Personal HIstory VIII -- My Scouting Experience

My Scouting Experience

    On January 1, 2020, I was no longer registered with the Boy Scouts of America as a scout leader.  This was the first time in nearly 40 years that I did not have such scouting registration.  During those years, I invested a lot in helping make scouting work and trying to help boys.
    Here is my Scouting leader resume, updated from my background statement for our scouting website, ldsscouting.org:

Robert E. Lewis:  Scouting background

Family: father of eight children including four sons, all of whom are Eagle Scouts.  Other family members achieving Eagle as of January 2020 are 18 grandsons, 2 sons-in-law, and 7 grandsons-in-law.

Professional: doctorate in the field of social work with specialties in child welfare;  human services staff utilization and training; planning and evaluation of family-based programs to prevent child maltreatment; and child welfare management information systems.

Employment history: manager in state child welfare agency, social work adjunct professor appointment at university, consultant in  human services staff utilization and family and youth-related services evaluation.

Youth and Scout assignments: LDS Bishop, Ward Young Mens President and Counselor/Quorum Advisor, Venturer Advisor; Varsity Coach; Scoutmaster; Troop, Team, Crew, and Post Committee chair and member; 11-year-old Scout Leader; Unit Commissioner; Stake Young Mens President and Counselor; Regional Exploring Training Coordinator, member of YM General Board Task Force on the Activity Programs for 14-18 year old Aaronic Priesthood Holders; Scouting District Venturing Teen Leaders Council (TLC)/Venturing Officers Association Advisor; member of Utah National Parks Council Venturing Activities Committee; District Exploring and Venturing Round Table Commissioner; District Exploring and Venturing Training Chairman; District Vice-Chairman for Exploring; District Varsity Committee; Course Director for advanced junior Explorer/Venturer leader courses (E2/PLC), Wood Badge course staff member. 

Training: Basic training for Scouts, Varsity Scouts, Exploring, Venturing, and Commissioner; Wood Badge (Varsity); Explorer Leadership Institute (Equivalent to Exploring Wood Badge).
Website Co-sponsor: ldsscouting.org 

Recognitions: Scouter's Training Award; Scouter's Key (Varsity); Scoutmaster's Award of Merit; Adult Varsity Letter; Adult On My Honor; District Explorer Leader of the Year; District Award of Merit; Silver Beaver; Venturing Leadership Award.


Boyhood Scouting
    As a youth, growing up in the small community of Glenwood, I had a limited experience with being a scout.  In the period when I was between 9 to 12 years of age, Mary Crowe has a Cub Scout den.  We had all ages in the one den.  I recall the den meetings and working on cub requirements at home.  I remember getting awards and believe that I qualified for Arrow of Light or whatever the highest level of recognition was in those days.
    My den mother was interesting.  Sometimes she made lots of preparation for a well-organized meeting and sometimes not.  Occasionally, when the entire group of boys was gathered in her front yard for the den meeting, she would throw us a sack of candy and yell “Dog Pile.”   We would run at each other and wrestle and chase each other until we got tired, then eat our candy, and go home.  Mary was a regular customer at Eaton’s tavern and I wonder if perhaps that habit had some affect on her overall den mother performance.
    When I hit the age of 12, we briefly had a regular troop.  One of the Glenwood young women had married a man named Jack Beveridge and they were living with her parents.  He had recently been released from the military and of course had some scouting experience.  He volunteered to run a scout troop.  I joined.  I remember a hike or two and perhaps a camp and completing requirements for the Tenderfoot rank.  I liked him.  He was fun and had some bravado.  After a few months he got employment in some other location, and our scout troop died.

