Newsletter for Scouting Alumni association Affiliates
alumni alive! Fall 2014
What’s Inside Director’s Message.........................2 Alumni News.........................................4 Happenings..............................................6 Program...................................................8 Profiles.......................................................10
Director’s Message “When I retired as CIA director in 1993, I was approached about joining the board of the National Capital Area Council. When people asked why I had been inactive for so long, I replied simply, ‘Because no one asked me to help.’ ” —Dr. Robert M. Gates, president of the Boy Scouts of America, 2014
I was talking with some new acquaintances at a recent social gathering, and the subject turned to Scouting. Many of the individuals had participated in Scouting as youth and were quick to share their fond memories. (For some reason, the rainy campout they attended was high on their list. Probably because they survived!) And then they asked this question, “How is Scouting doing?” Our Scouting alumni can be our greatest advocates, but we must continue to tell them the Scouting story and keep them engaged past their time as a youth participant or adult volunteer. There are simply too many competing interests for their time and attention.
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The Scouting Alumni Association is the vehicle for us to remind our alumni of Scouting’s impact in their lives—which for the vast majority of our participants is life changing. In doing so, we plant the seeds for continual support of the program. So go tell the Scouting story, invite your Scouting friends and associates to become Hikers or Pathfinders in the SAA at BSAalumni.org, and remember—Once a Scout, Always a Scout.
Ryan Larson Associate Director, Scouting Alumni Association
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alumni news New Tagline Clarifies the Scouting Alumni Association’s Focus “What’s in a name?” Shakespeare’s Juliet mused. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” The same thing can’t be said for taglines, slogans, and other descriptors, however; they help define the organizations they describe. That’s why the Scouting Alumni Association (SAA) adopted a new tagline, “Once a Scout, Always a Scout,” in May. Unlike the old tagline (“Proud Past. Bright Future,” in case you’ve forgotten), the new tagline emphasizes the continuity of the journey from Scout, Scout leader, or Scouting supporter to a Scouting alum. “It drives home the idea that once you say the Oath and Law—or simply are exposed to the Oath and Law—you’re a Scouting alum,” says Ryan Larson, associate director of the SAA. “The ‘20-year gap’ of involvement is no longer an acceptable business practice in the BSA.” That gap is the one that often occurs between the end of a person’s youth involvement in Scouting and the time when he or she may return to the program as the parent of a Scout. During that gap, people may attend college, serve in the military, settle down, start families, and often serve in a variety of organizations. “We have done a good job making folks successful and contributing members for every other organization and nonprofit out there,” Larson says. “Yet, we haven’t done well at maintaining their relationship with the BSA after their youth involvement.” Now, Larson says, the organization is developing avenues for alumni of all ages to give back to Scouting or to help spread the word about Scouting. After all—Once a Scout, Always a Scout.
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Boy Scouts of America Alumnus of the Year Pin – Bronze Medal with Blue Enamel
New Award Honors Outstanding Local Alumni Three years after creating the Boy Scouts of America National Alumnus of the Year Award, the Scouting Alumni Association has introduced a companion award for alumni who are making a difference at the local level. According to Rick Bragga, national SAA committee member, the new Boy Scouts of America Council Alumnus of the Year Award recognizes alumni who have used Scouting skills and values to make significant and long-lasting contributions to their local communities through their careers, avocations, and Scouting. “We’re not just recognizing someone for being a distinguished person; we already have awards that do that,” Bragga says. “We’re trying to recognize folks who are not only distinguished but are also continuing to give back to Scouting or share Scouting’s message with others.” To be eligible for the award, an individual must be a BSA alumnus—which means he or she has been positively and / personally impacted by the BSA in some way—and must meet the current membership standards of the BSA. Nominees must have achieved distinction in their careers or avocations, contributed significantly to their communities through Scouting or other organizations, and contributed significantly to the advancement of Scouting at the local level over a sustained period. 5
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Each local council sets its own selection process and deadlines. However, a maximum of one recipient may be awarded per council per year. Honorees receive a certificate, lapel pin, medallion, alumni square knot (for the BSA uniform), and device to affix to the square knot. The award features an acorn, a reminder that mighty oaks grow from little acorns and that Scouts and Scouters plant trees under which they may never sit. For more information, visit www.bsaalumni.org.
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Happenings Reconnecting Scouting’s Alumni at Philmont Scout Ranch Jerry Strader of Abilene, Texas, has gone to his share of conferences as a Scouter, a credentialed mediator, and an Army officer. So his perspective on the recent Reconnecting Scouting’s Alumni gathering carries some weight. “It’s one of the best conferences I’ve ever been to, and I’ve been to conferences around the world,” he said. “It was really, really great.” That was not necessarily what Strader, who chairs the Texas Trails Council’s alumni committee, expected when he signed up for the conference. “I wondered, ‘What in the world are we going to talk about for four and a half full days?’” he recalls. “Well, we could have had another couple of weeks.”
