A Great Time at S-F

I feel like the title of this post is a little repetitive.  Yet, it felt worth stating.  I spent last Saturday afternoon/night at S-F Scout Ranch for the Shawnee Lodge’s Fall Reunion.  I am a big fan of the Order of the Arrow and really missed the Fall Reunion these past five years.  I went down with three of my good friends and I don’t think I could have had a better time at camp.

We were able to see many camp staff friends and I reconnected with a number of adults who I know.  I caught up on some of the goings on that I have missed by not being in St. Louis.  We had our chapter meeting during which time elections were held.  I used to be the New Horizons Chapter Chief – and wow our chapter has come a long way!  I knew some of the people running (many of whom won 🙂 ) and met several others.

We got invited to join a troop for dinner – one of the benefits of having been around and getting know great people.  We walked from the end of the camporee field to the Camp Gamble aquatics area (for those who know, as decent distance) to see a cabin that was built by hand over the summer.  I was pretty impressed.

In the evening I attended a Brotherhood ceremony and got to walk through Camp Famous Eagle to a ceremony site on Nims Lake, one of my favorite places for ceremonies.  The ceremonial team did an amazing job!  I’ve seen a number of Brotherhood Ceremonies since I got the Brotherhood Honor, but this was far and away the best!  After the ceremony, we hung out at S-F for a while and then went to Steak-N-Shake in Farmington with a pretty big group of camp staff/OA guys, before heading back to St. Louis.

To pretty much everyone reading this post all of this probably seems like mundane details.  But it makes me smile.  I really do love S-F.  While things there and in St. Louis Scouting have changed a lot over the past few years, it still feels like home.  In fact, I realized that I had the phone number for S-F in my phone as “work,” appropriate while I worked there.  Now I think I will re-label that as home.

Visiting Camp This Summer

I went down to S-F Scout Ranch this past weekend.  I miss that place.  Tim, one of my friends who I used to work with, and I went down and stood with Paul in his cabin at Family Camp.  As I sat out on the porch each morning, I thought about how quiet, relaxing, and peaceful it can be there.

It was great to be back in camp, visiting with returning staff members, meeting new staff members, and offering assistance.  It was a Dad n Lad weekend.  I enjoy seeing how excited 8, 9, and 10 year olds can be – as well as their dads – to be down at camp, experiencing the outdoors and a lake for the first time.  Scouting has so much to offer.  I hope all of these kids have the opportunity to be a part of it.  I also hope that Scouting stays relevant and remains accessible.  There seems to be a lot that needs to be done.

Some things remain the same – the camp, the basics of the program, camp staff antics, etc.  But some things change.  Change can often be for good, but I still have some concerns for the camp (staff) this summer.  I hope that the staff has as great of a summer as I have had in the past and that the program remains as amazing, if it doesn’t become even better.

On another note, the weather down there always amazes me.  While it rained Saturday afternoon at Family Camp, we had hail and pretty bad storms at the Camp Famous Eagle water front.  It’s just down the lake, but the weather changes pretty dramatically.  Later Saturday night, there was some pretty cool lightning.  As it began to shift into a major storm though, we tried to leave Walmart in Farmington and head back to The Ranch.  A minute later, we could not see the road so we headed back to Walmart to wait out the storm.  It seemed like all of Farmington showed up to do the same thing!

11:11

It’s 11:11 and it’s time to make a wish.  Here it is: a future of happiness, health, prosperity, love, family, and friendship.

I am in an interesting place in life.  I’ve finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Denver.  Yet, I am still here.  I am here working on a Master of Business Administration degree.  I really enjoy what I am learning.  But it’s different.  Mostly good different, but in some ways, just different in that I miss the way it used to be.  I have to start looking at the rest of life.  Next year no longer implies the classes I will be taking.  Now it means the rest of my life.

