When I was a young Scout there was no better moment at Courts of Honor than being able to pin the “Mom’s” pin on my Mom.  Having earned a rank and being able to share that with Mom was a special thing.  Today the “Mom’s Pin” is called the Parent Pin, and I suppose that is a relection on the times that we live in.  Everyone must be included and in many cases Mom or Dad may not be in the picture.  When I was a Cub Scout we lived in an apartment building.  My Den was made up from the boys that lived on the 8th and 9th floors pretty much and we met in someones apartment (ours).  My Mom was our Den Mother and she had a few ladies that helped out.  It was always fun to wear our uniforms to school and then come home for Scouts, and the gang I hung out with were all great friends.  We were close as you can get and Scouting was not really a once a week activity.  We lived with each other, played, ran, and went to School with one another.  And our Parents were all friends too.
I never knew what divorce was until I got into High School, and even then it was rare.  My best friends parents divorced, but were remarried, so he still had a mom and a dad, so it all seemed “Normal” to me.  When I became a Cubmaster, I noticed at parent meetings that there was always drama about sharing time with the kids or who’s dropping off little Timmy, or “It’s my Dad’s weekend to have me, so I can’t go on the outing”.  Moving up to Boy Scouts was much the same, but at least the Scouts were older so they could just be dropped off and picked up.  But it really hits me at Courts of Honor.  When I see our Scouts that are torn between sitting with Mom or Dad, and who gets the pin?  the struggle that is forced on the 10 and half year old boy as he stands in front of the crowd and is asked to place the parent pin on …  I see the confusion in their faces and the angst of their little bodies as they turn to one parent or the other.  9 times out of 10 though.. the pin goes on Mom.
There is still something special about that pin going on Mom.  Sure Dads help and guide that young man, but at the end of the day we all just want to be able to pin that pin on Mom.
I am a product of a set of parents that celebrated their 46 wedding anniversary on Friday.  I know nothing else.  My kids know that my wife and I have been married for 19 years and that their Grandparents (all 4 of them) have been together since the beginning of time.  I enjoy the fact that I never have to see that worry, confusion, or troubled look on my two sons as they turn to pin on the “Mom’s Pin”.
To all the Mom’s out there… HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!

Have a Great Scouting Day!

The task of the leader is to get his people from where they are to where they have not been.
- Henry Kissinger

Boys join Scouting for a variety of reasons, mostly because their parents think it is a great idea, but then they come to the realization that Scouting is fun and that hanging out with their buddies on a camp out is an opportunity for fun and adventure.  And then there is the leadership part 0f Scouting.  Young men start leading.  When they are in the new Scout patrol, they are being guided and have much of their skills explained to them in the early going.  It is a Troop Guide or Assistant Scoutmaster then that is teaching and coaching them along so they get the spirit of Scouting and start to push themselves to greater adventure.  It is early on that they will grasp the passion of Scouting or not.  It is in those first couple months that the Scout will embrace the culture of the Troop and develop his attitude toward camping and the out doors.  It is during those early months that the Scout will explore new hobbies and career opportunities.  He will be introduced to new cultures and see the world, and his nation as he may have not seen them before.  He will be given challenge after challenge that will test his ability to follow and lead.  The Scout will test him self and push himself in directions that he may not be totally comfortable in, but in the end will learn and grow from the experience.  That is where the leader comes in.  The Troop Guide or the Scoutmasters need to be aware and watch for the opportunities that will challenge todays Scouts.  This is the Scouting program and why the Scout continues to come back.  I honestly believe that when we take the adventure out of Scouting, we will stop being Scouts.  I have seen to many Scouts leave the program because they feel they are not getting the most out of it.  Now, having said that, it does take the Scout to apply themself also.  I mean, you can lead a horse to water…
My son and I had this talk last night on the way home from the Lodge meeting.  We discussed the fact that there are so many Scouts out there that really “Max the Minimum”.  In other words, they set their sights on being an Eagle Scout and will do the minimum to get there.  They are not looking for adventure and are just as happy having their parents earn their Eagle for them.  they have floated through the program and got out of it exactly what they put into it.  Which is not saying a whole lot.  On the other hand, there are many Scouts that apply themselves, get involved, seek adventure.  You can see those guys.  They take advantage of the program and everything it has to offer.  They go to Philmont, Jamboree, and talk about their adventures on the last 50 miler or as a Camp Staffer.  They are the Scouts that are motivated to do more, see more, and be more.  They are not from the rich families, but know what they want and go get it!  These are the Scouts that I really love to have in the program.  There is room for everyone, that’s true, but like my son says, he would rather backpack with 5 guys that want to be there than 36 that don’t.

