A Rambling Scouter's Blog

Catching Up on my 100 days 9-21

2010-10-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

October 6th, Reviewed my be a scout presentation for tomorrow night.
October 7th, Helped with info packets for roundtable, Gave a quick present at roundtable for BeAScout.org, Committed troop to teach knots at our Troopadillo Adventure (Webelos Woods like event).
October 8th, Packed and headed out with a local pack for Family camping at Inks Lake State Park.
October 9th, Helped Webelos I with Fire building and Baked a dutch oven birthday cake. I really wish I had a good picture of it.
October 10th, Came back from Camping, opted to take Hammock nap instead of posting to the blog.
October 11th, Read troop requirements for Journey to Excellence, developed goals for the PLC. Many have a due date of 12/31/2010. To make sure issues get resolved before recruiting starts.
October 12th, PLC occurred before troop meeting. I think they covered about half of the goals. Surprised we have 5 or more boys eligible for NYLT maybe more by June. Council's requirements are 13 and first class having taken part in TLT. This will make who to send a tough decision. I think some really should have gone last year.
October 13th, Purchased a copy of the 1942 Scoutmaster's handbook on Ebay.
October 14th, Drove Son to a local pack meeting, He explained to the Cubmaster that Den Chief training will not happen until January, yet he has read the handbook and is ready to start if that was OK. I picked up Popcorn for a Saturday show and sell.
October 15th, I took the day off. I really should have posted.
October 16th, Supervised the Show and Sell, Picked up the troop trailer from storage, Washed contents of two chuckboxes for 3 hours... Need to talk to boys about why we do KP before it gets dark. Two adults and one youth almost lost our lunches.
October 17th, worked on figuring out why trailer brakes locked up. Found I wired my RV plug backwards while changing from 6 pin to 7 blade RV plug. I discovered 6 pin trailer connections have two possible pinouts. When using the wrong pinout it will lock up the trailer brakes.
October 18th, Took the trailer back to the storage area. Received my 1942 copy of the Scoutmasters handbook, read section on a new scout master in an established troop. I'll be rereading this often.
October 19th, Today, I have my first Committee Meeting as Scoutmaster and the third troop meeting of our cooking theme.

Days 7 and 8

2010-10-05T15:07:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went to promote powder horn and the troop to a pack. I also picked up the keys to the church. Today I ran to the scout shop and picked up a copy of the TLT syllabus. I grabbed my son a copy of the Den Chief handbook. I'm writing an email to a pack that had written off the troop as possible troop for crossover. And tonight is my first night as the scoutmaster. I'm wondering what to do as my scout master minute. Maybe a game on participation.

Day 3-6 Of being a New Scoutmaster

2010-10-03T18:41:00.000-07:00

I spent days 3 - 6 at my second weekend of Powderhorn. I now have many new resources and ideas for the troop. COPE was very challenging. Rappelling didn't hold the glamor for me it had in my youth. although it was cold a couple of nights, cold for South Texas that is. One of our troops young Assistant Scoutmasters attended with me. We were introduced to the Diamond H Scout Ranch in Eastern Oklahoma that invites you to choose your own adventure. Diamond H is a partnership between National and Last Frontier council. I'm exhausted so I'm hitting the rack.

Day 2 of 100 days as a New Scoutmaster

2010-09-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

So while I prepared yesterday, I ended up writing my thoughts and it evolved into my scoutmaster's vision statement. It will take a while but I hope to get the Scouts to come up with their own vision of our success.

"If I may take just a few moments of your time, I want to share with you my vision for this troop. A vision is a picture of what future success looks like. If we can see it, we can be it. In the best tradition of Scouting, this will be a boy-run troop. My vision of what success looks like comes in parts.

As Scoutmaster I see myself fulfilling my responsibility for the safety of everyone and the general direction of the troop’s program. I see the troop operating according to the Scout Oath and Law, and following the guidance of the National Council. We are all here to help one another have the best possible experience. The Scout Oath and Law can guide us in that direction throughout our lives.

I see the adult leaders giving responsibility for leading the troop to the senior patrol leader and the troop’s other youth leaders. We will always be available to coach and mentor them, but as much as possible I see us staying on the sidelines while the senior patrol leader and youth leaders plan and carry out a great program for the troop. We will not hide that coaching and mentoring. In fact, now and then we will ask you to watch us doing it.

The Troop will offer boys the opportunity to explore the outdoors and experience new adventures. The troop will continue to expand the outdoor program. It will be the boys' responsibility to research and discuss new and exciting locations for future outings.

Advancement is a very important part of any Scouting program. Troop 745 is committed to providing boys the experiences and resources necessary for rank advancement. It is the responsibility of the individual scout to set his goals and put into action a plan to achieve those goals. The troop will provide all the necessary support: Troop Guides, Merit Badge counselors, etc. The troop will be a resource for advancement while upholding the integrity of the rank.

A quality troop also must reflect service to others and duty to God. Troop 745 will expand its efforts in community service. We will also continue to do our Duty to God by our renewed commitment to the Scouts Own Program. At this time we have an active Troop Chaplain and Chaplain's Aide. We will work together to start holding Sunday services at all campouts.

My vision of success includes everyone, both youth and adult, seeing himself as here to help each of you learn as much as you can. It is my desire for all the boys to feel this is “Their Troop” and that they have pride in what it stands for. All members are to be treated with respect and dignity. I want all boys to develop a concern for each other's welfare. We are here for you. I see us doing all we can to make it possible for you to enjoy the fellowship of other Scouts."

1 of 100 days as the new Scoutmaster.

2010-09-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I laid out that I'm going to become Scoutmaster tonight. I have had a couple of weeks to plan for this, but I really haven't done much to prepare for tonight. The current Scoutmaster hasn't said a word about this to me, that has me a bit on edge. The Committee chair has assured me that the change will happen and the current Scoutmaster is planning a changing of the guard ceremony. I should put together a few words for tonight.

I have done a bit more to plan for my First 100 days. Although I have gone through all the required training, Am I really prepared to mentor the scouts? Did Wood Badge prepare me for this? I'm not sure. While this won't help me in my first 100 days, I have volunteered to help with our council's NYLT course. Locally, we call it Cedar Badge. This should help fine tune my ability to mentor the youth leaders. After watching our last two SPL's, being able to mentor them is a huge concern for me. Both have had to fall into the realm of a dictator or the big boss role too many times. That's the first bit of our culture I feel I have to change.

I have read and reread a series of blogs from www.thescoutmasterminute.net on "If you build it they will come". Many thanks to Jerry Schleining for writing that blog. I see the value of planning. I have felt the need for and asked the PLC via the scoutmaster for an annual plan for the last year. Jerry's series of posts and a list of questions I found on a Webelos to Scout transition paper have helped me start to wrap my head around a series of goals for my first 100 days. These goals will be goals for me, for the PLC, and for the Troop Committee.

Since everything starts with the PLC. Let me speak a bit about the PLC that will take office with me. The SPL is an experienced Eagle Scout. Before the elections I spoke with him briefly, he stated he came back to SPL because he doesn't like the way the troop is heading. I really appreciate him taking up the role. His ASPL is a Life Scout that recently transferred into the troop. He has had some challenges in his life and scouting. I think he has turned his recent challenges around and will be a great leader in the future. One of the PL's will be in his second term. He is a Star Scout looking to turn 13 soon. The other PL is Second Class Scout in his first term. One of them is going to try and balance Jr. League football in a championship team with his position. I see that being a big challenge for him. I am looking forward to working with them

Wow was it really May?

2010-09-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

Was it really may the last time I posted? So much has happened in the last few months. I have worked my self out of my real job. The company decide to use me to move their servers to Rackspace managed hosting, a local company from San Antonio. I've been working on starting my own business. That's pretty much it on the personal side.

On the scout side, I went to summer camp with the troop at Bear Creek Scout Ranch. (http://alamoarea-boyscouts.org/Bear%20Creek/bear%20creek.html) My son went through the 1st year scout program called the Ranger Program. With his troop experiences, that carried him from Scout to Second Class. Another campout and he managed to get First Class in 11 months. Many people in Texas say that Bear Creek have the best new scout program in the state, followed by Buffalo Trails Scout Ranch (BTSR). I'm not prejudiced though, it is our council camp. At the end of the summer the Troop committee leadership came to me and asked that I take over as Scoutmaster. Two weeks ago I started in the Alamo area council's high adventure resource training for troops and crews known as Powder Horn.