Starting in Scouting Leadership
    After JoAnn and I returned to Utah from Detroit, I had callings to work with young men while in the Spanish Fork 1st ward (Teachers Quorum), and in the ward we were in north Orem ward (Priests quorum) and was registered as a scouting leader in both places.  I recall attending scout Round Table meetings in connection with both callings, but at this point I do not recall too many specifics about the programs we were trying to operate.  Both of these assignments were short-lived because we moved.
    In the Spring or Summer of 1981 Matthew had just turned 11 and JoAnn was now serving as the ward Primary President.  Shortly after we moved to Taylorsville, JoAnn had received a calling as Blazer Leader.  This calling included teaching 11 boys in Primary and also being their 11 year old Scout leader.  In this process, she developed a great love for these young men, but also a strong conviction and commitment regarding the scouting program as an instrument for developing the best in our young men.  Now as the Primary President, she was a member of the Troop Committee which had the responsibility to promote and support good Scouting in the ward.  When she began to attend these meetings, she concluded that the committee was not functioning well in its support of these programs.  Amplifying this was the fact that her oldest son had just become of scouting age.  Her solution: volunteer her husband to serve on the Troop committee.
    I am not sure how much help I was at the beginning.  I started by attending many of the scout camps with Matthew, and observing how they were done.  Denton Hauter was the scoutmaster and he had years and years of experience.  His specialty seemed to be backpacking, so I got a nice education in backpacking techniques and requirements.  I myself learned to love backpacking and the early trips were a revelation.  I myself learned a lot of self-confidence, even at the approximate age of 45, in how to plan and take responsibility for all my own needs.  I assumed the young men had the same experience and growth in their own independence and self-reliance. 
    The first 50 miler in 1982 was one of my favorites.  Our troop started at on the north slope of the Uintas.  On Monday, we hiked in and camped first in Henry’s Fork, then crossed over Gunsite pass, climbed to the top of Kings Peak and back down, sliding part of the way down on a snowfield, then crossed over the ridge to the west, hiked up to the beautiful Red Castle area and then back out to the Stillwater trailhead on Saturday, where we met our transportation for the trip home. 
    This was also Matthew’s first long-term camp and it was nice to experience this with him.  I have a memory of it being a long pull to get to the top of King’s Peak and some were feeling the effects of the high elevation.  I was at the peak and looked around to see what Matthew was doing at 13,527 feet above sea level, and saw him lying on his back on a big flat rock sound asleep.
    Denton had us preparing for our 50 miler and practicing our backpacking skills for several months with one-night camps in nearby places such as at Lake Blanche in Big Cottonwood canyon and Silver Lake Flat Reservoir above Tibble Fork in American Fork canyon.  This was very thoughtful preparation but also let us experience some wonderful local scenes.
    I also went on long backpacking trips with the troop the next summer to the Wind Rivers in Wyoming and in 1984 back into the Uintas.
    During this period I was serving on the Stake High Council but also continued to maintain support of scouting in the ward as a member of the ward troop committee and to attend activities with Matthew.  One of my major High Council assignments was to be the advisor to a Vietnamese Branch.  They had several Aaronic Priesthood age young men and I felt that they could benefit by a scouting program.  I took the initiative to push for that and got myself appointed as their troop committee chair, and oversaw the process to get this program organized.
In addition to my support of home ward scouting, I served in a similar capacity in the Vietnamese Branch for the next two years, until I was released from the High Council in May 1986.
    In the midst of these involvements, in the Spring of 1985, I had a heart attack.  I was 48 years old and was playing basket ball at noon with some of my friends at work in a nearby school gym that was open to us.  At the end of the workout I started to feel heavy in my chest and sat down on a bench in the dressing room.  Others called the paramedics who were stationed fortunately only a half block away.  I got to ride in an ambulance out to St. Marks Hospital with an EMT, then there was quite a lot of study of my heart.  The doctors finally concluded that this was a “young man’s heart attack” caused by unknown sources, maybe a blood clot, and that there was no permanent damage or limitations. 
    Yet there were psychological limitations that I imposed on myself.  I wondered and was fearful that this might happen again.  I think I recall avoiding strenuous outdoor things for a period of time, being afraid to test myself physically. 
    In May of 1966, I was released from the Stake High Council and immediately called as Second Counselor in the Stake Young Mens Presidency.   In our Stake and Scouting District this also meant that I had the assignment of Scouting Assistant District Commissioner, that is that I had the chief responsibility of promoting and leading the Boy Scout program (for 12 and 13 year olds) in our stake.  Some of my duties included, as I recall, organizing bimonthly stake Courts of Honor for this age group, encouraging training and Roundtable attendance by leaders who had callings with this age group, and leading a Roundtable breakout session for Scout leaders from our stake as part of the monthly meeting.
    At that same time, I was also serving at this time with the ward Varsity Committee, probably because Matthew had been in the Teacher’s Quorum until just recently.  As I noted before, during this time when I had stake callings, I was still trying to support scouting in the ward, especially where my sons were concerned.   But, I was insecure about what my body could tolerate, and steered away from strenuous outdoor stuff.  There was a plan for the Varsity Scouts to have a backpacking trip into the Uintas.  Matthew also was participating.  I decided, along with Boyd Warnick who was then the First Counselor in the Bishopric, that the group needed some support, and committed to go.  I think this was a Varsity scout camp because Larry Knowlden was the leader, and because there was an objective for Saturday morning to Climb Cleveland Peak to do the Varsity On-Target mirror signaling, to try to make contact with other Varsity Scout groups on other mountain tops.   I thought that I would be safe to participate because Boyd was older than I and maybe also less fit and we could lay off anything strenuous together. 
    The trek was to be on the south slopes of the Uintas above the town of Duschesne.  We parked near Moon Lake and hiked and camped past Brown Duck, Island, Kidney, and Tworoose lakes, and then through Tworoose Pass into Squaw Basin.  After camping at Squaw Lake which had wonderful fishing, we headed upward for Cleveland Pass and camped Friday night at a little lake just at the base of Cleveland Peak, one of the many 12,000 foot peaks in the Uintas.  The boys were going to climb this peak in the morning.  Where we were camped was  probably a thousand or so feet below the summit.  I noticed that the first part of the climb was a steep scramble.  After breakfast the boys and Larry started their climb.  It was not technical, just taking strong legs and strong lungs.  Boyd Warnick was there as a member of the Bishopric, about 10 years older that I, and we resolved to stay together in camp.  Boyd and I looked at each other and said, “Let’s follow them up for a ways, until we get tired.”  The climb didn’t seem too hard.  We got half way up the steep part of the climb and were still feeling good and kept going.  In not too many minutes we reached a point where we broke over a ridge.  We saw the climbers ahead of us hiking toward the peak. The rest of the climb to the high point of the mountain was a long but nice gradual slope.  Boyd turned around and started back down, but I thought, “The hard part is over.” My body and heart and lungs were doing just fine, so I kept going clear to the top with the strongest of the group.  It was now obvious that there were no limits physically on what I could do, so at that hour I lost any fears and insecurities about pushing my body.  It was a wonderful revelation that allowed me to have a number of other outdoor experiences, without anxiety, over the next number of years.