I recently stumbled on this article written by Theodore Roosevelt.  I am going to share it here in it’s entirety.  I wish we had a political figure, President or some one else that had the guts to write this today.  I can honestly say that I agree with the article and wish we had this attitude in America today.

 The American Boy
Published in St. Nicholas, May 1900

Of course, what we have a right to expect of the American boy is that he shall turn out to be a good American man. Now, the chances are strong that he won’t be much of a man unless he is a good deal of a boy. He must not be a coward or a weakling, a bully, a shirk, or a prig. He must work hard and play hard. He must be clean-minded and clean-lived, and able to hold his own under all circumstances and against all comers. It is only on these conditions that he will grow into the kind of American man of whom America can be really proud. There are always in life countless tendencies for good and for evil, and each succeeding generation sees some of these tendencies strengthened and some weakened; nor is it by any means always, alas! that the tendencies for evil are weakened and those for good strengthened. But during the last few decades there certainly have been some notable changes for good in boy life. The great growth in the love of athletic sports, for instance, while fraught with danger if it becomes one-sided and unhealthy, has beyond all question had an excellent effect in increased manliness. Forty or fifty years ago the writer on American morals was sure to deplore the effeminacy and luxury of young Americans who were born of rich parents. The boy who was well off then, especially in the big Eastern cities, lived too luxuriously, took to billiards as his chief innocent recreation, and felt small shame in his inability to take part in rough pastimes and field-sports. Nowadays, whatever other faults the son of rich parents may tend to develop, he is at least forced by the opinion of all his associates of his own age to bear himself well in manly exercises and to develop his body—and therefore, to a certain extent, his character—in the rough sports which call for pluck, endurance, and physical address. Of course boys who live under such fortunate conditions that they have to do either a good deal of outdoor work or a good deal of what might be called natural outdoor play do not need this athletic development.

In the Civil War the soldiers who came from the prairie and the backwoods and the rugged farms where stumps still dotted the clearings, and who had learned to ride in their infancy, to shoot as soon as they could handle a rifle, and to camp out whenever they got the chance, were better fitted for military work than any set of mere school or college athletes could possibly be. Moreover, to mis-estimate athletics is equally bad whether their importance is magnified or minimized. The Greeks were famous athletes, and as long as their athletic training had a normal place in their lives, it was a good thing. But it was a very bad thing when they kept up their athletic games while letting the stern qualities of soldiership and statesmanship sink into disuse. Some of the younger readers of this book will certainly sometime read the famous letters of the younger Pliny, a Roman who wrote, with what seems to us a curiously modern touch, in the first century of the present era. His correspondence with the Emperor Trajan is particularly interesting; and not the least noteworthy thing in it is the tone of contempt with which he speaks of the Greek athletic sports, treating them as the diversions of an unwarlike people which it was safe to encourage in order to keep the Greeks from turning into anything formidable.

So at one time the Persian kings had to forbid polo, because soldiers neglected their proper duties for the fascinations of the game. We cannot expect the best work from soldiers who have carried to an unhealthy extreme the sports and pastimes which would be healthy if indulged in with moderation, and have neglected to learn as they should the business of their profession. A soldier needs to know how to shoot and take cover and shift for himself—not to box or play foot-ball. There is, of course, always the risk of thus mistaking means for ends. Fox-hunting is a first-class sport; but one of the most absurd things in real life is to note the bated breath with which certain excellent fox-hunters, otherwise of quite healthy minds, speak of this admirable but not over-important pastime. They tend to make it almost as much of a fetish as, in the last century, the French and German nobles made the chase of the stag, when they carried hunting and game-preserving to a point which was ruinous to the national life. Fox-hunting is very good as a pastime, but it is about as poor a business as can be followed by any man of intelligence. Certain writers about it are fond of quoting the anecdote of a fox-hunter who, in the days of the English civil war, was discovered pursuing his favorite sport just before a great battle between the Cavaliers and the Puritans, and right between their lines as they came together.

