Three of the eighty-seven Scouts who participated in the Cabrillo Youth Center Historical Merit Badge classes held in November and December display their Carpentry badge projects—handmade tool/nail boxes. These Scouts and others also earned Pathfinding, Tracking, and Signaling awards. As of the beginning of 2011, these merit badges are once again “retired” and our Scouts join the very few who have met the requirements during the Centennial Year to wear their honors.

R A R E S T O F T H E R A R E ! INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

The Alumni Award 2

Mike Rowe Speaks Out 2

There’s an App for That 3

Come Hear Col. Fer 3

One Unit; 83 Eagles! 5

Got A Minute? 5

Scout Exec’s Corner 4

Shape the Summit! 4

Eagles in Flight! Eagles in Flight! Newsletter Winter 2010/2011

B O Y S C O U T S A N D E G Y P T As this issue of Eagles in Flight goes to press, the citizens of Egypt are witnessing their first regime change in thirty years and in seven months all Egyp-tians will cast ballots in the first free and fair election held in the country in generations. In light of these achievements, it seemed appropriate to inquire about Scouting in Egypt.

According to the World Organi-zation of the Scout Movement, there are 79,611 Scouts in

Upcoming LAAC Events:

February 19 —Cabrillo Youth Center work day

March 15—2nd Annual Youth Development Breakfast (see p. 3)

March 22— 39th Annual Interfaith Banquet

March 25/27—Spring Rocket Academy I

April 1/3—Spring Rocket Academy II

For more information and registration for these events, go to www.boyscoutsla.org.

Egypt where Scouting began in 1914 in Alexandria. Most Scout troops are associated with schools, clubs, mosques and churches. Egyptian Scouts play an important role in community service. They are involved in projects of desert reclamation, work camps, blood drives, medi-cal care and other projects.

Congratulations to our Scouting brothers and all Egyptians on their new found freedoms!

Eagles in Fl ight ! Newslet ter

In the coming months, a new patch, the BSA Alumni Award knot, will begin appearing on some Scouting volunteers’ uni-forms. The red, blue, and gold square knot will designate its wearer as a Scouting alumnus who has helped other Scouting alumni reconnect with the pro-gram. (A lapel pin is also avail-able for civilian wear.)

Developed by the national Alumni Relations Committee,

the award recognizes accom-plishments in four areas: alumni identification and pro-motion, alumni engagement, personal participation, and personal education. Specific requirements include doing things such as helping to plan an alumni event, convincing unregistered alumni to regis-ter with Scouting, and com-pleting online alumni training.

“The requirements are

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M I K E R O W E ’ S A D V I C E T O A L I F E S C O U T

N E W A W A R D S A L U T E S A C T I V E A L U M N I

time 99 out of 100 people do the same thing, it's not exactly a shock. I'm not trying to be cute with a bunch of reverse psychology. When I was 15, there was nothing that anyone could have said to me that would have inspired me to do some-thing I didn't want to do, espe-cially a stranger with a TV show. So I'm not going to as-sume you're any different, or pretend that I have some influ-ence or insight that you have-n't already heard from a dozen other people who actually know and care about you. I'll just tell you straight up, that doing something extraordinary can be very lonely, and most people simply aren't cut out for it. Being an Eagle Scout re-quires you to be different than most everyone around you, and being different is really, really hard. That's why the award is called "an accom-plishment." Personally, and for whatever it's worth, the best decisions I've made in my own life, are those decisions that put me on the outside of being cool. Singing in the Opera, working

in home shopping, starring in the school play when the entire football team laughed at me, and especially earning my Eagle, were all choices that required sacrifice, hard work, and delayed gratifica-tion. I have no idea if you possess those qualities, or even envy them. But I can tell you for certain, that NOT getting your Eagle, will be one of the easiest things you've ever done. Whatever you decide to do Kelby, it's important to re-member that the decision is yours. Not your Dad's, not your friend's, and not your Scoutmaster's. And you'll own that decision for the rest of your life. Good Luck,

