I’ve conducted legacy interviews with some long-term Scouters but realized that we can also learn much from our younger members as they create their own legacy. Here is the first of my ‘youth’ legacy interviews.

I recently served on staff of the 2007 National OA Conservation and Leadership Summit held at Indiana University. The OA membership includes some of our best and brightest young men in the country. I had the pleasure of serving under Summit Vice Chief (SVC) Jake Wellman of Yah-tah-hey-si-kess lodge 66 out of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Jake shared some of his Scouting background both in Ini-to lodge 324 in Georgia and lodge 66 as well as his experiences serving on a National Leadership Seminar staff in Far East Council in Tokyo, Japan. I am struck by the incredible opportunities Scouting offers to young men and the impact that Scouting can have on developing tomorrow’s leaders. Even at his young age Jake got to see and experience another country and US Scouts living overseas.

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Ken Davis is a long-time member of the OA National Committee from the Southern Region. He came onto the committee as the first Regional Chairman for the Southeast Region in 1974. He has a Ph.D. in history and was tapped to write a book on the history of the Order of the Arrow.

Now in its third edition, we caught up with Ken at the recent National OA Conservation and Leadership Summit. In the following video podcast Ken discusses how he came to write this book and some of the surprises he came across in doing his research for this book.

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We picked up some copies of his book that he graciously autographed and we now have on sale. Here’s a peek inside.

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We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.

Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.

Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

In part 4 here, Walter discusses meeting James West, Bill Hillcourt, and Baden-Powell.

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This is a Scout Legacy interview with Walt Helmreich. Walter, from Jefferson City, Missouri attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

I’ve broken the half-hour interview into four parts. These are standard flash files. Please let us know if you have any trouble with them. Also, please let us know your thoughts about these. We’re preparing some guidelines and interview questions so that maybe others could conduct these interviews and upload them as well.

In part two here Walter discusses early Camp Maries and the Jefferson City Council.

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We’re starting something new here, what we’re calling “Legacy Interviews”. Technology is allowing us better than ever before to capture some of Scouting’s history, retain it, and share it with others.

Unfortunately our history is passing every day but we’re going to make an effort to capture it while we can. In this, our first “Legacy Interview” we interviewed Eagle Scout and Scouter Walter Helmreich. Still going strong at age 90, he joined Scouting in 1929 in Jefferson County Council, Jefferson City, Missouri. His father helped bring Scouting to Jefferson City. This council later became Lake of the Ozarks Council and then consolidated into Great Rivers Council.

Walter attended the 1933 World Jamboree where he spoke several times with Chief Scout Executive James E. West and even cooked corn for Baden-Powell.

I’ve broken the half-hour interview into four parts. These are standard flash files. Please let us know if you have any trouble with them. Also, please let us know your thoughts about these. We’re preparing some guidelines and interview questions so that maybe others could conduct these interviews and upload them as well.

I believe that every Scout and Scouter has a story to tell. Some may not be as significant as Walter’s but we are all contributors to the Scouting movement. I believe we, this country, need to tell and share these stories. Our needs for leadership, leadership development, and the development of our youth have never been greater. The needs, and maybe the means, are different today than they were in Walter’s youth but our country is better off with Scouting. I’d hate to think where we’d be if we did not have a vital Scouting movement here.

In part one here, Destry and I introduce Walter and he discusses how he got into Scouting. I am struck by, frankly, how similar it is to today.

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I attended this year’s BSA National Meeting in Atlanta. I make most years. They are a great source for ideas on how to better run councils and deliver a better program but also it is a chance to connect with many fellow collectors who are also leaders in the movement. The following are my notes, in no particular order, from the conference. It was nice that BSA got away from Memorial Day weekend but they’re going back to it next year in San Diego. Dumb.

At the National Annual Recognition dinner, the National President gives an update on Scouting in the US. After he started, I realized that rather than ‘report on it’, I could broadcast it for others to hear directly from President Rick Cronk. President Cronk reported that with the May council reports the BSA is reporting nataional year-over-year growth in membership. Here’s President Cronk in our video cast.

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Amongst items reported at the meeting, there are over 1,000,000 living Eagle Scouts. That’s great for Scouting but even better for the USA. The leadership capability of this country is much better due to Scouting, regardless of the rank achieved. Its been reported, although harder to confirm, that there are over 100,000,000 Scouting alumni (not must members as youth but including those who were only involved as adults).

Two of our own were awarded the Silver Buffalo – Tico Perez shown here with his wife Donna and Dr. Hal Yocum shown here with former Scout Executive Ron Boller (Hal’s on the right).

A nice feature as part of the presentations was a video interview of each recipient. Tico related how he got into Scouting that gave the audience a good chuckle. Ask him about it.

Also, David Roberts of Southern Region received the Silver Antelope this year.

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This will be a first for us, and pretty much the hobby, as we’re publishing a “podcast” of an interview we recently did with Paul Myers discussing the different uniform cloth the BSA used and the badges that match them.

Some background

Paul is a leading authorty on BSA insignia as he has been a collector and researcher of this area for over forty years (boy he sure looks young!). He has published many articles and books on BSA memorabilia. His most recent is a full-color edition of Collecting Boy Rank badges. Paul has received numerous awards and recognitions for his contributions to the hobby.

Why a podcast? Well a picture they say is worth a 1,000 words so what is a moving picture and sound worth? That is, we think we can show and say more to explain things in our hobby that we could never write to paper (or computer file).

Our position within the hobby gives us access to leading collectors and authorities in the hobby. We think showcasing them and sharing their hard developed knowledge will benefit all. We’ll see how well this works. The files are huge (maybe some of our younger readers can give me some pointers here) but we think worthwhile. Please let us know what you think.

We hooked up with Paul recently at the Calumet Council TOR over the Memorial Day weekend. In this podcast, Paul talks about how in the 1920s through the 1940s the BSA made uniforms in many different types of material other than cotton khaki. These include serge, gabardine, wool and a material I’ve been wondering about ‘melton’. The uniforms were made in these materials and listed in the equipment catalogs. The question on my mind, and Paul’s as well, is “Do badges exist in these materials to match?”

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