The Training Course, E2
    Later that summer, Matthew was chosen to represent his quorum at a special training course on the effective use of the Exploring program in Priests quorums.  This was the beginning exposure for me in a long adventure in leading and promoting the older boy scouting programs, Varsity Scouting and Exploring (later called Venturing).
    Our stake was invited to send a team of young men to Philmont Ranch for training on the use of the Exploring program.  The course, National LDS Explorer Instructor Training, had been developed with the support of the Young Mens leadership of the Church to help young men and their leaders improve their usage and implementation of Exploring as the activity arm of our Priests Quorums.  Each ward was asked to select one Priest to attend this program.  Matthew was selected to go from our ward.  He was an Eagle Scout and had been active in all his priesthood functions.  Someone arranged transportation and he was picked up in the middle of the week and he was gone for seven days.  JoAnn and I were a little anxious about how this experience would turn out.  In the late evening a week later he came bounding in from his ride and we asked him how the training was.  He said, “ I have learned for myself why we have Scouting in the Church.”  He then explained that Bishop Featherstone had attended and addressed the young men.  He said Bishop Featherstone had told them why have scouting in the Church.  We asked, “What did he say?”  Matthew then answered, “He said, to prepare young men to be missionaries.”
    This course presented a model of Exploring in what might have been a stake and a set of wards.  Conducting and leading was four young men, the presidency of the Explorer Presidents Association (EPA), with a President, two Vice Presidents, and a Secretary, perhaps the equivalent of the male component of a Stake Youth Council. 
    All of the course participants are divided into Posts of about 6-8 young men.  They meet and organize themselves with a President, Vice Presidents, and Secretary.  They also assigned Post members to represent their Post on six activity committees that would each plan and organize an activity for the entire camp.  The activities were for each of the six Exploring Experience Areas namely, Social, Service, Citizenship, Fitness, Outdoor, and Career.   The members of the Post also created for themselves a constitution and purpose statement with the definition of the Post uniform (Post Code and Bylaws ).  During the course, each Post discovered that there were Post uniform t-shirts of differing colors that they could acquire, once their Code and Bylaws were completed and approved.  Finally, the six activity committees met, planned and led their event as the week progressed.  There were eleven leadership skills that were taught to course members, these by adult staff, sometimes in the Posts and sometimes all participants together in one large group.  However, the EPA was central to the progression of the course, holding meetings, communicating, giving instructions, approving plans. The EPA Presidency conducted all meetings of the course as a whole, except for a welcome and a closure time by the course director who was as an adult.
    This was the second time that this course was presented at Philmont.  It was well  received and leaders of the Utah BSA councils determined to begin to present the course nearer to home.  It began to be presented in two versions by the three Utah BSA councils, one for edult leaders and one for youths.  The adult version was called Exploring Leadership Institute (ELI) and was in reality an Exploring focused Woodbadge.  The youth versions were called E2 in our Great Salt Lake Council (Exploring to a higher power) and elsewhere Leadership Institute For Explorers (LIFE).  The major difference was that the adult version added a Woodbadge like ticket, a set of personal Venturing related objectives to accomplish in the coming months.
    When Matthew from the Philmont training he seemed committed to implement some of the ideas that had been presented for en enhanced Exploring program, and in addition to promoting ward Exploring activities, he became involved in the District Explorer Presidents Association.  In 1986-87 he served as Olde English Fort District EPA secretary and in 1987-88 as the EPA President.

