Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Career Day
April 11, 2006
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

Last Friday, I was one of the guest speakers at Cupertino Middle School for their "Career Day". They invited about 30 people from all different professions, to come and speak. Each of us gave 3 presentations lasting about 20 minutes each, to different groups of students. The idea was to expose them to new and different types of careers that they may not otherwise learn anything about. The students had a lot of good questions and I had a lot of fun! I thought it was a great idea for the school to put on a program like that. The only real problem was that 20 minutes was hardly long enough to scratch the surface of any one career.

And then I thought about how great you guys have it, as member of this troop and as Boy Scouts in general, because you have the entire Merit Badge program available to you! Before our Merit Badge midway, I asked one of our scouts if he was going to take a particular merit badge. He said "No, I don't need it.". He was probably referring to the fact that he didn't "need" the badge for his next advancement rank. Well, he was certainly missing the point, wasn't he? Earning a Merit Badge isn't always about advancement or getting the next rank. It's about learning. Either learning something new, or learning more about a suibject that already interest you.

For the counselors at our Midway, we had a doctor, a policeman, businessmen, housewives, engineers, and many more different people from all walks of life. These counselors are all available to you, if you want to work on a Merit Badge. Mr. Regan has been working on updating our troop list of counselors. Beyond that, the council maintains a list of people that you could call on. From time to time, we may be introducing various merit badge topics at meetings or on outings. but it is generally up to you decide to work on a merit badge, find a counselor, and complete it. It is a great program, and I urge you to take advantage of it.

Thanks for listening.