My social circles are constantly evolving.  I have recently spent time with both old and new friends in Denver.  I have gotten to know so many people over the past few years that it is sometimes difficult to balance all of my friendship commitments, but I certainly try my best.  I have grown with many great people whose friendship I value strongly and with whom I hope to stay friends for a long time to come.  I have also connected/reconnected with some wonderful people this past year.  I have found people who encourage, challenge, and love me.  I have found people who share and listen and support – relationships in which I certainly reciprocate these activities/feelings.  These are people not only from Denver or the United States, but all over the world.

I also talk with many of my good friends from home (St. Louis) on a regular basis.  People who I grew up with.  People with whom I have relationships and inside jokes that sound outrageous to everyone else.  These are people who I cherish and whose support I have appreciated while not always being physically present.  I am incredibly blessed by the people in my life.

Scouting has been a huge piece of my becoming who I am.  Many of the values and skills I have learned and acquired have been developed through the Scouting program.  My summers at camp led me to some of my best experiences and best friends.  I miss camp.  I miss the experiences, the impact we had, and the friendships we built.  I hope that I can reenergize my involvement with Scouting after graduation that my future children and millions of other youth will have the same amazing experiences that I had.

I work part time on campus and collaborate with students, staff, faculty, and administrators from across campus.  I have been very fortunate in the relationships I have developed over the past five years.  I have learned a lot and grown immensely.  I am understanding the value of individuals and groups and connections between them all.  It has been awkward at times though when I’ve gone out and interacted socially with other students who I have supervised or met staff or faculty “off the clock” – especially when they think I work full time for DU.

My field of diversity/inclusion programming, training, strategy, project management, etc. is incredibly rewarding and at the forefront of social change, while remaining incredibly challenging at times.  I can see the positive impact of my work.  I was once told by a mentor to think about my work, my capabilities, and my opportunities and utilize them in shaping and creating a positive lasting legacy at the university.  I believe that I am being successful at doing that.  Hopefully, others will agree.

In the midst of this I am looking to the future: what are my options for long term employment post-graduation (June 2011)?  I am trying to do everything I can to best utilize all of my resources, network, explore opportunities at every turn.  In this process, I am trying to determine my personal worth (read: what type and quantity of compensation am I seeking) while determining my values and the weight to assign to each of them.  Among the plethora of things I am working to consider are: family, friends from home (St. Louis), friends from Denver, friends from everywhere else, job function, job duties, living location, company culture, long term impact of short term decisions, company/job prestige, opportunities for personal and professional growth, and much more.

I have had conversations recently about how to represent yourself online.  I have professional and personal profiles online, all of which offer accurate depictions of me and my life.  Nevertheless, I am constantly impressed when I find people who can write honestly about their feelings and beliefs without fear of how they might be interpreted or any potential future repercussions.  I’ve tried to be honest in sharing my feelings in this post.  I hope to challenge myself to continue to do so.

So, here’s to the future!  While the future may be uncertain, I can always reflect on where I am, where I came from, where I am going, and the people and experiences that have supported me along the way.  If you are a part of my life, thank you!  I am who I am because of you.  There is so much more to say, but who yet knows what those things will be…

In the meantime, perhaps the following song will offer some insight into this path we call life:

How the time passed away? All the trouble that we gave
And all those days we spent out by the lake
Has it all gone to waste? All the promises we made
One by one they vanish just the same

Of all the things I still remember
Summer’s never looked the same
The years go by and time just seems to fly
But the memories remain

In the middle of September we’d still play out in the rain
Nothing to lose but everything to gain
Reflecting now on how things could’ve been
It was worth it in the end

Now it all seems so clear, there’s nothing left to fear
So we made our way by finding what was real
Now the days are so long that summer’s moving on
We reach for something that’s already gone

Of all the things I still remember
Summer’s never looked the same
The years go by and time just seems to fly
But the memories remain

In the middle of September we’d still play out in the rain
Nothing to lose but everything to gain
Reflecting now on how things could’ve been
It was worth it in the end

We knew we had to leave this town
But we never knew when and we never knew how
We would end up here the way we are
Yeah we knew we had to leave this town
But we never knew when and we never knew how

Of all the things I still remember
Summer’s never looked the same
The years go by and time just seems to fly
But the memories remain

In the middle of September we’d still play out in the rain
Nothing to lose but everything to gain
Reflecting now on how things could’ve been
It was worth it in the end

 

“To Live a Life of Honor” – Why the Boy Scouts Matter

More and more it seems that we all need to be reminded of the importance of integrity, citizenship, and community.  The Boy Scouts of America understands this and embeds it in the lives of its members at a level no other organization can match.  I recently came across the article below and thought it was worth sharing.

