ALUMNI ALIVE! Newsletter for Scouting Alumni Association Affiliates and Friends WINTER 2016
What’s Inside Director’s Message...................................2 Alumni News............................................4 Happenings..............................................6 Program...................................................8 Profiles....................................................10
A Message From the Director Donn Fendler died in October at the ripe old age of 90. Had it not been for Scouting, he might not have seen his 13th birthday. In July 1939, the Second Class Scout from Troop 2 of Rye, N.Y., wandered away from family and friends on Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest point. Realizing he was separated, Fendler tried to find the members of his hiking party, but it was raining so hard that he became lost. He took a few wrong turns and spent the next nine days alone. Remembering his Scout training, Fendler followed a stream, knowing that camps and towns often are found along streams and rivers. During the day, he survived by eating wild berries. He lost his sneakers and pants in the river, and his feet and legs quickly became covered with cuts from rocks and bites from mosquitoes and flies. At night, in near-freezing temperatures, he wedged himself between tree roots and slept under a blanket of moss. He later found a burlap sack to use as clothing and shelter. The Bangor Daily News, July 26, 1939
“There were plenty of times I wanted to give up and just say to heck with it, like those last few days,” Fendler told Maine Public Radio. “But you just keep going. I don’t know what it … like I told you, it’s your will to live.” As Fendler soldiered on—or maybe Scouted on—a massive search was underway in Maine, and his story made headlines nationwide. On the ninth day, a miracle happened. The 12-year-old, who had walked 48 miles and lost 16 pounds, stumbled into an occupied hunting camp and was saved. His ordeal was over, but his story was not. In 1978, Fendler told his story in Lost on a Mountain in Maine. Cowritten with Joseph B. Egan, the book quickly became required reading for fourth-graders in Maine, taking Scout training to countless schoolchildren who might never don a Scout uniform. Reading Fendler’s amazing story brought back memories for me of being one of seven Boy Scouts from Troop 36 in Jerome, Idaho, who, along with two adult leaders, faced a potentially dangerous situation in December 1985. We were heading for a winter outing at Camp Bradley when we missed a turn in the road. 2
With nightfall and a storm approaching, Scoutmaster Ron Crozier had us put into practice the winter survival skills we had learned. Moving into the trees for protection, we dug out a spot in the snow, turned it into a shelter using plastic sheeting, and then got a fire started. As we doubled up in our sleeping bags to conserve body heat, the storm struck, dropping up to six inches of new snow that obliterated the trail we had been following. After a sleepless night in below zero temperatures, Scoutmaster Crozier headed for a ranger station he guessed was about four miles away. “I knew we couldn’t really survive another night, and one of the boys had a pulled hamstring,” he later said. “So I knew we needed to get them pulled out of there.” After five hours pushing through the heavy snowfall, he reached the ranger station, and the search and rescue team in Challis was immediately contacted. By 3 p.m., to our most grateful surprise, helicopter rescue teams arrived to take us home. All in all, it was “a pretty interesting trip,” as Scoutmaster Crozier put it—especially the unexpected ride in the helicopter. What’s your most important Scouting memory? It may not be as potentially life-threatening as mine and Donn Fendler’s were, but I’m sure it was just as life-changing. What can you do to ensure a new generation of young people can benefit from this incredible program we call Scouting? On behalf of our millions of Scouts, thank you for your support of and serving to Scouting
Dustin Farris Director, Scouting Alumni Association 3
Alumni News Ray Capp Named Alumni Committee Chair is a big idea kind of guy, but he’s a big idea kind of guy who also thrives on the nuts and bolts of engaging people and delegating things and making sure that things happen.”
Ray Capp
That didn’t last long. Less than six months after stepping down as chairman of the National Order of the Arrow Committee—a role he’d held for eight years— Ray Capp of Nashville, Tenn., in October became the third chairman of the Scouting Alumni Association. “Our previous chairmen, Roy Keithley and Ed Pease, did a fantastic job putting the SAA together and setting our course,” said Ryan Larson, associate director for NESA and the SAA. “We look forward to smooth sailing and exploring new horizons with Ray at the helm.” Pease agreed. “Ray was I think the perfect choice for that role at this point in time,” he said. “Ray
Besides his leadership of the Scouting Alumni Association, he serves on the National Executive Board, the National Court of Honor, the National Nominating Committee, the National Outdoor Adventures Committee, and the Middle Tennessee Council’s executive board.