Mike Rowe

Mike Rowe, an Eagle Scout and the star of cable TV show Dirty Jobs responded to a dad's re-quest for help in convincing his son to finish Scouting with only a year and half left to go. We thought you'd be interested in his reply:

Kelby, Your Dad asked me to drop you a line and say something inspirational that might per-suade you to dig down deep and find the determination to make the rank of Eagle Scout. It's a reasonable request, from a father who obviously wants to see his son succeed. But here's the thing - The Eagle Award is not really meant for people who need to be dragged across the finish line. It's meant for a select few, and I have no idea if you have the guts to see it through. Statistically, I suspect you do not. Only one out of a hundred Scouts make Eagle, so if you fail, there will be lots of other people with whom you can share excuses. Quitting now might disappoint your Dad, but I doubt that he or anyone else will be overly surprised. Any-

“The requirements are

tough . . . .”

Bill Steele BSA Alumni Relations

“A Scout is clean, but not afraid to get

dirty!”

Mike Rowe Eagle Scout

tough—and that’s by design,” said Bill Steele, the BSA’s director of Alumni Relations. “We expect these folks to work just as hard as alumni as they did as Scouts and Scout volunteers.”

Requirements for the award were posted in January 2011—www.BSAAlumni.org. All requirements must have been completed after June 1, 2009.

Eagles in Fl ight ! Newslet ter

Beginning in the first quarter of 2011, Boy Scouts will be able to manage their merit badges with an interactive application for the Apple iPhone (no word on Android as yet). The application which will be available for $1.99 through the iTunes Store, will let Scouts review merit badge requirement, keep track of their progress by require-ment, and even share their success on Facebook.

“Boys are notoriously bad at paperwork and famously good at technology. This app will help Scouts keep up with their advancement and undoubtedly spur them on to achieve even

more,” said Bob Wiermers, team leader for Publishing & Printing Solutions.

The app’s home screen shows the total number of badges the Scout has completed and started. With a few taps, he can check the requirements for any badge, find links to related web-sites and resources, and record the requirements he has com-pleted.

If a Scout has already purchased The Boy Scout Handbook—Boy Scouts of America app, which appeared in 2009, it will auto-matically be imported into the new app. The handbook app is

also available through the merit badge application for $7.99 on iTunes.

In addition to its native capa-bilities, the merit badge app includes a “really simple syndi-cation” or RSS aggregator that pushes Scouting news to the owner’s phone. The app pub-lished by Boy Scouts of Amer-ica joins seven other merit badge and trail-to-Eagle appli-cations available through the Apple iTunes Store.

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2 N D A N N UA L Y O U T H D E V E L O P M E N T B R E A K FA S T S E T O F M A R C H 1 5 , 2 0 1 1

S C O U T I N G N E W S : M E R I T B A D G E S W I L L B E G O I N G M O B I L E W I T H N E W I P H O N E A P P

Please plan to join Event Chair Pat Theodora at the Palos Verdes Country Club for an inspiring morn-ing of network and education. Our guest speaker will be John Fer, Col, USAF-Retired. John Fer was a highly decorated Colonel with United States Air Force; he began his career as a pilot with the Strate-gic Air Command flying a B-47. During the Vietnam War he flew 54 combat missions. But on Febru-ary 4, 196, he was shot down over North Vietnam and spent more than 6 years as a POW where he was imprisoned alongside future Senator, John McCain. Upon repatriation, he served in various staff assignments around the world. He holds two masters degrees from Auburn University and University of South Carolina. John is married with three grown children and remains very active in local San Pedro community activities. John’s life embodies the Scouting model of personal determination and life achievement. Among his decorations are a Silver Star, Purple Heart, Legion of Merit, Defense Superior Service Medal, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Networking and registration begins at 6:30 a.m. while the breakfast and program launches at 7:00.

For more information and to RSVP, contact Victor Zuniga at (310) 413-4400 ext. 321.

“Please join us for a morning of networking

and discussions with Colonel Fer!

Pat Theodora Event Chair

Eagles in Fl ight ! Newslet ter

I love a new Scouting year!

