Lost Generation

I try not to repost  many things but this was very good.  I viewed this in the  Leave No Trace  blog.

It  is an advertisement from AARP on prespective.

 

Lost Generation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Leave No Trace Blog -  http://leavenotracecommunity.blogspot.com 

Scouting and "That Guy"

I love the Die Hard movies. I'm a big fan of Bruce Willis.  I recently watched "Live Free or Die Hard. " (Yes, it was like the eleventh time.) In the movie there is a bit of dialogue  and being the Hero or "That Guy". I see a lot of "That Guy" in scouting today. To the female readership  "That Guy" also means "That Gal."

Here is the Quote from John McClane:

"Trust me kid, nobody wants to be that guy. [I do this] because there is nobody else to do it right now. Believe me if there was somebody else to do it, I would let them do it. There's not, so [I'm] doing it. That's what makes you that guy."

Trust me if your a scouter, you are a hero to someone. You are "that guy." Probablly a dozen or more someone's in many cases.  I doubt any of us set out to be "That Guy."  It just happened.  I know I wasn't going to be "That Guy." I was going to be  what I thought was a typical scout parent. Drop the boys off at the meeting, help him with his achievements, go to pack meetings.  A typical scout parent from 1980 is what I had planned. But the Chief Scout in Heaven had something different in mind for me.  Now those that know me, know that I'm enjoying being "that guy". It is interesting  though that some of the young boys that only see Scout leader's during meetings or scout events think that we get paid for scouting. The fact that we do this for free  makes us "that guy" even more.   

If you look back in history  at the mean and Women that  we now consider to be "That Guy" or "That Gal", they are us and we are them. Ordinary people  put in extraordinary  circumstances and they performed as Scouts and Scouters do.  Just like we learned, just as we are trained, and Just like "That Guy".

So to all the scouters out there, Thanks for all you do.

Reply: (shrugs) "What was I going to do?"

That's what makes you "that guy."

Reply: (smiling) "Yeah."

Tradition of the Ashes.

I was recently reminded of the  Tradtion of the Ashes.

For those that may not have heard of the tradition.  This was passed to me  at  my Wood Badge class. ( long live SR-923! Long Live the Beavers!)

Campfires are a tradition in Scouting. They are shared by young and old, boys and girls in nearly every nation on earth. Fire has always been important to human kind. It warms our bodies, cooks our food and brings joy to our spirit. At the dawn of mankind, fire was frightening and mysterious. Over time our species learned to control fire, carrying it from place to place. Later we learned to tame it, create it and master it. And yet, it still can harm or heal. Fire has always been a part of our survival, our religions, and our recreation. 

As we come to the close of this scouting event, I wish to share an important ceremony with you.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout of the World, used to collect some of the ashes from each Scouting event and carry them with him to the next event. He would mix the ashes of the old fire with the new one. As this tradition has spread, scouts from around the world have shared campfires and ashes with each other. Lists have been kept of the events where they have been shared. These lists form a history and a bond between us over the years and across the miles, no matter our language, culture or uniform.These ashes represent the Friendship and Scouting Spirit shared by Scouts and Guides at campfires around the world. May the joining of these remnants of past Scouting experiences with the leaping flames of new ones symbolize the unbroken chain of fellowship and dedication to a common purpose that binds the Scouts and Guides of all nations. All who keep the friendship ashes and wish to share thier ashes or event lists are welcome to step forward at this time.

The list and ashes I have tonight bring with them a long history:

As I/we add the ashes of the past to the flames tonight, may the sparks that rise remind you of all the lives that have passed this way before. They shared their fires and blazed the trail that we follow tonight.Scouters, remember that those you train now are our leaders for tomorrow.Scouts, remember to thank those who have gone before you and give of yourself to those who follow you. May the trail you blaze with your life be worthy of such rememberance.

My ashes  were given to me in a plastic film container. If you still have a 35mm Camera  or know someone who does you can save  the containers  from the film. For those of us that have gone all digital, BH Photo Video  sells packages of 5 for $1.95. (www.bhphotovideo.com).

The greatest thing about this tradition is you don't have to wait to start it.  Grab some ashes from your next  campifre and start recording your own history. When you get  to an event that has  Some of the orginal Brown Sea Island ashes, it will instantly add  1,000's of campfires to your history.

Here is one history I found on the web  with more than 4400 campfires  listed.http://www.pgcps.org/~kworth/1046/ASHES-2007f.pdf

GPS, Map reading, and forgetting how to think for yourself.

 I watch Cnet for interesting tech stories.  Today  I found a good one on utilizing a GPS to help  get around better and faster.  Here's the link to the story.

Getting lost with a GPS? Unfortunately, yes

For those that want the quick version.

Man buys Garmin Nuvi. Man takes trip. Man knows route home. Nuvi knows route home.  Man listens to Nuvi, although he knows better. Wife is mad at man for wasting her time. 

Had the man engaged his brain and not listened to the NUVI  he would not have sat in a 10 mile parking lot. Nuvi would have recalculated the trip and come up with a new best route. It also helps if you can understand the difference between shortest and fastest. The shortest route was simple the least amount of miles traveled.

