Spent the day with a bunch of Scouters in our District's Vanguard training helping them to become Trained. If you're looking for a Wood Badge Ticket Item, I highly recommend volunteering to serve on staff for a Training Course.  Not only would it benefit the yourself (aka, your Wood Badge Tickets), but it may just benefit your own son someday.

It will be officially Autumn, soon.  Which means like it or not, the Holiday Season is fast approaching. This is a great time to start some family traditions, or to continue some that you may already have.  We have some in our family that we very much enjoy. There were also some that we had started at old employers, that hopefully are continued on. One of the things that we can all do is donate a few hours or our own time to something.  I'm sure that there is something that we're interested in that we can donate time to somewhere. No matter your current situation in life, you can always give a little of yourself and I promise that you'll feel a little better and whether you call if Karma, Blessings, or whatever you will find that you will benefit from it in someway. Whether you do it yourself, with your family, a Scout Pack/Troop/Team/Crew, for a Wood Badge Ticket, whatever it is volunteering especially this year at this time of year is something that we can all do. Check out the Volunteer section of 211ut.org for opportunities in your area.

This is the type of thing that I was talking about the other day when I was talking about Eagle Scout projects. Find a project that means something to you and work on that, don't just do it because it's simple or a quick means to an end. That goes for Wood Badge Ticket items too.

I'd be willing to bet that the Eagle Scout project is probably the one thing that most Boy Scouts dread doing the most.  Check out what this young man is doing. People ask me frequently about what they can do for a project and while I don't usually have specific projects for them, I typically offer this advice. "Find something that you have an interest and a passion in.  Then do something in that area." What I don't like to see a situation where a parent is just pressuring a young man to quickly pick a project and then get it over with.  By doing so, the parents aren't teaching their son anything and they certainly aren't allowing him to apply the principles that he's learned in Scouting. Also with my position on the District Committee I hear a lot about how the Eagle Project paperwork is not usually completed properly and that it usually takes 2, 3, 4 and sometimes even more times to get it done correctly. I have a suggestion that may be a possible solution.  Someone should make it a Wood Badge ticket to create a Parental Orientation to the Eagle Project.  It doesn't have to be long or elaborate, but how powerful would it be if the Advancement Chair of your Troop Committee and the Scoutmaster were to take a few minutes and visit the parents of a young man who has just earned his Life Scout and help the parents understand their role in the entire process. Maybe a gentle reminder to Mom that this is Juniors Eagle Project.  He's the one in charge and that while Mom might mean well by make the 30 phone calls to see if she can get materials donated for the project, it's not helping Junior learn, grow and develop like the Eagle Project is intended. Sure it's still fine if Mom & Dad help, encourage and even prod Junior along the way, but always remember it's his project and he is the one that needs to earn it, not Mom. I always cringe when I hear someone at an Eagle Court of Honor joke about how Mom earned it just as much as her son did.  In my mind, that shouldn't be the case. Let your Eagle develop wings and fly.  Trust me, he will sore higher than you know.

It's nice to be back home again, but I sure love camping.  Even if it's full of bugs and dirt.  I even love it when it rains like it did this morning as we were packing up. We did stop by the East side of the lake and pick up the Boy Scout themed geocache, which was cool because I picked up a 1999 Big Event pin.  Though I doubt that I'll hold on to it, because I generally only like to collect patches and pins for events that I attended.

Tonight the Troop participated in an Honor Trail.  For many of the boys it was the first time that they had done so.  Without giving up many of the details, it was along the beachfront of the lake and I think that it was done very well. The camp staff did a great job and it was honestly the first time that the boys were reverent the entire time that I've been here (despite repeated efforts to steer the conversation to topics that I had been asked by other leaders to discuss with them). I did have a very good discussion with my own sons when we returned to our tent that evening, which was good. One of the things that I feel has been severely missing in many of the Boy Scout units that I have visited with over the last few years, is the "Duty to God" aspect.  It's there in some respects, but for it being one of the first items mentioned in the Scout Oath, it's not emphasized much in many units. To me a great Wood Badge Ticket item would be to find ways to emphasize that more in the different units.  After all having a balance of all of the difference points of the Scout Oath and Law helps the units to run best. (And for those of you wonder, Yes I do have Internet access at Camp.  We're right on the shores of Bear Lake and I have my laptop because I left directly from work and I've been checking a few work items with it.  You know me, I can't ever fully put work out of my mind sometimes.)

While the boys were in their classes today, I went out and found a few geocaches.  It's another one of those hobbies that I'm sure my wife wishes I would not have picked up, but so far I've been having fun with it. I try to be selective of the caches that I search out.  Honestly some of them are pretty disappointing to go to because there's not much in them that I'm interested in. The Division of Natural Resources in the state of Utah has caches at most of the State Parks, which are a lot of fun to go find, because they have little souvenirs in them for you to take. There is one on the East side of the lake that we're going to go find when we leave on Saturday that is Scout themed that sounds like it should be good. At least it's getting me out during my lunch hour and I'm walking/hiking when I used to just sit around, so maybe this is a good thing.

Heading up to Bear Lake to spend the next few days there.  I can't wait to get away. Then again, I'm going to be spending it with several Scouts at their Scout Camp, so we'll see how things go. I'm taking my GPS and plan to do a bit of Geocaching while I'm there and while they are in their merit badge classes, so at least I'll be able to relax.  I've also packed my fishing gear but I'm not sure that I'll be able to break away for that long. It's my son's birthday while I'm there, so at least I'll get to spend some time with him on his birthday.

At my last job, a couple of the employees attended some kind of disaster preparedness or recovery (I'm really not sure which) seminar.  Upon their return one of them knowing that I am heavily involved with Scouting said something to me about being CPR Trained and being the person in the office that knew it. I let them know that I was not CPR trained but if the company wanted to help pay for me to attend the training (it's less than $100), I'd be happy to take the time and get trained.  It's just not a requirement to be a Scout leader and it's not something that I've done yet. The reaction was kind of "Well when you get trained, let us know and we'll use you as our CPR person".  A few more times over the next several months the topic came up again, and my answer was always the same, "Help pay for it, and I'd be happy to do it".  I just wasn't going to go do it because they asked me to, at my expense so that they could claim that they had someone CPR trained in their office, seemed like that was a situation where they gained more than I did.  Of course, after being laid off and then being asked to other things at no cost, it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did. Another thing that I suggested was that the office really should get an AED device.  There wasn't one there and in my opinion, there needed to be one.  I was literally laughed at and mocked for making such a suggestion, on several occasions. Now I realize that they aren't cheap, but I also know that they save lives.  I was told that everyone working there was young and in good shape and that such a device wasn't needed and even if someone did happen to have an issue that the Fire Department was just minutes away.  After that I told my wife that if I just happened to have a heart attack while working there and died, that she should look into her legal options. So while watching the news tonight I had a huge smile on my face when I saw thisreport.  I don't know the details of the ordinance, and this company isn't located in South Jordan (they are literally only a few blocks away though), but it's good to see that some people are taking things like this seriously. And for the record, my new company does have one and I know exactly where it is located just in case it's needed.  The funny thing is it's within 20 feet of the vending machines.

We didn't get camp packed up before the rain so now we have to dry everything out before we can put it all away.  My garage is covered in wet camping gear. My son completed Silver Moccasin today also, so before we could come home from camp I had to pick him up.  He seemed to have had a great time and says that he learned a lot which is what the point was.  Now hopefully he's able to apply and use everything that he's learned.