How to Grow Great Leaders

First plant seven rows of P's:

Promptness
Perserverance
Preparation
Participation
Presence
Purity
And performance

Next, plant three rows of squash:


Squash unfairness
Squash criticism
Squash indifference

Then plant seven rows of lettuce:

1. Let us delegate responsibility

2. Let us give assistance whenever necessary
3. Let us recognize the importance of pooling ideas and encourage full and free ideas and encourage full and free discussion before decisions are made.
4. Let us appreciate and respect the attitudes of other people
5. Let us encourage cooperation
6. Let us arrive in advance of scheduled meetings, with all materials needed
7. Let *us* be prepared

No garden is complete without turnips:

Turn up for meetings
Turn up with enthusiasm
Turn up with new ideas
Turn up with a smile

The harvest is one teriffic Scout Volunteer

Quote of the Week

The people I see performing best in a crisis are people who are honest forthright. They don’t hide their personalities or their weaknesses. They are genuine.

After Meeting Review

Troop 1616 After Meeting Review
March 18, 2008

No Meeting Was held due to the occurrance of Spring Break

March 25, 2008

Meeting was held and this meeting was primarily a planning meeting. We worked on determining the April Outing and the details for Scout-O-Rama. Scout-O-Rama is a recruiting and promotions event done in the community were units from all over the district come together to promote their unit to other scouts and the general public. This event is going to occur on April 26, 2008. The theme chosen for the both for this event will be that of lashings. The three lashings the Troop will be focusing on include square, diagional, and round lashings. Also their will be whipping and fusing of rope. If the Troop has time to develop the skill splicing of the rope will also be included. The senior patrol leader was not at the meeting so I do not have to rate any leaders except for myself and I am not going to say too much because it will probably be too biased. The SPL was considered excused from his duties and the reason for his absence will be noted in the log. I think that I could have done a lot better with keeping the group moving and more involved by asking not so many general questions but more specific questions towards specific questions. Do not be as general as I was being it only creates confusion, yes it is important to provide opportunities for the Troop to discuss the topic but when the Troop does not want to engage and you have to get something done then the leader needs to start realizing that he/she may have to take a more direct approach. The April outing is going to be a advancement work and Scout-O-Rama prep campout.

Picture of the Week

"And They Raised them up on Eagles Wings"

Quote of the the Week

Leadership is not about being soft or nice or purely inclusive or consensus building. The whole point is to make sure the right deicisions happen no matter how difficult or lpainful for the long term greatness of the institution and the achievement of its mission independent of consensus or popularity.

Troop 1616 Meeting

Troop 1616 After Meeting Review

There was no meeting this week for Troop 1616 due to the fact that this week is the week of spring break and most of our leadership team is unavailable to attend the meeting. Meetings should resume next week unless otherwise notified.

Yours in Scouting Service
mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

Quote of the Week

"It is not the critic that counts nor the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly...; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at his best knows the triumph of high achievement; and who at his worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevel

After Meeting Review

Boy Scout Night Meeting Review
Tuesday March 11, 2008

Well tonights meeting was week two of the quinzee building process. This will be the final week for snow/winter camping training sessions. All in all, our scouts hopefully learned a fair amount of information that will be useful for next winter. The meeting expect for opening, announcements, and closing was lead by the SPL. The JASM was able to pull various scouts aside to work on advancement issues. Also the ALyeska Trip was finalized and the tour permit was authorized. The tour permit for the trip will be filed tomorrow at the anchorage scout office.

The SPL's teaching ability and level of expertise in the topic of the night was more than adequate for the intended audience. The SPL's next step in leader training is going to be planning meetings instead of just showing up and running activities. It is going to require resources and time outside the meeting but it will be well worth the effort. During the schools spring break I plan on developing the concept of planning meetings with the SPL

Tonight I had a very good chance to sit down with a ASM and get tons of feedback in various areas of Troop operations. Here is a summary of the feedback I recieved.

