Information, Observation, and Inspiration for Scouters
Now that school has started, many troops that scale back in the summer are in full swing again or are about to, and a new year of camping and activities is underway.
Since starting this series of articles a few months ago, I’ve been highlighting the things that the committee chair should remember to do during each month. For a reminder as we get the fall season underway, here are those things that you should be doing each month: Continue reading “Committee chair timeline: September”
We tend to think of Scouting as a perpetual program – something that’s always been there and always will, without much changing. The ideals, the oath and law, the principle of the boys running the troop are all things that seem to be carved in stone.
So how can our Scouting knowledge become obsolete in a program with so much that remains constant?
While the principles we live by don’t change, and haven’t changed in a hundred years, the way the program implements them have changed over the years, and sometimes quite dramatically. Continue reading “Is your Scouting knowledge obsolete?”
Like most readers of this blog, I’m a parent of teenagers (well, my older son turns 22 this week, so there’s just one teenager left) and as we all have come to realize in recent years, our kids and most of their friends are becoming increasingly disconnected with the natural world.
If you’re like me, your youth had a lot of outdoor time, especially when the weather was conducive to being outdoors. I walked to school twice a day (morning session, home for lunch, then back for afternoon class) until seventh grade, and even then I did a lot of walking to and from school in good weather and bad. Summers were spent outdoors and – this is not a cliché – we played with our friends, wandering what seemed like far and wide, only coming home for lunch and supper.
Today, a young person is more likely to be found indoors, regardless of weather, using some kind of screen or electronic device – cellphone, computer or tablet – to communicate with friends or play virtual games instead of heading out the door for the real thing. Continue reading “We’re in the creativity business”
Our troop has experienced a rash of Eagle Scout activity in recent months, the most recent of which was an Eagle Court of Honor on Sunday in which the 48th Eagle Scout in our troop’s 30-year history received his medal and his charge. We have two more Eagles who have completed their boards of review and are awaiting their courts of honor, another with a project completed and two more whose projects have been approved. The uptick in activity is the result of a successful recruiting drive six years ago that resulted in a dozen crossovers, almost all of whom have stayed with the troop. Successive waves of recruiting in the years that followed nearly tripled the size of our troop.
I had the privilege and honor of sitting on his board of review, and something he said during the enjoyable conversation caused me to make a connection to the true meaning of Scout. Continue reading “The true meaning of Scout”
August is almost here. Summer is flying by, fall is in sight, and with it, a ramp-up in Scouting activity.
Here are some things the committee chair needs to be on top of as we get busier: Continue reading “Committee chair timeline: August”