I grabbed some interesting facts about Powder Horn in my council. The first course was held in 2003. I am in the 5th course. Our course's normally have a waiting list. The teaching methodology is based on a Venturing Crew. If you not familiar with Powder Horn, you are probably asking what is Powder Horn? For me, Powder horn so far has been Leave No Trace, COPE, Center-fire, rim-fire, black-powder, shotguns, clay, gear, SCUBA,Fishing, flies, awesome food, Canoeing, kayaking, Rafting, communications, gear, physical fitness, Climbing, rappelling, Treks, rivers, lakes and scout's own. I still have a weekend left to go.

Back to the troop and the committee though, I have accepted their offer to become Scoutmaster and tomorrow's Court of Honor is to be my installation as Scoutmaster. The last couple of weeks I've been working on and looking at how to set my tone, my culture for that I'll bring to the troop as the troop's chief mentor and guide. Back at the beginning of the year, I followed a group of bloggers that were writing about 100 days of Scouting. My goal for this blog is now to write about my first 100 days as Scoutmaster. I don't expect to do this daily, but I'll try to do this at least weekly. I started by blocking out time to do that on my calendar.

(Survival and New foods) Which cacti are the most edible and nutritious?

2010-05-21T14:29:00.000-07:00

While this doesn't really answer the question... It does help you to figure out how to harvest and prepare the fruit of our beloved Prickly Pear. Just don't go hugging any of them.

From Survival Guru Tony Nester

Prickly Pear Cactus (Opuntia spp.) is the most common cactus found throughout not only the desert but much of the U.S. It is my favorite cactus to harvest, and I usually gather up the red, golf-ball sized fruits in August or September, depending on the elevation.

The surface of the fruit has tiny hairs called glochids which can get into your skin (or tongue!) and cause irritation. When gathering the fruit with my kids, I always bring along Elmer's Glue, which can be poured onto the hairs impaled in the fingertips or skin and later peeled off to remove the glochids. Tongs can be most helpful for picking fruit, but it always seems like you end up with a few hairs in your fingertips.

After obtaining the fruit, we then place them over a grill on the fire for 1-2 minutes to singe off the glochids. They can then be eaten raw or cut in half to dry in the sun to make cactus fruit leather. Like most cacti fruit, prickly pear is 80-percent seed on the inside, and it takes quite a bit to make a meal. Your lips and hands also will be stained purple for the next few days.

As with any edible plant or cacti, make sure you know what you are putting in your mouth as some can be toxic and downright deadly. Take a class at a desert botanical center or with a reputable instructor. One such course that focuses on desert edible and medicinal plants is taught in Arizona by Mike Masek (theforagerspath.com) and provides a hands-on approach to learning how to gather your own wild foods.

Other than prickly pear, there are many desert succulents (another name for cacti and their relatives) that can provide fruit, such as the Saguaro, barrel cactus, and cholla. Some are protected, so you will have to look into state laws when gathering.

An excellent book to get started is Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert, by Wendy C. Hodgson.

Here's a list of nutrients you find in the paddle.

Cactus pads contain beta carotene, iron, some B vitamins, and are good sources of both vitamin C and calcium.

There has been medical interest in the Prickly Pear plant. Some studies have shown that the pectin contained in the Prickly Pear pulp lowers levels of "bad" cholesterol while leaving "good" cholesterol levels unchanged. Another study found that the fibrous pectin in the fruit may lowers diabetics' need for insulin. Both fruits and pads of the prickly pear cactus are rich in slowly absorbed soluble fibers that help keep blood sugar stable. There are on going studies and at this point there are no proven results on humans. You can make your own study and see if works for you, which is the only test that really counts.

Here's a recipe for a tasty, spicy dish:

CACTUS CREOLE

2 cups of diced cactus
1 pound of hamburger (cooked and drained)
6 ounces of tomato paste
1 cup of water
1 diced jalapeño pepper
6-1/2 ounces of canned shrimp (drained)
salt and pepper to taste

Mix all the ingredients together in a pan and cook them over medium heat for about 20 minutes or until the cactus turns a deep green. Serve hot over noodles, rice, or potatoes . . . or in pita bread or a folded tortilla. It's delicious!

Cactus also tastes great with fish. Here's a recipe for pescado, desert-style:

CACTUS OVER FISH

1/2 cup of cooking oil
1 clove of garlic (chopped)
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 cup of flour
1 pound of filleted fish
1 cup of diced and boiled cactus
1/2 cup of water (from the boiled cactus)
1 hard-boiled egg, sliced
2 teaspoons of lemon juice
salt to taste

Heat the oil in a frying pan, sauté the garlic until light brown, and then remove the garlic pieces with a slotted spatula or spoon. Combine the chili powder and flour in a bowl and roll the fish in the mixture. Fry the coated fillets until they're golden brown . . . add the water (be careful to prevent spattering — pour in just a bit at a time). . . reduce the heat . . . and cook the fish for a few minutes longer. When the fish flakes easily, remove it from the pan and serve it smothered in cactus and topped with sliced egg, lemon juice, and salt.

It was election time.

2010-03-25T15:16:00.000-07:00

This week started out with a call that a fellow scouter had died suddenly. He will never know how much he inspired me to be a trainer. He really focused on getting us trained on the trained patch level. Mr. Barrentine, you will be missed.
Next up were elections for my sons troop. The elections went surprisingly well considering the boys elected the SPL and both PL's before the Scoutmaster announced that the new boys would be in a new boy patrol. I still have many questions about the elections and how they were carried out. But I am very proud my son was elected PL of the new boy patrol. The scouts had unknowingly elected a new boy, an experienced boy and a solid candidate for SPL. The Troop committee adoted a training policy so that ASM's get trained within 6 months of joining the troop. This vote was a lot less debated than the healthcare vote. Everyone seemed to be ok with the results.

The pack is doing something interesting tonight, They are having Den meetings for 45 minutes then 45 minutes of Pack meeting. I'm not the Cubmaster and I'm not sure I 'd do it this way.

Saturday, I'm bailing on the troop campout to train some webelos leader's and my son opted for his school's spring carnival. But we have a solid show for the campout. 5 adults and 8 or 9 scouts. This is a backpacking trip in to a primitive camp site, so it should shake the new scouts down. They are all looking forward to it.

Storing My camping gear

2010-03-19T14:20:00.000-07:00

I told @scoutdude that My storage arrangements for camping gear was a blog post so here goes. It all lives in my garage. We also have a pop-up, but I prefer to grab the tents and go as I can decide to go camping on the way home on Friday.

Car Camping gear:

Section one the dutch oven stack: On the bottom is a Sportsman's Warehouse Fire Pan Similar to this. Next is a Camp Chef Dutch oven Table. My 14" Lodge Dutch Oven, My two Sportsman Warehouse 12" dutch Ovens, and 2 Cheap footless dutch ovens. In a bag similar to a USGI mechanics bag I have a DO tool set. gloves/ Mair Lid Lifters, tin spoons, spatulas, and several tongs. I almost forgot the Chimney Starter.

Another pile / Section 2 is the Folding aluminum Tables, Camp Chairs, and Our 10 x 10 Canopy.

Section 3 is the cheap sleeping bags There are 5 of us so that takes up a shelf on an 18x 36 shelf unit.

The shelf above that has an army shelter half tent, 3 Coleman 4 man tents ( our normal tents), a Sears 3 room tent, and a two man hiking tent from Academy Sports. and finally on top of that is an Eagles nest outfitters Hammock, strap, and tarp setup.

Contico Footlocker 1: Coleman stove and Propane canisters, Bowls, Car Camp mess kits, flashlights, emergency ponchos, misc...
Contico Footlocker 2: Dry goods for car camping.

Hiking Gear:
The packs are leaning against the wall near the car camping gear. Most of the little things stay in the pack while the big items come out to get proper care.

(This is both My son's and My Gear) Pads and Sleeping bags unstuffed / unrolled and laid over top of Shelving unit.

Kelty Super Tioga: Dad's bathroom ditty bag, Jetboil, Brunton Raptor stove , Xbowl and X cup, MSR folding spork, powedered drink ditty bag, Frog Toggs, Led light for tent, Stuff sacks for clothing, drop cloth for tent/ tarp. Personal first aid kit, Camp axe, Firestarter. camp towel. Camp cord.

Jansport scout: Son's Bathroom ditty, Coleman exponent stove, GSI Outdoors group pot set, Camp towel, Rain gear, Personal First Aid kit, Stuff sacks for clothing.

The Googling Commissioner Service

2010-03-16T12:38:00.000-07:00

About mid February, I registered a URL for my district UC service and a toy for me. I wanted to see how google apps and sites tied together and how best to use it. You can get an awesome front end view from the Scouting units that have come to use Google apps.