More Training and Older Boy Scouting Leader Opportunities.
    In the meantime, after serving in the Stake Young Mens Presidency for a year, there was a change and in May 1987 I was advanced to the calling of First Counselor.  This also meant I had the Varsity Assistant District Commissioner, with similar duties in regard to Varsity Scouting that I had previously for Scouting.  And I continued to being on the ward Varsity Team Committee Chairman 5/87-2/89
    In August of 1988, I had further exposure to Explorer leadership training.  I helped provide transportation and support for the Priests from our Taylorsville ward to attend an E2 program presented by our Great Salt Lake BSA Council and held at the Teton Canoe Base in Wyoming.
    In December 1988 I was called as the Stake Young Mens President, which included the assignment to be Exploring Assistant District Commissioner.
    In the summer of 1989 I took two important steps in my scouting training.  These were two week long leadership courses that I attended almost back to back in the late summer.  The first was the standard BSA adult leader advanced training course, Woodbadge, except that at that time the BSA Great Salt Lake Council had created a version that focused upon Varsity Scouts and this was the course that I attended.  The course was held at Camp Tracy in Salt Lake’s Mill Creek canyon.  Most of the features of the course were the standard Woodbadge, but all of the examples were regarding Varsity Scouting.
    I might mention also that Varsity Scouts was developed around 1975 by Latter-day Saint scouters in the north end of Utah county, being designed specifically as an activity program specifically for Teacher Quorum age 14 and 15 year old boys, and then accepted by BSA as a sort of adjunct program to regular scouting.  I do not think it really caught on with anyone else, and unfortunately was not supported as well as it might have been by national BSA.  There was a perhaps 20-30 year period in which the Utah BSA Councils put a lot of emphasis on making Varsity Scouts work.  But finally national BSA forced these Councils to sort of homogenize its support into that of regular scouting and it lost its momentum.  It was a spectacular program in its time, fitting the needs of middle teen boys so perfectly, and very natural (and fun) to implement.
    A couple of weeks after returning home from Woodbadge, I attended another week of training, also an advanced course, about Exploring called ELI (Explorer Leadership Institute), sponsored by Utah National Parks Council and held at the campus of the College of Eastern Utah in Price.  Similar to the Varsity Woodbadge training just described, this program was focused upon the LDS usage of Exploring as the activity program for in Priest Quorums.
     Meanwhile, the leaders of the Scouting District in our own Taylorsville area were making plans to offer the E2 course just for young men in our own local area.  My good friend, Earl Mullennax had just been appointed chairman of our Taylorsville area BSA Olde English Fort district and was determined to make the E2 and Exploring experience widely available to our young men in Taylorsville.  He himself had experienced the course at Philmont in 1987 and participated again in the adult versions being offered by the Great Salt Lake and Trapper Trails Council (Ogden).  He personally reached out to sell this idea to the Presidents of all five Taylorsville Stakes and two Bennion stakes and also their Stake Young Mens Presidents.  He had almost unanimous support from these leaders.  When I was the Young Mens President in our stake, I remember and appreciated the solid unity of the other Stake Young Mens Presidents in promoting good Exploring programs and specifically the district E2 course.  I recall that we seemed to have ownership for this project as a group.  There was also much positive support by James Jardine our regional  leader for the Church and from the professional scouter who was our District Executive.
    The initial E2 course was held in June 1990, with Earl functioning in the role of Course Director.  I attended as a staff person for all 18 years that this course was held, though 2007.  In 1992 and 1993 I served as course director.  Other years I was the EPA advisor, or a Post advisor, or taught leadership skills or helped out in other ways that were needed. 
    In its 18 years, over 900 young men of Priests age participated in the is course.  And many came back multiple times to serve as staff for the course, often as Post advisors or members of the course EPA or VOA Presidency.
    Most significantly, we saw growth in many, many of these young men, as they progressed to decide that their lives had purpose and that purpose involved service to others.
    Matthew remembers attending this course as a staff member in June 1991, immediately upon his return from his mission in South Africa.  David and Nathan also attended the course when it was called PLC.
    With a major change in stake leaders, the camp lost its support and was discontinued after 2007.  Wendy and I attended together three weeks after our marriage in 2006 and also in 2007.  Wendy was part of the food preparation staff.