We get to celebrate the good things that have happened, and also to enjoy the promise of even better things to come.

This year is a great example of that premise, with all the good memories of celebrating our 100th Anniversary, and all the potential of finding ways to be what we need to be.

Within Scouting there is a very important organization called the Order of the Arrow, also known as the Brotherhood of Cheerful Service.

Each meeting of the Order of the Arrow starts with a pledge

or promise, called the Admoni-tion. One of the things that members promise is to seek to preserve a cheerful spirit, even in the midst of irksome tasks and weighty responsibilities.

If you’ve been involved in Scouting for any length of time, you have experienced some moments of great joy, seeing a boy win a Pinewood Derby, watching a young woman evolve as a youth leader in Venturing, witnessing a young man becoming an Eagle Scout, or seeing the light come on for a new leader who suddenly “gets it” as they are going through training.

But we must never lose sight that those WOW moments occur because someone was willing to take on some irk-some tasks, and that others shouldered some weighty re-sponsibilities.

So this year, on behalf of the 25,000 youth who are having those WOW moments all across the Los Angeles basin, thank you. Whether the irk-some task is balancing a coun-cil budget or running a unit popcorn sale, whether you do this as a volunteer or staff

member, whether taking on the weighty responsibility of being a Cubmaster or a Council Presi-dent, thank you for all that you do, and may you preserve a cheerful spirit as you do your best!

Paul

win a cool prize from The Sum-mit!

The survey and associated rules and regulations is located on the web at: https://summit.scouting.org/en/ShapeTheSummit/Pages/default.aspx.

Active Scouts and Venturers over the age of 13 may submit sug-gestions from the mild to wild.

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S C O U T E X E C U T I V E ’ S C O R N E R

T I M E L Y T H O U G H T S F R O M P A U L M O O R E

Well, here’s your opportunity to make The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve the most incredible experience in the history of Scouting!

Now is the time to share your ideas! If you take a brief survey by April 15, 2011, you could win a special preview trip to the New River Gorge and The Sum-mit site in West Virginia! In addition, if you win, everyone in your troop (or your son’s) could

“On My Honor, I’ll Do My Best”

W A N T T O H AV E A S A Y I N W H A T S U M M I T B E C H T E L R E S E R V E O F F E R S O U R S C O U T S ?

2333 Scout Way Los Angeles, CA 90026

LAAC Eagle Scout Associat ion 83 EA G L E SC O U T S DE P L OY TO

IR A Q W I TH UTA H GUA R D UN I T

LAAC ESA Committee

John MacAllister Chairman Brian Curtis Staff Advisor Hannibol Sullivan Staff Advisor Don Crocker Robert Gierat Gary Jones Paul McNulty David Meshulam Greg Mitchell Gerry Morton William Plourde, Jr. John Pollock Rick Richmond Steven J. Rothans Nobby Schnabel Robert F. Scoular Steve Silbiger David Tomblin Bob Ulrich

Volunteers are always welcome!

The Utah National Guard’s 141st Military Intelligence Battalion deployed to Iraq in late 2010 and 83 of the soldiers serving are Eagle Scouts. “It’s easy being a battal-ion commander of Eagle Scouts, because you don’t have to worry about them,” said Army Lt. Col. Matt Price, the battalion commander and a Scout leader for his sons, who include three Eagles. “They have high values, because they have been taught that as young men. You can trust them.” The unit’s senior noncommissioned offi-cer, Army Command Sgt. Maj. Michael Lofland, echo’s the Colonel’s views. Lofland, himself a Scoutmaster, says “we feel like we’re part of the Scout program. To me, the Scout Law is similar to Army values.” Best wishes for a successful deployment, 141st!

Got A Minute?

The LAAC Eagle Scout Asso-ciation is looking for volun-teers to help round out our advisory committee. Clever and enthusiastic Eagle Scouts (goes without saying, we guess) are asked to con-tact John MacAllister at the offices of Dorado Industries (310) 544-1316 or Brian Curtis at the Scout Center (213) 413-4400.