CHENANGO - A Boy Scout troop succeeds only
with a dedicated scoutmaster, said Dave Martin, an assistant
scoutmaster with Troop 236 in Endwell. A big part of that
dedication, Martin said, is training.
"If you're going to put on a program,"
Martin said, "you have to have leaders that know what
they're doing."
About 210 Scouting leaders, instructors
and a few Scouts were at Chenango Forks High School on
Saturday for the University of Scouting. Martin, who
organized the event, said about 50 participants were new
Scout leaders. The program is designed to train scoutmasters
in camping, organizing and leading Scout troops. The all-day
event offered 86 classes, including First Aid, Dutch oven
cooking on outdoor charcoal fires and kayaking in the
school's swimming pool.
"Even those of us who have been doing this
for years are learning something new," said Michael
Kazarinoff, an assistant scoutmaster at Troop 4 in Ithaca
and vice president of the Baden-Powell Council. "If they
(leaders) came to training, they walked away excited."
The Boy Scouts have about 7,000 members
across the Southern Tier, said Stephen Hoitt, executive
director of the Baden-Powell Council. According to the
national Boy Scouts of America's Web site, the country had
3.1 million Boy Scouts in 2004, down 2 percent from the
previous year.
"There's lots of competition with things
like school sports," Martin said. "Kids that might otherwise
be Scouts are doing other things."
Getting kids involved and getting them to
stay, he said, depends on the leaders.
"The first Chief Scout Executive James
West at one time, around 1911, was asked if he had unlimited
funds, where would he put them?" Martin said. "He said,
'Training, training training.'"