In many ways, leading alumni efforts for the BSA is the role Capp was born to play. For more than a quarter-century, he has been a tireless advocate for Scouting, always closing the sale, not to gain glory or earn a commission, but to strengthen the organization that has meant so much to him.
One thing Capp has learned over the years is that former Scouts and Scouters have a deep affinity for their troops, their Order of the Arrow lodges, the highadventure bases they attended, and the camp staffs they served on. “They have a warm feeling in their hearts about the Boy Scouts of America, but that’s not their connection,” he said. “The affiliation tends to be more tribal.”
As chairman of the National Order of the Arrow Committee, Capp used the OA’s 100th anniversary celebration as a means to reengage alumni. As a member of the National Scouting Museum Board, he looks for ways to bridge past, present, and future. And as he crisscrosses the country on BSA business, he often chats up his seatmates who were Scouts, encouraging them to reconnect with the program. His simple message: Scouting is still relevant, and there’s a role for you.
That local focus is reflected in Capp’s priorities for the Scouting Alumni Association. Going forward, he wants to strengthen services that benefit local alumni committees and affinity groups (camp staff alumni associations, for example). That could mean everything from sharing best practices and providing mailing lists to building a registration system for events. “Just imagine what your local staff association needs to run but doesn’t have the resources to create. That’s what we want to do,” he says.
Capp knows something about potential roles for volunteers. A Distinguished Eagle Scout, he has served on the unit, district, council, regional, and national levels—often simultaneously. 4
Capp also wants to help Scouting do a better job of recognizing long-tenured volunteers, which primarily happens through the service stars volunteers can wear on their uniforms to mark their years of service. “I want to own for us the celebration of service in Scouting,” he says. “It’s a big deal, but we don’t make a big deal about it. That’s something we can do and should do.” Of course, the ultimate goal of all these efforts is to strengthen Scouting. “If you can attract more people to those local alumni entities, whatever those are in that local council, then you end up being able to get them as merit badge counselors and unit leaders and commissioners and on and on,” he says. “It’s a virtuous circle.”
Affiliate Profile: The Philmont Staff Association of Philmont Scout Ranch and Explorer Base (including the Philmont Volunteer Training Center). The purpose of the association is to enable former staff members to continue their service to Philmont and increase the friendships begun at the ranch.”
The Scouting Alumni Association is not the only group within the BSA that seeks to reconnect with and reengage alumni. In fact, the Scouting map is dotted with groups both large and small that share that mission. With this issue of Alumni Alive, we begin an occasional series of articles highlighting some of these alumni groups. First up: the Philmont Staff Association.
Over the intervening decades, the Philmont Staff Association has more than lived out that dual purpose. The 3,500-member organization has raised millions of dollars for Philmont and is now in the midst of its fourth capital campaign, a $1.5 million effort to help expand the Philmont Museum and Seton Memorial Library. (Visit http://www.philstaff.org/give/ capital-campaign/ for more information.) It also provides d i r e c t s u p p o r t to c u r r e n t seasonal staff members through scholarships and the Staff Amigos program, where members send care packages each summer to staffers at the ranch.
