A Week of Networking

It's been a great week this week for our Road to Eagle. Wednesday's troop meeting was a parents meeting about summer camp. Wow, I had no idea how much money summer camp was going to be. Yeah, I'm thinking that I may need to be Membership committee for our troop. We need to raise money. Not that $230 is a ton of money, but I'm hoping that we can figure out some money making ideas to help offset the cost of camp. So, I've connected with the NESA committee in our council and they meet every month for a breakfast of eagles. I have this sneaky suspicion that they aren't very active. I'm hopefully going to change that. They need to be visible.

So I wasn't able to go to the parents meeting, but my wife did. I had all kinds of questions about things that the troop says they need for camp. So, using this wonderful thing called the world wide web, I went to work on some forums and in twitter to see about a few items.

Here are some of my discoveries.

Footlockers - There are many out there. But we need a lockable footlocker. I've found a few, but when I was a scout, I had a big footlocker. I'm going to have to check with our scoutmaster how big he recommends, but it seems that Walmart has a 2 pack of them for under $40! We'll see what he has to say about size and then go from there.

Rain Gear - Again, when I was a scout, we wore ponchos! I loved my poncho (Not really). So, my wonderful wife went to google and came up with a name of frogg toggs. So, back to twitter. Most everyone had good things to say about them. I did go to the outlet mall yesterday and checked out ll bean, columbia, the usual suspects. I just wish the coleman store hadn't closed. I'd still be there shopping over 24 hours later. I did find a nice rain jacket at ll bean for $25. It was a little big, so room to grow, but it was waterproof. The problem with just a jacket is that we would need pants too. So the search continues.

Hiking boots - This is a big concern of mine, since our son is growing right now like a weed. 4 inches in 6 months, and his feet seem to be following suit. I hate the idea of spending a bunch of money on hiking boots for him to be able to wear them for a month or 2. I had a great tip from Scoutmaster Shawn (He's a scouter in WI, who does podcasts, twitter, etc....) who told me that we should spend about $50, buy the boots about 3 weeks before camp, and make him break them in for 2 weeks before camp. Of course my cynical wife say to me, "but it's July! It's hot and humid here." I don't care about that, I thought it was a great idea Shawn had. While we were at the outlet mall yesterday, many stores had waterproof boots for under $50, so I'm encouraged by that.

I'm a little bummed out that Will is going to miss the next 2 troop meetings, but I'm happy for him to be going on a spring break vacation with his grandmother. I hope that sometime in the next couple of weeks that I can get together with our scoutmaster and committee to get things rolling!! I have a ton of ideas that keep me thinking constantly about our troop.

Hope you had a great week

Eagle Scout Doug

Yet another Ah So moment

I know, most people say they had an "ah ha" moment. I say "ah so". I adopted it from my grandfather.

This past week at my son's I heard he had issues tying knots. Really one knot in particular. The ever pain of a clove hitch. When I was a Scout, I struggled with this knot forever. I had many of an argument with my father about that stupid knot.

So today, my son and I sat down to work on his knot tying skills. He did a square knot perfectly. Half hitch. Double half hitch. Taut line. I made him do them over and over again. He knows them perfectly now. Then it was time. I told him that I would try it first. I had reviewed my knot guide before we went outside to work on his knots. On the first try, nailed it. I did the twist test, one that my father had done when I was a Scout and I think my whole body smiled. I showed him again how it was done. I let him struggle with it a few times. And he did. Oh how I felt like I was a child again. And then it happened. He did it perfectly. I had him practice it a few more times, without me looking over his shoulder. Then I had him show his mother, and just as he had shown me, he did it perfectly.

Today was just one tiny victory for him, but they will all add up and I am so proud of him. He was so happy to have done it as well. I told him that we would practice them again later in the week. But I have all the faith that he will be able to do it over and over again.

Eagle Scout Doug

My childhood journey to Eagle

I thought I should give you some history of where my passion comes from before this blog goes forward.

