom of ScouterMom.com fame recently posted her favorite knot book for when times call for a reminder. There are lots of knot books out there, and most of them will do the job when looking to learn the knots used in scouting, but don’t forget the scout handbooks themselves have a great description of how to tie the knots used in scouting.

These days there are other ways to learn knots as well. Websites and iPhone applications add the ability to show knot tying in motion, providing another way to translate the step by step instructions. My favorite site Animated Knots by Grog.

On either the website or on the phone app the step by step instructions are shown in clear images that can explain how to tie these knots or lashings to s complete beginner or provide a reminder for a knot you don’t tie very often.

As always, if you have other suggestions for learning knots and lashings or games to help teach them to Cub or Boy Scouts feel free to add them in the comments!

Friday during my drive home after yet another den outing I was thinking about the wide variety of activities that Cub Scouts provides boys and their families. Then over the weekend I read Jeff’s post on Rocks, Hockey, Theater and Art describing the (rather busy) activities of his son’s pack during the previous weekend. I often wonder about the school conversations of our scouts when their classmates ask “What did you do after school yesterday?”

So what do Cub Scouts actually do?

There are the outdoor activities that everyone associates with Cub Scouts, like camping and hiking. These are truly important parts of the program, and things that the boys will remember for the rest of their lives. Pack camping trips or the council’s resident camp may look like chaos at times, or may not run exactly as planned, but the boys are having a blast. On our last pack campout, the entire morning after the campfire was filled with the sound of small groups of boys singing parts of the songs they had learned the night before.

Hiking trips or other day activities outside are equally important, especially in a time when so many kids are at risk for “Nature-Deficit Disorder”. That term was coined in the book “Last Child in the Woods” by Richard Louv, an excellent read!

There are the craft-type activities that often get associated with the Cub Scout program, often by those that either went through it or had to make the many trips to Michaels to run it. Den meeting activities like building a scrapbook (Tiger Achievement) or the Showman Webelos Activity Badge or many, many others have parts that are craft-type projects. These are where the Cub Scouts learn that they can create. Not just create as in “be creative and draw an elephant riding a scooter” but create as in “I have made something, something real where there was nothing before”. Many of the great parts of Cub Scouts are where the boys learn they can build things. Things that they imagine and then create with their own hands. That kind of self empowerment is the early stages of the self-assurance that is evident in the Eagle Scout as he accepts his final rank at the court of honor.

An area of activity I never really noticed (though it was there) when I was a kid is the community and civic activities. Visiting fire stations, police stations, city hall or even participating in a service project provides an understanding of citizenship and community that they just aren’t exposed to in that age group.



Sure, there may be a fire fighter that comes to school to talk about fire safety, but when you get to visit a station with a den-sized group and you see them in their bunker gear the lessons stay with you a little better. The community and government seem much more accessible and the scouts view their role in it as being an active participant instead of a bystander.

The things that aren’t often associated with Cub Scouts are activities in science, engineering, history, and other “school” type of subjects. But a quick glance at the geology field trips, the building of pinewood derby cars, or learning about Native American lore shows there is a lot of reinforcement of things that are traditionally things that are taught in the classroom.

The den outing I was referring to at the beginning of this blog post was a trip to the Little Thompson Observatory, about an hour from our neighborhood. I watched a group of 7 and 8 year old boys completely engrossed for two hours straight as they learned about stars and planets, looked through big telescopes at Moon craters and Jupiter and galaxies and globular clusters. I saw them sit on the floor and “build” a comet with dry ice, water, dirt, and a few other things. I have no doubt that any one of them will remember what makes up a comet, even if asked years from now.

All of these activities have a part in a Cub Scout pack, and in any given evening the scouts might have a chance to participate in one or two (or three!). They won’t see the long view of what they are learning, but they sure are having fun! So when a friend asks one of your scouts “What did you do yesterday?” how are they going to answer? Has you den or pack done something amazing the scout can pass on to their friend?

Today is December 7th, the 69th anniversary of the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. This was declared to be “a date that will live in infamy” by President Roosevelt in an address to Congress the next day.