—–

HAGELIN: Scouts’ honor counters culture

by Rebecca Hagelin – The Washington Times

Culture challenge of the week: Raising strong boys in a soft culture

Parenting boys can be tough.

From sexually provocative media, to the influence of bad-boy athletes and self-indulgent celebrities, to violent video games … the cultural undertow exerts a powerful pull in the wrong direction.

When looking for alternatives, parents like Angela and Ty, who both work full-time while raising three boys, feel overwhelmed at times. Angela observes, “Its hard to know whats going to benefit our guys in the long run … and be something they like.” Their vision is to raise boys who will become strong, godly men of character, with inquisitive spirits and service-oriented hearts and the self-discipline and drive to achieve their goals.

Thats no easy task in a culture thats gone soft: entertainment idealizes gender-bending celebrities and devalues strongly masculine traits; the social-media environment fuels teenage narcissism; and schools inflate self-esteem by pouring on unearned praise in the absence of actual achievement.

How to save your family by partnering with the Boy Scouts

So how can we raise strong sons?

As parents, we must set clear direction — and be positive examples. But we also need to find strong partners — organizations, friends and churches — to support our values, provide admirable role models, and to offer friendship and encouragement to our children.

Theres no better organizational partner for parents than the Boy Scouts of America (BSA).

A recent Gallup poll found that, while fewer young men are Boy Scouts than in years past, boys involved in scouting have higher academic achievement than non-Scouts. And as adults, former Boy Scouts out-earn their non-scouting peers.

Dig a little deeper, and its not hard to understand why.

According to recent research, Scouts are highly likely to internalize positive character traits like honesty, leadership and dependability. And boys who were Scouts are more likely than non-Scouts to resist negative peer pressure, on the one hand, and to value family life and lifelong friendships, on the other. They learn, as one BSA executive told me, “to live a life of honor.” Those qualities are indispensable not only for career success, but for family life as well.

Why does Scouting work so well? For starters, the Scouts have a hundred-year track record of building character and fitness. Though times change, human nature does not. The Scouts incorporate the latest technologies and current interests into the time-honored merit-badge system; boys learn to try new things, set goals and persevere until they accomplish them.

But the capacity for achievement, by itself, doesnt create better human beings. And heres where theBoy Scouts shine most brightly: its activities explicitly seek to instill character and virtues within the hearts of young men.

Im so grateful to the Boy Scouts for the years of support they gave my own two sons throughout their childhood and teen years. My husband and I first introduced our boys to Scouting when our oldest son was in second grade. The next year, his little brother joined the Scouts, too, and for the next 10 years, our sons lives were filled with adventure, friendship and achievement — and consistent teaching about God and His commandment to serve others.

Our two sons thrived in the Boy Scouts. They found strong role models and lifelong friends, and both of them earned the coveted rank of Eagle Scout. But even had they not decided to pursue the Eagle Scout rank, the years of Scouting would have been a blessing. I will always be grateful for the way Scouting strengthened the values we were working so hard to instill in our sons.

For parents looking for an assist in raising strong young men in a world thats gone soft, check out your local Scouting troop. Your boys will “be prepared … for life.”

• Rebecca Hagelin can be reached at rebecca@howtosaveyourfamily.com.

© Copyright 2011 The Washington Times, LLC.

 

Personal Leadership Reflection/Vision Paper

Below is a paper I recently wrote for my Essence of Enterprise class.  I was pleased with the reflection that it caused me to do, as well as with the feedback I received.  I figured I would share, in case anyone is interested.

