Newsletter for Scouting Alumni association Affiliates
alumni alive! SPRING 2016
What’s Inside Director’s Message.........................2 Alumni News.........................................4 Happenings..............................................6 Program...................................................8 Profiles.......................................................10
A Message From the Director The always quotable Yogi Berra was on to something when he said, “Kids are our future—even if the future isn’t what it used to be.” For more than a century, Scouting has thrived and provided a premier program for youth leadership development in our country. Scouting’s journey for continued success and growth has required perseverance and clarity of vision. In recent decades, America’s youth have faced new demands for their time and attention. The family unit has shifted, and electronic devices have supplanted baseball mitts in the hands of boys. The future of the next generation is less clear. How will Scouting respond to the challenges facing today’s youth? Will Scouting continue to provide our nation’s future leaders? These questions are on the hearts and minds of all Scouters. The Boy Scouts of America Scouting Alumni Association exists to help secure the future of Scouting. For years, the SAA has worked with councils and alumni to nurture the culture of Scouting. Connecting alumni’s passion and resources with Scouting is the key to a vibrant future. Fiscal security and an abundance of quality leaders enable local councils to dream big and create innovative ways to engage today’s youth. We continue to invest resources to help local councils and alumni both connect and reconnect. The SAA is honored to play an active role in the future of Scouting. Check out one way that both alumni and local councils can stay connected. The Scouting Alumni Network 1.0 was created with the potential to be more robust over the long term. For instance, it will not just include National Eagle Scout Association members but over time will also bring together records from NESA, the SAA, and other Scouting-affiliated groups. It also includes updated information from the most recent Eagle Scout directory project. This one database will make it easier for alumni to find each other and keep their records up to date, while improving local councils’ ability to engage with people who are committed to advancing the cause of Scouting. During our most recent Eagle Scout search, an overwhelming number of respondents asked NESA to provide an online option for alumni to keep their information current. The new Alumni Network 1.0 provides Eagle Scouts that ability.
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In addition, local councils often reach out to the National Service Center for information on alumni who have moved into their service areas. With the new database, Eagle Scouts will be able to update their information as it changes and councils will be able to access that information in real time, which was not available with the previous online NESA community. We have created a tutorial for the Scouting Alumni website (scheduled for launch later this year) that we hope will prove helpful to you as you become familiar with the Scouting Alumni Network 1.0. Click here to view it.
Dustin Farris Director, Scouting Alumni Association
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alumni news Special Offer Encourages Pathfinder Memberships are photos and copies of contemporaneous newspaper accounts that add to the stories’ fascination. The book is more than just a collection of great stories, however. It also traces the history of the BSA’s lifesaving awards and discusses the fine line the BSA has walked between honoring heroes and enticing young people to put their lives at risk. Also included is the history of Boys’ Life magazine’s popular “Scouts in Action” feature, which chronicles the stories of Scouts who have received the Honor Medal or Medal of Merit. (A fictionalized sample from the September 1947 issue begins with this first-person introduction: “I’ll never forget the afternoon of October 30, 1946. I came that close to not remembering anything. I can still see an obituary column reading: ‘Darn fool Air Scout Tom Naylor (that’s me), aged 17, and “Huddy” E. Hudson, squadron leader and top-ranking pilot of long experience, took off from Wickersham at Safford, Arizona, when. …’”)
Nationwide discounts. Free swag. A chance to support Scouting. There are plenty of reasons to become a Pathfinder member of the Scouting Alumni Association, but now there’s one more. Through July 4, new and renewing Pathfinder members can receive a hardcover copy of Running Toward Danger: Real Life Scouting Action Stories of Heroism, Valor & Guts for just $9.99, including shipping and handling. The book retails for $27.99, so this special offer will save you $18, or about half the $35 Pathfinder membership fee.
To learn more about Running Toward Danger, visit www.runningtowarddanger.com. To receive your own copy and start or renew your Pathfinder membership in the Scouting Alumni Association, click here.
