Scouting, Volume 14, Number 2, February 1926 Page: 4
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SCOUTING, February, 1926
Is a Promised Treat a Wise
Incentive to Scout
Advancement?
IN August Scouting mention was made
of the annual auto trip totheWhite Moun-
tains provided by the troop committee of
Troop 4, Dalton, Mass., which has proved
to be a big incentive to good work through
the winter. On a scale suitable to local
conditions, this sort of thing ought to work
in any troop. The Dalton idea of getting
the troop committee interested is excellent.
Answering the question Dr. E. A. R.
Torsch, Scoutmaster of Troop 63, Louisville,
Ky., says:
"There is no speeding up of tests, or other
unfavorable condition in connection with our
annual 'reward' sight-seeing trips. The
experience promotes troop morale and troop
efficiency, advances each scout in rank,
eliminates the boy who has no Scouting
ambition, gives the troop a good, standing
in the community, helps the scoutmaster
obtain maximum discipline with minimum
effort, and provides a definite objective for
the year's endeavor."
"During last summer's trip the troop
slept in fourteen different States and
camped in tourists' camps, parks, baseball
fields and other accommodations. We
covered 7,000 miles, traveling in two auto
trucks with a third which carried supplies,
the entire equipment, including camping
material, belonging to the troop. Through-
out the trip discipline is maintained on the
merit and demerit system. Merits are given
for useful service to camp or troop done on
the boy's own initiative, and demerits are
administered for any unsatisfactory con-
duct. The 12th Scout Law is not forgotten.
The trips are financed by various troop
affairs during the year and by small con-
tributions from each boy to a general fund.
One truly scoutlike incident of the trip
occurred when there was a temporary break-
down, and the scouts made the two-day
delay profitable by picking two orchards
of cherries for $37.00, a service that was
welcome to the farmer, canner, consumer and
the troop treasurer.
"Troop efficiency and test passing have
always been the chief requirements for
making the trips. Each scout rank had a
definite advancement goal set out ten months
in advance. The first year 18 scouts, the
second year 20 and last year 26 scouts made
the trip, the ages ranging from \2]A to
18 years. About 10 boys have made each
trip. This has been a wonderful incentive
to troop spirit and has solved the older boy
problem.
"This sort of vacation period, educational
hike, or trip is recommended for any troop,
however placed, whether in a small town or
a large city. The scoutmaster, with the
cooperation of his troop committee, friends
of Scouting, and with the enthusiastic help
of the boys themselves, should be able to
arrange such a trip. As in the case of Troop
63, it should be conducted from start to
finish in accordance with true Scouting
standards."
Forming a Service Patrol
of Older Boys"
A device for holding older boys in the
troop, which can be strengthened -by
the new provision for Junior A ssis-
tant Scoutmasters
VETERAN TROOP 8, Grace Re-
formed Church, Easton, Pa., tackled
the problem of the Older Boy by
placing an Eagle Scout (a student in Lafay-
ette College) in complete charge of the boys
over 16 years of age, who were put in a
patrol by themselves. Their objectives
were to stick together, to stay in Scouting,
to advance as fast as possible in Merit
Badge work to assist the scoutmaster, and
finally, at 18 years, to become assistant
scoutmasters.
This was started last spring, at which
time we had eight older boys who were losing
interest. They all have a hard high school
schedule, which, together with their other
boy interests, keep them pretty busy. But
they hold an indoor meeting as a patrol
once a month, attend the first troop meeting
of the month—when we always have an
outside speaker scheduled—and hold an
outdoor meeting or hike once a month.
Good results are showing up from this
plan. Several of these older scouts have
continued to advance, and one has become
an assistant scoutmaster. The patrol
adopted the objective of "Each One a Star
Scout by Christmas." Now and then the
patrol is given full charge of the troop meet-
ing, and they do a creditable job. The plan
does not run itself, and the assistant scout-
master makes it his responsibility to work
with the P. L. to find plenty of interesting
things for the members of the patrol to do.
Ernest A. Andrews, S. M.