O n p a g e 6 o f t h e M a rc h April 1974 issue of Scouting magazine appeared this brief announcement: “The Boy Scouts of America has recently approved the formation of The Philmont Staff Association. It is open to all former staff members
“We’ve become a partner of Philmont over the years,” says PSA President John Murphy. “First, we were just kind of there to do whatever we needed to. Now that we’ve had several successful capital campaigns and other things, Philmont has
Photo Credit: Michael Roytek
come to depend on us for lots of support.” At the same time, the PSA serves its own members through the bimonthly High Country magazine and through sales of water bottles, jackets, and other items that let members show their 87714 pride (87714 being the ZIP code for Philmont and the nearby village of Cimarron). And the PSA offers plenty of activities that members can participate in. “People can come to the ranch for a reunion, they can come for a weeklong trek, or they can come participate in Autumn Adventure,” Murphy said. “And we have regional events so if they can’t come back to the ranch, we can try to bring the ranch to them.” Former PSA President (and Scouting Alumni Association Chairman Ed Pease) said the PSA’s balanced emphasis on people, program, and place is a key to its success. “If you think about it, though the place is incredibly important and fantastic and the program is tremendous, it’s the people that most of us remember,” he says. “In many cases, that’s as important a reason for joining an alumni association as is 5
supporting the program or the place. Alumni associations provide a mechanism for you to not only maintain existing r e l a t i o n s h i p s b u t to g ro w relationships with people you never would have met otherwise but who share a lot of the same experiences you had, often camping in the same places that you camped.” The PSA is also forging bonds between people who have camped in very different places. Pease and Murphy, along with former PSA President (and SAA Vice Chairman) Jim Lynch, worked with leaders at the Summit to create the Summit Bechtel Reserve Staff Association, which launched in 2015. At each BSA National Annual Meeting, the two groups now hold a joint reception. Philmont veterans call the ranch HOmE—an acronym for “heaven on earth.” Through their effort, the ranch and other highadventure bases will continue to provide Scouts heavenly experiences for generations to come. For more information, visit www. philstaff.org.
Happenings New Partnership Benefits Business and the BSA The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is among Washington’s most powerful advocacy organizations, lobbying on a host of issues ranging from agriculture and food safety to travel and tourism. Its agenda is so broad because its three million member businesses face a huge range of challenges.
Of course, Law Enforcement Exploring’s track record is nothing new; for example, former U.S. Secret Service Director Julia Pierson got her start as an Explorer in Orlando, Fla. (She also worked as a parking lot attendant at Walt Disney World, but it’s safe to assume that her Exploring experience was more beneficial in the long run.) BSA officials hope the new relationship with the U.S. Chamber will inspire similar successes in other career fields, including social services, arts and humanities, communications, and business. The timing is good since career exploration is quickly becoming an important focus of high school. Two years ago, Millennial Branding released a study showing that over half of high schoolers’ parents are pushing them to focus on careers but aren’t helping them out. In announcing the study, Millennial Branding founder Dan Schawbel said, “In today’s economy, students have to start building their careers in high school in order to better compete in the college admissions process, for college internships, and eventually full-time jobs. Employers who offer high school internships will build brand awareness early, fill up their talent pipelines, and be able to remain competitive in their marketplace.”
One thing unites them, however, and that’s a constant need for skilled workers. Which is where the Boy Scouts of America comes in. At the BSA’s Top Hands conference in August, U.S. Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue announced a new effort to encourage member businesses and local chambers of commerce to embrace the Exploring program, Scouting’s career-readiness program for high-school aged youths. “The U.S. Chamber and the Boy Scouts of America are natural partners in efforts to create opportunities for Americans and build a stronger workforce,” he said. “Through the Exploring program, the Boy Scouts of America can bring to the table young people who are eager to learn and succeed, and the business community can bring the jobs.”
Employers that provide internships—or embrace Exploring—will also provide a valuable service to the teens that participate, according to Donohue. “The leadership and values of Boy Scouting are needed more than ever before to help solve our nation’s great challenges,” he said. “If you do nothing else in your work, give America’s young people a positive view about our country and their future and help them get there.”
That sort of work-readiness matchmaking is nothing new for Exploring. As Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh wrote in a recent blog post, “This partnership builds upon the growth Exploring is experiencing across the country. Recently the New York Police Department announced a record number of recruits in its East Harlem Law Enforcement Exploring program. This is encouraging. Not only are more youth benefitting from the program; they also are taking interest in learning about law enforcement in a positive environment.”