Written by Distinguished Eagle Scout Michael S. Malone, Running Toward Danger tells the story of more than 170 Scouts who have received the BSA’s Honor Medal over the past century, from Walther Llewellyn Jerrard, who saved a drowning victim in 1911, to Matt Moniz, whose 2015 attempt to climb Mount Everest turned into a rescue operation after a devastating earthquake. Accompanying many of the stories
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Join the Jamboree Army of Volunteers Today workers, store clerks, chaplains, media professionals, tech specialists, tour guides, bus drivers, and more. As a Scouting alumnus, you can easily find a staff position that matches your skills and interests. To join the staff, you must be a current BSA member, have completed Youth Protection training within a year of the jamboree’s conclusion, meet jamboree health requirements, complete any required training, pay staff fees on schedule, and agree to abide by the Jamboree Staff Code of Conduct. There will be three staff sessions to allow multiple staffing options:
On Scouting’s biggest stage—the national jamboree—Boy Scouts and Venturers can enjoy a vast array of adventure activities, from rock climbing and zip-lining to kayaking and dragon-boat racing to mountain biking and sporting clays. Toss in arena shows, patch trading, and offsite service opportunities, and participants can experience more Scouting fun in nine days than their peers at home will experience in a year.
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Session 1 (July 15-29, 2017)
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Session 2 (July 15-22, 2017)
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Session 3 (July 22-29, 2017)
The staff fee for session 1 is $850, and the staff fee for sessions 2 and 3 is $425. (Staff members ages 16-25 as of July 18, 2017, pay just $425 for session 1.)
Not all the action happens onstage, however. Behind the scenes, an army of thousands of volunteers works to ensure that Scouts have a safe, healthy, and—most of all—fun experience. And that army is now recruiting for the 2017 National Scout Jamboree, to be held July 19-28 at the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia.
Help make the 2017 jamboree the most successful yet by joining the staff volunteer team today! Simply head to www.summitbsa.org/events/jamboree/volunteers/ to learn more about being a staff volunteer and click on the orange Register button at the top to sign up.
Although most participants don’t realize it, a jamboree is much like a small city, complete with first responders, physicians, administrators, traffic cops, skilled tradesmen, food service
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Happenings Scout Delegation Presents Report to the Nation In the midst of a presidential campaign season that seems to have lasted for years, you might not think that Democrats and Republicans could agree on anything. But there’s one thing they both support: the Boy Scouts of America.
This year’s delegates were: •
National Venturing President Edward Abraham from Fremont, California
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National Sea Scout Boatswain Edward Campbell from Albion, Indiana
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National Order of the Arrow Chief Hunter Jones from Nashville, Tennessee
Earlier this year, a representative group of 10 BSA youth members traveled to Washington, D.C., to present the BSA’s annual report to representatives of all three branches of government, including President Barack Obama, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Over a jam-packed five days, the youth also toured the U.S. Naval Academy, laid a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns, and visited with prominent Scouting alumni across the city.
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Eagle Scout Neel Dhanarah from Merrimack, New Hampshire
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Police Explorer Cynthia Garcia from Franklin Park, Illinois
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Eagle Scout N’Jhari Jackson from Tampa, Florida
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Eagle Scout Matthew Moniz from Boulder, Colorado
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Eagle Scout Ian Napoleon from Sandy Spring, Maryland
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Cub Scout Sean Nichols from Edgewood, Kentucky
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Eagle Scout Dan Ta from Cypress City, California
The BSA’s congressional charter—signed by President Calvin Coolidge 100 years ago this June—requires the organization to make an annual report to the secretary of the Senate and the clerk of the House. For decades, the reports have been presented by delegations of Scouts, much as they are today. (You can see photos of Scouts meeting with presidents from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama at http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/02/27/report-to-the-nationthrough-the-years/.)
So what did the actual report they presented say? Here are a few highlights:
Each year’s delegation includes the top youth leaders of Venturing, Sea Scouts, and the Order of the Arrow. Other members are nominated by their local councils and are chosen to represent the BSA’s ethnic, regional, and gender diversity. “This year, we had 54 nominations, and we had to select six out of that 54,” said Keith Christopher, outdoor programs/properties department manager, who leads the selection process for the National Service Center. “It’s not fun because you’ve got some great stories, some great Scouts that are being nominated, and you can only select six.”
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In 2015, Scouting served 1,261,340 Cub Scouts, 840,654 Boy Scouts and Varsity Scouts, 142,892 Venturers and Sea Scouts, and 495,980 Explorers and Learning for Life members.