I was just handed a couple of necessary but annoying forms that needed to be completed and turned in. So I went and created google apps forms to replace the paper forms. So for now We don't have a Commissioner's website, just a commissioner's tools website. Hopefully it has the tools we need to be more successful as Commissioners.

The best part of this was I shared it with my District Commissioner, who in turn spoke about it at a Council commissioners meeting. The other districts' commisioners were all like, "I want those tools too!" While the tools aren't exactly what I'd want to go public on they are a far site better than we have available otherwise.

What tools did I create? Unit Self assessments, District monthly awards nomination form and Unit contact information submittal.

Intro to Outdoor Leader Skills

2010-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

I'm off to the new Intro to Outdoor Leader Skills. It isn't really a new course as far as I know It's just the first time my council has offered it since it became a requirement for Webelos Leaders. This meant that council had to make a new flyer for the Class. It will be akin to spending 28 hours camping in my backyard. WOO HOO! Our training / cub scout campground is surrounded by city. All around you here the sounds of cars and freeways and sleep under the light of the near by fast food joints.

Since I'm a gear nut, I decided to celebrate by spending lunch at Whole Earth Provisions. Why there and not our other trusty sporting goods store Academy. WEP has the Therm-a-rest Neo Air. It is supposed to be the best Camp pad since self inflating pads. They had 3 sizes in stock. Fortunately for my pocketbook I was not yet prepared to part ways with $170.

I did however pickup an Xbowl and Xmug from Sea to Summit (http://www.seatosummit.com). Together they are smaller and flatter than my current mess set. I also picked up a folding spork from MSR. (http://cascadedesigns.com/msr/cookware/cookware-accessories/folding-eating-utensils/product) the spork is longer than my current set of Light My Fire Sporks. The current ones are just a bit short reaching into a Jetboil pot.

Last but not least I grabbed the wrong book, but hope it will pay off in the end. The Best in Tent Camping: Texas (http://www.amazon.com/Best-Tent-Camping-Concrete-Portable/dp/0897326849). Why did I say Grabbed the wrong book Because I didn't see the subtitle any where. "A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos" I do fall into the category of disliking Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos. Occasionally I like the comfort of a RV in the form of a pop-up camper. Yet I was hoping for the top 50 tent camping sites in Texas no matter who else may show up.

I'll let you know how things turn out. I almost forgot because I was so busy. My son finally had his Crossover ceremony last Sunday. I rechartered with the pack as Committee Chair because we had two few stand up.

Girl Scout Cookies

2010-02-10T12:28:00.000-08:00

My wife is fully engrossed in that American tradition called Girl Scout Cookies. I haven't seen her most of the week. Now that is partly because I haven't been home much, but neither has she.

She is at booth sales and delivering cookies.

If your council uses Trails-end the popcorn money is pretty easy to follow. But no-one could really tell me where all the money from the Girl Scout cookies went, until now.

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/02/06/girl-scout-cookies-by-the-numbers-just-where-do-all-those-dolla/

$0.85 Bakery

$0.50 Troop

$0.08 Patches

$2.07 Local Council

For a total of $3.50

So let's scale this up to the $9.00 tub o' popcorn the Boy Scouts sell.

So for the $9.00 you'd get 39 cookies from the GSUSA or 8.5 oz of Carmel popcorn from the BSA.

GSUSA	BSA
$2.25 or 25% to the Bakery	$2.25 or 25% to Trails-end
$0.18 or 2% to prize patches	$0.45 or 5% to Prizes
$5.31 or 59% to the Local Council	$3.15 or 35% to the Local Council
$1.26 or 14% to the Troop	$3.15 or 35% to the Unit

I'm not so angry at the baker's anymore. I know the BSA has FOS, United Way, and other fundraising going on throughout the year. I wonder what other funds the GSUSA raises during the year. It seems the girl scouts put more of the council's financial burden on the girls. My daughters goals were to sell 150 boxes each for a total of $73 in the troop coffers. But nearly double the total sales of my pack for nearly the same commission per scout.

To me it would seem the Local GSUSA council could give a bit more back to the scouts.

AB100 meets the wild west in San Antone

2010-02-09T14:45:00.000-08:00

Life is what you make make it. That pretty much sums up my Adventure Base 100 experience. I'll talk about that portion later or not at all.

AB100 was not a standalone event for the Alamo city. Yet they managed to place the AB100 in an area of the rodeo grounds that received little to no traffic. I think they could have found a better place for us.

The patch above is the only thing that is exclusive to AB100. Our store staff said they had trouble getting the patches. The Adventure base showed up Thursday the 4th, but the patches showed up late in the afternoon on the 6th. So we had the patches for 1 day of the Bases four day stay. If you register for an AB100 passport you get $5.00 of a souvenir book. so for $20 you get a book and the patch.

The museum was cool. I thought some councils could have put more in their time capsule. Heck it would have been nice if my council had submitted a time capsule. Some of the items were a CD-Rom, a belt buckle, a custom coin, and some OA flaps. I rocked the early morning evironmental Pinewood race with a score of 390.

When you get in the go scouting dome go in front of the table and lay down on your back. The show displays up past the top of the dome. In side you feel kinda like your in an igloo and at a forest campsite. It was a nice 5 minute show.

Many scouters took advantage of the green screen. Your white water rafting or rock climbing. I think I saw one dad getting carried up the rock face by his Webelos scout. What I could do there with a little more time and imagination.

The penny press breaks at the drop of a hat. I really wish they had more than one press traveling with the show.

The ropes course was awesome as an attention getter. Can I order one for my council? Ok for the walk through... once harnessed up you walk up the ramp around and over some teeter totter blocks. Around the next corner is swing steps. The next challenge is Swinging across the vines to the cargo net. Once you side step across the cargo net you jump off a box and "zip line" down to where you harnessed up.

Since most places haven't had this yet. I'll let you know that you need about 20 volunteers minimum to help run the AB100. Please make sure your council has somebody that is good at scheduling people to run this. Nothing worse in my opinion than to have 15 Explorers show up and have nothing for them to do.

I would like to give special recognition to SAPD Chief William McManus. Prior to Chief McManus, SAPD had Explorers, but nothing like they do now. San Antonio has 180 police explorers in part due to the Chief's mandate that every substation or precinct have an explorer post. I have no doubt that these explorers will turn out to be fine officers in one of the nations law enforcement agencies. More importantly to me, it is just another way that the SAPD shows a compassionate face to San Antonio.

A time to face the Facts.

2010-02-08T15:31:00.000-08:00

Well it all started about 6 months ago I had to take a break from blogging and finish some things up. You know little things like Wood Badge, Finding someone to get my back, getting trained for a new position.

I'm going to run out of chairman stuff to talk about. Although it appears with my various hats I have today that a new blog title was due. I find myself rambling through scouting. Taking different positions and trying different things as I help my son through his scouting career.

So my posts will take on more the idea of sketches of where my son, his unit, my units, and myself are today.

The difference between IN and OF

2010-02-08T14:29:00.000-08:00

Today is the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Boy Scouts of America.

Today I have ran across some that are incorrectly saying it is the Anniversary of the Boy Scout Movement IN America.

Troop 1 in Pawhuska Oklahoma has the honor of being the First Boy scout troop in America. They were founded in 1909 roughly 9 months prior to the incorporation of the Boy Scouts of America by W.D. Boyce. Troop1 was founded under an English charter.

Too many the argument about the use of the word IN and OF is like like arguing whether the new millennium started January 1, 2000 or January 1, 2001. It could also be said I was arguing use of the Metric system versus the Imperial System.

So I may be arguing over small verbiage, yet I would believe that the scouts in Pawhuska, Oklahoma were not the only scouts that were practicing Lord Baden-Powell's methods in the United States before 19010.

So let's Celebrate the anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America and remember there were at least 18 Boy Scouts in America before then.

Scouting as a Contiuum

2009-06-08T13:02:00.000-07:00

Heresy, I say, It is heresy. Scouting in the US is not a contiuum but 4- 6 seperate programs that should not be mixed. I love making input where I think I can change things that can be changed.

Some of you may ask why I said 4-6 programs. Well, lets look at continuum theory first.

Continuum (theory), anything that goes through a gradual transition from one condition, to a different condition, without any abrupt changes or "discontinuities".

