News Briefs
Plan now for BSA's centennial jamboree
For an organization that turns 100 in 2010, the BSA still knows how to party.
Planned as "the best, most exciting, fun-filled, safest jamboree ever,” according to John Alline, national jamboree director, the 2010 National Scout Jamboree will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts from July 26 to Aug. 4 at Fort A.P. Hill.
Located in the rolling hills of Virginia, close to Washington, D.C., the 76,000-acre facility has set aside 3,000 acres to support a city of 18,000 tents and 3,600 patrol kitchens that will house and feed about 43,000 Scouts and leaders.
Planned activities include scuba, kayaking, rafting, sailing, archery, and shooting, as well as a merit badge midway, an American Indian village, and a re-creation of Lord Robert Baden-Powell’s original Scout camp on Brownsea Island off the southern coast of England.
Scouts and Scouters can sign up for the 2010 jamboree by going to www.myscouting.org or www.bsajamboree.org. If you don’t already have a MyScouting account, you must create one. After logging in, go to “Event Reservations” then “Jamboree” and choose the appropriate application link.
After completing an online application, pay the $10 nonrefundable processing fee with either a debit or credit card. Then print your confirmation, have it signed by your Scoutmaster, and take it to your local Scout council service center along with the required deposit. Contact your local council for the deposit amount.
Local councils will set the price for their jamboree contingents. Costs will include the jamboree fee, travel and tour expenses, meals, lodging, unit and patrol equipment, accident and illness insurance, and costs of pre-jamboree training.
Be aware that a confirmation of the application’s receipt does not guarantee a spot in a council jamboree troop. Local councils make that determination, and each council can select only a certain number of Scouts and adult leaders.
Also, log on to the BSA jamboree Web site to learn details on Boy Scout and adult leader requirements that can qualify you to join in the festivities. Expect periodic Web site updates, so check it often.
CAMP COOKING RECIPE CONTEST
Don’t miss out on the chance to share your favorite camp-cooking recipe with a million Scouting readers. Enter our Great Tastes in Camp Cooking Contest now!
Only registered BSA adult volunteers are eligible to enter.
A panel of distinguished judges will select the top entries in categories that include Entrée, Side Dish, and Dessert. You may submit up to three separate entries, but we’ll accept only one entry per category.
Winners will be awarded gift certificates from the BSA Supply Division: Grand Prize ($400), 1st Place ($300), 2nd Place ($200), and 3rd Place ($100). In addition, they’ll receive a six-quart BSA-logo Dutch Oven from Lodge Manufacturing and a copy of The Scout’s Outdoor Cookbook (Globe Pequot Press, 2008) by Christine and
Tim Conners.
To win, you must certify that your recipe is either an original or a significant adaptation of another published recipe. And you have to field-test it, too. The recipe should be cooked over a charcoal or wood fire or by using a backpacking-style gas stove.
Send your entries by mail to Great Tastes in Camp Cooking Contest, Scouting Magazine, S304, 1325 W. Walnut Hill Ln., P.O. Box 152079, Irving, TX 75015-2079. Or submit entries electronically via the entry form on the Scouting magazine Web site (www.scoutingmagazine.org).
Entries must be postmarked, or arrive at our Web site, no later than Oct. 1, 2008.
For more details about rules and procedures, go to www.scoutingmagazine.org. And check out the March-April 2009 issue of Scouting to add all the scrumptious winning dishes to your recipe book.
Sea Base Sets Inaugural Conference
If you love gorgeous scenery, tasty seafood, and warm temperatures, plan now to take part in the inaugural Boy Scout Conference at Florida National High Adventure Sea Base, Jan. 11-17, 2009.
Patterned on those offered at the Philmont Training Center in New Mexico, though minus the family programs, the scheduled agenda will feature courses that offer the fundamental tools for running an effective Boy Scout troop, staging outdoor activities, planning programs, and ensuring the boys’ advancement.
The sessions also will feature a new training course designed for Wood Badge staffs called Trainer’s EDGE and a program designed to help meld volunteers and professionals into an efficient team.
“We’re developing this course for the first time at sea base because we feel like a large number of people would enjoy the chance to skip out on their cold-weather climate and head to sunny Florida for a week as an alternative to Philmont’s summer programs,” says Joe Glasscock, associate director of the Boy Scout Division.
The $300 conference fee includes housing in a sea base dorm, though participants also can stay off-property. Look for registration materials at your local Scout council service center.
TV's Outdoor Channel features Scouting
Big high adventure thrills await Boy Scouters on the small screen.
The BSA and Boys’ Life magazine have teamed up with the Outdoor Channel to produce “Scouting for Adventure -- Presented by Boys’ Life.” An original, youth-oriented series, filmed at the BSA’s national high adventure bases and Scout camps across the United States, the cable show’s six episodes feature explorations of wilderness areas designed to depict Scouts in action.