In fact, not long after returning home, Strader was hard at work recruiting three alumni to start a new support program for the Law merit badge—and he had his eye on another alumnus he hopes will underwrite a climbing wall, a human foosball court, and a gaga ball pit at a Cub Scout campsite.
Eight Scouters from around the country attended the conference, held at the Philmont Training Center in August. Alumni Committee members Rick Bragga and Todd Plotner led the sessions together with Bill Steele, director of NESA and the Scouting Alumni Association, and Ryan Larson, associate director of NESA and the SAA. Ed Pease, national SAA chairman, and NESA President Glenn Adams also stopped by to speak to the group.
Generations and geographies were two of the big topics at the conference. Participants reviewed the characteristics of different generations (baby boomers, Gen Xers, millennials, etc.) and discussed how council size and sprawl can affect the programs they plan. “We talked a lot about challenges of distance and time, and trying to create events that were meaningful for that locale and that were unique enough that people would drive out of their way to go,” Plotner says.
According to Plotner, attendees ranged from newly appointed alumni chairs to those who, like Strader, have been “reconnecting” alumni for years. They all left Philmont with a council-specific roadmap for alumni relations. “During the week, participants put together a 12-month plan on how to engage alumni in their councils,” Plotner says. “We’re already starting to see some feedback off that.”
The Reconnecting Scouting’s Alumni conference is not on the Philmont schedule for summer 2015. However, Plotner notes, a shortened version will be offered next August during the National Order of the Arrow Conference at Michigan State University. Look for more information in future issues of Alumni Alive.
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Join Scouting, Explore the World Through NESA Educators today are focusing increasingly on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). The reason: America is falling behind the rest of the world in producing science and technology professionals. STEM topics account for just 8 percent of the degrees awarded by U.S. colleges, yet three-quarters of America’s fastest-growing occupations require math and science preparation.
NESA world ExplorErS
EaglE Scout argonaut
The BSA is working to emphasize STEM learning in many ways, including new merit badges like Digital Technology and new programs like the Nova and Supernova awards. In addition, science-minded Scouts are being matched with world-class scientists through the National Eagle Scout Association’s new World Explorers Program. NESA Vice President Mike Manyak, a Scouting alumnus and member of The Explorers Club, oversees the program and knows firsthand its potential value. “I am firmly convinced that my professional success and my accomplishments as an explorer are directly related to the spark generated by my Scouting experiences and application of those principles,” he says. The World Explorers Program began during the centennial celebration of the Eagle Scout Award in 2012, when NESA sent the first Eagle Scout Argonaut to the Black Sea with famed explorer Dr. Bob Ballard. In 2013, NESA named a second Eagle Scout Argonaut and sent a future Eagle Scout astronomer to a mirror-casting event tied to the planned Giant Magellan telescope. This year, one Eagle Scout sailed with Dr. Ballard, one worked at an Amazonian research station in Ecuador, and one traveled to Antarctica with noted British explorer Sir Robert Swan.
Alex Overman
C.B. Wren
2012
2013
EaglE Scout aStronomEr
Tristan Bullard
2013 antarctic SuStainability EaglE Scout
That last trip is reminiscent of Eagle Scout Paul Siple’s 1928 journey to Antarctica with Admiral Richard Byrd. Siple returned to Antarctica several times during his career and co-developed the first wind chill formulas, drawing on his extensive polar experience. If Manyak has his way, the BSA will send even more Scouts into research fields in the years to come. “My vision is to expand the number of choices for Eagles to pursue by offering expeditions to the Arctic, to the Amazon, to the Galapagos, to South Africa for paleontology, to the oceans for marine biology and oceanography, and to space with NASA and related organizations,” he said.
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Alex Houston
2014
Program Planned Changes Will Increase Boy Scouting’s Relevance Even as the BSA celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2010, the organization was already charting the course for its second century. The 2010–2015 National Strategic Plan outlined dozens of goals designed to strengthen Scouting for the decades to come. Among the most important of those goals: ensuring that the BSA’s programs remain relevant to and engaging for all youth.
So what’s changing? A few things: • The Scout badge will become a rank. •S ervice will be required at all ranks, and half of the Life service hours must be related to conservation. •T he Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class requirements will be tweaked to emphasize healthy eating, physical fitness, and outdoor ethics. •E ach rank’s Scout spirit requirement will ask Scouts to explain how they have done their duty to God and otherwise lived by the Scout Law.