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The Scouting Alumni Association Goes to Camp The most important conference during 2016, at least for the Scouting Alumni Association, was Reconnecting and Engaging Scouting Alumni, which Lynch helped facilitate. It brought together 13 Scouters from across the country, along with four faculty members, to explore ways councils can better connect with and reengage Scouting alumni. They discussed how to establish effective National Eagle Scout Association and Scouting Alumni Association committees, and they learned how to use the new National Scouting Alumni Network to find lost alumni in their communities. Just learning about that database, which pulls together all the BSA’s affinity groups, was worth the price of admission to faculty member Larry Brown, Scout executive of the Middle Tennessee Council. “The database is phenomenal,” Brown says. “It’s the best resource of potential manpower in the BSA, period.”
Some college alumni associations offer their members cruises to Alaska, the Caribbean, and the Greek islands. The Scouting Alumni Association offers something that’s arguably better and undoubtedly cheaper: an alumni conference at the Philmont Training Center in New Mexico, a site SAA Vice Chairman Jim Lynch calls “a cruise ship on land.”
Although he was on the conference faculty, Brown thinks he learned as much as the participants. In fact, he left Philmont with a detailed plan for his council, which he began implementing shortly before Thanksgiving. For Lynch, the main takeaway was that alumni effort don’t have to be extensive to be effective. One thing he’d like to do is hold more smaller, targeted events, such as happy hours for Eagle Scouts in the legal profession. “Ninety-five percent of the people won’t want to do it, but the five percent that do might be really committed,” he says.
In many ways, Lynch is right. PTC offers an all-inclusive experience— no extra charge for meals and no tipping—along with programming for all ages from toddlers to senior citizens. And the breathtaking views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains rival anything you’d encounter during long days at sea. Plus you’ll never get seasick.
The alumni conference will return to PTC next summer with a new name: “Alumni: The Key to JTE Success.” It will be held June 18-24, but registration is open now. For more information, visit http://www. philmontscoutranch.org/PTC.aspx.
But PTC isn’t a vacation destination. Instead, as the name indicates, it’s a training center; in fact, it’s the BSA’s national training center, offering dozens of courses and conferences each year for unit, district, and council volunteers and professionals. (Spouses and children participate in activities ranging from crafts to horseback riding to hiking while conferees are in the classroom.)
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Program Relive Scouting History in New App Here’s a simple math problem: Scouting magazine has been published since 1913, first as a biweekly black-andwhite newsletter and more recently as a five-issue-ayear glossy publication. So how tall would a stack of every issue ever published be?
Scouting Magazine’s Digital Edition
Scouts last fall made the supreme sacrifice in saving a crop that they themselves would undoubtedly have to eat—spinach. The farmer for whom they labored reported to the U.S. Employment Service: ‘If I hadn’t gotten those boys to help me, my vegetable crops probably would have rotted in the fields.’”) But not every story seems quite so historical. The March 1960 cover features a Den Mother—the correct term at the time—covering her ears as two Cub Scouts scream in the background. (“Decibels are one measure of the success of a Cub Scout den meeting,” a caption inside explains, “but there are two schools of thought on how to interpret this measurement.”)
The answer: exactly 0.24 inches on an iPad Pro or just under 0.28 if you have a Google Pixel C tablet.
Beyond the articles, readers can find ads for all sorts of products, from Scout uniforms to Indian fire pumps to surefire fundraising winners. The October 1973 issue alone—which features Jack Nicklaus on the cover—includes ads for Kathryn Beich candy, Sylvania light bulbs, Verne Collier peanut brittle, Griffin shoe polish, and at least 10 different kinds of candles, including Animal Delights, “the most exciting new money-earning product to come along in years.”
In August, the Boy Scouts of America released the new Scouting magazine app, which includes access to every issue ever published. (Early issues have been scanned, while more recent issues are the same digital files that go to the printer.) The app, which works on iOS, Android, and Kindle devices, is free to download and includes unlimited access to the current issue. Users can also preview any previous issue and, if they choose, purchase it for $3.99.
For more information on the app, search for “Scouting magazine (BSA)” in your favorite app store or visit http://scoutingmagazine. org/digitaledition.
