December 24, 2012

Hello Troop 51,

As many of you may already know, Mr. Kelly is stepping down as the committee chair for Troop 51.  Although this is a sad moment for the troop, as Mr. Kelly has dutifully served for many years, it is also a very exciting time for someone else to pick up the mantel.  I think it was a great moment at our last Court of Honor having all of the Eagle scouts come to the front that worked with Mr. Kelly during the process.  Taking great pride in coming up with my on speeches (many on the fly J), I pained me deeply, just kidding, and had to take a page from Mr. Gilley’s speech at Scott Reid’ COH and say that Mr. Kelly truly had the right/obligation to take credit for helping build each one of these boys into well rounded, responsible Eagle Scouts.  It was a great testament to how bright our future is going to be and that by dedicating our time to such great causes, such as BSA, we truly do have the opportunity to make a difference.

All that beings said, 12/19/2012 was Mr. Kelly’s last Committee Chair event and we are in desperate need of an organized individual to step up and take on the Committee Chair role.  Mr. Kelly has done a great job of working with the committee members and most of the jobs are distributed to their appropriate chairs.  The largest responsibility that is currently in the CC’s hands is managing the Eagle application process and Mr. Kelly and I have worked diligently to move more of these responsibilities to other people. So outside of that, you will need to continue the great delegation activities that Mr. Kelly implemented and manage the monthly committee meetings.

The troop cannot function without this role being filled and we desperately need to have someone step up.  On February 1, we need to recharter Troop 51 and we need to have the CC in place prepared to sign our rechartering package.  Without it, we cannot recharter the troop correctly which will cause a lot of problems.

After of being Scout Master for the past, I can truly tell you that this is one of the greatest jobs I have ever had.  It had to go up against Cub Master, and as many of you know, I had a blast being Cub Master, but Boy Scouts is different.  In our leadership roles, we actually get the opportunity to build young men and outside of parenthood, how many chances do you get to do that?  I love watching the boys grow and I know that when that polite, well-adjusted young man speaks to people in an intelligent and confident fashion, I had a hand it making that person.

So if you have the desire to have a large impact on our future, please step in into the Committee Chair role and join me in building tomorrow’s leaders (Yes – I know it is a little cheesy, but we are in desperate need and I am not above spreading a little cheese J).

YIS

Mr. Conner

Scout Master – Troop 51

June 3, 2012

This week was a great example of what we, as scouts, can do to improve and enhance our community.  I want topersonally thank every scout and adult that reached out to support the Burbachs in their time of need.  Mary and Jeff are close friends of mine and as we all know, they suffered a huge loss this week.  The outpouring of support and love that came from the troop was enormous and I know that they felt every prayer and ounce of love that came their way.   As the weeks go on, things will start to get better for them, but keep all of the Burbachs in your thoughts.

On a more uplifting front, for all of you that supported Parker’s project this weekend, we all saw how scouts help in the community.  Parker’s project brought in anamazing amount of goods for our troops.  When I wenttoo the Giant, I was not expecting to see that level of support from the community – we were not in a holiday season and people are generally very rushed in the summer.  Much to my surprise, the community responded with gifts abound.  Great job Parker.

I know that this post has rambled on but I think my summary will tie it all together.  As people, we all have options.  We can elect to walk through life alone or we can embrace life and the people around us.  Sometimes our lives get busy and we forget to embrace.  This week taught me that whenever you are presented with the opportunity to embrace, take it.  No matter how big or small the act, you will make positive impact on the people around you and yourself.

Mr. Conner’s Pearl of Wisdom

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.  If you want to be happy, practice compassion.” – Dalai Lama

April 25, 2012

As you guys walk through your scouting career and throughout life, there are going to be many forks in the road, where you will need to make a choice that will ultimately have an impact on your immediate and long-term future.  Many people see these forks in the road to be scary things – the unknown; change, uncertainty – some people look at the forks as opportunities that will have very positive impacts on their lives.   I put this out to you guys, because you will all experience a lot of different transitions, especially those of you heading off to college and I want to encourage to be one of the few.  Embrace change as an opportunity and make sure take full advantage of every fork in the road, regardless of how big or small the opportunity is.

“You must welcome change as the rule but not as your ruler” – Denis Waitley

March 27, 2012

Scouting is an exercise in perseverance.  To get to the ultimate goal of Eagle Scout, you need to set a goal and put together a plan to make that goal a reality.  This is a great lesson for all of our scouts that they can take with them into many of the activities that they will pursue in life.  I was reminded of this over the weekend when I was testing for my 2nd degree in Tae Kwon Do.  Although you may want to succeed on the first try, it doesn’t always happen and you have to pick up the pieces and go back at it.  Here’s a video that demonstrates a little perseverance – plus, it’s just plain cool to break things :).  All you scouts, keep up the hard work and you will achieve all of your scouting goals.

Mr. Conner’s Pearl of Wisdom

“No. Try not. Do… or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

March 18, 2012

As I was sitting on the top of the mountain at Elizabeth’s Furnace with our new scouts, I had the opportunity to reflect on a very important piece of advice that was given to me when I was a young man.  One of my dearest mentors told me, “Steve, in life you need to be a collector.  Life is a collection of memories and the more you collect the richer you will be.”   I thought back to that moment and thought to myself – W0w – I am a rich man!  Here I am with all these scouts and look what they are giving me – a bunch of memories that I can put in my memory box – Troop 51 is a veritable treasure trove.