Traditional non LDS scouting does not operate as a continuum. We have a lions pilot, who will have to reregister/transfer next fall to participate as Tiger Cubs. You have Cub Scouts in 1st through 3rd grade. Webelos are regulated by the pack and participate in pack activites, but operate somewhere between Cubs and Boy scouts. Many will argue the break or discontiuity bewtween cubs and Webelos. There is a very hard break between Webelos and Boys scouts, as you must fill out a new registration form to move from pack 458 to troop 458. Then there are hard breaks between Boys scouts, and Venturing. Varsity unfortunately seems out in left feild unless your in the LDS church.

I'm not a member of the LDS church but from the rules I see looking into their program there is a a smoother transition from program to program. The LDS packs are geared at age level boys not grade level. A tiger is a tiger from 7 years to 7 years and 364 days. Bang bang bang right up the ranks into Boy scouting. Where the program structure changes right into the patrol method. The LDS scouters, I talk to say the boys know exactly what happens after they get their Arrow of Light and turn 11. They go right into the church's boy scout program.

I am in a pack and have always been in packs outside of the contiuum. My pack has no default scout troop, but we have 7 troops in a 4mile radius of our meeting place. Our boys don't see the next step in scouting. We are always trying to get a Den cheif and show the boys the rest of scouting. A den cheif to recruit our boys to his unit. Yet, all they see is their parents as the leaders. Our webelos leave and the boys never see them again. Its not very continuous.

I hear RUMORS that national is tweaking the requirements for Arrow of Light. Possibbly making them more equivalet to scout or even tenderfoot. The purpose being Webelos retention for the scouting continuum. Our pupose doesn't stop, and our program doesn't either. It is continuous from first grade to 20Yrs old. As a Parent, I would like to see my son leave scouting with Arrow of Light, Eagle Scout and The Venturing Silver Award having conitued throughout the whole program.

So before National releases a new Webelos book and tweaks the program for next years webelos. How do the requirements for AOL and scout or tenderfoot stack up?

To be continued. (How the requirements stack up today.)

Good Ideas @ BSA

2009-06-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post. I need to get back into it, for me. It helps my mediocre typing skills.

I find it ironic this week that the BSA Innovation Engine email comes from Good Ideas @ BSA. They had some ideas that I' don't know where they came from. Sometimes it is a good thing they don't let scouters post up our comments about the ideas there. So here are some of the past weeks ideas.

Guide to Safe Scouting.

How about an update that includes a policy on Airsoft guns?

Um, how about this as a policy that addresses Airsoft Guns.

Pointing any type of firearm or simulated firearm at any individual is unauthorized. Scout units may plan or participate in paintball, laser tag or similar events where participants shoot at targets that are neither living nor human representations. Units with Council approval may participate in formally organized historical reenactment events, where firearms are used and intentionally aimed over the heads of the reenactment participants. The use of paintball guns, laser guns or similar devices may be utilized in target shooting events with Council approval and following the Sweet 16 of BSA safety. Council approval means the approval of the Scout Executive or his designee on a tour permit specifically outlining details of the event.

(However, law enforcement departments and agencies using firearms in standard officer/agent training may use their training agenda when accompanied with appropriate safety equipment in the Law Enforcement Exploring program.)

Not to rant, Ok I want to rant, but this is already in the G2SS.

Internet Advancement Reporting

When the Troops and Packs do not have any advancement, they are supposed to send a NULL report to council saying they had no advancement. IA does not have a way of doing a submission. It would be really easy for them to have a PDF file print out an advancement form with a statement saying No Advancement for this time frame.

How about we save both the volunteers and staff time by changing the default to only turning in a form when there is an advancement?

Training Completed/Training Not Completed Reports

Training Completed Reports and Training Not Completed Reports currently provide the unit, position, name, address and telephone number of the volunteers. If the email addresses were provided on these reports, the District Training Chairs could easily sort the reports for specific training that is needed for each individual needing training and then send them emails regarding any upcoming scheduled trainings.

Why isn't this done already? Today, the best way to catch and involve volunteers and voluntolds is to send an email. They could even poll the people missing training why they haven't attended, bad day, bad time, no babysitting, etc.

Internet Advancement and Cub Scout Packs Advancement Reporting

I think it would be very helpful for the Internet Advancements to include any and all awards that Cub Scout packs provide such as Sports and Academics Belt Loops and Pins, etc., since it would a selling point for the Cub Scout Pack Advancement Chairs to use because many of them do not want to do Internet Advancement now because they cannot create a complete "shopping list" because many awards they routinely report are not available to report on Internet Advancement.

I like this idea. Not so much for the shopping cart feature but the fact that the council would a a full and complete record of offical BSA Awards and Achievements. Still won't get me to use the Internet advancement. Even if I turn in the advancements of the internet, I still have to provide the Scout shop a hard copy to buy the advancements. Pack master generates the form for me.

Incorporating Mental Health issues into Boy Scouting

The H&S Support Committee would like to see mental health issues addressed within the program. They are requesting feedback on the proposal. Their desire is to weave it into the advancement process. SME's are available to support this effort.

While scouting incorporates a good many aspects of physical health maintenance and injury/crisis management in its advancement process, aspects of mental health are not. Yet there are a number of aspects of mental health and illness that could be articulated and incorporated in the scouting education and advancement program.

A colleague talked about this matter with his nephew, who was an active scout. When asked about a scouting program to assess competencies in mental health, that scout suggested it would be a ?great idea? to include this in the content of a merit badge. Indeed, he thought that Boy Scouts should be asked to have the following mental health competencies:

1. Have the ability to recognize signs! of good and poor mental health in oneself and others

2. Know strategies for helping others with mental health problems

3. Be able to provide first aid for acute stress (?psychological first aid?)

4. Be familiar with different types of mental disorder

5. Recognize drug and alcohol abuse and their complications

This scout agreed that knowledge of drug and alcohol abuse and prevention are important, but he thought that material presently is covered fairly well. He suggested that material about mental health could be learned through a combination of reading and meetings with a mental health professional. He thinks that competency could be demonstrated through the combination of a written test and discussion or demonstration (i.e. role playing).

I love the H&S Support committee, this one well detailed idea. I don't think it should be it own merit badge. Yet I think recognizing the pyschological issues is or can be taught as part of first aid. If a person has pyschological issue, you will need to treat them differently while rending first aid.

Finally, the most rant worthy idea I have seen posted on the Innovation engine

Massage Therapy

I know we are all working much harder in the New BSA and it would be absolute heaven if we had either someone come in once or twice a month, or have someone on staff that we could go to for a massage. Even just upper body would help alot. This is a great stress reliever and would give us all a better perspective on the days we really need it.

I love the idea. You need to tell me when to be at the scout office so I can sneak into the line. This would be so beneficial after a rough night at scout camp. This idea was promtly closed.

I think the Innovation engine is a great idea, but let the volunteers and voluntolds at it. Remember the volunteers are the ones that run and deliver the promise, message, and program of scouting. I think the volunteers will be the start of real innovation for the BSA.

Definition of a voluntold: Someone who is in a volunteer position after being told by a child, spouse, boss, government, etc. that they are going to volunteer for such position.

Update to Scouting.Org and the Scouting Community

2009-06-01T13:48:00.000-07:00

I've seen tweets from people having trouble with the updated Scouting Community. I'm posting Here so they can see what's been reported.

Issues Since Upgrade on May 31

By Maria Manzella

Please report issues that have occurred since the upgrade on May 31.

Issues reported so far:

Missing avatars

Can’t access the Requests to Review page to check friend requests. Instead it keeps popping back to the profile page.

Dan Kurtenbach (and others possibly) have no member profile. Dan’s posts are being attributed to Richard Shaw.

Server error when uploading an avatar.

Many hyperlinks are not working and simply redirect you to your profile page.

When viewing a friend’s post from the profile page, get the message User Not Found.

All members show joined on 6/1/09.

Continuous planning

2009-05-13T09:46:00.000-07:00

My planning agenda seems almost continuous right now. Last month we wrapped up the SummerPlanning. I've planned out a fishing derby for this weekend and a skit for our may graduation ceremony in the past month. Now to move on to the Rest of next year.

I love google calendars for planning the cub year. In the past couple of weeks I went to my local school district web site and transferred all of the Holidays, early release days, and any other important date to a Google Calendar I set up for my pack. Then I pulled out my council calendar and copied every district and council training date, Cub event, camp, Etc.

Basically we have a list of events that we as a pack want to do and our normal months to do them. All that's left for the Pack Committee to work out is when.

We started our annual list last year, by sitting down and saying we always do a blue and gold and that has to be done in February. We always have a Pinewood derby. We give the cars as gifts at the Christmas party so it has to be after December. Then the space derby comes out. we want to camp X number of times. ( We're currently up to 3 trips per year. ) We need to sprinkle some service projects in as well. Suddenly you have a packed schedule.

