Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Why Scouting?
December 6, 2005
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

Six months ago, when I was considering taking over the job as Scoutmaster for Troop 325, I asked myself... Why Scouting? What attracted me to get involved and help out as a scout leader? Well, there are lots of reasons but the very first thing that caught my attention and stuck with me was both the spirit and the variety of the scouts themselves. That's you. That's one thing that I always found attractive about this troop in particular.

In school, there are all sorts of activities that you can get involved in. The football team has talented athletes, often the biggest guys. The basketball team has the tallest, the chess club has the nerdiest, the honor society has the ones with the best GPAs, student council has the leaders, the band has the musicians. In many cases, these groups of students do not have common interests and rarely interact with each other. One of the things I like to ask in Scoutmaster Conferences, is what other activities outside of scouting you are into. On more than one occasion I have been surprised to find out what other things that you have interests in, and I think that's great! As I look around me I see scouts who I know have been camping, hiking,, and doing other scout activities.. But I also see football players, hockey players, baseball players, leaders, followers, thespians, singers in the choir, bookworms, guitar players, band musicians, introverts, extroverts.. basically a little of everything. And yet you all get together here every week for scouting.

The second important answer I gave myself to the question of "Why Scouting?" is leadership. You won't all have the opportunity to be captain of your sports team or to be student council president, but at some time or another all of you will hold a leadership position in the troop. In mast cases several different positions over the years of your scouting involvement. Some do a fair job, some do a great job, but you will all get the opportunity, and will learn through your mistakes. There is a scout parent I know, who is a manager at a local high tech company. He told me that everything he knows about leadership, he learned in scouting.

As further proof of both variety and leadership, consider that former Boy Scouts include such famous people as: Neil Armstrong, first person to walk on the moon; Mike Ditka, hall of fame football player; Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, Hank Aaron, baseball player and home run record holder. George W Bush, our current president; Norm Mineta former mayor of San Jose, Harrison Ford, star of Indian Jones and Star Wars; Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart; Paul McCartney, former member of the Beatles; Steven Spielberg, movie producer. That's just a small sample of a pretty diverse group of people in different careers.

You are sharing the Scouting experience with all of them, as well as with each other. And always keep in mind that this is YOUR troop. If you have ideas, see something you like or something you don't like, let me know. Other scouts are interested in your ideas and what you have to say. Step up... take the lead.. make the most of your scouting experience.

Thank you for listening.