Use Plenty of Handicraft
Projects
THE OBVIOUS handicraft patrol and
troop project just now is the making
of bird houses, shelters and feeding
stations, with the Spring Good Turn to
birds, or the Troop Treasury, or both, as
objectives. See November Catalog Issue
of Scouting, page 46. Get U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture Farmer's Bulletin, No.
1456, Homes for Birds. Ask the Local
Council office at Flint, Mich., about its bird
house literature, enclosing return postage.
Challenge patrols to find needed repair
or construction jobs for the institution with
which you are connected, as a Handicraft
Good Turn Contest, for the month of
March. There will be bulletin boards,
book-racks, steps, railings, wainscoting,
plastering and painting, book rebinding,
windows and many other items large and
small that will offer opportunities. For
points, count promptness in locating and
doing the jobs, experience and thoroughness,
comparative usefulness to the institution,
and other elements you think should be
considered.
What Are Your Winter Activities ?
YOUR FRIEND, Bill Wessel, has developed a
new hobby. He is collecting, so to speak,winter-
month activities of troops and patrols, from all
parts of the country. He will be glad to hear from
you. If you send along some good pictures also, he
will be your friend for life. Post-office etiquette
prescribes the address shall be Mr. William C.
Wessel, Assistant Director, Camping Department,
B. S. A., 200 Fifth Avenue, New York City.
More Color In the Uniform?
What's the matter with the Merit Badges?
What Can I Do To Improve My Scouts
In Judging?"
How would this do as a supplementary
"unofficial," scoutmaster's oath: "On my
honor, I will do my best to help every boy
in my troop to do his best to keep himself
physically strong, mentally awake and
morally straight?"
WE HAVE FOUND the following in-
door method especially good for
winter months and other times when
outdoor work may not be popular. Judging
is too much neglected, and even in giving
the tests the boy's estimate of weight, or
distance, or height is often accepted upon
our own estimate, rather than go to the
trouble of weighing the object itself, and so
forth. This method can be adapted to
distance, size, height and weight. We will
use as an illustration the requirement to
judge "number."
The S. M., A. S. M. or S. P. L. lays a trail
of things to be judged, spacing them five feet
or more apart, as follows: Pile of beans or
corn, say 25; 25 pages in Scout Handbook,
clipped together; box of matches; lines on
sheet of paper; pints in a large bottle, a pint
measure placed beside the bottle: and
similar problems.
Scouts are provided with pencil and
paper, names of the objects in order against
which to set down the estimates, and proceed
by patrols, one scout at a time. P. L.'s
usually utilize the waiting time to brush up
the patrol on judging. The boys rotate at
the blow of a whistle, which is sounded
every 30 seconds. It takes 15 to 18 minutes
to run the whole troop through, and the
boys enjoy it immensely.
Afterward the troop sits around informally
and each boy passes his paper to another
for grading, the correct number for each
unit being announced. A margin of some-
thing less than 25% is allowed over or under
the correct number, and when the scout
has judged correctly, he is allowed two
points. If he comes within the allowance
under or over, he is allowed one point.
After the papers are totalled and returned
to owners, each patrol gathers them up and
figures the average points won by his patrol,
dividing the total points won by the number
of scouts participating. The climax of the
fun comes when the credits are put on the
blackboard. The winning patrol is allowed
ten points in the inter-patrol contest,
and, as a surprise, a booby prize is awarded
the scout making the least number of points.
We find it best not to hold the Judging
Contest two weeks in succession.
Unexpected objects to be judged can
readily be thought up, for example, in
sizes, a boy's hat, collar, waist, shoes,
length of sleeve, weight, height, etc. The
troop committee members famish good material
to work on for such features. This idea
proves a real challenge for the older scouts,
and a thorough demonstration for the new.
You always need to have the P. L., ready
to keep his patrol interested in some short-
time instruction after they have finished
judging and while waiting for the others to
finish. E. C. DeLauney, S. M., Troop 25,
Roanoke, Virginia.
"Let us have faith that right makes might."—ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 14, Number 2, February 1926, periodical, February 1926; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth310790/m1/4/?q=%22~1%22~1: accessed August 15, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.