For those that want to see the calendar (http://bit.ly/15gR2W)

Next you'll need to set up a meeting with your Treasurer and see how much you spend on each type of event, how much you want to spend, where your going to hold various events, etc. to build your rough budget. You can give the total to your popcorn chair for them to set your popcorn goals.

And that should be the last of major planning until fall. During the summer it's just the details for summer events.

Keep on moving forward.

When a requirement becomes tradition and leaves the boys behind.

2009-04-20T09:06:00.000-07:00

Last April, Our pack went family camping and had a fishing derby. The Webelos Leader at the time, had asked that the pack buy groceries for a Pancake, egg and bacon breakfast. It was approved and was a hit. What has been lost in the short time since April 2008 and this past weekend is the requirement and the boys.

Webelos Outdoorsman Activity badge has a requirement for outdoor cooking.

8. With your accompanying adult on a campout or outdoor activity, assist in preparing, cooking, and cleanup for one of your

den's meals.

Sitting on the bottom of the what matters pryamid, I am amazed at how quickly this evolved. It took three Family camping events to go from where it should have been to doing it because we did it before.

From what I can gather here's how it broke down. April 08: The 3 or 4 Webelos made breakfast, probablly with some adult intervention and supervision. October 08: The 7-10 Webelos started making breakfast and the parents started intervening to get breakfast moving. April 09: the leaders and parents did everything.

I am pretty confident I need to fix this because it needs to be about the boys. After all it was boys fulfilling a requirement that started this. Yet how do I fix this? I don't want to outright stop this, if it is wanted or needed. It has been Sunday Breakfast when we are all packing out. Maybe moving the requiement to only the Webelos. It was appreciated that they initially fed the whole pack but not required. Or changing the meal maybe having the boys make Saturday lunch rather than breakfast. We can deal with an abligatory mac&chesse with hotdogs or hamburgers lunch. Then again the boys only need to do this once a year.

Along with Webelos Outdoorsman requirement 8, Bears could participate with requirement 9g, or Wolves in requirement 8e.

The thing is we need to make sure a den fulfilling a requirement does not become a senseless tradition that puts extra load on the parents and leaders. Let's Keep it fun.

Training Variations

2009-04-13T10:26:00.000-07:00

I was in a chat room and the topic of training came up, it wasn’t the normal every boy deserves a trained leader vs untrained leader vs how to get people trained. The discussion was how can we afford to get trained? This took me back a bit. It appears that I have a very inexpensive council to train in.

As a Cub Scouter you have access to YPT, Fast Start, and “This is Scouting” for nearly free. You can do this even before you have a BSA ID number. You only need access to a internet connected computer for an hour or so for each course. I say worst case scenario would be having to buy time at a FedEx/Kinko’s store for $12 or $24 an hour in my community. Oddly enough I hear some councils do not have broadband services to their offices, but that may be a resource to you.

The first course that requires in classroom effort would be the Position Specific courses. Where I’m at I believe the cost is $2 council wide for about 2 dozen doughnuts and copies. On occasion at the council sponsored courses they have given out Cub Scout leader book and the how-to book if you get trained in a certain window. If your council or district makes it a practice to provide the Leader book and the How-To book, $20 would be a fair cost in my opinion. If your district or council has to rent facilities for the training expect that cost to also come out of your pocket. I think you should be able to find a church or another community organization that would be willing to give you the space for free.

The course that really threw me was some people were asked for $50 for Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation. I have taken the course twice and taught it once. I paid $7.00 for each time I attended. The first time I took the course, Outdoor Leader skills for Webelos Leaders wasn’t included. The courses are very similar and my council has opted to provide both courses at the same time. The trainers I have had and I were very particular in stating this applies to Pack Overnighters and this applies to Den Camping. We had about 20 pages of handouts. We have two meal plans that our BALOO uses; Foil Packs and Wraps. Both plans keep lunch under $5 a person.

The one exception to my cheap training experience has been Wood Badge. I paid $160 about 1 year ago. We paid extra for WB activity uniform shirts. All the participants were issued hats, though not BSA Supply hats. I heard people say they paid over $200 but not over $300.

I moved on from being just a Cub scouter to also being a Commissioner this year. My Commissioner basic training was free. I also attended our University of Commissioner Science for the paltry sum of $5.00. At either of my Commissioners training sessions I was entitled to the Field book of Commissioner’s Service. One person said their Commissioners University was $150.

Am I bragging about how cheap my training is? Yes. Do you have to pay the fees your council charges? No. Does my council give some things up, because of the cheap training? I believe we do. We do not have a Pow Wow or University of Scouting. Both things that give you training in areas not generally covered in most scouting training. I have four councils near me that I also look at for training. They are 90, 163 or 210 miles away. Some of them a geographically large enough that it is actually closer for some of them to use my district. I have seen people from all four of the other councils at our training sessions. The council that is 90 miles from my home is the one I watch most often for training opportunities as the trip only adds $20 to the cost.

If you think the cost of your training is to high offer to help the district or council to be thrifty and help them find locations that you don’t need to pay for. Help them find local companies that will allow them to run off copies at cheaper rates. Only run off copies that are useful to the training. Above all offer to help give the training once you’re trained. Tell them you’ll pack a lunch rather than get a catered lunch. If you look there are probably a lot of ways that you can lower the cost of training for all or volunteer to help in the offices to reduce your costs. May be you could set out a roundtable and babysit other leader’s kids for donations to send you to training. Just remember to support those that support you.

I have a long story about how roads today are all based on the size of a Roman Hoarse’s posterior. It all boils down to that’s how we’ve always done it, even though there is new technology. Don’t accept that training costs what it costs, maybe there is something you’re overlooking. Rather than hand out $10 of copies why not scan and email them out or burn them to a $.30 CD.

Time to dust off the planning hat.

2009-04-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

Ok is everyone up on their Chairman duties for this time of year. You should have recharter done or wrapping up. You should have moved on to planning the summer. We want to wrap this up soon. You should have the summer shcedule ready for the April Pack meeting.

We had to wait until this last round table to get the information on one of our normal summer events a tented sleep over on the local texas league ball field. I have a hard time getting behind the local team. I grew up in the radio broadcast area of both the Omaha Royals and the Kansas City Royals. I was able to go see the guys in Omaha and then listen and often watch them when they moved up to the big leagues in Kansas City. Our local team as I mentioned is Texas league which is a third string farm team for the Padres. Who are the Padres? Within 6 hours driving time we have the Houston Astros and the Texas Rangers. Why is our team farmed by the Padres. Any way it's a great family time. I took my son to both events last year and had a blast though we didn't camp on the field.

Last year we had a summer fun night at a local soccer field. we had waterballoon games and learned how to play Ultimate Frisbee bee bee . The committee decide we want to stretch this out this year and instead of just 2 hours we're going to try a whole day. then we are also going to do another two hour session later in the summer.

Last but not least our raingutter pool party. What better place than a pool to have a raingutter regatta? We use this to cap off our summer.

This is all to try and get our summertime pack award. Now is also the time to start planning the next years program. Group campsites in stateparks fill up fast, You may already be too late for a fall campout. Why do you need to start all this planning so soon? Districts are looking for Popcorn Kernals. Trails-end will be visit you areas soon. You need to have a plan to create a budget. You need a budget to set popcorn goals, and boy do we have a steep goal this year! we had a record year last year. Now we have to try and beat that.

Get out there and plan so you can take a summer break too.

Marketing the Scouting Community

2009-04-01T14:47:00.000-07:00

I have been very lax in blogging recently. I am trying to wrap up my Wood Badge ticket.

I have been relatively active on the scouting community. I recently had a request for my address from the Project manager Linda Flemming. A few days later I recieved a large padded envelope in the mail. It had a Letter from the Chief Scout Executive, another sheet explaining the item was a Beta, and a beta scouting community button.

I truly appreciate the button and letter. I will wear it proudly. I was however concerned that they sent this all in such a large envelope. I will tuck the letter away, but it is not going to be framed so having it uncreased was a bit of overkill. I agree with Mike Rowe that "green" is not the right color for the enviromental conscienousness movement. Should it be brown? I couldn't tell you. Scouting has espoused the Leave No Trace or minimum impact theory for a long time. I hope that National Council will leave less of a trace when shipping items, in the future.

Leave No Trace is not just habits of outdoor behavior, but a way of living and being responsible for the use of our natural resources at all times. It's turning off the computer. It's recycling the envelopes. It's living "Leave No Trace" not just preaching it.

