OCTOBER 20, 2011 — DAVENPORT, IOWA — Since 1937, Jamboree Today newspaper has been providing "the news you can use" to participants at National Scout Jamborees.

"It's a proud tradition," says Daniel M. Reck, a Unit Commissioner in the Boy Scouts of America's Illowa Council, which serves the region surrounding the Quad Cities. "I was proud to serve during the Boy Scouts' centennial celebration in 2010," he says.

Reck will be returning to Jamboree Today again at the next National Scout Jamboree in 2013. This week he was appointed to the staff and has been asked to provide advice for Jamboree Today's social media operation.

"In 2010, I was asked to launch Jamboree Today's online presence," Reck says. "Within hours we had thousands of people interacting with us. It was fantastic."

While serving as a copy editor for the paper, Reck monitored social media sites like Facebook and Twitter for talk about the jamboree, and he interacted with parents and Scouters from around the world who were unable to attend.

"When I discovered a post from one father at home about talking with his son at the jamboree through Apple FaceTime, I knew there was a story," Reck says.

That story became a front-page feature in the August 1, 2010, edition of Jamboree Today, where Reck explored the expanding use of electronic communication in Scouting.

"Scouting teaches young people how to become effective leaders, and understanding how to communicate is an important part of effective leadership," says Reck. "We don't teach semaphore or Morse code anymore, but we do now talk about the internet when we talk about communication with Scouts."

Jamboree Today will also be evolving at the 2013 National Scout Jamboree, which will be hosted at the new Summit Bechtel Reserve in Beckly, W.Va. Plans are underway to move toward an online distribution, away from a daily distribution in paper.

"We've not completely given up on paper yet, but like every newspaper in the industry, we need to make sure we stay relevant," says Reck. "To be honest, the Scout Law says we're supposed to be thrifty, and reducing paper waste when we have other more environmentally friendly options does make sense," he says.

Reck, who is a 25-year veteran of the Boy Scouts of America, holds degrees in computer science and education from DePauw University and Northwestern University, respectively. His regular role in Scouting, as a Unit Commissioner, is to advise volunteer Scout leaders in effective delivery of Scouting's leadership development and education programs.

In addition to the 2010 National Scout Jamboree, Reck was an international correspondent and photographer for Jamboree Today at the 2011 World Scout Jamboree in Rinkaby, Sweden. He also worked as an emergency medical technician at the 2001 National Scout Jamboree.

Scouting, as a world movement, was founded in 1907 by Lord Baden Powell in England. Following a return from Africa, Powell discovered that young English men were interested in exploring the outdoors and wrote a non-military nature skills book, which then became the first scouting manual.

Three years later, in 1910, American William D. Boyce became lost in the famed London fog and was assisted by an English scout, who refused to accept a tip for doing the good deed. Boyce was intrigued and brought the scouting movement to the U.S., where it now develops important leadership skills in more than 2.7 million young men and women.