Personal Leadership Reflection/Vision Paper

In first grade I joined an organization that would influence and shape me in every facet of my life.  At that time I had no idea that that Boy Scouts of America would become my education, serve as my passion, and form one of my largest social circles.  I progressed through the ranks, serving as every major youth leadership position, earning leadership, rank, and religious awards, and even developed a youth leadership course for the University of Scouting.  I got involved with Scouting’s national honor society, the Order of the Arrow, and worked for five years on our council’s summer camp staff.  When I received the Order’s Vigil Honor (highest national honor) in April 2006, I spent the night in the woods, alone, keeping a fire going while challenging myself to reflect on who I am and who I want to become.  Throughout all of this, one quote by the founder of the Order of the Arrow, Dr. E. Urner Goodman, stands above all other lessons and has influenced how I act, how I learn, and how I interact with others every day: “Things of the spirit are what count: brotherhood – in a day when there is too much hatred at home and abroad; cheerfulness – in a day when the pessimists have the floor and cynics are popular; service – in a day when millions are interested in getting or grasping, rather that giving” (Order of the Arrow).

I would not be where I am today without the help of countless individuals.  Whenever I see someone in a leadership position, I try to learn from him or her.  Whether the example is positive or negative, there are lessons I can learn and apply (or not apply) to my own leadership style.  Peter Senge writes in his description of the “Shifting the Burden to the Intervener” system that in some cases, it is most effective to “teach people to fish, rather than giving them fish” (Senge).  I have had mentors throughout my life who have taught me how to fish.  When I was getting involved in planning large scale events for the Boy Scouts, I met someone two years older than me and began following his path and having conversations with him about how best to interact with people who would “know what’s best” for me to do, how to lead younger Scouts, and the best ways to give instruction to volunteers who were sometimes five times my age.  I ended up taking what I learned from him and built the largest district camporee in recent history.  I subsequently worked for him at Boy Scout camp.  He now works for IBM as a Business Transformation Consultant and we have had regular conversations about how I might pursue a career in the consulting field.

Throughout high school and middle school, I was part of my synagogue’s youth group.  Most of those years were spent on the board trying to rebuild our membership base and develop creative programming.  I started getting involved in this thing called “social action.”  Our youth group regularly raised money for food pantries, supported assisted living homes, and volunteered at a youth shelter.  This was all inspired by the Jewish notion of tikun olam or “repairing the world.”  Judaism teaches that the world is not perfect so each person must work to change that reality.  Social justice has informed my volunteer and work involvement with the Boy Scouts of America, Hillel, and the Center for Multicultural Excellence.  As well, when looking for an internship this past summer, I very seriously sought out companies that understood corporate social responsibility.  Build-A-Bear Workshop certainly has that understanding.

Personal values inform professional values.  The two are truly inseparable. Our Oxford team discussed this in length when discussing Benjamin Friedman’s quote that “Economic growth not only relies upon moral impetus, it has moral consequences” (Friedman).  In order to be truly successful, one must be happy.  For me, happiness is gained through helping others.  Whether through social justice activities or personal connections, I am constantly striving to improve the world around me.  In my short lifetime, some of the best/worst examples of corporate greed have occurred.  Rather than devoting one’s life to making money for one’s self, one could make a difference in both the corporate and civil spheres.  Through such actions, it is possible to be recognized monetarily and non-monetarily, and thus gain true happiness.

As I have sought paths down which to proceed (or create), I have taken a number of personality and career tests and surveys.  I tend to be skeptical of the results as they rarely fully embody who I am.  It was with that attitude that I received the results of my Insights Analysis – yet, I have never had a more accurate synopsis of how I operate and communicate.  Due to my interpretation of its accuracy, I can actually learn about myself from my Insights profile and work to improve and become a better person and leader.