Lost Generation

2009-03-02T06:11:00.000-08:00

I try not to repost many things but this was very good. I viewed this in the Leave No Trace blog.

It is an advertisement from AARP on prespective.

Lost Generation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA

Leave No Trace Blog - http://leavenotracecommunity.blogspot.com

Scouting and "That Guy"

2009-02-10T09:43:00.000-08:00

I love the Die Hard movies. I'm a big fan of Bruce Willis. I recently watched "Live Free or Die Hard. " (Yes, it was like the eleventh time.) In the movie there is a bit of dialogue and being the Hero or "That Guy". I see a lot of "That Guy" in scouting today. To the female readership "That Guy" also means "That Gal."

Here is the Quote from John McClane:

"Trust me kid, nobody wants to be that guy. [I do this] because there is nobody else to do it right now. Believe me if there was somebody else to do it, I would let them do it. There's not, so [I'm] doing it. That's what makes you that guy."

Trust me if your a scouter, you are a hero to someone. You are "that guy." Probablly a dozen or more someone's in many cases. I doubt any of us set out to be "That Guy." It just happened. I know I wasn't going to be "That Guy." I was going to be what I thought was a typical scout parent. Drop the boys off at the meeting, help him with his achievements, go to pack meetings. A typical scout parent from 1980 is what I had planned. But the Chief Scout in Heaven had something different in mind for me. Now those that know me, know that I'm enjoying being "that guy". It is interesting though that some of the young boys that only see Scout leader's during meetings or scout events think that we get paid for scouting. The fact that we do this for free makes us "that guy" even more.

If you look back in history at the mean and Women that we now consider to be "That Guy" or "That Gal", they are us and we are them. Ordinary people put in extraordinary circumstances and they performed as Scouts and Scouters do. Just like we learned, just as we are trained, and Just like "That Guy".

So to all the scouters out there, Thanks for all you do.

Reply: (shrugs) "What was I going to do?"

That's what makes you "that guy."

Reply: (smiling) "Yeah."

Tradition of the Ashes.

2009-02-06T07:35:00.000-08:00

I was recently reminded of the Tradtion of the Ashes.

For those that may not have heard of the tradition. This was passed to me at my Wood Badge class. ( long live SR-923! Long Live the Beavers!)

Campfires are a tradition in Scouting. They are shared by young and old, boys and girls in nearly every nation on earth. Fire has always been important to human kind. It warms our bodies, cooks our food and brings joy to our spirit. At the dawn of mankind, fire was frightening and mysterious. Over time our species learned to control fire, carrying it from place to place. Later we learned to tame it, create it and master it. And yet, it still can harm or heal. Fire has always been a part of our survival, our religions, and our recreation.

As we come to the close of this scouting event, I wish to share an important ceremony with you.

Lord Robert Baden-Powell, the Chief Scout of the World, used to collect some of the ashes from each Scouting event and carry them with him to the next event. He would mix the ashes of the old fire with the new one. As this tradition has spread, scouts from around the world have shared campfires and ashes with each other. Lists have been kept of the events where they have been shared. These lists form a history and a bond between us over the years and across the miles, no matter our language, culture or uniform.These ashes represent the Friendship and Scouting Spirit shared by Scouts and Guides at campfires around the world. May the joining of these remnants of past Scouting experiences with the leaping flames of new ones symbolize the unbroken chain of fellowship and dedication to a common purpose that binds the Scouts and Guides of all nations. All who keep the friendship ashes and wish to share thier ashes or event lists are welcome to step forward at this time.

The list and ashes I have tonight bring with them a long history:

As I/we add the ashes of the past to the flames tonight, may the sparks that rise remind you of all the lives that have passed this way before. They shared their fires and blazed the trail that we follow tonight.Scouters, remember that those you train now are our leaders for tomorrow.Scouts, remember to thank those who have gone before you and give of yourself to those who follow you. May the trail you blaze with your life be worthy of such rememberance.

My ashes were given to me in a plastic film container. If you still have a 35mm Camera or know someone who does you can save the containers from the film. For those of us that have gone all digital, BH Photo Video sells packages of 5 for $1.95. (www.bhphotovideo.com).

The greatest thing about this tradition is you don't have to wait to start it. Grab some ashes from your next campifre and start recording your own history. When you get to an event that has Some of the orginal Brown Sea Island ashes, it will instantly add 1,000's of campfires to your history.

Here is one history I found on the web with more than 4400 campfires listed.http://www.pgcps.org/~kworth/1046/ASHES-2007f.pdf

GPS, Map reading, and forgetting how to think for yourself.

2009-01-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

I watch Cnet for interesting tech stories. Today I found a good one on utilizing a GPS to help get around better and faster. Here's the link to the story.

Getting lost with a GPS? Unfortunately, yes

For those that want the quick version.

Man buys Garmin Nuvi. Man takes trip. Man knows route home. Nuvi knows route home. Man listens to Nuvi, although he knows better. Wife is mad at man for wasting her time.

Had the man engaged his brain and not listened to the NUVI he would not have sat in a 10 mile parking lot. Nuvi would have recalculated the trip and come up with a new best route. It also helps if you can understand the difference between shortest and fastest. The shortest route was simple the least amount of miles traveled.

Unfortunately, the author did not mention which model of Garmin Nuvi he had purchased. The Nuvi may have spared him some skin if he bought the more expensive one with the ability to recieve traffic updates. Still had he only engaged his own mind and stayed menatlly awake. His pride would have been in tact.

The shortcut or the right way, only you can really choose what is right for you.

The story of the Santa hat.

2008-12-18T12:36:00.001-08:00

This year Iwas in the mood to have more Christmas spirit. So how do I get and show more Christmas spirit? I thought to myself. I finally decided aftera trip to Party City, I must get a Santa hat. I have seen 100 different regular red and white Santa hats, verying from a 1.50 to propbablly $40. I saw christmass hats with springy trees, ones with antlers and lights, even pimp styled hats.

I decide on a moderately priced hat with real faux mink trim and ball. It cost $8.00, and it was a bit different. I was happy with my purchase. My first trip in to the real world was two weeks before Christmas. One of the first reactions I got was you need to retire that hat, it's dirty. I politely explained that my hat was not dirty it was just trimmed with real mink cloth.

The next outing was to a cub adventure camp where I helped in the kitchen. While talking with another leader he asked whether I had killed the faux mink myself. I explained that no I had acquired the cloth from a real mink who knitted for a hobby. He decided he liked his version of the story better. I now knew I must get a better story for my Santa Hat. As I am a boring ole committee chair and not an exciting cubmaster I may have to work on this more, but here it goes the story of my christmas hat.

I was out with my son's webelos den in the East Texas Piney Woods, the Den leader was teaching the scouts how to identified and follow animals by their tracks and scat. One of the boy saw some tiny little tracks that no one could identify. So we looked up the track in one of the books we took along with us. We discovered it was a semi-rare Texas Mink. Having read how crafty these were I started following the tracks. Like other mink, I knew I would have to be very careful and quiet as mink are easily spooked. After what seemed like two forever's of slowly moving down the trail and tip toeing in between twigs setup like alarms, I came upon a river bank. Then there I saw it, the mink was leaned back against a tree knitting what looked to be faux mink cloth. Being careful to stay three quarters hidden. I moved closer until I thought I could grab the mink. Taking extra time to prepare, I swiped my hand out to grab the mink but before I could get ahold of him he slipped out of his knitted mink coat and used my hand as a spring board to dive into the river. I waited and waited but I never saw it come out of the river. So I took his little knitting and the ball of mink yarn. I made the mink's knittingt into the brim of my santa hat and used the ball of yarn for the ball on the santa hat. Unfortunately for me I tracked a brown mink instead of a white mink, so that's why my santa hat has brown real mink cloth trim instead of white.

The morale of this story is if your going to be different you better have a good story to go with it.

Then again maybe I should have gone with the santa pimp hat instead.

Recharter part 2

2008-12-16T11:55:00.000-08:00

Ok so I have gone over the roster. I know where everyone is. I have talked to the current leaders and know who wants to keep on, who is going to try something new, and who is just moving on. I have talked to the pack as a whole about recharter approaching and what the fee's are. We have identified a person that may fill a hole we have.

We are moving from a for profit Charter org to a non profit charter org. I talked to the DE and I think we have covered all the bases for the Charter Org swap.

We've had one scout pay his recharter already.

I can't get into the Recharter system until after January 1, 2009. I hope everyone out there working through recharter is doing this well.

Life Enhanced

2008-12-11T08:05:00.000-08:00

Last spring I went to Woodbadge, I thought about my ticket items for nearly a month between weekends. I have items that enhance me and ones that enhance the program. I'm not struggling with my ticket items but i'm not progressing really well either.

