LAAC ESA Fall 2010 Newsletter

1. In his “Corner” article on page 4, LAAC Scout Executive Paul Moore conveys his thoughts about
heroism and five Troop 783 (Pacifica) Scouts who were awarded BSA’s Heroism Award for their
diligent life saving efforts during a troop backpacking trip on Catalina Island. Andrew Boules, Ste-
ven Breitenstein, Luke Bucklew, Nathan Dethlefsen and Brian Zhang received their awards at a
Court of Honor held in October.
W H O A R E Y O U R H E R O S ?INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Showing Our Colors 2
BSA & Social Networks 2
BSA Philanthropy 3
ESA Survey Results 3
Jamboree, What a Hoot! 5
Got A Minute? 5
Scout Exec’s Corner 4
Geocaching! 4
Eagles in Flight!Eagles in Flight! Newsletter
Fall 2010
ME E T AA R O N IS A A C S O N
Eagle Scout (1993) Aaron
“Ike” Isaacson is one of
eleven injured soldiers partici-
pating in the “Soldier to the
Summit” challenge in Octo-
ber. Ike and his colleagues
will climb Lobuche East lo-
cated just 8.7 miles from the
summit of Mount Everest. At
20,075 feet, this striking
peak will require good physi-
cal conditioning and adequate
time to adjust to the altitude.
Ike has served three deploy-
ments to Afghanistan and is
Upcoming LAAC Events:
 October 29—Over The
Edge Bonaventure Hotel
rappelling fund raiser.
 November 11—Glow In
The Dark golf fund raiser
at Norwalk Golf Course.
 November 19-21—5th
annual Mountain Man
Thunder Rendezvous at
FLSR.
 December 4—University
of Scouting held at Ribet
Academy in Los Angeles.
For more information and
registration for these events,
go to www.boyscoutsla.org.
now part of the Kansas Army
National Guard. Of his experi-
ences, Aaron humbly claims,
“I’m an average guy from a
small Kansas town who is in-
credibly fortunate to have got-
ten to see the world, meet tre-
mendous people, and experi-
ence things that I never thought
I would get a chance to see.”
Yet this “average guy” has been
awarded two Bronze Star Med-
als, a Purple Heart, an Army
Commendation Medal, an Army
Achievement Medal and many
other awards, including the
Order of St. Maurice from the Na-
tional Infantry Association. Good
luck, Ike!

2. Eagles in Flight! Newsletter
From time to time Eagle Scout
user groups on Facebook, Twit-
ter, and LinkedIn wind up dis-
cussing when it is appropriate
to promote one’s Eagle Scout
award. “Should I include my
award on a job application?”
and “Do you wear an Eagle
Scout lapel pin when meeting
with customers and pros-
pects?” are two often discussed
topics.
Invariably, the consensus of
opinion affirms the appropri-
ateness of doing both. Experi-
ence has shown that many
good things come about when
two people become aware
that they share achievement
of the Eagle Scout rank in
common. ‘Nuff said.
For the centennial year,
Scoutstuff.org makes wearing
a lapel pin even better by
issuing a 100 year edition in
Sterling silver! $24.99 online
Page 2
BOY SC O U T S O F AM E R I C A A N D SO C I A L
ME D I A — A GR O W T H OP P O R T U N I T Y
SHOWING OUR COLORS
bered to post their award
when signing up on the net-
work.
Looking for a Boy Scout or
Eagle Scout Facebook user
group to join? Today, you have
over 500 you could join; there
will be more tomorrow. While
you’re looking, check out
ScoutStuff.org’s FB page for
special promotions and dis-
counts on Scouting apparel
and other merchandise.
Besides being great communi-
cation channels, social net-
works and related media add
a “cool factor” to Scouting that
can augment our camping,
hiking, community service
experiences. 500 million
Facebook users and 5 billion
video streams on YouTube per
month suggest that being part
of this cyberspace mainstream
is important. Speaking of You-
Tube, did you know that nearly
1,000 Boy Scouts were so
proud of their National Jam-
boree experiences that they
posted their videos there?
More importantly, those vid-
eos have been viewed by
nearly 500,000 people world-
wide. Oh, and if videos were-
n’t enough, there are
160,000 portfolios of photos
on Flickr with the “Boy Scout”
tag and another 20,000
tagged as “Eagle Scout.”
Scouting’s contribution to the
social network phenomenon
is centered in its sense of
common purpose, motto, and
law. It is this sense of com-
mon purpose that spawns
Facebook groups, LinkedIn
connections, and Twitter
followers.
So, be cool, get plugged in.
Check Facebook, LinkedIn,
and Twitter for the latest on
Boy Scouts of America!
BSA and the realm of social
media networks are celebrat-
ing significant milestones in
2010 — Boy Scouts of America
turned one hundred years old
while the oldest recognized
social media platform hit the
ripe old age of five.
Although separated in age by
almost two full generations,
Boy Scouts and the myriad
social media offerings provide
each other significant advan-
tages by collaborating. For
instance, you can find 2,500
videos on YouTube when the
search term is “Eagle Scout.”
Many of these clips are of
proud Scouts and their fami-
lies at a Court of Honor.
Searching for “Boy Scouts”
generates twice as many hits.
At least 38,500 Eagle Scouts
participate in LinkedIn, the
business and professional
social network and those are
just the Scouts who remem-
“My Eagle Scout
lapel pin is good
for two new
friends a
month.”
Robb Scoular
Past-President,
LAAC
and at the Scout Store in LA
and Cabrillo.