A Scout is thrifty, of course, so most users will probably choose the all-access subscription, which costs $4.99 per year (or $1.99 per month). The subscription, gives users unlimited access to every issue of the magazine. So what will readers find inside? In short, they’ll find a 113-year history of Scouting and of America. The September 1937 issue, for example, reports on the first national Scout jamboree, which had just been held on and around the National Mall in Washington. At the height of World War II, the February 1943 edition describes how “a growing army of Cubs and Scouts is winning the campaign to keep America the best fed nation in the world.” (An excerpt: “Philadelphia 8
How to Celebrate a Centennial Milestones like those are a great excuse for troops, packs, camps, and Order of the Arrow lodges to celebrate—and a great opportunity for units, lodges, and councils to reengage with alumni. In a recent interview for the Scouting magazine blog, Scouting Alumni Association Vice Chairman James Delorey said, “Reunions are a terrific opportunity for people to reconnect with Scouting, meet other Scouters and Scouting alumni, learn something about Scouting today, make new friends, and discover ways to get involved.” Perhaps the biggest challenge in holding a reunion is finding contact information for past members. Even if you have old rosters, people’s addresses and email addresses may well have changed. Delorey recommends a combination of social media—think Facebook and LinkedIn—and crowdsourcing. The Scouting Alumni Association’s alumni directory is a good resource; members can search the directory by name or by the unit number and city other members are identified with. And don’t overlook local newspapers and TV stations, which may help you publicize your reunion event as it draws closer. For more of Delorey’s tips on holding alumni reunions, visit the Scouting magazine blog: http://blog.scoutingmagazine. org/2016/09/29/how-to-plan-a-troop-or-camp-reunion-to-celebrate25-50-or-100-years/.
Troop 1 of Sacramento, Calif., celebrates its 100th anniversary
Nearly seven years after the Boy Scouts of America celebrated its 100th anniversary, more and more troops across the country are celebrating big birthdays of their own. This past June, for example, Troop 1 in Sacramento, Calif.—which bills itself as the oldest continually chartered troop west of the Mississippi River— held a 100th birthday party that brought together generations of former Scouts, leaders, and parents. All told, more than 300 people attended. Of course, 100 is just one impressive number; 500 is another. That’s how many Eagle Scouts Troop 890 in Dallas had produced when it held a big party last May; on hand were Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh, Congressman Pete Sessions (the father of two Troop 890 Eagle Scouts), more than 60 of the 500 Eagle Scouts, and a host of current and former Scouts and leaders. Fifty is nifty as well. Among the Cub Scout packs who celebrated their 50th birthdays this year were Pack 75 in Ozark, Mo., Pack 561 in Lancaster, Ohio, and Pack 366 in Louisville, Ky. Camp Ransburg in Indiana and Goshen Scout Reservation in Virginia also reached the midcentury mark this year.
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Profiles Tom Donohue, U.S. Chamber President and CEO teaches you responsibility, leadership, organization, and honor. It was a wonderful experience for me and gave me skills I was able to use in my adult life.”
Tom Donohue
Born in the depths of the Great Depression, U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Tom Donohue had a loving family but faced a number of challenges. His mother was frail from rheumatic fever, he missed half of the second grade after contracting the disease himself, and he struggled to read due to undiagnosed dyslexia. Fo r t u n a t e l y , D o n o h u e h a d a can-do spirit and a solid experience in Boy Scouting. Long Island Troop 163 taught him values, introduced him to the outdoors, and helped him discover and hone his leadership potential. Years later, when he was received the 2013 Horatio Alger Award, he said, “Scouting
“If you go to work for the Boy Scouts of America, the first thing they do, even though you’re an Eagle Scout, you’ve worked in Scout camps, you’ve had leadership in Scout troops and all of that, they send you to school.... I am today, all these years later, using things I learned in that training program.”
In fact, he started using those skills when he was barely an adult. During high school, he spent a couple of summers on staff at Camp Wauwepex. Then, during his time at St. John’s University, he helped build a new camp, Onteora Scout Reservation, in the Catskills. “We basically cut it out of the woods,” he said in an interview with Alumni Alive. “I was driving a bulldozer; I was doing all sorts of things.”