I recently read a post from Lonestar scouter about Scouting being Life Enhanced. What a great thought! It makes a great elevator pitch, When some asks you what is Scouting? you turn around and say scouting is life enhanced. That gets you in the door. You now have time to talk about what you mean by Life Enhanced. Life enhancedto me means doing things I would do anyway but with more purpose.

When you go to the grocery store do you as the scouter or your scout really pay attention to what is going on. Probablly not. I know when my wife sends me after hamburger, buns, and milk. I go right to those items and just grab them. But when my wife tells me figure out a dinner for tonight, My mind kicks in. First I go to the fresh foods, Vegetables and meats, to find an inspiration. If I find an inspirational meat, I head to veggies next. Then wrap up the meal in picking up any remaining items. That's what scouting is supposed to do for all of the scouts. Take life from a checklist of do this , to an adventure.

So what does this have to do with my wood badge ticket, I should have kept my ticket items to life enhancing items. So when you finally get off to the Wood badge think about things that you do because they are your scouting job. Then think about how you make them life enhancing. If you need to attend roundtable, be part of roundtable. If you need to put on a pack meeting, then Put on a packmeeting that is original. Original songs, orginal skits, original cheers, etc. If you need to do this anyway why not do it in a way that helps you grow as a scout.

A scouter is a scout with experience. If scouting is life enhanced, then it should enhance scouters as well.

Working in IT Versus being a Scouter.

2008-12-10T13:02:00.000-08:00

Working in IT, MIS, Network Administration or whatever you want to call it is very often the job of an unsung hero. You work in a room that's loud as all get out. Alot of times in some dark closet of an office or cubicle. After years of doing this work you tend to develop some phobia of recognition. To some extent, this is a phobia of praise. After all no one asks the IT guy to lunch, says you did a good job on making sure all our backups were done last week.

Your asking, What does this have to do with scouting? When was the last time you told your comissioner, committee chair, advancement chair, etc. good job. These "books" positions are the IT types of jobs of the scouting world. After a particularly good pack meeting the Cubmaster will get a good job at on the back. So give them a pat on their back before they develop a phobia of praise.

I have noticed this phobia of recognition and praise more often in the past year. Late last spring, is when I first noticed it. I was being told by several people that my DE knew who I was. I kept thinking how could this be. I haven't met him but 3 or 4 times. I thought I had kept my head down and out of site. This really couldn't be, I was 1 volunteer out of 140 units.

Well over time I keep putting my head up there a bit more each time. I went to Wood Badge. Nothing really remarkable, but It was the beginning of my search for scouting knowledge. So wood badge made me volunteer for roundtable staff. Helping out here, I was invited to the meeting after the meeting. Our roundtable staff goes to Taco Cabana after the meeting. This eventually gave me a temporary invitation to cook at council events. After the first cooking session I was added to the permanent list. Along the lines of the roundtable staff ticket item,I thought TDC would be a good class to take. Well that landed me on District Training Staff. I attended a training staff meeting, and realized I should be going to District Committee at least occasionally. Then word leaked out that we would be redistricted. Even more incentive to go to District Committee.

Each time my head kept creeping higher, more recognizable, more chances to get praise. This past Saturday I finally realized what I've done. The new DE for my new district was in the training audience and introduced themselves after one of the sessions. It caught me off guard and I was quite... embarrassed. I guess that's the right word. I think she heard my name mentioned in the training, but they also knew I was going to be in their district. Not very long ago, I would have taken this as a sign I was a trouble maker. This time I felt praised. The network manager in me, thought that was an unusual and awful feeling. To the scouter it felt good, my good work and effort had been rewarded simply by someone knowing my name.

Take the time to praise your IT person before they get cynical and over cautious about praise. It'll be part of doing a good turn daily, and make them warm inside.

GreenBar.ws: Teaching How to Patrol

2008-11-25T11:27:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, I wrote about getting things started. How do you get things going in your pack. For us it was getting started participating in a Webelos Campout or Web-o-ree. I have been thinking back to that campout. It was the first time our pack had taken the Webelos camping. A great many of us had camping experience. We lacked Patrol camping experience. While we all loved the campout and watched as the scouts work as a team. It fell to us as Dad's to take care of the boys. Even though half of the group have finished the Arrow of Light requirements, It was the first time any of Pack 458 went Webelos Den Camping. A couple of times I tried to push a couple of the boys into getting the food going, but in the end Dad was running the show.

As Dad's we did our job, but as scout leader's we need to work some more on the patrol method. I frequently wander the digital frontier. I recall a site that had a book on it that taught more about the patrol method, by means of competition. It went through each patrol members position. It only had 8 positions and a scoutmaster. I think it was the Pine Patrol or something like that. It was good for the competitions that were held during that era.

I am told often that as Committee Chair, I am a key piece of the Webelos to Scout Transition. I oversee the pack program. My Webelos leader is just awesome, though some in the pack, first had some doubts about him. I am pretty sure all of his scouting experience leaned more to the practical aspects of ranch life. I have to admit I couldn't tell you much about my scouting life except for a phenominal campout that started by trip ruining rain. I hate being cold, and even worse is being cold and wet. I know nothing about how a patrol functions. I know that patrols are THE method to scouting. Even going through Wood Badge, the ultimate in scout training, I didn't pickup much beyond, Patrol Leader, Assistant Patrol Leader, Scribe, and Chaplain's Aide. In our Troop 1 the Patrol Leader's went to the PLC and found out what was happening the next day and relayed the information. Easy Enough. But what do they really do?

I happened upon www.GREENBAR.ws looking for information on how to better use the patrol method in our next campout. First, I have to say I did no know that .WS is the top level domain for Samoa. Next, yes the site hasn't been updated since 2003. I do hope it stays up. I Found it interesting how this author chose to tackle the subject. First, he divided the work into information for adults and information to be related to the scouts. So far, I have put my attention in to the portion to be related to the scouts and even further in to the patrol organization. Anthony Mako, the author, has 10 positions in his patrol. Chaplain's aide is not one of them. He goes through each as if he is talking to the Patrol Leader.

The site has been an enjoyable read so far. If you find you need some more information on how a Patrol works and the positions involved, take a look at www.greenbar.ws

T minus 2,160 hours till Recharter

2008-11-18T12:46:00.000-08:00

I have already wasted 288 hours since I was handed my recharter packet. There is currently 90 days left before recharter. So what should have I been doing and what have I done? First off according to the packet I should of had this 15 days longer than I have. Such is life.

I should have a membership and rentention chair to hand all this off to, but I don't. So here's some skinny.

I have checked the roster once against mine. I Have given applications to the den leaders with boys that arenot on the recharter paperwork. These boys need to be turned in within the next 30 days. Starting in mid January The council will put us in a no paperwork zone. Meaning they put everything off until I am ready to turn in the recharter package.

Ok we have a list of boys that is now solid, If you have a program like Packmaster you can create a fund rasier and sell each boy national dues, boys life, and a pack dues item. Otherwsie you can do similar in excel, open opffice or on a sheet of paper. Make sure you have a reciept book.

If you have someone with Visio have them make a pack organization chart with all the positions on it. Othewise grab some grid paper and draw it out. Check with everyone on the current org chart that they want the position for another 12 months. Check with them for people that may fill holes you have in the org chart. So by the next Commity meeting you should have an idea of which positions you will need to fill.

At the next Pack Meeting, announce that you will be collecting for recharter and the final date for payment is 15 days prior to your recharter date. Be aware that you will say this for the next 3 pack meetings and no one will pay attention.

So here is a copy of the org chart I created last year. I suggest that you ask people to commit to two years that way you can create a succession plan. Yet ask them if they want the posiotn every year. I pulled every position from the leader book. This doesn't have the scout parent coordinator position. I hope some of you still find it useful.

P.S. If you want a copy of the visio or the image, I will be happy to email one or both to you.

Budget whiteboards - Stalling for time

2008-11-17T08:26:00.000-08:00

Nearly two weeks ago I recieved my recharter packet. I plan to post on rechatering soon, but I need some more time to look over my packet. So this post is me stalling, but hopefully helping some one save $40 or more dollars on a modern cave wall.

Once in a while we all need to draw out our ideas on the cave wall. As My cave isn't growing and I have numerous ideas coming about. It seemed reasonable to me that I needed to get a dry erase or white board. I went looking at the usual suspects and they all had a basic 32x48 board for $80 to $100.

