Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
Scout's Honor
September 18, 2007
From an article on forbes.com 9/4/07
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

Tonight I have an article from forbes.com. Forbes magazine and website, for those of you who don't know, tracks large corporations in America and the people that run them. This article is from September 4th of this year.

All too often it's those without integrity who make the headline news. When corporate scandals break, no one really ever hears much about the "boy scouts" of business, or those who play by the rules.

Maybe it's time more people did. And from what better source then the new top Scout, Robert Mazzuca?

Labor Day weekend marked Robert Mazzuca's first days as the Boy Scouts of America chief scout executive. The job is as demanding as any faced by a corporate CEO, requiring extensive knowledge of an organization 1.2 million volunteers strong. Replacing Roy Williams, who retired after seven years in the post, Mazzuca also will be responsible for 7,000 employees and 304 councils across the country.

Mazzuca is a seasoned veteran, having spent 36 years as a professional in the Boy Scouts. He recalled how he got started in a camp in Northern California decades ago, long before MySpace replaced the campfire, before the Internet replaced the outdoors.

I did some research by the way. He is from Monterey and the Camp they are referring to is Pico Blanco, the same camp we went to for Summer Camp this year.

Those were simpler days, he says, when some of the most powerful men in the modern corporate world learned their unshakable values--values Mazzuca promised some of these Scouts are still swearing by today. He named a few: Rex Tillerson, chairman of Exxon Mobil, Drayton McClain, owner of Major League Baseball's Houston Astros; Secretary of Defense Bob Gates--who had to abdicate his role on the BSA Board to serve the country--and Jim Rohr, PNC Bank's chief executive and one of Mazzuca's closest friends.

He was asked: What's been the most exciting for you about a career in Scouts?

To me the whole adventure has been because of the lapel pin that you wear, not because of you personally, but because of what you represent, in every community that we've been and every town we visit. You show up in the middle of the night, unpack, and the next day you're there working for the Boy Scouts. You have access to the best and the brightest in town. Every place we've been we've been able to work with the finest.

I can sit in the office of the chairman of Exxon Mobil [Rex Tillerson] and talk about scouting. I mean how cool is that? You should hear him talk about how the principals of scouting are what guides his life.

He was also asked: Do you think being a Scout has had any impact on these powerful figures in corporate America as far as the way they do business?

These CEOs recognize not only the value to them personally of being involved, but these are corporate giants who understand the value of a workforce that has integrity, a workforce that has the capacity for leadership, a workforce that isn't going to steal the paperclips, for Pete's sake.

People who come through scouting know that the principles we work with are really valuable principles. If you want to be a good parent, just live by the scout oath and law. You want to be a good employee, live by the scout oath and law. You want to be a good CEO, live by the scout oath and law.

Thanks for listening.