1. SPL is doing a great job of leading activities and needs to be congragulated on a job well done. Second the SPL needs to start work on developing the skills necessary to plan meetings instead of just leading them. JASM will work with SPL to develop the necessary skills. Good chance for the JASM to work on developing various methods of teaaching and presenting the material.
2. Patrol Development: Need to finalize patrols within the Troop and determine when to do Patrol development activities. Patrol development activities include developing a Patrol Yell, Flag, and customs.
   
3. Troop Communications: E-mail communications is fine but need to implement once Patrol Leaders are elected a phone tree that has the PL calling his guys on a weekly basis. Also another idea is continue the weekly updates and maybe work on developing a Troop newsletter. This Troop newsletter should show what the Troop has done and what the Troop is going to do.
   

These are only a few of the major suggestions but I did not want to make the post to long and boring, so I only include a partial list.

The start time for the meeting was 19:02 and the end time was 20:55. Equating to a meeting that lasted one hour fifty-three minutes.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

Atrsonauts and Scouting Involvment

World Wide

EAGLE:
Adamson, Armstrong, Bagian, Bluford, Bowersox, Brady, Carr, Carter, Chaffee, Covey, Creighton, Duke, Eisele, Fullerton, W. Gregory, Griggs, Hoffman, Jones, Lee, Lind, Llewellyn (King's Scout, U.K.), Lovell, McCulley, O'Leary, Onizuka, Oswald, Parazynski, Reightler, Searfoss, See, Tanner, Truly, Walker

LIFE:
Anders, Basset, Brand, Bridges, Casper, Cooper, Evans, Fabian, G. Gardner, Givens, Gregory, Kregel, Low, Mattingly, McArthur, Mitchell, D. Scott, Spring, Springer, Van Hoften,
C. Williams

STAR:
Barry, Cameron, England, W. Fisher, Garriott, R. Gibson, Gordon, Grissom, Haise, Lounge, McNair, Stafford

First Class:
J. Allen, Bean, Clifford, Coats, Engle, Freeman, D. Gardner, E. Gibson, Hammond, Henize, Linnehan, Nelson, Overmyer, Schirra, Schweickart, W. Scott, Shepard, Veach, Worden

Second Class:
Bolden, Buchli, Carpenter, Cernan, Culbertson, Mullane, Parker, Pogue, Shriver, Swigert,
W. Thornton, White, Young

Tenderfoot:
Aldrin, Bursch, Hawley, Lousma, McDivitt, Michel, Schmitt, Smith

EXPLORER:
O'Connor, D. Williams

CUB SCOUT:
A. Allen, C??. Brown, Conrad, Foale (Wolf, Germany), Gernhardt, Henricks, Leestma, Lopez-Alegria, McBride, Meade, Readdy, Rominger, Shepherd, Thomas, Thuot, Wolf

RANK UNKNOWN:
C??. Brown, Bull, Clervoy, Garneau, Harris, James Voss

GIRL SCOUT:
E. Collins, Davis, A. Fisher, Helms, Jernigan, Lawrence, Seddon, Sherlock, Sullivan,
K. Thornton, Janice Voss, Weber

Moon Scouts

Astronauts and the Scouting Experience

Of the 12 American Astronauts who have walked on the Moon, 11 have been Scouts!

Apollo-Saturn 11 Date: 7/20/69 Time: 2 hr. 31 min. 40 sec.
Armstrong (Eagle), Aldrin (Tenderfoot), Collins (Non-Scout)

Apollo-Saturn 12 Date: 11/19/69 Time: 7 hr. 45 min. 18 sec.
Conrad (Cub Scout), Bean (First Class), Gordon (Star)

Apollo-Saturn 13
Lovell (Eagle), Swigert (Second Class), Haise (Star)

Apollo-Saturn 14 Date: 2/5/71 Time: 9 hr. 22 min. 31 sec.