During the attack more that 2,400 lives were lost and the American people were shocked by this military action and the next day the country declared war on Japan. Even today, as an honor to those who sacrificed, every December 7th is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, and the flag is flown at half-staff.



The care and display of the flag is defined in the Flag Code (Title 4, United States Code, Chapter 1)

To display the flag at half-staff is pretty self explanatory, just be sure to bring it to the top of the flag pole before posting or retrieving the flag.

The flag, when flown at half-staff, should be first hoisted to the peak for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The flag should be again raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day.

What about flags on stationary poles, like the one on my house? There isn’t a “half-staff” position. There isn’t anything specified in the flag code, but the tradition is to fly a black mourning streamer from the top of the flag pole.

I had never heard of these streamers before this year, when the American Legion came to teach flag etiquette to our Wolf den. They did a great job and the boys (and parents) learned a lot. If you need to find someone that knows their stuff when it comes to the United States Flag, you can’t go wrong with your local American Legion Post.

A Den Chief is a Boy Scout that works with a specific Cub Scout den providing assistance to the Den Leader. This assistance may be in activities, games, or even serving as a role model for the younger scouts.

I’ve been thinking about how a Cubmaster goes about recruiting Den Chiefs. We don’t currently have any in our pack, nor was I one when I was a Boy Scout, so I have little in the way of experience to draw on. We have a few different troops in our area, and I have met most of the Scoutmasters at various district events. We have talked briefly about Den Chiefs, and they are all receptive to the idea.

As I see it, there are some advantages for a Boy Scout to choose to be a Den Chief:

• It counts as a position of responsibility for rank advancement for Star, Life and Eagle
• It provides a venue to see how meeting planning is done, and to participate in the process
• It allows the scout to hone leadership skills in an environment where they have authority with the cubs, both implicit (his age) and explicit (his position).
• They get to wear the Den Chief shoulder cord (see below).
• Having a group of Cub Scouts treat you as some sort of deity must be good for your ego.

For the Den Leader, there are advantages as well:

• Having someone that can help with planning and executing den plans.
• Someone that can teach scout skills, games or songs.
• A role model for the Cub Scouts.
• Provide the Cub Scouts with better understanding of what it means to be a Boy Scout.
• Someone the cubs will know with a troop after cross-over.

If our pack is going to commit to using Den Chiefs we have to make sure we provide them with a true position of responsibility, not just as an extra set of hands. In the same vein, the scouts have to make sure they are available enough to really be trusted to get the job done.

So I would ask both the Den Chief and the Den Leader to commit to the following:

• A minimum of service commitment from September to May
• The Den Chief is included in den meeting planning sessions
• The Den Chief attends training offered at University of Scouting (or earlier)
• The Den Leader allows the Den Chief to organize and execute specific activities during each den meeting (e.g. gathering activity or games) and maintain ownership of those activities.
• The Den Chief commits to the responsibility of attending the den meetings, to the same standards expected of the pack’s adult leaders.
• As a pack, we make sure to recognize these Den Chiefs with the Service Award.

Given that we would be asking for a commitment starting in September, I would venture to guess that we should be pitching this to the troops in April/May. That means I should be talking to the PLCs sometime in March. I guess that means I should be contacting Scoutmasters soon after the new year.

Looking at the program from a theoretical standpoint it looks like it would be a great addition to any of our dens. Any experiences around Den Chiefs that you would like to share? For the Scoutmasters out there, any advice on selling the program to potential Den Chiefs when visiting a troop meeting? Am I completely off my rocker or out to lunch? Feel free to comment and add to the discussion!

The internet changes communications. This is true for most industries, and for an organization like scouting it changes things a lot. People that never meet in real life can now exchange ideas, help with challenges, or just help rekindle the scouting spirit when it starts to sputter.

There are a lot of online resources for Scouters: podcasts, blogs, websites, or people on Twitter or Facebook. I started this post by listing all of the online scouting resources that I use and the post quickly grew beyond a reasonable blog post size. As a result, I kept this to mostly Cub Scout related topics, saving the Boy Scout-centric resources for another day.