A Surprise Change in E2 Sponsorship
    As we were starting to prepare for our 1993 E2 course, a surprise announcement was made by the Church.  In a letter signed by Howard Hunter who was then the President of the Quorum of the Twelve, it was announced that the Church would no longer participate in the ELI and E2 courses.  This was a shock and surprise.  The Church leaders we knew were very positive about the course in both its impact on young men and the progress being made in training leaders to get the most out of our use of the Exploring program.  Informal explanations seemed to point toward there being some overzealousness on the part of some leaders, especially some high level leaders in  BSA to overpressure or to try to require church leaders like Bishops to attend ELI; also to make the cost of attendance excessive (course fee plus 2 uniforms, blue blazer and gray slacks plus a full Explorer leader’s uniform), or another thought that there was to much Church content being taught in a course sponsored by BSA.  The underlying motive was not fully explained. 
    Among our local Church leaders there was dismay also.  Jack Green who was President of the Bennion East Stake and others suggested that if we couldn’t have this course as a BSA offering, since the content was developed by members of the Church for members of the Church, that perhaps the Church could sponsor the program.  That idea caught on and Elder Jardine, the Regional Representative, gave his approval.  Earl and the other district leaders picked up on this, and preparations for June contiued.  The course was renamed Priests Leadership conference (PLC) but kept the E2 content intact. 
    This process was being followed in other areas that were using this program also, including the South Weber area where the Soderquists were living.  Their solution was the same, but for their Aaron’s Camp they removed most or all of the Exploring content and gave the experience a missionary preparation vocabulary and emphasis. 
    In our area, to provide a priesthood authority line for the operation of PLC, an agent stake president was identified, and in July of 1993, I was called as Taylorsville Region Aaronic Priesthood Training Coordinator, with the assignment to oversee the this program.  I served in this position for two years.
    In the midst of this work, in 1998, BSA changed all the terminology.  Exploring became Venturing, Posts became Crews, and the EPA became the VOA (Venturing Officers Association).

Scouting Continued
    All the while that I was part of the team that was putting on E2/PLC,  plus often having BSA District leadership assignments, including Exploring/Venturing Roundtable Commissioner and Training Chairman, I also had heavy-duty scouting assignments in the stake and then in our ward.  Immediately after my release as Stake Young Mens President, in November 1991, I was called by our ward leaders to be ward Young Mens First Counselor/Varsity Coach/Teachers Quorum Advisor and served in this assignment for four years.  I had two wonderful assistants to work with, Larry Knowlden and Dave Ricketts.  Varsity Scouting that was our activity program was intended to be full of outdoor high adventure.  My assistants each had an adventure preference for which they were advocates--Larry loved backpacking in the Uintas and Dave adored exploring Southern Utah, so our compromise was to do both– Unitas in the summer and Southern Utah in the Spring and Fall, usually for 2-3 day adventures during the school vacations.
    One of the goals that our quorum set, was to have a high adventure in each of our National Parks.  We included all of the Utah parks, plus Great Basin in Nevada.  These were:
    Zions– after being dropped off at a reservoir high above the canyon about 20 miles to the north, hiking on a high plateau through a Ponderosa Pine forest down along the West Rim, finally descending to the canyon at Angels Landing.
    Bryce–hiking down into and through the canyon through the beautiful red rock
    Canyonlands– hiked to several arches and a Colorado River overlook.
    Arches– hiked Park Avenue and to several arches including Landscape Arch.
    Capital Reef– fed the deer at the campground/old apple orchard, hiked slot canyon and to an arch.
    Great Basin– toured Lehman Cave, visit the Bristlecone forest.
    This latter visit was one of my very favorite camps, as we were able to see the full range of vegetation zones as we entered the park and then drove to a camping place high on the mountain, starting with alkaline desert, then scrub oak and pinion pine, aspen and Ponderosa, firs and spruces, and ended up at timberline.  It was almost like traveling 5000 miles northward to the arctic tundra in less than an hour. 
    Here are other places we visited: Natural bridges and Grand Gulch, San Rafael river gorge, Goblin Valley and Little Wild Horse canyon, also nearby Horseshoe Canyon with its exraordinary pictographs.
    One of my favorite memories was a 60 mile Uintas backpacking trip, starting at Henry’s Fork on the north slope, packing up and over Gunsite Pass, climbing King’s Peak, then heading south over Trail Rider pass,  past Lake Atwood and being picked up on the south side of the mountains at the Uinta River trailhead.  We had great fun on this trip with a llama called Nebraska that Dave and one of the boys rented to carry their packs.
    We built our own folding Kayaks for use on nearby lakes.
    Our winter high adventure was camping out and sleeping on the ice of a frozen lake: Causey Reservoir, East Canyon, Strawberry Reservoir, our Manhhod Camp.  We also built our own cold weather sleeping systems to use.
    During this time, I felt blessed to have David and then Nathan in our quorum and program.  JoAnn said  that she was quite relieved when each of them had his 16th birthday, so that now they would be safe again.
    After four wonderful years with the Teachers quorum/Varsity program, in August 1995, I was released and then immediately recalled into scouting as the Scoutmaster.  For a while, I only worked with the Troop, while someone else was Deacon’s advisor.  One oddity that this arrangement promoted was on a weekend in which we had a camp scheduled, the Deacon’s adviser planned a bowling night for the boys.  I was glad when the Deacon’s Advisor moved away, and I had both sides of the programs for the ward deacons. 
    For summer camps, our troop mainly used regular BSA camps such as Camp Steiner in the Uintas.  We tried to alternate mountain-based camps one year, then went to Bear Lake Acquatics Camp for a water-based camp the next.
    In June of 1998, I was released as as Scoutmaster and made Bishop of our ward.  I still tried to go on outings and camps as much as possible.  I also appointed myself Venturing Committee Chair, so as to have direct oversite for Priests quorum activities, and stayed in that position through the entirety of my term as Bishop and another two years until I moved to Spanish Fork in September 2006.