“The Outdoor Channel offers BSA the ideal platform to introduce millions of homes
to the exciting world of Scouting,” says Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca. “By bringing our Boys’ Life to life, we aim to share the spirit of adventure that is the foundation of Scouting programs and encourage viewers to get out and experience the great outdoors.”
Cameras track Scouts as they tackle challenging outdoor activities such as coral-reef sailing and mountain trekking. How-to elements teach vital lessons on safety and team building.
“I’m most proud that the shows incorporate many of the BSA’s core values that transform young Scouts into grounded, hard-working men,” says Lloyd Bryan Adams, executive producer at the Outdoor Channel. Adams also notes that everyone on the production team has been a Scout.
For broadcast times, check your local TV listings.
Bats Boost American Legion's Top Eagle
Paul J.P. Banwart’s "practical citizenship" helped earn him a hefty chunk of scholarship change for college -- $10,000 -- as the American Legion’s 2008 Eagle Scout of the Year.
The 18-year-old Shakopee, Minn., honor student and star athlete, who belongs to Troop 218, demonstrated his passion and commitment to the environment and conservation with his Eagle Scout project in 2004.
Banwart’s project addressed public health concerns about meningitis and the West Nile virus. He constructed bat boxes to house more than 650 bats, as well as created an informational brochure and Web site.
In addition, as an Adopt-A-Park sponsor, Banwart carried out an environmental plan involving Minnesota’s Department of National Resources and the Deer Hunters Association, while enlisting and educating Cub Scouts in the planting of 300 trees to provide wildlife cover and prevent soil erosion.
Banwart will attend the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota.
The American Legion has supported Scouting since its first national convention in 1919. American Legion posts are chartered organizations for more than 2,700 Scouting units, serving more than 72,800 young people, at a cost of more than $1.7 million.
Take the first-aid survey
How much first-aid training do you think a Boy Scout and an adult leader need? Tell us by answering three quick questions at the BSA’s online resource for information on health, safety, and risk management. Log on to www.scouting.org, click on “Scouting Safely,” then access “The Latest First Aid for Wounds and CPR,” and enter via the box that contains an image of a First-Aid merit badge.
Not-so-secret service
Randy Bishop’s connection to Scouting and desire to do Good Turns for the disabled runs deep.
That’s why the BSA recently honored the 54-year-old Broomfield, Colo., resident with the 2008 Woods Services Award for "exceptional service and leadership in the field of Scouting for Youth with Disabilities."
Though born with Stickler Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that causes problems with vision, hearing, bone, and joints, Bishop joined Scouting and earned the Eagle Scout rank in 1971.
Outside of his day job as an electronic measurement specialist at Xcel Energy in Denver, Bishop works with Stickler Involved People, serving as the national treasurer for this grassroots organization of 27,000 in the United States. He serves as a liaison between district leaders, youths, parents, and community leaders.
Bishop helps coordinate two special-needs camporees each year called Champions of Challenge.
Woods Services and Residential Treatment Center in Langhorne, Penn., established the Woods Services Award in 1978 to honor service to youth through Scouting on a local and national level. The center named the award to honor the memory of Luther Wellington Lord, who served as a residential supervisor with the company for more than 23 years.
Are You Prepared for the Weather?
Planning an outdoor activity? Would you know the safest place to huddle if caught outside during a tornado? Or what is meant by the term “flash flood?” Or the size of the largest hailstone recorded in the United States?
You’ll learn all that and more from the new training course offered by the BSA’s E-Learning Management System.
First, take the eight-question Brainscan quiz to measure your overall weather savvy. Then move on to the Planning and Preparing for Hazardous Weather section, which offers in-depth information on topics such as how to prepare for and, if necessary, react to lightning, windstorms, and hurricanes, as well as tips on reading the traditional signs for weather-related situations.
You’ll also discover tips and tricks for beating the heat, or the cold, and for properly preparing yourself or your Scouts for all outdoor excursions. Also, the site will help you look ahead. Starting Jan. 1, 2009, tours must include at least one adult that has completed Planning and Preparing for Hazardous Weather training.
So join the more than 9,000 fellow Scouts and Scouters who already have completed the training.
Simply find the Weather Hazards button in the E-Learning portion of the MyScouting Web site at www.scouting.org.
Move into the den
Boy Scouts and Venturers can get a head start to den chief training online at Den Chief Fast Start Training.
Because the den chief’s job is so vital in retaining boys at all levels of Cub Scouting and during the transition to Boy Scouting, these Scouts need to learn the scope of their job and skills, including how to use and lead games, what factors contribute to an effective den meeting for Cub Scouts and Webelos Scouts, and how to work successfully with the boys and other leaders.
Boy Scouts and Venturers get all that and more when they go to http://olc.scouting.org and start absorbing the details of their new role.