Read Ebook: Scouting Magazine December 1948 Vol. 36 No. 10 by Lucas Lex R Editor

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Farming has become so complex that the country can no longer afford to let its best youth go to the city. Today farming demands the best brains as well as the strongest bodies the nation can produce. The modern farmer must organize, manage, finance, produce, and market.

Scouting can, and does help round out a rural boy's life. It builds the kind of men the nation needs on its farms.

SCOUTING ON MAIN STREET

Assistant Director of Public Relations

? BOY SCOUT WEEK will soon be upon us. For one entire week in February you will hear and see a lot about Scouting as the general public finds itself becoming Scouting-conscious.

As a Scout leader, you will want to make the best use of the nationwide publicity and direct the attention of people in YOUR community to the activities of THEIR Scouts. One ideal method for a local Unit is through a Scout display in a store window with a prominent location.

The three immediate advantages of a window display are: ONE, the general public becomes Scouting-conscious; TWO, the Unit has a live and unusual program for several days; and THREE, boys who are not now Scouts see an opening for themselves to join the Unit.

Before you ask a merchant for window space, have some plans for your display on paper, or at least in your mind. Explain to him the advantages to the community, to Scouting, and to his store. Most storekeepers are willing to cooperate. Larger shops may even offer the services of trained window decorators. Once you obtain the space you have a responsibility to both the merchant and to Scouting to install the neatest and most interesting display you and your staff can create. No doubt you can get some valuable help from your Local Council.

Build your display around the theme for 1949--"Adventure--That's Scouting!" Show the folks in your community that your Unit spells Adventure with a capital "A."

Make a list of the items you will want to display, such as photographs, handicraft articles, posters, flags, collections, knot boards, books, etc. Select those which you can make outstanding. Don't crowd the window; use just what you have room for.

After the list is decided upon, get the Unit's specialists on the job. Get the shutter bugs busy on photographs, the craftsmen to their work benches, and the artists to their layout pads. Photos are one of the best mediums for telling your story. Select those that truly represent Scouting activities. Enlarge them and mount them neatly, with captions easily read.

The background, too, should be eye-catching. It should be large enough that passersby will be arrested and enticed to step up close to look over the display. You can make a good backdrop with a photo illustrating Scout adventure, and enlarged to take in practically the entire background. If you cannot get extra size enlargements in your community, choose several photos, make 11? x 14? enlargements and group them to form an artistic background. Or you might have your boys make a large Scout emblem from beaverboard and color it. Another possibility is to mount several photos on wallboard cut to the shape of the Scout badge.

Experiment with arrangements in advance, so that when you enter the store you can trim the window in the quickest possible time.

Chalk off the actual window area on the meeting room floor. Place smaller items in the foreground, and gradually build up to the background. If pedestals are needed, perhaps the storekeeper may lend them to you. If he has none, make some of cardboard and gummed tape. Cigar boxes, paper cartons, and tin cans, painted or covered with colored paper, can be used.

Extremely bright colors will sometimes detract from the items on display. Avoid them or use them carefully. Neutral colors can easily be arranged to compliment and flatter the displayed items. For example, when exhibiting a collection of leather-craft items, a cream or light green will show them up better than bright red or blue.

The large silhouette in this window was made, as shown below, by placing subject between light and wrapping paper tacked on wall, tracing his outline and filling in with black poster paint.

Arrange the articles to create continuity. It isn't necessary that each item be seen from every angle. Avoid over-crowding; it has a tendency to confuse and tire the window-shopper. He may walk away and perhaps miss the essence of your message.

Not until you have had your "dress rehearsal" are you ready to install your display in the store window. The pet peeve of any shopkeeper is to have his store upset while windows are being dressed, especially if the job takes too long. Agree on the time convenient to him, then do the job rapidly and neatly. Don't send the whole gang over. Pick two or three good workers and let them handle it. A good job done efficiently will undoubtedly get you a return invitation next year.

THE DUST OF THE ROUND-UP SETTLES

? The Round-Up that started along the Old Scouting Trail three months ago is heading for the biggest event of all--the final "branding," when the "mavericks," the new boys brought into Scouting this fall, are formally and officially brought into the corral.

The "branding" ceremony, which should be staged in early December, can be one of the most colorful events your Unit ever held. Put it on with all the spirit and zip of a real western event. Use imagination in the staging--a few corral fence rails in the background, a fire "burning" in front, and the investiture team in cowboy togs. Think in western terms when you write the investiture script. Act out the Round-Up and branding with a nice combination of cowboy color and dignity, and your new boys and your public will remember the night of the "branding" ceremony for a long, long time.

When that final ceremony is staged, the "branding" done, we will have time to lean back against the old corral fence and take stock of the results.

You might be surprised at what you would find if you called on his folks--so often boys are kept out of Scouting because of misunderstandings which can be so easily cleared up when you talk to the parents. Lots of boys get that close to Scouting before they are shut out. The extra time given to this personal follow-up will be some of the best you ever spent on Scouting.