Our Website ldsscouting,org

2000 to 2010        YET TO BE ADDED


Scouting in Spanish Fork
    Within a month of my move to Spanish fork, I was asked by my new ward Bishopric to chair and improve the effectiveness of the ward Scouting Committee.  With the support of the Bishopric and especially the second Counselor, Lynn Hunter, I then divided the one committee into three, one for Scouts, one for Varsity, and one for Exploring, and staffed each with parents and others with a particular interest in that age group.  I also made myself the chair of each of these committees, and encouraged that each program be run fully.  This arrangement continued until January 2007,when I was called as the ward Young Mens President.
    As committee chair, I began to attend District Roundtable, and was soon asked to serve as Assistant Roundtable Commissioner, working with Dr. Tracy Frandsen.  Promoting the full Venturing program, I volunteered to start and be advisor to a District Teen Leader Council (a District VOA).  At this time I made friends with Gordon Lowe and also with Brad Harris.  Gordon was running a very effective Venturing program in one of the Spanish Fork wards and also was serving in a Venturing leader role in entire Utah National Parks Council.  The latter had just joined the BYU faculty for Recreation Management and Youth Leadership, formerly had worked in the BSA central office in Irving, Texas, and had had a major role in writing the most recent Venturing handbook.  Brad was also a member of the Church’s YMMIA General Board. Working with these two, I co-authored a document called the Venturing Guide, published first in 2006 and then revised and expanded in 2008.  This document was intended to introduce Venturing to LDS leaders of youth and give them tips on how to get the program started with their young men.
    Starting the Teen Leaders Council was quite enjoyable, and I worked with it until Wendy and I went on our senior mission in December 2008.  One of our successes involved Gordon’s daughter, Jennifer.  Gordon was released from his Priests Quorum Venturing calling and wanting to continue to make Venturing happen and help youths, found a sponsor in Spanish fork City government and developed a community Venturing Crew.  This Crew was coed.  They developed a strong program with quite a few girls who were enthusiastic about a high adventure outdoor program.  One of these girls was Jennifer Lowe, his daughter.  During the second year of Teen Leaders Council, she became the president of this Crew, and started attending our TLC, in which she became a faithful and capable contributor.  As we formed a search committee, made up partially of the current TLC presidency and advisors, to recommend names to be the next year’s TLC leaders, Jennifer became the top candidate for President.  She was smart, attractive, and had a lot of drive.  I got support from district scouting leadership for a girl to be in this position (we hadn’t seen this before), and made the recommendation and Jennifer was installed as TLC President.  She went the extra mile and began to attend meetings of a newly organized Council TLC.  While we were on our mission, we got reports, that she had become not just a member of the Council TLC, but was now the President, then a little later, the President of the TLC for the Scouting Area here in the mountain west, and the next year the National Venturing TLC President.  What an amazing thing to result from our little effort to use Venturing more effectively in Spanish Fork, Utah.
    My acquaintance with Brad Harris also resulted in my appointment to a General Board committee chaired by Brad, YM General Board Task Force on the Activity Programs for 14-18 year old Aaronic Priesthood Holders.  This committee met for a few months during 2007 and submitted a set of recommendations to the Church on making the older boy programs more effective.
    While we were on our mission, Gordon Lowe insisted that I remain registered as a member of the coed Venturing Crew committee, so that I would continue to have scouting registration during that period.

