From <@tcuavm.is.tcu.edu:owner-scouts-l@TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU> Tue Apr 14 23:37:12 1998 Return-Path: <@tcuavm.is.tcu.edu:owner-scouts-l@TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU> Received: from mail1.bellatlantic.net (mail1.bellatlantic.net [199.45.32.38]) by cap1.CapAccess.org (8.6.12/8.6.10) with ESMTP id XAA27141; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 23:37:12 -0400 Received: from tcuavm.is.tcu.edu (TCUAVM.IS.TCU.EDU [138.237.128.148]) by mail1.bellatlantic.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id WAA08142; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:29:07 -0500 (EST) Received: from TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU by tcuavm.is.tcu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 7014; Tue, 14 Apr 98 22:29:13 CDT Received: from TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (NJE origin LISTSERV@TCUBVM) by TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 0653; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:29:17 -0500 Received: from TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU by TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (LISTSERV release 1.8b) with NJE id 0647 for SCOUTS-L@TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:26:46 -0500 Received: from TCUBVM (NJE origin SMTP@TCUBVM) by TCUBVM.IS.TCU.EDU (LMail V1.2a/1.8a) with BSMTP id 0646; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 22:26:39 -0500 Received: from boulder.Colorado.EDU by tcubvm.is.tcu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with TCP; Tue, 14 Apr 98 22:25:03 CDT Received: from rococo.Colorado.EDU (rococo.Colorado.EDU [128.138.189.238]) by boulder.Colorado.EDU (8.8.8/8.8.7/UnixOps/Hesiod/(SDM)) with SMTP id VAA29532 for ; Tue, 14 Apr 1998 21:06:56 -0600 (MDT) Received: by rococo.Colorado.EDU (cu.generic.890828) X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.01 [en] (Win95; U) Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <353424C4.A97FE7E6@rococo.colorado.edu> Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1998 23:08:52 -0400 Reply-To: Jon Dixon Sender: Scouts-L Youth Group List From: Jon Dixon Subject: Old SM Handbook To: Multiple recipients of list SCOUTS-L Status: RO X-Status: With Chuck Bramlet's post of the Aims of Scouting from 1957, I decided to check out my grandfather's old SM Handbook from 1930. While I didn't find anything referring to this, I did find several things I thought I'd share with the group. Actually, several touch on subjects which we have discussed in the last few months. First of all, in addition to a list of "Why Boys Need Scouting" (which I don't feel like typing in), there is a list of "Why Scoutmasters Need Scouting" that I thought would be good to share: Leadership of Scouts brings many "by-products" to the Scoutmaster: 1. His own youth is renewed thru his association with youth -- the real fountain of youth sought by Ponce de Leon. 2. The outdoor life reacts constructively on his own health. 3. The "outdoor-crafts" become his own knowledge. He, too, comes to "be prepared". 4. The Scout Oath and Law clarify his own ideals. He, too, does "good turns." 5. It multiplies his influence in the lives of the troop -- his loyal friends and staunch supporters. 6. It discovers to the Scoutmaster his own hidden qualities of leadership, making of him a better "human engineer" in his business. 7. Scouting provides the rare joy of tangible evidence and consciousness of results--results too, that are built into human life. On troop size, they quote the Bylaws of the BSA (at that time) that a Troop consists of "at least one and not more than four Patrols of eight boys each." It further states that "When a Troop tends to expand, it is best to find a new Scoutmaster who will organize a second Troop." On the uniform, it says " As long as the boy is passing the Scout tests and living the Scout law he is a Scout, whether he has a uniform or not." On retention, it suggests that "A Troop losing 20% or more of its membership in a year should study the reasons why." It suggests keeping track of how long boys were in the program and what rank they were upon dropping out, as well as looking at why they decided to drop out, to look for a pattern of a problem. There are a number of other things that looked like they might be interesting, and I think I'll go back and give it a more thorough review to see what other gems of wisdom I can get from it. If anything seems to merit posting to the group, I'll do so. Jon -- Jon Dixon dixonj@colorado.edu http://sandman.colorado.edu/~dixonj/