My Insights profile, lists my “Personal Position” as “Supporting Coordinator” (Insights Learning and Development).  I have often wondered if business is the best place for me to truly make a difference to people.  I enjoy making connections with people, deconstructing and understanding problems, and solving such problems.  My self-reflection did not end that night in April 2006 and clearly, I have chosen to pursue a path in business.  Through this path, I hope to blend my interests and skills and make a difference in the lives of my co-workers and the people affected by the organization in which I am employed.

I often seek out people in whom I see potential for leadership.  My “Supporting Coordinator” characteristics have been utilized in both professional and personal situations.  Four of my five years on staff at a Boy Scout summer camp were in the Business Manager position.  I missed the regular connection with the Scouts in camp that had enveloped my first year on staff so each week of the summer, I found a Scout with whom I would meet regularly to discuss the possibilities for learning and leadership that existed for him.  I might teach him about opportunities within the organization or give him advice on situations outside of Scouting.  Similarly, each summer I worked with one or more first year staff members to provide guidance, experience, and advice.  Each of these staff members subsequently ended up in manager or director positions.

In Good to Great and the Social Sectors, Jim Collins writes of his “Hedgehog Concept,” that your business must find the best of three circles: what you are deeply passionate about, what you can be the best in the world at, and what best drives your economic/resource engine (Collins).  I’d like to apply this concept to my leadership vision.  I will be someone who is passionate about what I do and who I am, who excels at tasks in which I use my talents, and who is resourceful and able to utilize my own resources to ensure success.

Yet, leadership is more than passion and hard work.  Leadership is about learning, applying, and implementing.  I do not think that I will ever be “the best leader”.  That is not said pessimistically; rather it is to imply that I may be “the best leader at any one time.”  My leadership is not a set goal or a science but a continual process that I will work to develop by learning from others and from myself.  I will seek to be the embodiment of best practices of leadership theory and leadership exercise.  Success will be gained not by some career or personal goal post being met, but by the recognition of others.  Throughout the Leading at the Edge Weekend, our group offered each member the ability to serve as a leader for a different activity.  Sometimes though, leadership occurred by offering an idea that the “leaders” or other group members had not thought of themselves.  The same scenario is true in business when lower-level employees offer ideas and advice to managers or when someone steps up while the rest of the group is struggling.

Leaders set the example.  I will be honest with myself and with others.  I will seek feedback and utilize this information for personal improvement.  Leaders are also dedicated and hard working.  I will be a servant leader utilizing a “deeper connection with [my] work” to find happiness and think beyond myself in my actions.  As such, I will embody James Autry’s “five ways of being”: authentic, vulnerable, accepting, present, and useful (Autry).  I will engage my weaknesses to transform them into strengths.  All of this is applicable and true in both personal and professional spheres.  As mentioned, I subscribe to the notion of a “whole person” (Grant).  In this case, the whole person means that who I am as a leader in business involves the same characteristics as my personal life – family, organizations, etc.

I will be remembered as someone who was knowledgeable and who cared, someone who always did his best.  I will not accept the status quo when the status quo can be improved.  In order to create progress and growth (personally and professionally), I will change the systems and frames in which we operate.  Are we asking the right questions?  Whether or not we are meeting a goal, is it the goal that we really need to meet?  By changing one’s frame of mind, it is possible to think creatively and lead others to do the same.

In addition to engaging my past experiences, I must understand where I currently am in my leadership development in order to achieve my vision.  After lengthy reflection, I believe that what follows are honest highlights of my strengths, limitations, opportunities, and threats.  Some of these characteristics have been informed by my Insights profile.

I love learning and seek professional and personal development.  I excel at understanding problems and breaking down the details to allow for effective solutions.  I work well in teams as well as by myself.  An understanding of others informs my decisions and I work to be fair and realistic in all of my interactions.  I smile, am optimistic, and keep my “feet firmly on the ground” (Insights Learning and Development).  I am organized and have excellent time management and multi-tasking skills.  Simultaneously, I sometimes get frustrated when I find the working methods of others to be unrealistic or when compromise is not seen as an option.  While I can establish great working relationships with others, I do not automatically trust others and rarely show all of my true emotions.  I sometimes seek structure more often than I should and may rely too heavily on rules or procedures.  Confidence in some of my ideas is sometimes lacking, even when I should be sharing them.