Post Mission Scouting
    When we returned from North Carolina, our stake immediately added me back to scouting support as a Unit Commissioner and member of Stake Young Mens Board.  When Mary Allen, who had served our ward for many years as 11 year old scout leader, was diagnosed with cancer and not feeling well,  I asked if I could help, and was called to that assignment in January 2012. 
    A couple of months later I got an unusual request.  I was attending a stake choir rehearsal in preparation for stake conference and seated behind me was Curtis Blair, Counselor in our Stake Presidency.  As we got up to leave the rehearsal, President Blair said to me, “I feel impressed that I need to talk something over with you.  He said something to the effect that the Presidency was needing to replace one of the Counselors in the Stake Young Mens Presidency, that they wanted to put a lot more emphasis on strengthening the Venturing program, that they had asked our Bishop to let me serve in that position, and that he objected because I had just been called as ward 11 year old scout leader.  Do you think that you could serve in both positions? 
    I quickly realized that I was retired and had lots of time and would very much like to try to do both.  He suggested that I pass this along to my Bishopric.  I spoke to Lynn Hunter, who was again Bishopric Second Counselor and the IR (ward scouting representative) and a friend, telling what President Blair had said and that I would very much like to fill both assignments.  He spoke with Bishop West, and then Bishop West with the Stake Presidency, and shortly I was called to be Second Counselor in the Stake Young Mens Presidency, but with the special assignment to work with Venturing in the Stake.
    President Blair told me later, with a smile, that he had to apologize to Bishop West for speaking with me about this assignment ahead of my getting the call, but it got the job done.
    I served in the Stake Young Mens Presidency for nearly three years and worked with Venturing.  We started a stake VOA, and I got acquainted with a number of fine young men.  One of efforts was to introduce a leadership training program for young men, called the Venturing Leadership Skills Course (VLSC).  We went through this training program with the VOA Presidency, and then they taught the course to Priests age young men in the Stake.  There were many other things we did with the VOA help them learn leadership skills and promote the use of Venturing by the Priests quorums of the Stake.
    Here is a description of some of the activities we sponsored:
    I connected with Elder Chandler’s letter of 4/16/13 which included a personal “mission” statement, because of my work with the Priests/Venturers in our stake where we have been considering mission/purpose/vision statements.  Just yesterday, our Stake Venturing Officers Association (which I am adviser, etc.,  to) presented the Venturing Leadership Skill Course (VLSC) to a number of Priests from our stake and their leaders.  The VLSC is a course on basic leadership skills created for Venturing age young people, a part of Venturing’s “Nature of Leadership” training program.  We have been preparing for this event for some time.  In February we took VOA leaders up to the family cabin and presented this course to them, and since have been preparing them to be able to present the same lessons to a broader group in the stake.  We have helped them get support for this from stake and ward leaders, to plan and carry out a publicity campaign to get attendance, to plan other details of this specific event, and to prepare to present the actual lesson materials.
    Yesterday we held the event, with 19 young men and 9 of their leaders present.  We started with a breakfast at 7:30 am and finished about 2 pm.  Wendy, bless her heart, created the meals (breakfast burritos and hoagies) with a little help from a couple of VOA mothers.
    Regarding mission statements, the very first session in the VLSC is on “Vision,” a topic which we understand is of very much current interest with managers and leaders in business, government, and elsewhere.  This is the creation of mission/purpose/vision statements which describe in a succinct way an organization’s reason for existence and energize and unify persons serving in organization around its purpose.  I have obtained some insights on this subject from Greg, whom I consider something of an expert on this subject since he was a part of the team that created Wal-Mart’s “Spend less, live better” statement and shared with me a book by a management consultant, Roy Spence, who had worked with them on this project.
    Our VOA has agreed upon this statement which defines for them the purpose of Aaronic Priesthood Venturing:
“Preparing the next generation of incredible leaders, in the Church, and in the world.”
    I like this statement very much and  find myself energized by it.  It makes me want to use all my mind and strength to improve the use of the Venturing program in our stake and scouting district.  It seems to me that it well describes the unique contribution that Venturing can make to the preparations of our Priest-age young men for missionary service and for life.  When fully used, Venturing provides young men with both formal training and opportunities to practice and experience leadership, in ways not duplicated by the other tools that the Church gives us for developing our young men-- Duty to God, Come Follow Me curriculum, Seminary, etc.
    In the VLSC session on vision the young men are also challenged to define their personal vision or mission statement.  I think of my personal vision statement, developed and refined over a number of years, which I share (with a little hesitation, because it is personal) :
“Make good happen.”
    It tells me that it is not sufficient for me to know and understand what is right and true and good.  I am obligated to see that these things are implemented.  It helps me to wake up from the nap, set down the book, get up from the computer, and undertake actions to accomplish things that will bless the lives of others.