These writers apparently consider it a merit in this man that when his country was in a death-grapple, instead of taking arms and hurrying to the defense of the cause he believed right, he should placidly have gone about his usual sports. Of course, in reality the chief serious use of fox-hunting is to encourage manliness and vigor, and to keep men hardy, so that at need they can show themselves fit to take part in work or strife for their native land. When a man so far confuses ends and means as to think that fox-hunting, or polo, or foot-ball, or whatever else the sport may be, is to be itself taken as the end, instead of as the mere means of preparation to do work that counts when the time arises, when the occasion calls—why, that man had better abandon sport altogether. No boy can afford to neglect his work, and with a boy work, as a rule, means study. Of course there are occasionally brilliant successes in life where the man has been worthless as a student when a boy. To take these exceptions as examples would be as unsafe as it would be to advocate blindness because some blind men have won undying honor by triumphing over their physical infirmity and accomplishing great results in the world. I am no advocate of senseless and excessive cramming in studies, but a boy should work, and should work hard, at his lessons—in the first place, for the sake of what he will learn, and in the next place, for the sake of the effect upon his own character of resolutely settling down to learn it.

Shiftlessness, slackness, indifference in studying, are almost certain to mean inability to get on in other walks of life. Of course, as a boy grows older it is a good thing if he can shape his studies in the direction toward which he has a natural bent; but whether he can do this or not, he must put his whole heart into them. I do not believe in mischief-doing in school hours, or in the kind of animal spirits that results in making bad scholars; and I believe that those boys who take part in rough, hard play outside of school will not find any need for horse-play in school. While they study they should study just as hard as they play foot-ball in a match game. It is wise to obey the homely old adage, “Work while you work; play while you play.” A boy needs both physical and moral courage. Neither can take the place of the other. When boys become men they will find out that there are some soldiers very brave in the field who have proved timid and worthless as politicians, and some politicians who show an entire readiness to take chances and assume responsibilities in civil affairs, but who lack the fighting edge when opposed to physical danger. In each case, with soldiers and politicians alike, there is but half a virtue. The possession of the courage of the soldier does not excuse the lack of courage in the statesman and, even less does the possession of the courage of the statesman excuse shrinking on the field of battle. Now, this is all just as true of boys.

