Scouting, Volume 13, Number 2, February 1925 Page: 1
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SCOUTING
FEBRUARY, 1925
A Magazine of Information for Scout Leaders
Copyright, 1925, by Boy Scouts of America
VOL. XIII. NO. 2
Now that we are 15 years old . . .
ANNIVERSARY WEEK usually
/% helps to "sell" Scouting to the
/ % community. Sometimes the harder
boiled a community is, the better
it supports the Movement, once it gets
interested. Fairfield, la., was such a place.
Scouting had a discouraging start there.
There were few natural facilities for scout
activities. No water facilities at all. That
was four years ago, and to-day Fairfield
scouts have a $10,000 swimming-pool, and
other things in proportion.
How come? The start was made with
sixteen boys in~i92i. They immedi-
ately determined to have a camp and
direct every energy to that end.
That was a definite objective. The
scoutmaster and each boy concen-
trated on getting a camp. Within a
year the camp was assured and fifty
scouts were enrolled. Every boy
attended the first camp. That put
Scouting on its feet in Fairfield.
Recapitulation
An indifferent community.
Sixteen boys who wanted Scouting.
A scoutmaster's enthusiasm based on
understanding of the Movement and love
for boys.
Belief in the desirability and possibility of
a camp.
Four years later, three active troops
relied on for community service, paying their
own expenses, contributing to help other
boys, presented with campsite and a $10,000
swimming-pool.
A'
Good Turns Helped
Then a County-wide Father-and-
Son Banquet with 400 present fol-
lowed. No time lost in letting fathers of the
community know how the camp succeeded.
This affair put the community squarely
behind the Movement. The Scoutmaster,
Mr. H. F. Nagle, who is in charge of boys'
work for Fairfield, saw to it that scouts were
always invited to help at conventions,
affairs, Chautauquas and similar events.
This is keeping Fairfield "sold" to the
Movement and enthusiastic for it. The
enrollment has gone up to nearly 100 scouts.
With their own money they have bought
and paid for permanent camp equipment
worth $500. Two of the three troops in
Fairfield won the President Harding Award
for a minimum 25 per cent, increase in
membership, in the Round-Up of 1922.
Why didn't the third win it? Its ranks were
already filled.
Where there's the will—
The camp, which was the first objective
of the newly formed troop in 1921, pays its
own expenses each year and accumulates a
reserve toward the next year's costs. The
troops have developed a special fund to help
needy boys of the vicinity. Such boys are
sometimes loaned money which they repay
out of what they earn. Because of this work,
Fairfield scouts have been presented with a
house and lot, the rental of which is devoted
to this fund.
There were no nearby facilities for swim-
ming or water sports when Scouting started
in Fairfield. The scoutmaster interested a
splendid old sportsman, a lover of nature
and of boys, who owned a tract of idle land
at the edge of the town, in the Movement.
This plot of ground now belongs to the Boy
Scouts. A swimming-pool with over an
acre of water service, complete in every de-
tail, has been built there. It even controls
its own water-supply. The total cost was
approximately $10,000.
We know that "A wise man learns from
another's experience." The Scoutmaster's
Handbook is built out of actual experi-
ences of scoutmasters. Active troops are
constantly adding to the sum total of good
ideas. Here are a few to help us do better
work now that we are fifteen years old.
Conserve your " Come-Back" experiences
of Anniversary Week; if you had none, it is
not too late to "profit by this other man's
experience."
"So that Boys Want to be
Scouts"
NNIVERSARY WEEK must have
started a lor of boys to wanting to be
scouts. The next best thing to finding
room for these boys in troops is keeping them
wanting to and encouraging them to "bone
up" on the Tenderfoot tests. In
Waseca, Minn., one scoutmaster, R. E.
Hodgson, directs four troops, or six-
teen patrols of six boys each—which
allows for systematic expansion..
Most of the P. Ls. are over eignteen
years. Four of them are high-school'
graduates and at work. About io>
per cent, of the boys are from the
farm. Nine churches are represented,
including Catholic, Lutheran and
Protestant.
A Come-Back that "Took"
D
ID YOU PUSH the "Come-Back"
idea during Anniversary Week? Here
is an experience from Ames, la.,
antedating Anniversary Week. Ten years
ago the Council organized a troop in Des
Moines, la. Troops had existed previously,
but had disbanded. This troop, with the
aid of another organization, soon after
helped to organize the present Des Moines
Local Council.
The original troop (that is the one we are
talking about) made a war record to be
proud of. After the war was over, a number
of these scouts entered Iowa College at
Ames. The scoutmaster of the troop, E. G.
Stowell, went to Ames as the Scout Execu-
tive. In January, 1924, Mr. Stowell got
together at a banquet about a dozen of the
former members of the Des Moines troop to
celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of the
organizing of the troop (the opportunity to
stage a "come-back"). Another of the
troop's former scoutmasters at Des Moines,
and the minister who had been active in the
troop, and his wife, were guests. The
evening was devoted to talking over the
experiences of the ten years' history of the
troop.
Climax and "Moral"
Most of the former scouts who attended
this reunion dinner, have taken a renewed
interest in Scouting, and have definitely
re-entered active scout work after several
years' absence.
Method—Results
The scoutmaster retains responsibility
for discipline in the troops, for the planning
and conducting of the meetings, for the
planning for hikes and camps. The P. Ls.
are carefully selected and trained for their
jobs over a period of from two to four years.
They are liable to be set back in the ranks if
they fail to make zood. Boys who want to
become scouts are admitted to the meetings,
and occupy seats on one side of the room as
spectators.
So there you have an unbeatable combina-
tion : scouts who have to make good in order
to stay in the troop; boys eagerly watching
for a chance to get into the troop, their
presence and motive inciting the scouts to
do their best, and the desire of the candidates
to join increasing in proportion to the
enthusiasm and good work of the enrolled
boys!
(You will find something more about
Waseca activities elsewhere in this issue of
Scouting, in connection with patrol work.)
Keeps Up Interest
Troop i,
A
Every Scout a safe swimmer
this year!
Union City, Tenn., with
47 scouts—20 Tenderfoot, 16 Second-
Class, 11 First-Class—has each patrol in
turn secure a man to speak on Scout Laws;
another month each patrol dramatizes one
Scout Law in action. Troop meeting is
Monday nights, 7:30 to 9:00 o'clock. Al-
ways opens with Scout Oath and closes with
Scout Benediction. Always personal in-
spection, for "A scout is clean." Uniforms,
where owned, are always worn. Each scout
brings to the meeting "Obedience Slips"
signed by parents on scout conduct in home,
also Good-Turn slips. Head of local school
is Chairman of Examining Board and reports
each month on school grade of the scouts.
Patrols meet weekly.
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 13, Number 2, February 1925, periodical, February 1925; New York, New York. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth310781/m1/1/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.