I received my Eagle Scout on November 4, 1984. I was one of 4 scouts to receive their Eagle that day. I am a second generation Eagle Scout. My father got his Eagle in 1964 just before he turned 18. I can honestly say I don't remember my Cub Scout Pack, other than my Mom was my Den Leader. I crossed over into a great Troop in Centerville, Ohio. Troop 516. This Troop is a very active Troop. We had camp outs every month, meetings every week, patrol meetings on a regular basis and an adult leader staff that was second to none. We were, and I'm sure they still are, a boy run Troop. This is the key to a great Troop, and to help mold our young men into the leaders that they become. I don't think I realized that back then, but I totally see it now. We went to Camporees, Summer Camp, Order of the Arrow activities, and Firecrafter activities. I'll talk more about Firecrafter more if there is any interest. During the holidays, our Troop was THE Troop to get our Christmas wreathes and roping from. It was one of 2 ways that we made our money to support the things that we did. We went on some great trips, including to the High Adventure Base in Ely, MN. That was a fantastic trip that I will never forget. My father wasn't a very smart adult leader and reached into a fire to move a rock that wasn't cooperating with our breakfast cooking. He'll never forget it either.

I served in many leadership roles within the Troop. I became a member of the Order of the Arrow in 1981 (I'm waiting on my former lodge to get the exact date to me). I became a brotherhood member in 1983 (I think). I was a Patrol Leader, Assistant Senior Patrol Leader, Senior Patrol Leader and more. In 1982, I took what was then called Bear Claw. I believe it is now called JLT, Junior Leader Training. I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much that I was asked to be on the staff for the next class. I was then honored to be the Senior Patrol Leader for the following Bear Claw training. Shortly after that, I received my Eagle.

1985 was a crazy year. It was the 75th Anniversary for the Boy Scouts of America. I went to my last summer camp as a scout. I served on staff at Camp Ransburg. I was Senior Patrol Leader for Troop 677 at the jamboree. After that, my scouting exposure was really limited to nothing other than my brother getting his Eagle about 8 or 9 years after I got mine.

UNTIL, 1999 when we had our first son. Within days of his birth, I couldn't wait to get him into scouting. Now let's fast forward to 2005. Our oldest son joins a Cub Scout pack. He loves it, and I don't really have a ton of interest in it. My wife steps up to the plate and takes over the Den as their Leader and does a fantastic job. Fast forward a little more to 2010, and we have committed to a Troop, the Blue and Gold Banquet is scheduled and I was asked to wear my uniform to the Banquet. I put the uniform on, and it felt weird, not a bad weird, but it felt like something that I hadn't felt in a long time and it felt great. It was a fantastic ceremony. Our new Scoutmaster did something, that even my father (the life long Scouter) hadn't seen. As the boys crossed over the bridge, they stopped half way and gave one last Cub Scout salute to their Cub Master, and then finished their walk across the bridge to their new Troop. I came home that day and started thinking about all the great things that I experienced and thought about how I want our boys (not just my own, but our Troops too) to have just as much fun and memorable experiences as I had. So I started thinking. I know, it's a scary thing. It has now been almost a month and my mind hasn't stopped going on this topic. I think this is something that I am destined to do.

I'll stop my rant now. I'll write more about what has happened in the last few weeks since then and then update as the weeks go by.

Eagle Scout Doug

Going to give this a try

Well, February 28, 2010 was a day that I will never forget in my life. It is the day that my oldest son crossed over from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. My wife gets all of the kudos for what she did with her 5 Weblos.

But what also occurred that day, was a renewing spirit inside me. My father, who is still heavily involved in Scouting flew half way across the country for the crossover ceremony. He has it. I now have it. What is it? SCOUT SPIRIT!!

I have dusted off the uniforms, books, patches, pants, hats....you get the point. I have told our Scoutmaster that I want to be involved in the Troop.

So, what I've decided is to start a blog about not only my journey back into Scouting, but about both of my son's journey on their way to being 3rd generation Eagle Scouts. I have no idea if anyone will be interested, but I'll share it anyway. Even if I find 1 person who says, "yeah, I loved when I was in Scouts", and decides to donate to Scouting. And donating doesn't always mean money. You can donate time too! That is probably a more valuable resource to Scouting than money.

Thank you to everyone who reads this. I'll try not to be boring, and I'll try to update at least once a week.

Eagle Scout Doug