A coward who will take a blow without returning it is a contemptible creature; but, after all, he is hardly as contemptible as the boy who dares not stand up for what he deems right against the sneers of his companions who are themselves wrong. Ridicule is one of the favorite weapons of wickedness, and it is sometimes incomprehensible how good and brave boys will be influenced for evil by the jeers of associates who have no one quality that calls for respect, but who affect to laugh at the very traits which ought to be peculiarly the cause for pride. There is no need to be a prig. There is no need for a boy to preach about his own good conduct and virtue. If he does he will make himself offensive and ridiculous. But there is urgent need that he should practise decency; that he should be clean and straight, honest and truthful, gentle and tender, as well as brave. If he can once get to a proper understanding of things, he will have a far more hearty contempt for the boy who has begun a course of feeble dissipation, or who is untruthful, or mean, or dishonest, or cruel, than this boy and his fellows can possibly, in return, feel for him. The very fact that the boy should be manly and able to hold his own, that he should be ashamed to submit to bullying without instant retaliation, should, in return, make him abhor any form of bullying, cruelty, or brutality. There are two delightful books, Thomas Hughes’s “Tom Brown at Rugby,” and Aldrich’s “Story of a Bad Boy,” which I hope every boy still reads; and I think American boys will always feel more in sympathy with Aldrich’s story, because there is in it none of the fagging, and the bullying which goes with fagging, the account of which, and the acceptance of which, always puzzle an American admirer of Tom Brown. There is the same contrast between two stories of Kipling’s. One, called “Captains Courageous,” describes in the liveliest way just what a boy should be and do. The hero is painted in the beginning as the spoiled, over-indulged child of wealthy parents, of a type which we do sometimes unfortunately see, and than which there exist few things more objectionable on the face of the broad earth. This boy is afterward thrown on his own resources, amid wholesome surroundings, and is forced to work hard among boys and men who are real boys and real men doing real work. The effect is invaluable. On the other hand, if one wishes to find types of boys to be avoided with utter dislike, one will find them in another story by Kipling, called “Stalky & Co.,” a story which ought never to have been written, for there is hardly a single form of meanness which it does not seem to extol, or of school mismanagement which it does not seem to applaud. Bullies do not make brave men; and boys or men of foul life cannot become good citizens, good Americans, until they change; and even after the change scars will be left on their souls. The boy can best become a good man by being a good boy—not a goody-goody boy, but just a plain good boy. I do not mean that he must love only the negative virtues; I mean he must love the positive virtues also. “Good,” in the largest sense, should include whatever is fine, straightforward, clean, brave, and manly. The best boys I know—the best men I know—are good at their studies or their business, fearless and stalwart, hated and feared by all that is wicked and depraved, incapable of submitting to wrong-doing, and equally incapable of being aught but tender to the weak and helpless. A healthy-minded boy should feel hearty contempt for the coward, and even more hearty indignation for the boy who bullies girls or small boys, or tortures animals. One prime reason for abhorring cowards is because every good boy should have it in him to thrash the objectionable boy as the need arises. Of course the effect that a thoroughly manly, thoroughly straight and upright boy can have upon the companions of his own age, and upon those who are younger, is incalculable. If he is not thoroughly manly, then they will not respect him, and his good qualities will count for but little; while, of course, if he is mean, cruel, or wicked, then his physical strength and force of mind merely make him so much the more objectionable a member of society. He cannot do good work if he is not strong and does not try with his whole heart and soul to count in any contest; and his strength will be a curse to himself and to every one else if he does not have thorough command over himself and over his own evil passions, and if he does not use his strength on the side of decency, justice, and fair dealing. In short, in life, as in a foot-ball game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard; don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard!

GO TEDDY!
Have a Great Scouting Day!

I started a new segment on the Podcast this week.. Its called BLOG ROLL!
This weeks featured blog is Scouting in the Great Outdoors By Scouter 945.  You can about it in Show #83 coming out tomorrow.
I am following this blog in particular as I want to see the prep work they do to get to Philmont.  My Troop is heading there next year, so every bit helps!
Great Blog.. Check it out!
Have a Great Scouting Day!

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I was listening to a podcast the other day, it was pretty political in nature, but the guest on the show said something that I thought was pretty interesting.
Now, I am not going to get into politics here.  This is NOT a political Blog.  I have personal feelings about politics and this is not the forum for it.  And the context of the original comment really has nothing to do with how I took and processed it in my mind.
What he said was that “a person (individual) can either be anything, or they can be nothing”.
Here is how I processed that, and by the way it is pretty much in line with what he was saying (take the politics out of it).
A person that apply’s them self, works hard, and gives 100% can be anything in this country.  I feel that is true no matter what race, creed, or demographic you find yourself in.  There are stories every day about rising from the bottom and making something out of themselves.  We see it in TV shows like the “Biggest Looser” where a person that is motivated to do better will.  They take advantage of a program that will help them, but at the end of the day.. it is their personal drive and will that makes them stay on track and find success.
We can apply that in every part of our lives.  I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth and can honestly say that I have never went without.  Why?  Because my parents and their parents were hard workers.  They believed that they had a responsibility to take care of their families.  My Dad worked multiple jobs and lots of over time so our family could have the things that we wanted.  That work ethic carried from generation to generation and I have it too.  My parents and their parents never took and hand out or asked the government for anything.  They made a comfortable life for themselves by working hard.
I have never not had a job.  When I was a teen ager, I walked dogs, mowed lawns, shoveled snow, house sat, baby sat, raked leaves, and rolled newspapers for delivery.  I joined the Army after High School to see the world and have fun.  That I did.  When I got out of the Army, I sold jeans, worked as a handyman, cut trail, repaired Mountain Bikes, and drive a Truck for UPS.  I have not had a day that I was unemployed.
I see so many young people.. and older folks alike that walk away from work and then complain that unemployment is too high.  Where I work, they hired 22 new full time employees.  All but 2 quit, when asked why they would turn away an $80,000 a year job with full benefits they said the work was to hard.
They do not have what it takes to be successful.
We can be whatever we want, if we apply ourselves.  We see it in the papers every day.. there are private companies all over our area that are screaming for employees.  And yet we have 10% unemployment.
I am compassionate, but have a hard time feeling sorry for someone that will not work.
We can be anything.. or nothing.  It is a choice.  Are there exceptions?  Sure there are.  There are people with real disabilities that can not work.  But then again, there are many people taking advantage of the system.  Fully able to work and make something out of there lives.. but they make a choice.
This has nothing to do with race, religion, or economic back ground.
Did you know that after the civil war there were two “freed slaves” that became Millionaires?  Yes it is true.. how.. they worked hard and made smart choices.  I love a good rags to riches story.. and when you break them down, it was not the lottery or a hand out that made them what they are.  It always comes down to hard work.
Now, it may seem that I am being harsh and insensitive.. and maybe I am.  But when it comes to teaching Scouts to be good men, men of Character, good citizens, and fit.  I think it is important that they all develop a strong will and work ethic.  We have programs in Scouting that can reinforce that.  But we must make it happen.
Youth leadership, the merit badge program, adventure and the list goes on.
We need to believe that our Scouts can be anything, more important.. they need to believe that they can be anything.. or they can be nothing.  Their choice.
Have a Great Scouting Day!