Podcasts:
Most of the (active) podcasts listed on iTunes are part of PTC Media. Not all mind you, but most. There are lots of scouting related podcasts listed on iTunes that haven’t been updated in years, so be sure you check out how recently the author has uploaded new content.

An Hour A Week by Cubmaster Chris. Titled after the well known Scouter joke that volunteering in scouts only requires “an hour a week” commitment. This podcast has a lot of information on Cub Scout programs and the challenges and stumbling blocks that Cubmasters or Den Leaders may come across during their tenure. As an added bonus, Chris seems pretty well plugged in with people at the council and national level for BSA, often covering the latest program and policy changes well before I hear about them at Roundtable.

Leader’s Campfire is a podcast co-hosted by Cubmaster Chris (see above) and Scoutmaster Steve. As you might guess this show covers things more relevant to scouting as a whole instead of just Cub Scouts. Be sure to listen to the end of the podcast, the outtakes are pretty funny.

The MISS Show is co-hosted by Miss Emily, Miss Liberty, and Miss Shannon. The podcast has a lot of great information about Cub Scouting and is presented from the perspective of mothers who volunteer in scouts. The “MISS” part of the title stands for Moms In Scouting Service. As a Cubmaster of the other gender, it is a huge help to have a resource that presents activities and issues in Cub Scouting from a point of view that I don’t always remember to include.

From the non-PTC Media side, the BSA produces an “official” podcast for Cub Scout leaders, called Cubcast. It is a well produced show with two very energetic hosts. The content was very light the first few months that I listened, but it has been getting more relevant since they started interviewing people that have helped put together some of the program planning materials. Still not many details on how to implement things, but there is some insight behind how things were put together.

Websites

www.scouting.org: The Boy Scouts of America website. It has the official word on most any topic. From the meeting resource guide to the Guide to Safe Scouting. You can find most of the forms you need on this site too.

PTC Media Forums: The same folks that spend time generating the podcasts also have a set of forums where you can post questions and read responses. There’s a lot of great material in the history, so be sure to look around.

www.scouter.com: Another set of scouting related forums on the internet. Slow moving in the Cub Scout areas sometimes but there is a cornucopia of information in the older posts. The search function is your friend.

U.S. Scouting Service Project: A large site with lots of great information on any part of Boy Scouts or Cub Scouts. Also the home to Baloo’s Bugle, an essential read for anyone planning Cub Scout activities!

Insane Scouter: I figure this is the best description of most of us. There is a vast amount of information on this site, and luckily it is well organized so you can find topics relevant to your search quickly. The founder is also on Twitter, where he posts a lot of useful links.

Weblogs
Scouter Mom: This site has awesome program ideas for any part of Cub Scouting. The posts are well organized and have enough detail that anyone can implement them in their own pack. Great site!

Scouter Adam’s Blog: Adam is a very energetic and motivated Cubmaster of a pack in Oregon. He shares his ideas and plans for his pack on this blog.

Scouter in NKY: Jeff is a scouter with a pack in Northern Kentucky (who would have guessed from the blog title, right?) and shares his experiences with Cub Scouts. I loved the idea of getting the mayor to attend a pack meeting.

Tracks Left Behind: This blog by Jimmy is great. Great information provided by a great storyteller. His post about the Cub Scout hike and the yellowjackets had me laughing so hard there were tears. Really!

Twitter and Facebook
While I am on Facebook, most of my experience interacting with scouters has been through Twitter. The comments back and forth, discussions on questions people pose all help me to understand the people behind scouting and help keep me focued on what’s important. When I’ve had a question or problem in the past, the comments from other scouters on Twitter have answered them quickly, often within minutes. I put them all together into a list, where you can find all these exteremely helpful people (link). I called it Cubmasters Anonomous since they are my virtual support group.

Looking through my RSS Reader and other searches I’ve done, there are a huge number of resources out there for any scout leader. I think I’ll save the Boy Scout-specific resources for another blog post, and include why I think a Cub Scout Leader should pay attention to those as well. International scouting has another group of sites and resources, maybe I’ll have to do a post on those too!

If you know of a must-read (or must-listen) internet source for scouting, add a comment and I’m sure there are lots of other leaders (Cub or otherwise) that would love to check it out. I sure would!