A big thanks goes out to Mr. Gilley for organizing such an awesome event.  I know that all of the scouts had a great time and it was a great learning experience for everyone.  With that said, we have our next campout on the weekend of April 21st where we will be hosting the Troop 51 Shoot Out – camping and guns – what could more fun!

So if you schedule is open, please come out and join the shoot and help me collect more memories – I want to win the memory contest and only you can help :).

Mr. Conner’s Pearl of Wisdom

“Life is like a box of chocolates – you never know what your gonna get” – Forest Gump

March 3, 2012

Last weekend, we kicked of our 2012 Junior Leadership Training and it was a rousing success.  We had a good showing and I am confident that going into the training that each scout thought to themselves, “Man, this is going to be totally boring”.  After five hours, 24 doughnuts and a lot of pizza, our adventurous scouts left the training with a new set of skills and great appreciation for what it takes to be a good leader and a good follower.

I had the opportunity to speak to Isaac after the training and see what he thought.  Not only was did he say he enjoyed the training, but I could clearly see in our last PLC that he was putting his newly found leadership skills to work.

For those of you who could not make it, don’t worry, we are planning on providing each member of the PLC the opportunity to attend.  So we will host a JLT in the winter/spring and one in the summer/fall.  This way each of our leaders had the opportunity to learn these important life skills and understand how he can play a bigger role in the troop, either as an awesome leader or as a strong, supportive follower.  As the scouts who attended the JLT will tell you, to make an organization work, you need both.

Mr. Conner’s Pearl of Wisdom

To close out this blog session, I thought I would leave you guys with some famous quotes around leadership:

• Leadership: The art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
• The real leader has no need to lead — he is content to point the way. – Henry Miller
• If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. – John Q. Adams

February 16, 2012

Thanks to everyone for a successful meeting last night – it was very productive.  We had the opportunity to complete 4 BORs last night and have more going on next week.  I would like to congratulate the following Scouts:

Andrew – Tenderfoot

Nathaniel – 2nd Class

Connor – Life

Samuel – Life

Great job guys – keep up the hard work!  We also had the opportunity to start working on the Public Speaking MB.  The Scouts had the opportunity to learn that “Um” is probably one of the most uttered syllables in the English language :).  Our plan is to follow this initial session up with one to two more sessions, where the scouts are going to build presentations and deliver them to the Troop.  So, to finish out the MB, we have some homework that needs to get done – here’s what the scouts need to do:

• Build a 3-5 minute speech/presentation about their favorite sport.  They will need to use visual aids (balls, bats, powerpoint, etc.)
• Build the outline for a 8 – 10 minute speech on a topic of their choice and provide the ASM team a copy for review.  It is probably best to do this in power point and needs to be about 6 to 7 sides.
• Review and understand Robert’s Rules of Order.  I am going to encourage Christian to use these in meetings from time to time, but they will need to understand the purpose and the basics.

February 2, 2012

We had a very successful PLC last night.  The Scout leadership have a really good month planned and we are actively working on the annual MB plan for the year.  Mr. Casey is working with Mr. Falk to finish off the Scouting Heritage MB and I will be kicking off the Public Speaking MB on 2/15.  We should have plenty of opportunities over the next few months for the scouts to participate in a lot of cool merit badges.

This coming meeting, 2/8, will be open to new Webelos looking at Troop 51.  I encourage as many older scouts as possible to come out and represent the fun that these new guys can have with Troop 51.  We are looking at a pretty decent size recruitment class coming in in March.

Mr. Falk kicked of our PLC Junior Leadership program last night and it was a huge success.  The goal is to expose all of our PLs and SPLs to the basics of leadership which should help make their jobs easier.  We will also hold sessions on a semi-annual basis to allow all of the Troop 51 scouts to have the opportunity to take part.  Thanks to Mr. Falk for setting it up and putting on the class.

Mr. Lambright is going to help out with coming up with outing ideas for the year.  These would be activities that would be in addition to our regularly scheduled campouts, so if you have any great ideas, let Mr. Lambright know and we will work to get your ideas on the list.

Mr. Conner’s Pearl of Wisdom

You learn from your mistakes, not your successes. Success can be an act of sheer skill or just blind luck.
— Steve Conner

January 29, 2012

Hello Troop 51,

This is my first attempt at blogging.  My goal of the Scout Master’s Corner is to provide you with bits of information that will help you all out, not only with Troop 51 and scouting, but add little pearls of wisdom that I find all over the Internet.  My goal is to update the blog at least weekly and help journal the history of Troop 51.  OK, with that said, let’s get to the history….

This week:

• Mr. Matt Gregor became Troop 51’s 71st Eagle Scout
• Nathaniel Kim passed his 2nd Class Scout Master Conference
• The scouts of Troop 51 selected the merit badges that will comprise the rest of the scouting year
• Adam Ruffa will have his Eagle Board of Review on 1/30/2012

Please note, that this week’s meeting will be a PLC.  We will be hosting our first session of the Junior Leadership Series hosted by our very own Mr. Falk.

Mr. Conner’s Pearl of Wisdom

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip.
— Robert Hastings

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”