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In 2015, Boy Scouts earned more than 2.5 million merit badges in 138 different subjects.
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In 2015, Scouts and Explorers logged nearly 15.3 million hours of service at an estimated value of more than $352 million (based on a national volunteer-hour value of $23.07).
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In 2015, 54,366 Scouts became Eagle Scouts, generating more than $196 million in service to communities across the country through their service projects.
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In 2015, nearly 1.1 million Scouts attended camp, spending a total of 6.5 million nights camping.
New Book Chronicles the Order of the Arrow’s First Century Among the most popular attractions at each National Order of the Arrow Conference is the OA museum (dubbed the Goodman Edson Observatory at NOAC 2015). Through words, pictures, and artifacts, the museum tells the story of Scouting’s national honor society from its origins at Treasure Island Scout Camp to today. But as soon as NOAC ends, the museum disappears like a Scouting version of Brigadoon.
bloodletting was dropped from the Brotherhood ceremony in the 1950s. On page 92, they can read a letter from astronaut Jim Lovell certifying that he carried a Mikano Lodge patch into space on Apollo 8. (“Unfortunately, I could not wear it on my suit, primarily because it was not fireproof,” he wrote.) While much of the book focuses on the Order’s founders and key national leaders, there’s plenty of local color. For example, readers will meet Manuel de Larrea, a Mexican American who became his lodge’s first Vigil Honor member in 1946, and see lodge flaps from OA lodges in Germany, the Philippines, and other countries where the BSA has served the families of military personnel and expatriates over the years. The goal, the authors explain in the introduction, was to create a family album for a rather large family. “While you may not see a photo of you or your lodge, you will see lots of photos of your brothers, including brothers from a century ago and brothers from a continent away,” they write.
Now, Arrowmen don’t have to wait years to experience the Order’s history. Thanks to Scouting alumni Nelson R. Block and William H. Topkis (and a host of other volunteers), Bound in Brotherhood: The Order of the Arrow Centennial Scrapbook offers the next best thing to a museum visit. Block, the biographer of OA founder E. Urner Goodman, and Topkis, the director of the museum at the 2015 NOAC, have assembled a 170-page scrapbook chockful of OA history, with thoroughly researched text, many never-before-published pictures, and images of rare patches, sashes, medals, pins, and other memorabilia.
Bound in Brotherhood is available in both a $25 softcover edition and a $200 commemorative hardcover edition. This signed and numbered edition includes a special sash bookmark, a centennial white chenille patch, and reproductions of a 1920s ceremony pamphlet, an antique membership card, and a Treasure Island monogram patch. Both editions are available from the OA Trading Post, tradingpost.oa-bsa.org, and all proceeds benefit the OA Endowment, which supports high-adventure programs, scholarships, and lodge service grants.
The book includes plenty of information on major milestones in the Order’s development, but there are surprises on nearly every page. On page 18, readers can see the pins worn by the first OA members. On page 60, they can learn why
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Program All Boats Are Rising in Sea Scouts, BSA Founded in 1912—just two years after the Boy Scouts of America—Sea Scouts emphasizes boating skills and safety within the BSA framework. Sea Scouts focus on boating instead of camping, they elect boatswains instead of senior patrol leaders, and they are supported by Skippers instead of Scoutmasters. And there’s one other difference: While Boy Scouting is firmly embedded in the American consciousness, Sea Scouts is a very well-kept secret.
connect with Scouting through the BeAScout.org website, but historically that site has offered only three options: Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, and Venturing (which included Sea Scouts). Eventually, Sea Scouts will become a stand-alone option. Two other recent developments promise to further boost the image of Sea Scouting. In December, the Sea Scout advancement requirements were revised to include paddle sports. Wherever there was an on-the-water requirement, a paddle sports option was added to allow inland ships to participate in the advancement program with ease. That allows Sea Scout ships, as Sea Scout units are called, to venture beyond the traditional sailing and power-boating activities to include just about anything “in, on, around, and under the water,” according to Christopher.
“Most people, unless they’ve met a Sea Scout, don’t even know the program exists—inside and outside the BSA,” said Keith Christopher, national director of Sea Scouts. “When I took over Sea Scouts in 2008, I mentioned it to people at the national office and they didn’t even know anything about the program.”