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Show number 80 is out and ready for your ear buds.
In this show we discuss the questions we posted in the Serve to Lead entry.  Join me as we open up the questions and talk about how they make every leader a success.
We also answer a listener email on forming Patrols and wrap up with a great discussion by Baden Powell on how we Scoutmaster need to be mindful of the example we set.
Leave feedback here.. on iTunes, or drop me an email.  You can also use the SMMVoice mail box (find that over there on your left).  I really like to hear what you think.
Have a Great Scouting Day!

You can also listen by clicking right here

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Last Night at our Troop meeting we talked about leadership, among other things.  I shared with the Scouts some questions that they need to ask themselves in the context of leadership.  Now, these questions come from a book called Serve to Lead, by James Strock.  He is an author and speaker on leadership.  I found it interesting, but I guess not to surprising that the questions that Strock asks and answers in the book are essentially principles that I learned early on as a young leader in the Army.
The point is that they set a leader on a path to do the right thing by the ones in his charge.  How does this apply to Boy Scouts?  It all applies as we should be teaching our Scouts the difference between a leader and a boss and that leadership, by design, asks the leader to be a servant to the led.
Here are the questions.  Ask yourself these:
First.  Who are you serving?  It is important for you to know those that you serve.  What are their needs?  How are they motivated?  How do they learn?  What do they like and dislike?
Second.  How can you best serve?  What is your leadership style and how do you use it?  What needs are you are meeting in your leadership?
Third.  Are you making your unique contribution?  What is the legacy you want to leave behind?  What is it about your leadership that people will remember you by?
And finally.  Are you getting better everyday?  This one I think is extremely important.  I do something everyday to better myself.  Learn something new, read, write, or find a better way to teach, coach, train the Scouts of my troop.  You must get better every day or you will not be a better leader.
Now some of that you may be thinking.. you can’t expect an 11 year patrol leader to get.  Hogwash!
They will get it because they are asking it of themselves.  The expectation of an 11 year old will not be that of a 16 year old.  Experience will play a big part in the answers they give themselves.  But planting the seeds and asking the questions will set them all on the path to effective leadership.
The cornerstone of the Scout led, youth led, boy led, whatever you wish to call it is that Scouts lead.  At every level, we need to allow them the opportunity to seek improvement, learn and develop into leaders.  Each one with his own style and way, but all finding ways to lead.
Older Scouts develop their leadership and pass it on to the younger Scouts by becoming the teachers and coaches of the Troop.  They pass on their skills and attitudes and so it goes within the Troop.  That is how the leadership culture in your troop grows.
Its pretty simple.  The leader needs to understand that he is there to serve.. not to be served.  We have no boss’s in the BSA.
So how can you best serve?  Teach them, Trust them, and let them lead!
Have a Great Scouting Day!

