The Friendship Knot

A couple days ago I wasn’t quite feeling it before a troop meeting. It wasn’t scouts per say but I was having trouble getting my khaki on in a spiritual sense. My friend Shawn suggested to teach the boys something new as a way to kick my slump.
We dedicated the “educational” portion of the meeting to learning how to tie a scout neckerchief with a friendship knot. You could say I’ve always been a bit of an Anglophile, especially when it comes to Scouting. When our troop adult leaders added the neckerchief to our uniform, another Scouter friend, Kiff, taught me from across the pond how to tie a friendship knot as is common by our English Scout brothers. I’ve been wearing it that way ever since. Thursday night I taught the Scouts how to tie the friendship knot and then they practiced tying it on each other.

Tonight our troop welcomed four new Arrow of Light scouts from Pack 83 at their Blue & Gold. When it was our turn at the ceremony to welcome them to our troop the boys crossed from their parents on one side if the stage to the troop on the other. The parents removed their cub scout neckerchiefs and as each one was asked by name to join his troop, one of our troop scouts would tie their new neckerchief on them with a friendship knot. While the ceremony was simple it was very well received.
It was great to see the pack thriving. Between scouts and families they were busting out of the venue a few years ago we’d had room to spare and then some. God willing that growth will continue to make the troop grow too. With the four that crossed tonight we’re in double digits for registrations for the first time in a long time.
I’m excited to see how the Phoenix patrol carries through on their “Lead Train Inspire”. As a small patrol they’ve definitely lived up to their namesake. There hasn’t been a challenge put to them yet they haven’t beat when they have a common goal in mind.

 

Moving Up, Moving Forward

Based on the events of this week I’d almost think it was “advancement week” if there was such a thing. I had Scoutmaster conferences with four Cub Scouts who will be earning their Arrow of Light at their Blue & Gold next weekend. 5 Scouts total will be crossing to our Troop and will be the 2nd patrol of Troop 83.
We also had another Scout, who had moved away after Cub Scouts, come back to our Troop after moving back to the area. That combined with the coming crossovers means our troop will literally be doubling in size. Not that numbers mean everything. Just last weekend the “core 4″ of our troop participated in the Klondike Derby. Despite being the smallest patrol to participate and being one of the most inexperienced patrols, they still placed 11th (out of 27 patrols) and were a mere 10 points away from first place.
I was also notified that I have an interview this week to serve as one of the Scoutmasters for our Councils representation at to 2013 National Jamboree at Bechtel Summit. Keep your fingers crossed.
To top off the week, and what was definitely the highlight for me, I found out that I’ve been advanced to the 3rd of 4 phases for the selection process to become a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) Field Operative. In August I will be returning to Texas for a 5-day “physically an mentally exhausting” evaluation of my skills as a Response Team member. If I pass this phase the next step will be the final training (9 days) in the UK in early December. From what I’ve heard these will be the hottest and coldest seasons respectively for each environment. I’m looking forward to the challenge.

 

Be Prepared: There’s an app for that

The topic of electronics and the outdoors can be a hot button issue for many. For years many Scout units have maintained a ‘no electronics on campouts’ policy. I think that camping should be about detaching from our digital devices. That said technology adds a lot of tools, many in the form of apps. In addition to my ‘Scout apps’ I’ve put together a collection of apps to be prepared – for emergencies and natural disasters. In a real disaster, charging capabilities may be limited so I suggest using the apps before hand to best prepare yourself BEFORE you’re called on to put those skills to the test.

That said here are my top apps for disaster preparedness:

Bear Grylls – Bear Essentials: A collection of wilderness survival lessons, tools, games and quizzes to test your survival knowledge.

FEMA: The FEMA App contains disaster safety tips, interactive lists for storing your emergency kit emergency meeting location information, and a map with shelters and FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs).

Pocket First Aid & CPR from the American Heart Association: First Aid and CPR training

Flashlight: When the lights go out use the iPhone camera flash as a flashlight.

iHurricane HD: During Irene I used this frequently to track the path and intensity of the hurricane. Push notifications for alerts for your location.

Morse Code: When I was a Scout I learned the basics of Morse Code communication. If your in a situation and that’s the only way to communicate you’ll know how. (Just hope there’s someone on the receiving end that still remembers it too).

NOAA Radar US – HD Weather Radar and Forecasts: The most advanced, fastest loading, and highest resolution radar/satellite app available.

Relief Central: As an aspiring ShelterBox SRT member this app is a resource with more international than domestic application. The mobile app specifically developed to help disaster workers operating in the field. Relief Central, available for free on all the major mobile platforms, provides access to relevant reference material and supplies news feeds from government and private relief agencies.

Users can search The World Factbook from the CIA for detailed information on over 250 countries and territories or review disaster assessment and response guidelines in The Field Operations Guide from the USAID. Relief News gives you up-to-the-minute RSS feeds from trusted government, non-profit, and international resources such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Red Cross, ReliefWeb, and more. With Unbound Medicine’s selected MEDLINE Journals users can link to the latest abstracts and articles in relevant scientific and medical literature.

American Red Cross: Shelter View: Maps locations and shelter details for emergency shelters across the US.

Survival Guide: Based on the US military survival manual.

Emergency Radio Free (Police Scanner): Listen to police, fire, EMS, NOAA and many more radio communications.

**Evac Routes: Not an app persay, this is a link for a PDF of all the local evacuation routes for my county. You’ll need to do a little research to find your own, then save to home screen.