Wednesday, August 27, 2008

NYLT











For the last several years I have participated in the BSA adult leadership program called Wood Badge. I have participated in seven courses and last year I was the Course Director. It was great especially since I had Jesse and Sara as Scribes and Jared as a participant. This year I was an assistant course director for the boy equivalent course of Wood Badge called NYLT (National Youth Leadership Training) It is a great program and is the closest thing I have ever seen to a scout troop run "by the book" We had 25 boy participants and a staff 16 or 17. Most of the staff were young men. Mike Masterpool was the Scout Master and he is the perfect Scout Master. Always in the background and let the boys lead and take charge. The boys taught the classes and directed the activities. One activity was to send the boys out for an overnight campout using GPS coordinates to find their campsite. Then we sent the boy leaders out a night to find them and bring them back for a special campfire. It is quite a challenge to find them and bring them back in the dark using just their GPS. We were at Camp Fleishmann for 10 days preparing and putting on the course. Here are some pics.

Austria and Vienna








This year's trip for Waddell and Reed was to Vienna and Austria. We had a great trip. Visited the Albertina Museum, the Museum of Natural History, the Opera House. Took a cruise on the Danube, and a tour of the Southern Vienna Woods. A few pics of the trip follows:

Sara and I spent a night in honor of Mozart. Waddell and Reed's Closing banquet.