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Unlike the Jamboree experience, which yielded a count down to the event (which everyone seemed to love), putting together a great Troop, heading out to the East Coast for tours and a fantastic week of the greatest single Scouting event I have been to, and memories for a life time.  Wood badge has now become a big(ger) part of my life.  Not to fill a void or find more to do, but since I have been asked to participate on staff and ever since we began our staff development sessions I have learned a couple huge things about Wood Badge and Scouting.
Wood Badge is not just a course.  It is a community.  I went to Wood Badge in 2005.  A proud member of the Beaver Patrol WE1-492-1-05.  It was the first time in my Adult Scouting life that I had really stepped outside of the friendly confines of my District.  Yeah, when I was a Cubbie leader, I attended Pow Wow and had gone to resident camp with the Scouts in the Dens and Pack, but Wood Badge was different.  It was bigger in a sense.  I met Scouters from every district, every program area, and many differing skill levels and various levels of leadership.  The Beaver patrol had a Scoutmaster, an Assistant Scoutmaster, a Sea Scout Skipper, a Committee Chair, a Cubmaster, and Committee member in it.  About as diverse a group as you can get.  We gelled immediately and had a great time.  Many of the staffers of our course became good friends too.
After we finished our course and were eventually “beaded” it seemed that the patrol kept in contact and at many council, OA, and community events we seemed to bump into one another, always with laughter and the shared memories of our time together.  Jamboree became a gathering place for Wood Badgers also and the community grew for me.  Conversations would take us back to Gilwell and the time we had even if we were all courses apart and representative of all the critters that grace Gilwell Field.
Now I am a Staffer and the community continues to grow.  Friendships are rekindled and made, experiences are shared, and as our staff becomes a high performance team I am humbled by the group the I find myself a part of.
In 2010 I was awarded the Silver Beaver, an honor I am still not sure I should have, but none the less, becoming a Silver Beaver recipient launched me into another level of my Scouting life.  Now I am not equating the Silver Beaver to higher honors here, but I was recently watching the HBO series “The Pacific”.  There is a scene in the movie were SGT John Basilone is being counseled by LTC “Chesty” Puller about his notification of being awarded the Medal of Honor. Stay with me here.. I know that the Silver Beaver is NOT the Medal of Honor.. my point is coming up here real quick.  John Basilone was know to be quite the partier and had a knack for not so much getting into trouble.. but making it.  After a night of partying, Chesty Puller notified SGT Basilone that he was being awarded the Medal of Honor, an Honor that put him in the company of very few Marines, an honor that would change his life for ever.  Chesty Puller told him that he needed to start acting like it.  And that is my point.. with the honor of being selected, awarded, or recognized to be a part of such company brings with it some responsibility.. and that is to say, we need to act as if we are worthy of such an honor.  Whether that is an act of heroism that is recognized or dedicated service, the recipient should then continue to demonstrate those values that got him there.  Now this may seem a stretch, but this is my blog and in my mind, well this all works out.  What I am trying to say is this.  When I wear my uniform I have a knot on it that is generally recognized by Scouters as the highest award presented by a Council.  That little knot is symbolic of dedicated service.
When I wear my Wood Badge Beads they too are symbols of dedicated service and a willingness to go beyond “regular training” in order to make Scouting better for the youth we serve.
This community enriches my life by association.  The friends that I have through Wood Badge are some of the best people I know.  We were talking the other about the experience that is in the room when Wood Badgers gather.  It only takes a glance to notice all of the Silver Beaver recipients that gather for Wood Badge functions, this tells me that I am in great company.  This group is, and none will admit it publicly, a higher level of Scouting.  Not all have a Silver beaver around their neck, but they will.  They will because of the dedication they put into Scouting.  I am in awe of the dedicated service we as a group have.  100′s of years of collective Scouting.  Everything from Tiger leaders to Council committee folks.  Thousands of nights camping, skills taught, and miles backpacked.  They arrive at training sessions with their “Scout kits”.  Crates, boxes, too many binders to count.  Trinkets, critters, and bags upon bags of Scouting “Stuff”.  They are never shy to help, to serve, to grab your plate after meals.. and you have to fight them out of the kitchen when it comes time to do dishes.  None are shy with a gift and piece of advice.  They are great family people and they are the person that you want to have on speed dial at 2 AM when you need a hand.  They don’t know how to say farewell and just build the time in the parking lot into the meeting plan.  In short, these are my kind of people.  A fantastic community.
I suppose I have known this for some time, but then when I was invited to be on staff I finally got it.
I look forward to receiving my third bead next month.. another symbol of dedicated service to let others know that I am not ashamed to be a servant.
Expand your community.. go to Wood Badge, its never too late.  Serve on a Staff.. you are needed.
By the way.  Learn more about John Basilone.  He is a real hero and his story should be remembered.  I provided that link above to see a quick video.  It never hurts to learn about guys like that.  Another member of the greatest generation, to whom we owe a great deal.
Have a Great Scouting Day!