3. Eagles in Flight! Newsletter
It’s a well known and docu-
mented fact that the state of
the U.S. economy has impinged
on all business sectors includ-
ing charitable donations. Fortu-
nately for Boy Scouts of Amer-
ica, its youth development and
leadership training programs for
Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Explor-
ers, and Venture Crews appear
to have been rewarded through
sustained growth in private
donations despite these reces-
sionary times.
Donations to the country’s 400
biggest charities suffered the
worse decline in giving since
the Chronicle of Philanthropy
started ranking fundraising
organizations two decades ago.
The Chronicle’s Philanthropy
400 rankings for 2009 show six
of the top ten charities reported
declines in donations, including
United Way Worldwide (off 4.5
percent) and the Salvation Army
(off 8.4 percent.)
BSA is ranked number 35 in the
Philanthropy 400 and actually
gained by 2.0 percent over
2008’s level of giving. Unfortu-
nately, other youth-serving or-
ganizations did not fare as well.
YMCA donations were down
17.2 percent while Boys and
Girls Clubs of America slid by 7
percent from its 2008 total.
Still, while it’s clear that the
economy has yet to rebound
fully, another survey published
by Blackbaud found that chari-
table giving actually grew dur-
ing the summer months sug-
gesting better times ahead for
America’s human-services
organizations.
LAAC is in the midst of its an-
nual fund development plan;
several events are scheduled
throughout the year— check
out our table on page 1 and
www.boyscoutsla.org.
Page 3
TH E RE S U L T S O F EA G L E SC O U T
AS S O C I A T I O N SU RV E Y A R E IN !
BSA’S ME S S A G I N G RE S O N A N T S W I T H
AM E R I C A ’S DO N O R S
Our thanks to all the Eagle Scouts who participated in our online survey in September. We received
some great guidance and additional suggestions for social and support activities. It’s gratifying to
note that virtually every respondent is eager to participate in upcoming events designed to improve
the quality of our camping facilities and the programs they offer. We’ll be promoting them in later
issues of Eagles in Flight. As to the social aspect, we had a neck-and-neck tie between meeting in
sports bar to watch Monday Night Football or similar programming and a more upscale event held at
Club 33. Both are being worked on now. Here’s how the voting broke down.
Additional social event suggestions provided by the group included weekend campouts, a hiking out-
ing and chili cook-off, Dodger or Angels baseball, go-kart racing, a dinner cruise and a rotating down-
town breakfast series. All good thoughts; thanks for the extra ideas. Thanks again for taking part!
“Hello, we are
Eagle Scouts--
how about a local
hike or
backpacking
trip?”
Nicolas Nelson
Please indicate which of these social networking options appeals
to you - pick all that apply.
0.0%
10.0%
20.0%
30.0%
40.0%
50.0%
60.0%
70.0%
80.0%
SportingEvent
SportsBar/MNF
Dinnerata
restaurant/hotel
MagicCastle
Bowlingevent
Grammy/Peterson
Museum
Eventatthe
HouseofBlues
Pokertournament
Club33

4. Eagles in Flight! Newsletter
Who Are Your Heroes?
We speak in Scouting of
putting young people un-
der the leadership of good
role models, who often
become their heroes.
But every so often, we see
young people who become
our heroes. It was my
privilege to meet five such
Scouts recently, at a Court
of Honor for Troop 783 in
Rolling Hills. These young
men are pictured in the
photo on page 1.
Vice-President John Jaacks
and I were invited to attend
and to present BSA Hero-
ism Medals to these young
men. They worked to save
the life of one of their adult
leaders, and the father of
one of the group. They
were not able to save his
life, but his family has the
comfort of knowing that
knowledgeable, caring peo-
ple were there to do every-
thing that could have been
done for him.
Troop 783 is an out-
standing troop, with many
activities, plenty of ad-
vancement, and a large
group of handsome young
men in perfect uniform.
They are fortunate to serve
an affluent area, but they
serve Scouts who need
help as well. And they
serve youth who have many
options in life, and choose
to be Scouts.
Whether in LA’s areas of
extreme poverty, or areas
of affluence, heroic adults
are creating heroic youth. LA
Scouting is a great place to
be!
Paul
have a safe time while
searching for geocaches
Geocaching etiquette and
how the principles of
“Leave No Trace” apply
Geocaching terms
How GPS technology
works
Steps for finding and log-
ging a cache
Here’s another example of BSA
moving forward. There are cur-
rently 1.2 million geocaches in
operation worldwide. Find one
today at geocaching.com.
Page 4
SCOUT EXECUTIVE’S CORNER
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
As the Centennial year winds to
its conclusion, Boy Scouts of
America is starting the roll-out
of its newest merit badge—
Geocaching. The design work
for the badge was issued in
April and in October Garmin
(the GPS folks) unveiled the
artwork for the booklet on its
website.
Those earning the Geocaching
merit badge will learn:
Precautions necessary to
“On My Honor, I’ll
Do My Best”
WH O WI L L T H E FI R S T T O EA R N T H E NE W
GE O C A C H I N G ME R I T BA D G E ?
Editorial note: Only 82 of these
medals were awarded nationwide
in 2009.

5. 2333 Scout Way
Los Angeles, CA 90026
LAAC Eagle Scout
Association 2010 NATIONAL JAMBOREE:
WHAT A HOOT!
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 Los Angeles Area Council and our Association were well represented at the
2010 National Jamboree this summer. Our contingent include four Boy Scout
troops, our Scout Executive and numerous volunteers fulfilling valuable roles
throughout the encampment. Here are a few (but not all) of the boys, staff, and vol-
unteers who experienced a once-in-a-lifetime event.
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.
LAAC staff and volunteers
prop up the National Scout
Executive!