I am also a good administrator and can focus on task and people issues simultaneously.  My experiences have included business, non-profit, and higher education work.  I appreciate the importance of cultural understanding and I am often successful in shaping my worldview to be non-United States centric.  I will shortly have a master’s degree and I am often viewed as a safe and competent person to confide in or bounce ideas off of.  As I move into the world outside of education, I am well aware that my past experiences and skills are not all directly related to the fields in which I am seeking a professional position.  I have grown in the organizations in which I have been a part to be a recognized leader.  It may be a struggle to start at the bottom of the pyramid in new structures/organizations without being recognized, as I have been the past few years.  I sometimes like to have my own workspace or quiet space that may not exist in new work positions or new living situations.

I strongly believe that all of my limitations and threats can be transformed or overcome while I work to make use of my strengths and opportunities to become a better person and subsequently a better leader.  Most immediately, I am taking feedback from the Leading at the Edge weekend to become more confident in my ideas and actions and more willing to share them.  Additionally, I am joining new student organizations to learn about industries that interest me and in which I do not have professional experience.  Especially when my formal education ends, I will need to take proactive steps to ensure that I continue to develop the qualities necessary to achieve my leadership vision.

I am currently working on improving my communication of expectations for my working relationships.  I will ask specific questions during interviews to best understand the working environment and culture of potential employers.  In that I hope to have a job secured before graduation, I will continue to have similar conversations with class project teams and subsequently understanding and adjusting to the environment immediately upon starting a new job.  The effects of this new understand should be immediate and evident in my working discussions.

By the end of my first month of employment after graduation, I will seek out a mentorship with a leader in my new company.  Within whatever framework exists for such a program, I will position myself to best benefit from such a relationship.  If a mentorship program does not exist, I will approach the appropriate individual (in human resources or someone I would like to develop a relationship with directly) to create such an opportunity.  In the mentorship, I will work on understanding the company, my role and career path, and the structures and systems in place.  This will allow me to work with less restrictions (in terms of self-imposed limitations due to not understanding details of the company’s operating procedures) and progress through a career path more quickly.

During my first six months (and of course continuing into the future), I will work on developing close relationships with co-workers.  I will seek professional development opportunities to gain in depth job knowledge.  This combination will increase my comfort level with sharing new, potentially unconventional ideas and allow me to work with co-workers to support their goals.  In so doing, it is likely that I will receive reciprocal support and thus be able to become a leader in my team.  Within two to three years of progressive job experience and team support (depending on my starting position/company), I plan to achieve a promotion to a formal leadership position.

I will continuously push myself to learn and observe so that I can become a highly effective leader who supports others and myself in all that I do.  My leadership will constantly be developing and show up in who I am and how I am in both formal and informal relationships.

 

Bibliography

Autry, James A. The Servant Leader. New York: Random House, 2001.

Collins, Jim. Good to Great and the Social Sectors. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

Friedman, Benjamin. The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005.

Grant, Bob. Profiles in Leadership Joel Portman. 2 October 2010.

Insights Learning and Development. “Insights Discovery Personal Profile – Joel

Portman.” Dundee: Intergistic Solutions, 24 August 2010.

Order of the Arrow. OA History – Shawnee Lodge #51. 20 October 2010

<http://www.shawneelodge.org/History/oa/index.html&gt;.

Senge, Peter. The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learn. New York:

Doubleday, 1994.

 

Midterm Elections / Quote #20

Think about this when considering the next leader you will vote for (if the possibility even exists today):

“He who follows such a pathway in unwavering cheerful service will be seen by many others and, by inspiration, lead them.” – Allowat Sakima

The Call of the Wild

At each opening and closing campfire at summer camp, a staff member of the Ranger Program presents a poem/story of some sort and recruits for the program.  These stories are inspirational, motivational, and meaningful.  They tend to (appropriately) relate to the outdoors.  One of my favorites is “The Call of the Wild”.  This poem by Robert Service is not the same as the story by Jack London, but is nevertheless a challenge for exploration and understanding.  It is definitely worth reading and considering.