The other development is an ongoing effort to connect with maritime high schools, maritime businesses, and the U.S. Navy, Coast Guard, and Merchant Marine. Already, Christopher said, some 35 percent of Sea Scouts enter the military or pursue maritime careers. By further aligning activities with military and industry needs, Christopher expects to further grow the program. In fact, a common response he’s gotten from industry officials is, “That’s a fantastic program; I wish we’d have known about it when my kids were growing up.”
Sea Scouts is quickly losing its anonymity, however. In February, the Boy Scouts of America’s National Executive Board voted to establish Sea Scouts as an independent program of the BSA—in full company with Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting, and Venturing. Likewise, the board made corresponding amendments to the Charter and Bylaws of the Boy Scouts of America. While the changes in the text of these documents are modest— mostly involving the inclusion of the Sea Scout program in several clauses and paragraphs—the changes will provide Sea Scouts with access to the full range of attention and support at the National Council and throughout the BSA organization. These days, for example, many prospective members
During World War II, Admiral Chester W. Nimitz said he believed that Sea Scouts were better trained and better equipped than other sailors to help the Navy defeat the enemy and endure the elements. With the resurgence of the program, a future admiral or industry leader may well say the same thing. To learn more about Sea Scouts, visit seascout.org.
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New Event Invites Venturers to the Summit activities as they please; they will have ultimate control over their experience. There will be some events that the participants may only be able to do once, such as some of the shooting sports, but they will have plenty of fun the first time.” And the fun won’t end when the sun goes down. “Our plan is to carry many of the day activities into the night but with a Venturing twist,” Mulligan said. “This could range from an amazing band coming to entertain the participants to campwide games, and a world record could possibly be broken!” VenturingFest is open to registered Venturers, Sea Scouts, Boy Scouts ages 14 and up, and adult leaders. The minimum group size is seven participants (five youth and two adults); there is no maximum group size. The cost is $400 per youth and $300 per adult, which includes meals and all program materials. Boy Scouts across America are already making plans to attend the 2017 National Scout Jamboree, the second jamboree to be held at the world-class Summit Bechtel Reserve. But Venturers don’t have to wait that long. This summer, from July 31 to August 5, they can participate in VenturingFest, the first-ever national Venturing event.
So what would Mulligan tell Venturers who aren’t sure about attending? “If you are on the fence about signing up for VenturingFest, I can guarantee you that this will be unlike any other high-adventure camp you have been to,” she said. “This is the first national Venturing event, so of course we are going to make it memorable. Venturing is all about leading the adventure, and you could very well be the president of the first contingent in your council to attend a national Venturing camp.”
A collaboration between the Summit and the National Venturing Officers Association, VenturingFest will offer Venturers (and older Boy Scouts) six days of adrenaline-fueled fun, including challenge courses, BMX racing, skateboarding, shooting sports, kayaking, stand-up paddleboarding, climbing, rappelling, and more.
For more information, visit www.summitbsa.org/venturingfest or send an email to venturingfest@scouting.org.
According to National Venturing Vice President Shannon Mulligan, participants “will be able to roam around and do
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profiles Ray Capp, National Alumnus of the Year When he was named the BSA’s National Alumnus of the Year in February, Ray Capp was both humbled and speechless—emotions he hadn’t experienced “since 1977, when my wife agreed to marry me,” he said.
Over the years, Capp has made two important discoveries. First, most Scouting alumni have a warm spot in their hearts for the program. Second, most Scouting alumni can’t see a role for themselves in the program beyond serving as a Scoutmaster. “Their Scouting world was their Scoutmaster,” he said. “Of course, the Scoutmaster is the orchestra leader and the most visible and important person in the life of a child, but they don’t think about the structure that Scoutmaster was using to deliver the program.”
It was a rare situation indeed for the Nashville Scouter, who has been a tireless advocate for Scouting for a quarter century. (When he’s not volunteering with the BSA, he serves as CEO and chairman of ConduIT Corp., a Nashville-based business incubator.) As chairman of the National Order of the Arrow Committee since 2009, Capp has overseen the Order’s 2015 centennial celebration, its largestever National Order of the Arrow Conference, and the 2011 SummitCorps project, which created nearly 13 miles of multiuse trails on National Park Service land near the Summit Bechtel Reserve. He also serves on the National Executive Board, the National Outdoor Adventures Committee, the National Marketing and Innovation Committee, the National Scouting Museum Board, and the Middle Tennessee Council’s Executive Board.