This may seem like a lot about membership, but remember, all of us who really believe in Scouting's value to a boy, want to do our part to extend Scouting opportunity to as many boys as we can handle in our Unit.

Membership facts, by the way, are a good measuring rod of our program. When there's fun and adventure in a Scout Unit most every boy wants to join. When there's always something new and interesting happening, they want to stay in.

What are some of these highlights? In Cub Scouting the monthly Pack meetings are highlight events; each one is different and apparently more interesting than those that have gone before.

Up and coming Boy Scout Troops and Senior Units plan their highlights in a different way. They schedule at intervals through the year a number of events specially chosen to give a lift and a purpose to the week-by-week program. They use these special events as something to look forward to, something to prepare for, and afterward, of course, to look back on with happy memories.

Well, it's time to boost ourselves off that old corral post and get going. There's things to do around this ranch and now's the time to be doing them!

DON'T FORGET THE DENNER

for CUB SCOUT LEADERS

? <-- FOLLOW THIS TRAIL SIGN STARTING EACH ARTICLE

? The Denner is probably the most neglected and forgotten leader in Cub Scouting. Yet he is one of the most important links between other Cub Scout leaders and the Cub Scouts themselves.

The Denner is elected by the boys. While their standards may be different from the standards of adults, you can probably trust them to select the boy whose leadership they are most ready to accept.

If there is any influencing of the election, probably the best point to bring out is that the older boy with more experience is usually the best.

Usually the term of office is not long. However, there is no specific limit. If the term is not too long, more boys will have an opportunity to practice leadership. On the other hand, if it is too short, no Denner serves long enough to become a really helpful leader.

The Denner is the right-hand man of the Den Chief. Here are a few of the responsibilities which the Denner in most Dens can and should assume:

The Denner wears his Denner's Stripe six inches below his left shoulder seam. An Assistant Denner wears a single stripe in the same position.

The Denner relinquishes the badge of office when he no longer holds that office. Only one boy in the Den wears the Denner's stripes at any one time. Explain to the Den that Denner's Stripes are not an award for service but a badge to designate the boy who holds the office. It should be presented to the boy at a ceremony either at a Den Meeting or a regular Pack Meeting.

SCOUTING'S 39TH BIRTHDAY

BLUE AND GOLD WEEK

? Yes, we know it's only December, but it's not too early to begin to think about the way your Pack will celebrate Boy Scout Week in February of 1949. This will be Scouting's 39th birthday, and it's a time for celebration for everybody related to the Boy Scouts of America.

Some Cub Scout Leaders feel since our birthday is called "Boy Scout Week," that the celebration includes only Boy Scouts. This simply isn't true; it's the birthday of our Movement and those of us in Cub Scouting are very much a part of the Scout Movement. So--here are a few advance tips which will help you look ahead to February and make some plans. More detailed tips will appear in January SCOUTING.

As you know, each Boy Scout Week has its theme or big idea, and in 1949 it will be "Adventure--That's Scouting." Of course, to you that means "Adventure--That's Cub Scouting," so you'll be wanting to emphasize the adventure part of our program.

As usual, Blue and Gold will be our program theme for February. This has become a tradition in Cub Scouting. It's an annual party occasion with Boy Scout Week as its theme. Perhaps your Blue and Gold party will be in the form of a potluck where everyone brings his own food, or perhaps you'll do it banquet style. However you do it, it will be the basis for a month of preparation on the part of both Cub Scout Leaders and Cub Scouts.

Encourage parents to look ahead to Boy Scout Week and attempt to have their boys in complete Cub Scout uniform by February. Cub Scouts will want to wear their uniforms to school and to church. They will want their uniforms in spick and span condition.

Plan ahead so that your Pack will fit into some scheme for attending church on the Sunday of Boy Scout Week. If your Pack is sponsored by a church, perhaps all boys who belong to that church will sit in a body with their parents on that particular Sunday. Perhaps you could even work out some plan whereby Cub Scouts will participate in the church service or prepare an exhibit for the entrance hall of the church.

Perhaps your Pack is sponsored by a P.T.A. or a civic club which has regular monthly meetings. If so, why not start working on a plan where your Pack might have some part in the February meeting of the organization. It is not necessary for the Cub Scouts themselves to attend the meeting, but an exhibit or a display and perhaps several representatives of the Pack would help to put the spotlight on Boy Scout Week.

Every Pack should try to prepare a Cub Scout window display in a community store. If possible, pick a store window which is located in the neighborhood of your Pack. These are the folks who will be most interested in what you are doing. You will find some suggestions on Cub Scout window displays in the January SCOUTING Magazine.

Urge your Cub Scouts to listen to the radio during Boy Scout Week. There will be statements about Scouting in connection with all nationwide programs. Try to fit into this general scheme in your community and get some Pack news into your community paper.

AMERICAN CUB SCOUT DEN IN PERU

? "Gee, mother, all the Cubs are wearing their new uniforms to school and there's four--let me see, how many Cubs are there now? I guess five, Cub caps in a row in the cloakroom, and now the two Scout caps, and, gee, they look nice!"

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