The Call of the Wild

by Robert W. Service

Have you gazed on naked grandeur
where there’s nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence?
Then for God’s sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert’s little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills,
have you galloped o’er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa?
Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild — it’s calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence,
not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies).
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map’s void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is,
can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild — it’s wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
“Done things” just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors,
heard the text that nature renders?
(You’ll never hear it in the family pew).
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things —
Then listen to the Wild — it’s calling you.

They have cradled you in custom,
they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you’re a credit to their teaching —
But can’t you hear the Wild? — it’s calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There’s a whisper on the night-wind,
there’s a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling. . .let us go.

Robert Service

Build-A-Bear at Camp

Some said it could not be done, but earlier this summer I brought a Build-A-Bear (named Feagle Bear, after Camp Famous Eagle) down to camp for the staff to enjoy.  He was to live in the staff lounge.  When I went back down to camp he was still there!  In one piece even!  I was happily surprised.

As in the picture below, Feagle Bear has apparently been joining the staff for meals.

Feagle Bear joining a few camp staff members for an informal breakfast on Sunday morning.

A Bit More On Camp (+ Pictures & Video)

Where has the summer gone?  The last week of campers leaves on Saturday and the staff will be out on Sunday (baring craziness).

We spend all year talking about and getting ready for camp and then it is over just like that.  I did not even work on staff this year and yet this feeling is still real.  So much of the time I spend with my camp friends is spent talking about the upcoming year and reminiscing about the past.  It is amazing how time flies.  I wonder what this next year will bring with so many people discussing not returning to camp…

When I was at camp last weekend, I took a decent amount of pictures. S-F is the home of many memories and friendships.  I’ve got some pretty good pictures of camp, as well as several from Lambert’s.

When I was stepping into a skit during the closing campfire last friday, I asked my friend Ray to take some pictures and he ended up taking a video of part of the Knob Lick Knickerbockers skit, a spoof on the Knob Lick Knockers skit that we do every opening campfire.  S-F Scout Ranch is in Knob Lick, Missouri.  Knob Lick Knockers is a skit about a “model patrol” and how to set up your campsite for a good week of camp.  The Knickerbockers have Jeeves.  Check it out:

There are quite a few things that may be changing for next summer.  I hope they all change for the best.  I look forward to the future.  2010 is the 100th Anniversary of Scouting.  Hopefully it will be here for another 100 years.  I look forward to doing my part to ensure its continuation as boys need to understand the value of citizenship, leadership, service, and the outdoors.

Eating lunch outside of Astronaut's Hall.

Troop 310 Reunion

This past weekend, our core group of Troop 310 got together for a reunion. It was a great time and I really enjoyed seeing everyone and reminiscing about old times and great experiences.  It is strange to think that these are the people with whom I basically grew up.  What a great group!

I didn’t realize until we were all (well, almost all of us) there that we have not been together for a long, long time – especially with parents and Scouts.  Mr. Davis told me that he doesn’t think he has seen me since my Eagle Court of Honor – that was in 2003!

I have great friends and because of my involvement with Troop 310 have met some of my best friends and have had amazing opportunities that have opened doors to experiences I could never have expected.  Our stories and inside jokes made me think of how lucky I am to be part of such a group.  As people get married and move away (How weird!  When did we become old enough for that?) I am happy to reflect on our past and know that we will all continue to be friends.

Chris, Kyle, and I trying to unswamp our rowboat during Rowing Merit Badge at summer camp (Camp Famous Eagle) in 2001 (My earliest digital pictures).

Justin, Chris, Evan, and I at our July 2010 Reunion

Josh and Stuart are Chris and my brothers. They were in our troop as well.

More pictures here.