Scouter of The Month

In September of 2000, the staff of Boy Scout Roundtable came up with an idea. Each month we would recognize an individual Scouter for his or her contributions to the overall Scouting program in the form of a new award, 'Scouter of The Month'. August 2nd, 2007 we will honor our 76th recipient so I thought it might be a good time to look back on some of these men and woman and see what they have done since. We never intended the award to be a foretelling of future work, nor did we want it to be a kick in the butt to do more, it was a simple recognition for what had already been done. But its amazing to see how much more some of these people gave.

In pure statistics;
9 woman and 66 men have been honored
32 have also received the District Award of Merit
9 the Silver Beaver
6 the H. Virgil Bower Award (a 10 year old award)
2 have passed away

There is no requirement for type of service so we don't know how many served as Scoutmasters vs. Assistant Scoutmasters or Committee Members etc. I do know that;
53 were wearing red epaulets when they received the award
at least 36 did or now wear gray epaulets
1 became your District Commissioner after being awarded Scouter of The Month
1 became your District Director after being awarded Scouter of The Month

We did not keep track of unit numbers either, so we can't count which unit has the most representatives, however I can say; 100% are still registered Scouters seven years after the first award was given to Bruce Miller.

Sometimes we miss an obvious candidate it becomes easy to forget the on-going contributions some people make, you begin to expect it and because its always there you pay no attention to where it came from. When we stumble on one of these very deserving people it's important that we recognize them immediately, this is no different in your units. Look around you, who helps make your unit work but never gets in the way, who is there every time you need them, we want to hear about these people so contact one of the Roundtable staff and let us know.

To see all the recipients go to; http://bsaroundtable.com/index.php?page=som and be sure to attend Roundtable on Thursday to see who our 76th honoree will be.

What I Did Last Summer

As adults its been a number of years since you had to write that perennial September tome of visits to Grandma, play-off baseball games (lost by one point), summer camp, or maybe just video games at home. But sure as rain, the summer heat, and text messaging sometime in the first few days of school every year our children are still asked this question by teachers all over the country. Maybe its time that we, as parents step up to the task of giving our children an opportunity to write the story every teacher has been waiting for, a story of high adventure, of learning opportunity, of fun ...

When I was a kid I wanted to climb mountains, dive coral reefs, send rocket ships to space and to win the baseball play-offs by one point. What I didn't know then that I do know now is that I could have. I had the time for all this and more, oh sometimes my dad couldn't be there, or mom was out of town on business but I had the time, if I only knew how to do those things.

Today one answer is Venturing BSA a youth development program for young men and women who are 14 (and have completed the eighth grade) through 20 years of age. Venturing is organized into Crews, run by the youth themselves, guided by trained, motivated adults. Venturing's purpose is to provide positive experiences to help young people mature and to prepare them to become responsible and caring adults.

Venturing is based on a unique and dynamic relationship between youth, adult leaders, and organizations in their communities. Local community organizations establish a Venturing crew by matching their people and program resources to the interests of young people in the community. The result is a program of exciting and meaningful activities that helps youth pursue their special interests, grow, develop leadership skills, and become good citizens.

In other words your son, my daughter get to climb that mountain, they get to go deep sea fishing, scuba diving off the coast of Florida, or learn to fly with the CAP. Or if they want they can design, build, launch, track and recover near space satellites that travel to the edge of space. Virtually riding 20 miles up with a high altitude balloon carrying cameras, GPS receivers, radios, and experiments they built.. Where the pictures returned show the curvature of the earth, whole states at one time, and the blackness of space all in the same photo, and where they can say "I did this" just image the stories they could tell. They can travel to and camp in wilderness ares in New Mexico, Northern Minnesota, Colorado, or their own back yard, wherever they have the ambition to go. Exploring the deepest caves, learning to ride horseback, and sharing in experiences with other youth their age are now all possible.

Venturers learn to make ethical choices over their lifetimes, experience a program that is fun and full of challenge and adventure. They acquire skills in the areas of high adventure, sports, science, arts and hobbies, religious life. They experience positive leadership from adult and youth leaders and are given opportunities to take on leadership roles and have a chance to learn and grow in a supportive, caring, and fun environment.

Cost? $10 a year. Who runs this program? The Boy Scouts of America. Surprised? I hope so. If you are interested in helping your son or daughter to write the next best seller about what they did last summer, then first give them the opportunity to live it by contacting me for more information.

Scouting The Edge of Space

Very few people have images from the edge of space in their personal photo albums--snapshots in which a hazy blue atmosphere hugs the curve of our planet against a backdrop of the black abyss beyond. But of those who do, many are amateurs, average people, taking regular trips deep into the stratosphere and peering out from the edge of Earth. Their hobby, high altitude ballooning has been called the "poor man's space program," because they are probing an environment more similar to that found on Mars than to any down here on Earth.

On-board cameras take photographs from various altitudes allowing us to see whole cities or states and the curvature of Earth in a single image. Near space exploration is the perfect meld of Amateur Radio, technology, science, and wonder (especially the wonder). After all, who hasn't watched a balloon float gently up into the sky and wondered what it would be like to venture into the stars?

Members of Near Space Ventures, Inc. are among some of the lucky people who have photos of this kind in their collections and they are looking for more adult and youth to take part in their next and future launches.

The process of launching a near space craft involves prepping the capsule, filling a balloon and the release. But getting to this process is another journey of its own filled with the excitement of designing, building and launching your own high altitude balloon.... ascent rates are typically 800 - 1000 feet per minute, with flights taking 2 - 3 hours to reach apogee. The flight is terminated when the balloon bursts or is cut away. A parachute is pre-deployed at launch but at these altitudes the parachute cannot effectively slow down the capsule, descent rates in excess of 200 mph are often experienced. At approximately 15,000 feet the air becomes dense enough to significantly slow the capsule in preparation for a soft landing and recovery. But even before that weather conditions have to be studied, electronic timers for cameras have to be built, radios must be tuned, and the experiments themselves must be designed, created, tested, built and stowed in the capsule for launch.

Near Space Ventures is looking for new members in two categories;
1) Adults; Any adult whether or not you are a licensed Amateur Radio operator.

2) Youth Outreach: Venturing BSA, and Civil Air Patrol (CAP)

If you think this kind of activity is for you please send a note to keith.kaiser@gmail.com or call him at 587-9636.


P.S.
Here is a link to photos of our last Near Space launch at the 2007 Great Plains Super Launch (GPSL) held in Grand Island, NE, the weekend of July 7, 2007 share them with anyone interested.

http://kaiserklan.com/balloon/gpsl2007/gpsl2007.html

Near Space Ventures, Inc is a not-for-profit Missouri Corporation dedicated to the advancement of Aerospace Education with an emphasis on low cost access to Near Space, using high altitude balloons and amateur radio to launch Simulated Satellite payloads (SimSats or nearsats) into Near Space, at or above 100,000 feet. They are the recipients of the Central Region 2006 Frank G. Brewer Award. This recognition is given to individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions, out of selfless devotion, to the advancement of youth in aerospace activities.

See http://nearspaceventures.com for more details.