Getting things Started.

Many times we need to get things started.  We need to get the meeting going. we need to get the pack involved in belt loops, district activities, training, council events. As Chairman you can  take the pack to the bug juice but you can't make them drink.    So how do you get them to drink? 

I recently heard a story of faith and understanding God's ways.  A farmer had always believed in god, but recently was having trouble understanding  why the Lord would  allow his son to be crucified. On a particularlly cold and windy day  the farmer saw  some birds in the barn yard.  and watched as the fought the cold weather. He got the idea that he would open one of his barn doors so the birds who were too cold to fly  would go in the barn. He opened the door and the birds stood there. So he tried to shoo them in and ended up running around the barnyard. He  final said stupid birds how can I make you see that I'm tring to save you.  He thought about this  for a while and  finally   thought I would have to become one of the ...... His faith in God was never deeper and he never once questioned god's ways again.

So  how  do you get your pack to drink the bug juice? Lead the way.  I just came back from  our Council's first Web-O-Ree. (Before this year each district had a Web-O-Ree. ) In August, I sent an email to two parents who I thought would take on the challenge of heading up  our trip to the event.  My email was basically, I am going to this and I want one of you to make sure  it is setup for our boys to be successful at it. One of the parents had returned from Afganistan and his boy  was very interested since  last April when we saw the first flyer for the event.  The other is an OA member with a long history in scouting.   It happened that neither were the one that really stepped up. But I think my I am going attitude really sparked the flame in that person and  over the weekend I think we have 3  more webelos week-ends In the planning stages.

So what ever you want to start in your Pack, start by leading the way.  

Watching boy's grow

Last night I had the pleaseure of watching my son grow.  Now I have this priviledge everyday, but it is often akin to watching grass grow or paint dry.  My son has a bunch of opportunities his friends don't have. Our council does Merit Badge University twice a year. He has gone  and been around boy scouts.  Yet last night, he dove head first into the troop meeting  we visited.  I normally see him hang back in uncertain circumastances. I know I certainly do.  The scouts welcomed him and started figuring out when he could cross over, tried to find a way to get him out camping with them.  I guess in the end it was his willingness to jump in and the scouts handling of this little Webelos that had surprised me last night. 

So to the Parents out there Be Prepared, your scout  is growing up on you and that time is running out. Keep a keen eye and you'll see these growth spurts .

Helping the ADC

Back when my son started in kindergarten, he went to a brand new school.  So the council founded a brand new unit. I'm foggy about this first year. I think most of the people who stepped up for the big roles were military.  The next fall my son was able to join and that was just what we did. The leaders above us had a den of12.  After our tiger year, all of the military folks  shipped out.  Our tiger leader had also moved out of the immeadiate area. Our Unit Commish  set about to getting  the unit up and running again. We run through the year.

Well now was my time to leave, it wasn't a very big deal my son's den was him and him alone.  Yes I could have driven the 10 miles back to the unit, but  the 10 miles normally takes 25 minutes to drive in the evening. We decided to switch units and I am still very happy we did.  It gave me a view into an established  unit and how things "should" run.  I still remain close to the Unit Commish.  She rebuilt   the unit again that year as the only returning den was the Webelos 1.  My wife and I split duties and She helped during round-up and I helped witht hte first Pack meeting. Hoping this would give them a good solid footing for the future.

Last night I was picking up  2 patrol boxes  for our WEB-O-REE from a troop in my area. I ran into the Unit Commishes. My Unit Commish is the Advancement chair and the Previous pack's Unit Commish aka Grandma  also has a position in the troop. I am always interested in the how the old Pack is doing.  We talked and the big den of twelve has exploded and the leaders aren't involved anymore.  She's back to rebuilding. So I'm throwing another Iron in the fire and trying to help her get the unit into the  next year and a new district. I know she wants to see them succeed, but I could hear both relief and anguish in her voice  as she stated that they were going to be in another district.

5 years of building one unit, I have to give it to her  that commish is dedicated to getting the unit running. I know another "super unit" that's the same age and maturing  quite well. With what I would call an established program.  What's the difference other than 15 miles? When do you give up? I think I'll always be fond of that unit, but I'm not sure it will survive the redistricting.  

They say that nothing in the units will change by redistricting.  For my unit, it won't. We are strong We are established. We get to keep all of our resources, other than the Current DE team. I'm opening my eyes to a possiblly ugly truth, for some units the redistricting could mean death.  I'm sure the district they go into has dedicated, supportive, volunteers that hate to see anything go wrong or close up shop. But I'm not sure the new district will see how much they need in time. 

Popcorn and Twitter

Thank goodness my portion of the weekend popcorn sales are over.  Ok, it's for the most part that I'm done. I'm popcorn kernal so I'm still work on popcorn until December, argh.  I know a few people follow me on twitter. As I sat  out at a show and sell yesterday I had to vent my frustration with  Sunday's and selling popcorn via twitter.  Sunday is normally when I pack up the young'un  and head door to door. People are at home, but some people wanted to  setup on Sunday at a store.  From Noon til 2:00PM, My son and I sat there and sold $48 of popcorn.  The next two hours they had better luck making nearly $100 and hour.  

Anyway,next weekend is a Web-o-ree. So I'm out  camping and having fun. Someone else can sit and watch the popcorn stand. Then the sale finally draws to a close On October 30th.  This chairman is done being a kernel, as I have not had a day off since September 27th.  I want to go watch my daughter  in a t-ball game. My son wants to start the tradition  that we go watch the Dallas Cowboys lose the game, at the nearby Wings-To-Go, over a couple of rootbeers and a heap of kid safe hotwings. 