One person at a time, Capp explains the myriad other ways a Scouting alumnus could re-engage: as a troop treasurer, merit badge counselor, unit commissioner, board member, financial supporter, recruiter, and more. “I think the work of the alumni effort is to find those people on airplanes all over America and say, ‘Man, there’s this little thing you could do,’” he said. “Then it’s like taking the puppy home, because once they get back engaged and involved and see the value of delivering the program at the unit level, we’ve got them.” Capp is quick to point out that alumni who re-engage in Scouting benefit just as much as the Scouts they serve. “It’s so wonderful belonging to something bigger than yourself,” he said. “Everyone craves that, and we’re the solution for millions of men across the country.” If you’d like to hear more about how to re-engage in Scouting, look for Capp soon on an airplane near you. If you happen to miss him, you can find his essay “Is Scouting Still Relevant?” at http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2016/02/08/bsas-106thbirthday-one-volunteer-asks-scouting-still-relevant/.
But he earned the Alumnus of the Year Award in large part for the time he spends on airplanes. Capp travels frequently on behalf of the BSA, and he uses his time on airplanes to catch up on Scouting reading and paperwork. “The logos are very prominent in what I’m flipping through, and somebody will say, ‘You’re still a Boy Scout?’” he explained, and that simple question often leads to a conversation about his seatmate’s Scouting experience.
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Scouting Alumni on the Supreme Court thinking are common traits found among past and current Scouts of Elmhurst. We hope to pass onto future generations many of the ideals that he embodied from the loyalty to his country, fierce originality, and with any luck a sense of humor.”
When Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia died in February, news outlets illustrated their reports with many photos— including one of the future jurist in a Scout uniform. It turns out that long before Scalia attended Harvard Law School and long before he donned a black robe, he was a Boy Scout in Elmhurst, New York.
Ironically, that statement echoed the thoughts of one of Scalia’s most frequent opponents on the Supreme Court, Justice Stephen Breyer. A Distinguished Eagle Scout, Breyer wrote, “Nino Scalia was a legal titan. He used his great energy, fine mind, and stylistic genius to further the rule of law as he saw it. He was [a] man of integrity and wit. His interests were wide ranging as was his knowledge about law, this [n]ation, and its Constitution. He loved his family. He also loved ideas, music, and the out of doors. He shared with us, his colleagues, his enthusiasms, his humor, his mental agility, his seriousness of purpose.”
A former Cub Scout, Scalia joined Elmhurst’s Troop 17 in 1948. He attended Ten Mile River Scout Camp for two summers, then went to the national Scout jamboree at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, in 1950. Along the way, he became a Star Scout and joined the Order of the Arrow.
Scalia believed in interpreting the Constitution just as it was written, while Breyer sees the Constitution as a living document. Their differing views put them on opposite sides of many votes but never turned them into enemies. In covering a 2006 debate between the two jurists, ABC News’ Jan Crawford Greenburg said, “The two have served together on the bench for 12 years now, and they share the easy familiarity of old friends, playing off one another and poking fun to score points.” After their 90-minute debate, Greenburg reported, they went out for a burger.
That was just what his mother, Catherine, wanted. In Scalia: A Court of One, Scalia told biographer Bruce Allen Murphy that his mother made sure he “hung out with the right people, joined the right organizations … [and] associated with young people that would not get me into trouble, but rather would make me a better person. She made it her job to know who I was hanging out with. We had them over to my house, and she was a den mother for the Cub Scouts, things of that sort.”
It’s impressive to find two Scouting alumni on the U.S. Supreme Court, but there were actually three during Scalia’s time on the bench. Anthony Kennedy, who frequently provides the deciding vote in close cases, is another former Scout.
On its Facebook page, Troop 17 offered this tribute: “Known for his reverence for the [C]onstitution and caustic dissents, Scalia paved the way for a new generation of ‘old school traditionalists.’ His unwavering principle and independent
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