Unfortunately, the author did not mention which model of Garmin Nuvi he had purchased.  The Nuvi may have spared him some skin if he bought the more expensive one with  the ability to recieve traffic updates.  Still had he only engaged his own mind  and stayed menatlly awake.  His pride would have been in tact. 

The shortcut or the right way, only you can really choose what is right for you.

The story of the Santa hat.

This year  Iwas in the mood to have more Christmas spirit. So how do I get and show more Christmas spirit? I thought to myself. I finally decided aftera trip to Party City, I must get a Santa hat.  I have seen 100 different regular red and white  Santa hats, verying from a 1.50  to propbablly $40. I saw christmass hats with springy trees, ones with antlers and lights, even  pimp styled hats.

I decide on a moderately priced hat with real faux mink trim and ball. It cost $8.00, and it was a bit different. I was happy with my purchase.  My first trip in to the real world was two weeks before Christmas.  One of the first reactions I got was you need to retire that hat, it's dirty. I politely explained that my hat was not dirty it was just trimmed with real mink cloth.  

The next  outing was to a cub adventure camp where I helped in the kitchen. While talking with another leader he asked whether I had killed the faux mink myself. I explained that no I had acquired the cloth from a real mink who knitted for a hobby.  He decided he liked his version of the story better.  I now knew I must get a better story  for my Santa Hat.  As I am a boring ole committee chair and not an exciting cubmaster   I may have to work on this more, but here it goes the  story of my christmas hat.

I was out with my son's webelos den in the East Texas Piney Woods,  the Den leader was teaching the scouts how to identified and follow animals by their tracks and scat.  One of the boy saw some tiny little tracks that no one could identify. So we looked up  the track in one of the books we took along with us. We discovered it was a semi-rare Texas Mink.  Having read how crafty these were  I started following the tracks.  Like other mink, I knew I would have to be very careful and quiet as mink are easily spooked. After what seemed like two forever's of slowly moving  down the trail and tip toeing in between twigs setup like alarms, I came upon a river bank.  Then there I saw it, the mink was leaned back against a tree knitting  what looked to be faux mink cloth.  Being careful  to stay three quarters hidden. I moved closer  until I  thought I could grab the mink.  Taking extra time  to prepare, I swiped my hand out to grab the mink but before  I could get ahold of him he slipped out of his knitted mink coat  and used my hand as a spring board to dive into the river.  I waited and waited but I never saw it come out of the river.  So I took his little knitting and the ball of mink yarn. I made the mink's knittingt into the brim of my santa hat and used the ball of yarn for  the ball on the santa hat. Unfortunately for me I tracked a brown mink instead of a white mink, so that's why my santa hat has  brown real mink cloth  trim instead of white.

The morale of this story is if your going to be different you better have a good story to go with it.

Then again maybe I should have gone with the santa pimp hat instead.

Recharter part 2

Ok so I have gone over the roster. I know where everyone is. I have talked to the current leaders and know who wants to keep on, who is going to try something new, and who is just moving on. I have talked to the pack as a whole about  recharter approaching and what the fee's are.  We have identified a person that may fill a hole we have. 

We are moving from a for profit Charter org to a non profit charter org. I talked to the DE and I think we have covered all the bases for the Charter Org swap.

We've had one scout pay his recharter already. 

I can't get into the Recharter system until after January 1, 2009. I hope everyone out there working through recharter is doing this well. 

Life Enhanced

Last spring I went to Woodbadge, I thought about my ticket items for nearly a month between weekends.  I have items that enhance me and ones that enhance the program. I'm not struggling with  my ticket items but i'm not progressing really well either.

I recently read a post from Lonestar scouter  about Scouting being Life Enhanced.  What a great  thought!  It makes a great elevator pitch,  When some asks you what is Scouting? you turn around and say scouting is life enhanced. That gets you in the door.  You now have time to talk about what you mean by Life Enhanced.  Life enhancedto me means doing things I would do anyway but with more purpose. 

When you go to the grocery store do you as the scouter or your scout really pay attention to what is going on.  Probablly not.  I know  when my wife sends me after hamburger, buns,  and milk. I go right to those items and just grab  them. But when my wife tells me figure out a dinner for tonight, My mind kicks in. First I go to the fresh foods, Vegetables and meats, to find an inspiration. If I find an inspirational meat, I head to veggies next.  Then wrap up the meal  in picking up any remaining items. That's what scouting is supposed to do for all of the scouts.  Take life from a checklist of do this , to an adventure. 

So what does this have to do with my wood badge ticket, I should have kept my ticket items to life enhancing items. So when you finally get off to the Wood badge think about  things that you do because they are your scouting job.  Then think about how you make them life enhancing. If you need to attend roundtable, be part of roundtable.  If you need to put on a pack meeting, then Put on a packmeeting that is original. Original songs, orginal skits, original cheers, etc.  If you need to do this anyway why not do it in a way that helps you grow as a scout. 

A scouter is a scout with experience. If scouting is life enhanced, then it should enhance scouters as well.