I knew Popcorn Kernel was going to be rough, but man I can't believe just how rough its been. This past weekend I hit a physical wall, that just about crushed me.  I need to make a whiteboard and dump my thoughts on what to tell the next popcorn kernel, before I lose them.

Of  course I couldn't leave well enough alone.  I did volunteer to give Committee training for Cub Scout Leader Specific.  That did a number on me emotionally.  I woke up many times during the night  with nerves  and finally gave up and watched the DVR shows at 4:00AM. I headed out for the training location at 7:00AM. By 4:00PM I needed a nap but the wife had plans for me that did not include NASCAR.  I have to watch what I enlist for a bit more carefully.

My Camp Flagpole post made The Weekend Patrol Box  on http://scoutsigns.blogspot.com/. Hooray Me! Now its time for some Hooray Root Beer!

Camp Flag Pole

Do you do Flag Ceremonies at  your unit camping events? Have you ever priced a "camping" flag pole for your unit.

We went camping last weekend and the weekend before I was  standing in the electrical  section of my local Lowe's.  My mind was wide open  I had thought about a pioneering project but good poles for a pioneering flag pole are just too long,  for modern transportation.  

So with my open mind I picked up two 10 foot sticks of 1 inch conduit, 3 butt joints, a 3/4 inch knock out plug, four 3/16inch eyebolts, a pulley, two clipon links (not the 99 cent caribiners), and a 100ft of sisal rope. About $40 of stuff.

My junior Webelos son needed another project for Craftsman. I explained clearly my vision. We are going to take this pile of parts and build a 15 or 20 foot sectional flag pole.  So you need to clamp the poles down to a table and saw through then at 5Ft.  He still didn't see it, but he believed I had a plan.   Our saw wasn't going to cut it in his mind so we packed up and moved our show to another webelos house close by.   As me and the other father lee watched they sawzalled the 10 foot pieces into 5 foot pieces,drilled holes for the eyes in the second section of the pole. We told them how to open the eyebolt  and attach the pulley.  The last part was to watch their Oudoorsman skills at work.   They used dad's arm span to measure out 20 feet of rope. ( quick measurement note here your arm span is the same as your height. ) The three boys each made loops in the rope and braided the tails into the standing end they also whipped the opposite end.  We had them wrap the braided section in durable tape. just to be sure.  The remaining 40 feet  had it's ends whipped, before they learned how to throw in a mid line loop.  A nice reef/square knot  made it a loop.

We took an old wooden flag stand to camp. It helped steady the pole as the boys staked it  out.  with their three guy lines.  It was very simple, yet very servicable.  

I'll have to talk to my son about how that made his pack go. 

Belt Loops and Pins

I was looking for another topic to post on today. I thought I would have to wait until after this weekend's Pack Camping experience.  Not so, I had an email that just chapped my hide worse than  wearing shorts  soaked in salt water on hike.  I follow several  cub scout resources online, this email was from a person who was told not to encourage boys to participate in the Sports and Academics program. I would call this an auxillary program to Cub Scouting, but here is how National Council describes it.

The Cub Scout Academics and Sports program is a supplemental enrichment program that complements the existing Cub Scout program. The Academics subjects and Sports activities allow boys to learn new techniques, increase scholarship skills, develop sportsmanship, and have fun. Boys participating in the program will be recognized for enjoying teamwork, developing physical fitness, and discovering and building new talents. The Academics and Sports program encourages a boy to do his best.

Having done time as a den leader, I did not push the belt loops. I had a very small den of two boys. It just didn't make sense.  I do still think that this is the Cub Scout equivalent to Merit Badges. You start with a group of little tiggers and have them do just the Belt loop.  Then about the time you get to late in the wolf program you expand them out to  the Pins  and make it a bit harder.  So when they get to the Webelos Activity Badges, they are used to working a series of small steps to  get the badge, loop, or pin. So  to anyone saying stay away from the Sports and Academics Program, would you tell the boy scouts to stay away from Merit Badges?

I called this an auxillary program earlier. I  don't think it can be dismmissed in Cub Scouting. One reason being  is several of the Webelos Activity Badges  tie into the program.  You cannot earn the Citizenship Badge without the Citizenship Belt Loop.  You cannot earn the Sportsman Badge without 4 Belt Loops.  The rank requirements tie into the Sports and Academics Program. That's why I do not consider it supplemental or optional.  It is  seperate from Rank but also required for a well run and planned program. 

From here the discussion digressed into a budget conversation, but the point is include this in your program.  Budget for it.  Do it! It expands the scouts horizons, and that is what scouting is about. Just one of many things scouting is about, but scouting is about expanding horizons.

UPDATE: More of a rhetorical question if a boy earns an award  do they have to recieve a Patch, Belt Loop or Pin? Is Cub Scouting for the Bling or the experience. No where have I found that  you have to award the Whittling chip patch. You do have to award the card, loose four corners and you have to earn your chip over.  How else do you keep track of lost corners? Alot of packs only award the actual belt loop for the first earning of the loop. Each Belt loop or pin can be earned multiple times, but I think more than once as a tigger, wolf or bear and once as Webelos is overkill.  You can buy 15 cards for the price of a belt loop and it hasn't diminished the experience any. The boy is recognized fro his accomplishment, maybe not as noticable as if he recieved the bling. but he was recognized. Just another reason to not keep this program from your boys.

Not often

It's not often that  scout leader's get recognized. Of course we don't do this for the recognition, but it is still nice  to hear that thank you  every once in a while. 

Saturday, we had a show and sell location  at a local sporting good store.  I was wiped  after this so I put off dividing up the sales until Sunday morning and then emailed out the results.  In the afternoon, one of the parents emailed me a thank you note.

It took me totally by surprise and I really appreciated it. So take the two minutes and send your sons scout leader a thank you note.