Achieving that goal led to major overhauls of Cub Scouting and Venturing, as described in previous Alumni Alive articles. Now, Boy Scouting gets its turn. Veteran leaders can rest easy, though, because changes being made to the BSA’s flagship program are relatively minor.
Revised requirements will be unveiled at the BSA’s National Annual Meeting in May 2015. New Scouts must use the new requirements starting on Jan. 1, 2016. Those who have joined prior to that date will be able to transition during 2016 but must begin using the new requirements by 2017.
“The existing Boy Scout requirements were found to align well with the aims of Scouting and with the desired outcomes identified by the task force,” says Diane Cannon, chair of the 411 Task Force’s Advancement Track. “Scouts will find some new requirements and a realignment of existing ones, but the basic structure of the Boy Scout advancement program will remain unchanged.” Boys will keep on learning new Scouting skills in the Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class ranks, as they have for many years, and the requirements for those ranks may be worked on simultaneously. Once Scouts reach First Class, they will continue, as before, to earn merit badges, complete service projects, and serve in positions of responsibility while journeying toward the Star, Life, and Eagle ranks.
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Bigger, Better, Shinier: Program Features Grow Up No one joins Boy Scouting to get his character built. No, boys join to have fun—to camp and hike, to climb mountains and run rapids, to test their boundaries and discover just how far their abilities can take them.
To address those problems, the BSA has begun developing a new resource: Program Features for Troops, Teams, and Crews. This publication, designed for use in Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting, and Venturing, will also be in three volumes with 48 monthly themes—enough for four years of programming—in six areas of emphasis: outdoors, sports, health and safety, citizenship and personal development, STEM, and arts and hobbies. Volume 1 will be released this fall, followed at short intervals by volumes 2 and 3.
PROGRAM FEATURES FOR TROOPS, TEAMS, AND CREWS
The books will be colorful, using extensive photography to whet Scouts’ appetites for adventure. Icons from the world of skiing will guide Scouts to activities that are aimed at three distinct skill levels and make appropriate use of today’s technology. For example, Scouts learning about scuba diving might watch a YouTube video of a “tuna tornado,” while those planning a living history demonstration might use their iPads to research local history.
A Guide to Program Planning
In other words, program is king. Without a dynamic program, boys won’t hang around long enough for Scouting to achieve its aims of character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness. For a quarter-century, troops have used Troop Program Features as a key resource. This publication’s three volumes offered 36 monthly themes for troops to use in planning. Topics ranged from aquatics to winter camping, and each included four meeting plans, an outline for a highlight activity, and general information about the skills being focused on that month.
Jim Virgin, a veteran Scouter and outdoor adventurer from Vancouver, Washington, is leading the development effort. “Our team was given the task to update the program features to be relevant to today’s youth,” he says. “By combining topicspecific material from resources for troops, teams, and crews, we now have a tool that is simple enough for the newest of Scouts to follow and yet broad enough to challenge even the most experienced Venturers. Using principles like the EDGE teaching method and the entire range of advancement of these programs, we are now offering modules that Scouting youth want to do. I hope they have as much fun doing these activities as we did putting them together.”
There are just two problems with that model. First, during the last 25 years, both boys and Boy Scouting have changed. Scout leaders today aren’t interested in “plain vanilla” resources developed for an earlier generation. And Boy Scouting has expanded to include a host of activities that Troop Program Features doesn’t deal with, such as kayaking, geocaching, and areas related to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math).
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profiles Where No One Has Gone Before: Caver Bill Steele At the tender age of 4, Bill Steele—who retired this summer as director of the Scouting Alumni Association—ventured with his family into Fairyland Caverns in Rock City, Tennessee. “Even though that’s 61 years ago now, I can still remember the impression I got on walking through that portal,” he recalls. “The rock was beautiful, the air was cool and fresh, and I couldn’t help wondering, ‘Where does this go?’”
How does someone go from visiting a tourist site as a child to exploring caves a mile below the earth’s surface? By way of Scouting, that’s how. Steele’s Boy Scout troop went on two weeklong trips every summer—the first to summer camp, where they worked on merit badges, and the second to the woods, where they experienced high adventure. The troop members decided the theme for each year’s adventure camp, and early on, Steele persuaded his fellow Scouts to choose caving. They visited some caves on farms in northern Kentucky, including one where Steele and two friends discovered a virgin cave passage. If Fairyland Caverns hadn’t hooked him, that unnamed cave surely did. Scouting honed Steele’s appetite for adventure and gave him the leadership skills to become prominent in the caving community. Through the years, he has chaired numerous groups including the United States Deep Caving Team, the Texas Speleological Association, the Dallas-Fort Worth Grotto of the National Speleological Society, and the Texas Chapter of The Explorers Club.
