Scouting Christmas

Each year it gets harder and harder to find something new and exciting to share this time of year. Here is the song that I thought I would share.

Tommy the Cub Scout

Tune: Frosty

Tommy, the Cub Scout
Was a very happy boy.
With a uniform of blue and gold
And a Den that gave him joy.

Tommy, the Cub Scout
Earned his badges one by one.
He did his best and met the test.
A good citizen he's become.

He helps out other people when
He sees they need a lot.
He does his chores around the house
And feeds his dog (named Spot).

Tommy, the Cub Scout
Does his duty willingly.
Someday he'll join a Boy Scout Troop
And a fine man he will be.

--Thanks to Chuck Bramlet, ASM Troop 323, Thunderbird District, Grand Canyon Council, Phoenix, Az. and the Thunderbird District, TRC, Cub Scout Roundtable resource packet, Nov 9, 1989.

Also more songs like this can be found by clicking here.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

NSJ 2010 and Fitness

This will be my second post on this subject but it is very sensitive to me, especially since for as long as I can remember I have always struggled to keep a healthy weight. This is two fold I have a big bone structure and the fat that I do not always have the best diet. I am a carb and candy lover, which leads to me eating a lot of empty calories. I know carbs are a good thing but for me who overindulges in them it is a problem.

I weight myself tuesday evening and I ended up over the 200 lb mark, this poses a problem because my highest acceptable weight according to the chart the BSA uses for the Jamboree I cannot weight more than 195, I am hoping by this coming monday I will have reached 193 or 194, this will allow me to complete my physical sucessfully and probably get approved by Jamboree medical.

Even beyond this I plan on continuing to increase fitness level and losing weight, so this coming summer in the viriginia heat can be a sucessful and pleasant experience.

I know many scouters and even scouts struggle with their weight but I believe that if we were all truly dedicated to changing our lifestyle then we could loose the weight. This does not work for everyone but for a majority of people this will work. As staff we need to all be examples for the participants in this event. Being a example in regards to fitness is part of the Scout Oath and as leaders in the scouting movement we need to be following this to letter. Perfection is not possible but striving for perfection is.

If you are a unit leader or a youth participant then you should make sure you also maintain a high level of fitness especially since the Jamboree site is a very hot and humid place.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

Update and Merry Christmas

Dear Loyal Readers and Visitors

I just wanted to take some time to say Merry Christmas. Hope all is well for you and your family. I am spending christmas with my mom, sister, my sister's boyfriend, and his family, so I should have a excellent time.

Thank you all for being loyal readers, I know that I do not always update my blog on a regular basis or blog on a regular basis. I just wanted to let you know why I haven't been able to blog on a regular basis for a while now.

The first reason is because for the last two weeks of school after thanksgiving break I did not have a lot of time because of homework, studying, and exams. Those two weeks are especially stressful for me because I have some test anxiety issues. I ended up with all As and Bs so that was excellent.

Next I have been on vacation and trying to catch up on sleep because the college schedule does not always allow for regular sleep patterns. That is definitely a lame excuse, so I will try to avoid using that one again.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

NSJ 2010 Online Training

National Council has come out and suggested three trainings that are avialable online for jamboree staff should complete. These courses include:

1. 2010 National Scout Jamboree Staff Orientation

This orientation course was developed to help you understand your role as a staff member, learn what you need to do to prepare for your jamboree experience, and to answer commonly asked questions. With your help, this will be the best, most exciting, fun-filled, safest jamboree ever! We highly recommend you view this orientation prior to attending the jamboree. You will need to log in to your MyScouting account. Within the E-Learning section, you will find it listed under Basic Training.

2. Physical Wellness

Physical Wellness Training was developed to help prepare attendees for the 2010 National Scout Jamboree. It is appropriate for leadership in all program areas and for Boy Scout and Venturing youth. The module focuses on Mind, Body and Spirit. Learning objectives include the ability to define physical wellness; identify ways to improve the wellness of the mind, body, and spirit; describe the role self-responsibility plays in wellness; and answer questions about nutrition. Completion is noted automatically in the BSA training records database if the module is experienced online. Estimated time to complete: 40 minutes.

3. Jamboree Youth Protection Policies

Completion of the BSA’s Youth Protection Training for Volunteer Leaders is required of each jamboree adult member. You are responsible for taking this training in your local council before coming to the jamboree. This training helps prepare you to fulfill the youth protection responsibilities of your jamboree position. It contains information to enable you to identify and report suspected child abuse. It also sets forth in detail the BSA’s Youth Protection policies.

Also I personally think that in addition Adult scouters should take Hazardous Weather Training.

Youth should take the physical wellness training course which is avialable through e-learning or the Online Learning center which is avialable through a myscouting accout.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

100th Anniversary Kickoff

I missed the podcast last night, because I had a Scout function and dinner come up at the last minute. This is most unfortunate but I want to get the opinion of scouters and youth alike on how they think the audiocast went.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

Cell phones, technology and Scout

Here is a post I recently made on the 2010 National Jamboree Group. The group was debating the whether or not youth should bring cell phones to the jamboree. I personally believe we should but then again many scouts are against it. I will leave it to you to decide. Please comment and share your side of the story it is very important.

All

As a new adult leader, just became a adult leader this april, I have seen how important it is for adults to allow electronic communications between scouts to occur for several reasons.