Robert Lewis blog, Sunday, April 21, 2013
    During this time I also was on staff of a 2-stake Wood Badge course (Spanish Fork South and Spanish Fork East), that included Emilie’s husband Scott as a participant.
    In the ward 11 year old scout leader calling, with a series of assistants, we conscientiously ran this introduction to scouting, and tried to help each young man catch the spirit of scouting and take the first steps toward Eagle.  We usually met on an afternoon after school, either at our house or in the primary nursery at the church.  We taught basic camping skills and camped as much as we were allowed by the Primary.  Each summer we did a longer camp, usually at a Council camp on the north fork of Hobble Creek which specialized in the 11 year old program.
    Here is a blog about some of our 11 year old scout activities:
    In the last couple of week, I had two big events with my 11 year old scouts.  Ont Friday and Saturday June 14-15, we were at Adventure Park, which is a scout camp just for 11 year olds.  It is at the end of the road on the North Fork of Hobble Creek, east of Provo Peak and takes most of an hour to get there, mostly because the last 2 miles are a terrible road.  (They say 2 miles but it seemed like 10, all twists, turns, rocks, bumps, and dust.  The camp is in a pretty setting however, rather primitive and wooded.  There is just a dribble of water in the Creek at that point.
    I went with some trepidation, concerned that it had been a few years since I had camped with scouts, and that maybe my old body couldn’t put up with sleeping in the wilds and chasing 11 year olds for 2 days.  But I could, and it was still fun to be in camp with boys.  The comaraderie, the joking, watching the guys learn and explore still had some magic.
    It was sort of a “de je vous” experience.  I remembered how similar I felt after my first heart attack, and that was 29 years ago.  I write abour that previously.  I thought about my Cleveland Peak epiphany as I was finding last week that my 76 year old body could still enjoy a good camp with the scouts.
    Also, on this very morning, Randy R (my new assistant) and I did a 5 mile hike with our little patrol.  We did the Spanish Fork River Trail and River Bottoms Road loop.  We had Josh with us and also Sterling M and Ethan C.  We stopped every half mile or so and shot a direction with a compass.  We made it a contest, where each boy would shoot the direction and tell us their reading, then Randy would shoot the same object and the kid the closest to Randy’s reading would win.  At first the variation was quite wide like 20-30 degrees, but by the time we approached our car, they were coming within 2-3 degrees of each other and Randy.  For the last shot, which was the peak of Mt. Nebo, two of the kids had readings of 200 degrees and Joshua called it 199 degrees.  Randy, the politician that he is, announced that the official direction was 199.5, and everyone was happy.  This is the best that any group I have had of 11 year olds, in mastering use of a compass.
Robert Lewis blog, Tuesday, June 25, 2013
    I was released from this calling in December 2017, at age 80, but allowed to remain on the ward Troop committee as Advancement Committee Member and Chair.  I took a special interest in the boys I had worked with as 11 year olds and tried to assist them with their scouting advancement, kept advancement records, conducted Boards of Review, and helped the older boys and their parents set goals and work toward Eagle.  Five of my favorite kids, Ryan Cobb, Josh and Ethan Cook, A J Stone, and Braiden Collette, qualified for their Eagle rank in the last few months before the Church dropped the scouting program.
    We put a lot of emphasis on Scouts over the course of raising our family.  Most everyone outdid my Tenderfoot rank.  When our boys were home, with JoAnn’s encouragement, I usually blocked out time to sit down with each of my sons for a few minutes on Sunday afternoons to work with them on scouting advancement.  All four of our sons, two sons-in-laws, eighteen grandsons, and to this point seven grandsons-in-law, achieved the rank of Eagle.  Here is a listing of members of our family who achieved Eagle:
 Quin Soderquist    23 Jun 1977
 Gregory Chandler    Oct 1983
 Matthew Lewis    4 Mar 1984
 Michael Lewis    21 Mar 1988
 David Lewis        15 Jul 1990
 Nathan Lewis    14 Jul 1993
 Andrew Soderquist    Mar 2004
 Jon Pitts        2005
 Daniel Soderquist    24 Oct 2007
 Steven Perry        21 Nov 2007
 Troy Love        28 May 2008
 Paul Soderquist     25 Jun 2008
 Nathan Guymon    2008
 Ryan Chandler    29 Jan 2011
 Daniel Coenen    Jun 2011
 McKay Chandler    22 Oct 2011
 Jaron Chandler    3 Dec 2011
 Ben Jacobson   
 Jeremy Lewis    14 Nov 2012
 Justin Blake         6 Dec 2012
 Eric Soderquist    24 Mar 2015
 Ethan Blake         21 May 2015
 Austin Miller        22 May 1915
 Jonathan Soderquist    26 Aug 2015
 Jamison Chandler    8 Apr 2018
 Trenton Chandler    16 Aug 2018
 Aaron Soderquist     21 Aug 2019
 Chris Soderquist    21 Aug 2019
 Holden Chandler    19 Dec 2019
 Joshua Lewis        2 Jan 2020
 Adam    Blake        2 Jan 2020

The Loss of Scouting as a Young Mens Activity Program
    I have felt some pain in the discontinuance of Church participation with Scouting, as the main activity program for Aaronic Priesthood young men.  I put a lot of myself into learning and teaching and leading these programs.  I saw many advantages in Scouting, as a systematic and structured tool for teachings boys their responsibilities to God, to become men of service and high standards, to love and respect our country, and as a missionary tool.  I had my frustrations with others leaders who failed to catch the vision of what scouting could do for boys or who did not make the sacrifices necessary to really learn to implement scouting programs effectively.  I also saw trends in scouting, that suggested that BSA might have begun to lose its vision as to what boys need and how to run the program appropriately.  So, the Church moves on, but we remember fondly our experiences in scouting.