Bill Steele
The dramatically lit passages of that show cave didn’t extend very far, but the experience did spark a fire in the young Ohioan. “From then on in my little boy mind, any time I would look at a hill or a mountain, I’d be visualizing that there could be a cave inside there,” he says. “I still do. I’m just a whole lot better at knowing where they would be now because I understand geology.”
And even with his Scouting career now behind him, Steele is not slowing down. He currently serves as co-leader of the Speleological Project of Sistema Huautla, which has launched annual monthlong expeditions to a Mexican cave system he first visited three decades ago. His Mexican expeditions will continue for the next decade, meaning he’ll be 75 when the project ends.
Steele has spent a lifetime exploring caves. On weekends as a Boy Scout, during summers when he was teaching school, and on vacations throughout a 34-year career as a Scouting professional, he has logged countless hours underground. His investigations have led him into more than 2,000 caves across North America, including the longest caves in several states and the two deepest ones in the Western Hemisphere. He has also traveled to Asia to explore the so-called “Carlsbad Caverns of China.”
“It’s satisfying to now be retiring and still be on the forefront of something so important,” he says. “I’m a fortunate guy to have a successful career as well as a hobby that I’ve been a key player in.” Scouting and the caving community are fortunate, too, that Steele’s family introduced him to Rock City—and a whole lot more—six decades ago. Editor’s Note: Steele’s caving experiences are also the subject of a recent Boys’ Life article and video.
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He’s No Dummy: Ventriloquist Ronn Lucas
As his family moved between Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona—his stepdad worked for the U.S. Army—Lucas honed his skills and performed for his fellow Scouts. In a 2012 interview with Boys’ Life, he said, “I often used jokes found in Boys’ Life. To this day, I’m pretty sure there is at least one joke floating around my act that was borrowed from Pedro [the Boys’ Life mascot].”
Famed ventriloquist Ronn Lucas has performed for several U.S. presidents and the queen of England. His TV appearances include The Tonight Show, The Late Show with David Letterman, Night Court, and FX’s Nip/Tuck. He has performed on Broadway, headlined shows in Las Vegas, and now spends half of each year entertaining on cruise ships. So why did he perform at the Philmont Training Center this summer? To give back to the program that gave him so much.
In his early 20s, Lucas thought he was good enough to make ventriloquism a career and set a deadline for himself: If he couldn’t appear on The Tonight Show by his 30th birthday, he would try a different line of work. In 1981, at age 27, he won a national comedy competition called “The Big Laff Off,” which led to a role in the Broadway show Sugar Babies with Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller. The show then went on tour for three years, eventually reaching Los Angeles. A week after he turned 30, Lucas was invited to perform on The Tonight Show. “I had exceeded my deadline to be on The Tonight Show by one whole week,” Lucas says. “Should I honor my promise to myself and quit? Safe to say, I didn’t.”
Ronn Lucas
A Life Scout from El Paso, Texas, Lucas credits Scouting for much of his success. “Scouting was where I developed the foundation for my selfreliance,” he says. “Today, if I am called upon to be a leader, I can do so because years ago I had Scouting to help me understand and practice what leadership was. Likewise, I’ve also learned, thanks to Scouting, what it means to be a good and useful follower.”
It took Lucas much longer to achieve his boyhood dream of making it to Philmont. “While growing up in Socorro, and later in El Paso, I had caught wind of this mystical BSA mecca for boy-minded adventurers called Philmont,” he says. “Since my family never had much money to spare, I gave attending Philmont a lot of thought but no real hope.”
Scouting also helped Lucas develop many of the skills he uses on stage. “I think a good ventriloquist is a combination of comedian, writer, director, producer, builder, artist, costumer, and of course, performer,” he says. “All of those skills—all of those skills—I began practicing and developing while growing up in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts.”
He finally got his chance in 2011 thanks to Jim Ellis, a friend and fellow Scouting alumnus who invited him to perform at the Philmont Training Center. “I quickly realized that although Scouting is for the kids, the most important component for making Scouting work is the adults who will guide the kids,” he says. “It’s important to find and train adult leadership. By entertaining, it’s my little way of encouraging the adult attendees. My tacit message to the adults is, ‘You are special to Scouting.’”
Lucas was first exposed to his future career as a child, watching his paternal grandfather, Alvin Tully, create simple sock puppets at Christmas. Not long after that, he caught a performance of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummy, Charlie McCarthy, on television. He was 7 years old, and he was hooked.
As a commercial once said, “You can learn a lot from a dummy”—and from the very talented man who brings that dummy to life.
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