One it allows parents to keep update to date in regards to activities and what is going on in their scouting life. For many scouts this will be the longest time they have been away from home. Think about the parents wanting to call their son but not being able to because they had to wait for a phone booth call from the scout. For me personally at the 2005 jamboree, I probably called my mom over the 18 day trip, twice. Lets just say that was not very good for my parents but it all worked out. Lets now look to the world jamboree in the United Kingdom, I called her once but e-mailed her at least three times. This was only possible because a corporate sponsor, sponsored wifi cafe's. Obviously parents want to talk to their boys. Another type campout like philmont does not really require everyone to have cell phones because they barely work anywhere anyway. So, I believe that for back country trips or trips with limited cell phone coverage then the scouts should leave the cell phone bringing to the adults for emergencies and coordinating logistics.

Next, lets talk about in Troop communications. Personally for me I check my e-nail 2 to 3 times a day on a normal day, and if I am expecting something important this will increase. A fair amount of my email is scouting related whether it is just e-mail lists, in unit communications, out of unit communications, council information and events, training, Jamboree related communication or any other scout related communication is included. So obviously for me it is important to stay connected in scouts to keep up to date on the ongoings of this organization. I believe that instead of always relying on phone calls for communication a text message or e-mail may work better. Especially text messages, more and more teens have cell phones and use them habitually. These text messages/emails could be used to keep track of scouts, sending out activity changes, sending out updates, cancellations, or rescheduling, or just keeping people informed. We as the BSA need to recognize the importance of this technology and not fight it because when we do we LOOS MEMBERS. This is not okay, we should not be loosing members just because we can't keep up in regards to technology.

I want some day the BSA to become fully digital, what I mean by this is that instead of just Professionals having access at the council office to scouting reccords, there should be a Scoutnet for Scout volunteers and youth. This should improve efficiency and reduce the amount of errors. Of course there would have to be many levels of access depending on your position or role but this different access levels would allow scouts and leaders to have the most current information about the program and the requirements. This would also allow for efficient distribution of information. It would in the long run reduce costs for councils and reduce the amount of tedious work on professional staff has to do. Also more blogs, more webcasts, more virtual meetings, and more audiocasts, would reduce the gap between the professionals and the non-pprofessionals. These are only a few of the ideas that I have for increasing the digital communications with our units and councils.

Now lets get back to the subject, one argument against youth members having cell phones is that they will be used during the wrong time or inappropriately. The only reason scouts do this, is because we as the adult leadership have not set firm guidelines on when it is appropriate and when it is not appropriate to use our cell phones. In order to solve this problem we as a teaching organization which goods back to the fundamental methods of scouting, in case you forgot maybe this would be a good chance to review, need to teach them this important skill. This skill will teach our scouts skills that they can end up using the rest of their life. We also need to ourselves learn how to use this technology in scouting. A fair amount of leaders in the program, don't know how to use it, so we also need to teach them as well. I think that a new training course about implementing technology or incorporating it into basic leader training is essential if we are to continue to gain instead of losing members.

Technology is not the enemy here, it is people who are misinformed about what technology can do for our units. This will only happen if the leaders are willing too. We are going to have to learn ourselves and then teach our scouts of to use this technology efficiently and appropriate. Or maybe we should just listen to the youth and get back to want Boy Scouts in all about.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

WSJ 2011 Bulletin

Here is a link to the official first 2011 World Jamboree Bulletin: click here.

Some of the highlights of this Bulletin include:

1. Theme: the Jamboree THeme and the three areas that will help accomplish the Jamboree theme which is "Simply Scouting"
2. BSA Contingent Emblem
3. Who Qualifies for the Jamboree: Again here are the age ranges which include Scouts and Venturers between the ages of 14 and 17 on July 27, 2011 that is, specifically those born
   between July 25, 1993, and July 27, 1997 may take part in the 22nd World Scout Jamboree. There can be no exceptions. This is a world Scouting requirement and cannot be adjusted by the BSA. Those over 18 are encouraged to apply to be members of the International Service Team.
4. Concept of the Gateway City and Reasons not to include a Tour of Sweden
5. Application Process, Fees, and refund policies
6. Site Location Basics
7. Some New swedish Terms

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08

100th Anniversary Kickoff

On December 10, 2009 the BSA has put together a online live audiocast that will include presenters such as Randall Stephenson, AT&T President, CEO and Chairman and 100th Anniversary Chair, John Gottschalk, BSA National President, Tico Perez, BSA National Commissioner, and Bob Mazzuca, Chief Scout Executive. The times for this audiocast will be:

8:00 to 8:30 Eastern
7:00 to 7:30 Central
6:00 to 6:30 Mountain
5:00 to 5:30 Pacific
4:00 to 4:30 Alaska
3:00 to 3:30 Hawaiian Islands

Another reason besides being interested in hearing about the planned activities of the 100th aniversary is to be able to be entered in a 100th Anniversary Scout Giveaway, which could include the following prizes:

• Two tickets to Gala Twenty-Ten, a very special and elegant 100th Anniversary event in Washington, D.C. on February 9, 2010. (One night's hotel stay is included.)
• A signed, limited and special edition print of Joseph Csatari's 100th Anniversary painting.
• A specially packaged, limited edition U.S. Mint commemorative coin honoring BSA's 100 years.

In order to be entered in the drawing you must register for the audiocast by 6:55 central time on December 10, 2009 and their can be only one entry per one person. TO register go to the following website: http://audiocast.scouting.org

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Assistant Den Leader Pack 69
Frontier District, Denver Area Council
NSJ '05 Youth Participant '10 Subcamp 7 Youth Staff
Eagle Scout OA Brotherhood Member
WSJ '07 '11 Philmont AA '08