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We are all in Scouting for one reason or another. Some of us have been in Scouts since we were in Cub Scouts, our parents and grandparents were in Scouts and we have just grown up with the program. For others, it was an invite at a join night that fell out of the lunch box. Either way you are an active part of Scouting and that means you are making a difference in the lives of young men.

Scouting, through its many merit badges, skills, and the advancement program challenges a Scout to seek an interest or a passion. It does this in the adult volunteers also. Now, I am not suggesting that adults find an interest through a merit badge and certainly not in the advancement program, but there are opportunities for adults to seek interests and yes a passion.
Let me give you an example about a passion that I have, one that until I became a Scout leader I never really had. And that’s teaching. I love to teach Scouts to lead, to do skills, and to grow to be good men. I had been assigned to be an instructor while in the Army, but it was not really a passion. The students either got it, or they didn’t. Their success or failure was never something I concerned myself with. I did my job and presented the material, they either picked it up.. or they failed. It was pretty cut and dry. When I started teaching Scouts leadership and skills on the other hand, I realized that there was a lot more at stake with these boys. They are our future. Now, not to get overly dramatic about it, but they truly are the future and how I teach them will matter one day.
I was talking with a fellow Scoutmaster, a really great friend of mine. He shared with me a story about a Scout he had in his Troop years ago. This young man struggled with skills and never wanted to be a leader. It was a constant struggle to keep this Scout engaged and willing to participate without distraction. One day, the Scoutmaster was delivering his Scoutmaster Minute to the Troop and as he wrapped up he told the Scouts that he really loves it when he sees them in the paper or within the community doing great things. He shared that he keeps a scrapbook filled with all of the accomplishments of the Scouts. Winners of track meets, Football all stars, academic achievements, they are all in this scrapbook. He went on to tell the Scouts how proud he is of them and that he wants to continue to see this kind of stuff in the paper.
About a year went by and Scouts came and went, but the Troop was active and having a great year. One night the same Scoutmaster stood in front of the Troop to deliver his Scoutmaster minute. He held a newspaper clipping in his hand. He asked the Scouts if they remembered the talk he had last year about his scrapbook? They collectively replied that they remembered. Well, he began, I have another clipping for the scrapbook, but its not good news. He asked if they remembered that Scout that was always making trouble? Again, collectively they answered they remembered. The clipping was a tragic story about a couple crimes. The troubled Scout had robbed a few houses in the community and was convicted of burglary. He was sent to prison on a relatively short sentence, but while he was locked up he got mixed up with a group of prisoners and they beat him violently. He later passed away in the prison hospital of internal injuries. This clipping was going into the scrapbook, not as a story to celebrate the achievements of the Scouts, but as a reminder that we need to impact these young men in a positive manner. The lessons we teach them about life and living, about being a man of character, about skills and leadership will last within them. If we fail to do our part in the development of these young men there will be lasting circumstances. On the other hand if we are successful we will be able to celebrate with them.
That is a long way of telling you that we can seek a passion, mine is to teach and coach these great young men to be fine men. It drives me and makes me want to be better and gives me the drive to stay the course, even when it is frustrating and the boys don’t seem to get it. I know they will. I believe in them.
There are many opportunities to develop a passion in Scouting. Some find backpacking, some find the High Adventure bases, some find Wood Badge, some find a podcast, while others, well they just want to hang out with their son and watch him grow. Whatever it is, I would encourage you to find it and then do whatever it takes to grow it, share it, and make it a passion.
Scouting is one of my passions, as you should be well aware by now.

Have a Great Scouting Day!