Donohue left the BSA to work for Abilities Inc., which works to support and enhance quality of life for people with disabilities. He held positions at the College of New Rochelle and Fairfield University before becoming deputy assistant postmaster general, helping to turn the U.S. Post Office Department into the quasi-governmental agency it is today. From there, he joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, where he served for eight years before becoming president and CEO of the American Trucking Association in 1984. He returned to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1997 as president and CEO, the position he holds today. Supporters and critics alike credit him for transforming the organization into a D.C. powerhouse. In 2009, John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s chief of staff, told The New York Times
Par t of Donohue’s job was running the camp’s feeding program, which eventually served 1,500 campers at a time. “Machinery breaks down, the electricity goes off, you still have to feed them three times a day,” he said. “I had a phenomenal experience doing that.” Donohue caught the eye of Scouting officials, who recruited him to work as a field executive, his first job out of college. “Here’s the most significant point,” he told Alumni Alive.
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that Donohue “took a kind of sleepy organization and turned it into one of the most aggressive lobbying groups in town.” Along the way, Donohue’s three sons—Tom Jr., Keith, and John—all joined Scouting and eventually became Eagle Scouts. Donohue served as an assistant Scoutmaster and troop committee chairman during that time. Earlier this year, the National Capital Area Council honored Donohue with its Lifetime Achievement Award. In accepting the honor, Donohue said, “America needs all sorts of institutions, but it needs Scouting because it combines physical activity, leadership activities, skills learning, and it’s something you take with you. You don’t have a knapsack to stick it in, but you take it with you and have it for the rest of your life.”
Lee Berger, Paleoanthropologist partial skeletons discovered in all of history, and Matthew had just found number eight,” Berger told the assembled Scouts.
Lee Berger with Homo naledi
In July 2013, Eagle Scout and paleoanthropologist Dr. Lee Berger traveled from his home in South Africa to visit Scouts at the 2013 National Scout J a m b o r e e to s h a r e s o m e important discoveries. Five years early, as part of an effort to update the mapping of sites he’d previously explored, he took his son, Matthew, to a site near Johannesburg where he’d been working for 17 years. A couple of minutes after he told Matthew to go look for fossils, the nine-year-old discovered a human clavicle that turned out to belong to the partial skeleton of an early human. “That was incredibly exciting because at that time there’d only been seven
1,500 fossils in all, most of which were simply lying on the floor of the chamber as if they’d been dumped there sometime in the distant past.
Berger went on to find another relatively complete skeleton and was soon working with 115 scientists around the world on research that landed him in the pages of Time, Science, and Scientific American. “All that started with a discovery by a nine-year-old child in the middle of one of the most explored areas on planet Earth,” he said.
Realizing he’d need help to assemble this historic fossil jigsaw puzzle, Berger brought together dozens of scientists for a six-week research camp. Different teams worked on different types of bones—legs, teeth, etc.—but they all came to the same conclusion: What they were seeing didn’t make sense. Some of the bones looked like Homo sapiens or Homo erectus, but others seemed to better fit with Australopithecus afarensis (the species represented by Lucy, the skeleton Louis Leakey had discovered in Ethiopia 49 years before). As described in an October 2015 National Geographic story, Berger told the team, “The message we’re getting is of an animal right on the cusp of the transition from Australopithecus to Homo.”
In a way, it also started because an 11-year-old Berger became a Boy Scout. The future scientist grew up in Georgia, where he became an Eagle Scout. He graduated from Georgia Southern University and attended Harvard University before moving to South Africa to pursue doctoral studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, where he now teaches. On Sept. 13, 2013—barely two months after Berger’s jamboree visit—cavers Steven Tucker and Rick Hunter stumbled into a cavern in the Rising Star cave system that contained not just two partial skeletons but at least 15. In fact, there were some
And so was born Homo naledi— the species name stemming from the Sotho word for star, a nod to the cave system where the remains were found. While Berger still has much to learn about the species—most
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importantly where it fits in the hominid family tree—there’s little doubt that the discovery is among the most significant archeological finds of the 21st century. The discovery may also help launch the career of the next generation of paleoanthropologists. Over the past two years, four American Scouts have traveled to South Africa as part of the NESA World Explorers Program to work with Berger and his team. One of this year’s Scouts, Matthew Oliver James, has already been invited to lecture to an Anthropology 101 class back at the University of Maine.