Shepard (First Class), Mitchell (Life), Roosa (Non-Scout)

Apollo-Saturn 15 Date: 7/30/71 Time: 18 hr. 34 min. 46 sec.
Irwin (Non-Scout), Scott (Life), Worden (First Class)

Apollo-Saturn 16 Date: 4/21/72 to 4/23/72 Time: 20 hr. 14 min. 16 sec.
Duke (Second Class), Young (Second Class), Mattingly (Life)

Apollo-Saturn 17 Date: 12/11/72 to 12/13/72 Date: 22 hr. 3 min. 57 sec.
Schmitt (Tenderfoot), Cernan (Second Class), Evans (Life)

Of the 21 Astronauts who have orbited the Moon, 19 have been Scouts. Of the 214 former and present astronauts, 142 have taken part in Scouting

10 Reasons to be scouts

Top 10 Reasons Why I'm In Scouting

#10 -- My basement was empty, and needed remodeling anyway.

#9 -- I get to wear a uniform with a neat hat.

#8 -- I like the smell of calamine lotion.

#7 -- I enjoy going to the bathroom in the woods.

#6 -- I'm in it for the crafts.

#5 -- I'm allergic to house chores (Needed something to fill the void)

#4 -- I get quality time with people of all different backgrounds (Scouting is not just for nerds and geeks, yes their are athletic jocks in a our ranks but I am not going to start naming names, so you will just have to join to find out for yourself)

#3 -- It's a great way to collect coffee mugs.

#2 -- I need time to be with other adults that I can trust (Who can help me make decisions when I may not want to talk to my parents)

#1 -- It only takes an hour each week.

-- Thanks to David Pardoe

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster

What it Means to be A Scout

What is a Scout

He enjoys a hike through the woods more than he does a walk over the city streets.

He knows the stars by name and can find his way by them.

When he walks through the woods, he sees things others do not see.

He speaks softly and answers questions modestly.

He knows a braggart but does not challenge him.

His sense of honor is his only taskmaster, and his honor he guards as jealously as did the knights of old.

A Scout practices self-control, for he knows that men who master problems in the world must first master themselves.

A Scout never flinches in the face of danger. He must be alert to preserve his safety and that of others.

He desires a strong body, an alert mind, and an unconquerable spirit.

Always to "Be prepared".

-- Thanks to Charles Nusbaum

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

Troop 1616 After Meeting Review

Troop 1616 After Meeting Review
March 4, 2008

The Meet went fairly well once the Senior Patrol Leader arrived on site. The issue was so much the SPL running the meeting it is the time that the SPL arrives at the meeting is the biggest problem. Tonights focus was a campfire program and a snow shelter building activity. This snow shelter building activity is going to take several weeks to become fully developed. Here are the meeting scores for the week.

• Preparation: C, Average preparation level for the activity. Senior Patrol Leader needs to arrive on time. The JASM should have taken over the meeting sooner instead of waiting until 18:42 when the meeting was suppose to start at 18:30. JASM must not hesitate to take over when SPL is going to be late.
  
• Presentation: A, Did not lay out instructions in advance but the walk through system of explaining it, doing that step, and then repeating the process was used. This shows that the teacher understands that the intended audience needs assistance but also the teacher needs to learn to explain all directions in advance.
  
• Level of Material Gathered: C+, has a thorough understanding of the subject but is having some what of a hard time getting across the information to the scouts. Hopefully as person teaches more, the teacher will become more confident.
  
• Additional Comments: Good job at tonights meeting and way to go in understanding you position. Taking charge of the situation like the SPL did is what should occur during every meeting. Do not wait for the JASM to take over the meeting, instead as the SPL take charge and lead your Troops.

Action Items for Next Meeting

1. Deal with Summer Camp Issues
2. Deal with ALyeska Trip Issues: Need to find second trip coordinator and finalize time and schedule for activity.
3. Advancement issues with not updating boy scout handbook when appropriate. Need to talk about and explain the importance of the Boy Scout Handbook to the Troop
4. JASM needs to take a more direct role when SPL is late but otherwise should have a secondary role at the meeting.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

Picture of the Week

Eagle Court of Honor
Mark West Troop 780
Castle Rock, Colorado

Quote of the Week

Quote of the Week
The people I see performing best in a crisis are people who are honest forthright. They don’t hide their personalities or their weaknesses. They are genuine.