I once ran across a guy who when He needed a white board went to Home Depot and Grabbed 3 sheets of white melamine board in 4x8 or 4x10 sheets. Which he glued directly to his office wall. It looked like garbage. Yet, he had 32 linear feet of whiteboard. My land lord would have freaked If I used this method.

I was in Lowe's, I think as I actually used a cashier. Home Depot only has two on duty normally. One watch the self service lanes and one in the contractor lane. Any way, they were out of the 4'x8' sheets of melamine, but I found a 32"x48" sheet of whiteboard wainescotting. I grabbed grabbed two 4 foot 1"x3"boards and a 6 foot 1"x3" board, two 8' sitcks of the paper pressed oak look corner moulding, some 3/4" #6 wood screws, and a package of metal corner brackets. The toal cost out the door was less than $40.

Ok so back at home, let's try to get this assembled. OK let's try cutting a 45 on the 6 foot board. Here is where my tool purchases have me at a dis advantage. I only buy tools directly related to the automotive repair I am performing, my work as a network administrator, or the pinewood derby. I cannot cut a good quality 45 degree cut on my bandsaw and I'm not going to try and cut it on the scroll saw. So I scrap that idea and cut the end square again.

Back to assembly. I Find 4' means give or take a 1/4". One board is 1/16" short and the other 1/8" long. I trim the long one on the bandsaw. I then take and lay the Whiteboard material over one of the 1x4's and pre drill and counter sink the screws about 6 to 8 inches apart. I flip the board around and do the same on the other long side. Then with the white side laying on an old blanket I measure the two side pieces and cut them to fit. Before I screw the sides in from the front of the board, I put the corner brackets on in the back. At this point a flat straight strap would have worked much better, yet I had felt the need to try and miter the corners. Remember KISS. a but joint is so much easier to implement.

Ok with the frame on the back of the board you have a funtional but ugly dry erase board. I'm back to trying to make miter cuts without a miter box. This time its with foam or pressed paper corner molding, much smaller and easier to work with than the 1x3. I figure the easy way for me to do this is start on one side and work my way aroung the board. I cut the molding to about 52 inches to start then mitered or cut the end at a 45 degree angle . I go back to the whiteboard and lay this piece up against the board to measure for the next cut. ( I really suggest that you buy at least a cheap plastic human powered miter box.) I work my way around the board this way until I have finished all four sides. Then I secure the border to the board with small finish nails. My dremel tool has a key hole bit to cut out a hanger or you could buy some picture frame hangers to hang the board on the wall.

It is not as pretty as one of the $80 aluminum framed boards but it was a whole lot cheaper. Now to put it to good use.

Truisms, Axioms, or even Maxims

2008-11-10T13:12:00.000-08:00

A truism is a claim that is so obvious or self-evident as to be hardly worth mentioning, except as a reminder or as a rhetorical or literary device.

An axiom is a principle that is accepted as true without proof.

A maxim is a brief expression of a general truth, principle, or rule of conduct

However you say it, it can help or hurt your unit.

Sometimes it is hard to believe that we deal with truisms or axioms in scouting, but we often do. When confronted with them it is almost appalling. I can't quite say how I feel about it. Now looking at another direction even I do it.

This weekend I was reminded of a maxim that helped Janet Jackson in her early years. "What have you done for me lately?" And our spouses then wonder why we attend so many meetings and after meeting meetings and volunteer all the time. It had started out that I was going to have a weekend off. Well then I attended the after roundtable meeting. Not all the roundtable staff attends but a good portion of it does. We drop into a local fast food joint and plan the rountable presentations for the next roundtable , tuck in a bit of food, and finish off the evening. I ended up volunteering for the chow line at a council event this weekend. Out of 25 hours of working time we probablly did 10 hours of work across 3 days. I thought it would be a good relaxing way to pass this weekend and not be infront of my pc. I was right.

So here I am earning my brownie points, and it comes at me. SMACK! "Is your pack participating this weekend?" Nope, we are pretty busy outside of district and council events. The point this person was getting at was that even though I was out earning my brownie points, this has nothing to do with the pack getting brownie points. The council isn't seeing my pack's name run across its desk enough. Argh!

So now using my patented leadership method of leadership known as "LEAD, FOLLOW or GET OUT OF MY WAY! " I have a mission. I have one month until the next council event. Time to get us on the table in a good way.

So you may wonder is this in the chairman's job description? I personally think this should be the cubmaster's job. Your job description includes "If the Cubmaster is unable to serve, assume active direction of the pack until a successor is recruited and registered." I have a cubmaster, He does a good job overall. I just have to help him with staying involved with district and council events. A large part of it is he works Saturdays, and can't lead by example at these events. Remember these district or council events are put on by volunteers, maybe even volunteers in your pack. Support your volunteers and atend district or council events.

The hazards of not saying no.

2008-11-07T07:20:00.000-08:00

I have intended to update the blog recently, but truth be told I have spent the two weeks trying to relax and de-stress. This Wedensday, I left work feeling ill. I'm still not 100%, but I'm back at the grindstone. I think this is one time my farm driven work ethic has proven too much for me. For those of the modern age or jobs that have always include benefits such as vacation and sick days, let me introduce you to the work ethic on a family farm. To sum it up in a sentence "the cows need milked."

I came from a traditional farm where you have a some livestock such as cattle, hogs, sheep and or goats, then add some land for hay , and grains. Things need to get done. And they need to get done or else your lifestyle is ruined. If the cows doesn't get milked, the milk goes rancid in the udder causing health problems for those that drink the milk, namely you. When the hogs don't get fed they will turn canabal. Crops can rot in the field and a whole host of other things that will soon find you on the wrong side of the financial world. So when I see things that need done I do them.

Well over the past 3 months I have done them to my detriment. We didn't have a popcorn kernel until I stepped in, I headed up the scout rally's. I kept pushing my body and soul. I knew how much I was taking on late last year. So thankfully I had the foresight to get a Webelos Den Leader other wise that was going to fall on me as the outgoing Bear Den Leader. So this week, my body saw an opening and forced some me time to bring some balance back to my life.

So don't forget to tack on some time to make sure you're unwound and healthy. Now on to other things, and hopefully less stress a bit more balance.

Getting things Started.

2008-10-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T15:01:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T07:26:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-20T14:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-15T10:16:00.001-07:00

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

2008-10-10T05:43:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-06T08:34:00.000-07:00

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.

Scout Accounts: My position against them for my pack.

2008-09-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I breifly mentioned that I was against scout accounts. I had a comment asking why. I think I need to clarify the position a bit. Maybe I'm not against the account as much as I may not fully understand it, or that it really doesn't work well in the program we have set up in our pack.Let me start by asking some questions, providing my answers, and saying I can understand accounting in so far as I can balance my checkbook.

What is a scout account? In my mind a scout account is a sub account in the treasury for the boys to draw from for activities, and supplies.

What are Den Dues? Den Dues are a small fee to cover the cost or den activities and den supplies. Our den leaders have the option of asking for den dues. I do not know of any den that currently collects dues.

What are Pack Dues? In my pack We charge $18 to cover the neckerchief, slide, rankbadge, card, pin,and up to 4 belt loops or other patches. We currently have a loss of about $2 on these items. We also provide a pinewood derby kit to every boy at christmas for our January derby.

I guess now is the time to cover what we do as optional activities for the boys. We have all three derbies and 3 family campouts along with the district or council events. The pack covers the cost of trophies for the derbies and only the Pinewood derby kit. The pack will either pay for a group campsite or a lrage piece of meat for the evening meal on the campouts. One campout we use as a fishing derby and the pack provides trophies and requests donated prizes. The rest of each event is parent paid.

One other "event" we have is the blue and gold. We use this to celebrate cub scouting, FOS, award Arrow of Light Awards, and Bridge scouts to Boy Scouting. This is about 2 hours long. We use the OA ceremony team. We have guest speakers who were at one time scouts. We also have this event catered. The Pack pays for every Cub Scout that wants to attend, the OA, the guest speakers, the recieving troop representatives, and often a district representative. The parents are sold tickets for remaining family members to cover the cost of the Hall and catering for the ticket holder. We don't view this as an optional event and encourage everyone to attend.

Otherwise about 2 months before the event we let the parents know what the cost will be and the "event" committee collects the money. This has worked with us, so far.

How would a scout account work in my pack? I'm not sure as we operate effectively as a pay as you go pack. It would be nice know how some packs have implemented scout accounts. I think one of my concerns is that there is a core cost of doing business as a pack. You have the cost of awards for the pack meetings, flags, tracks, the pack portion of events. How do these get paid? Right now they come out of the big pot of money that comes in from our popcorn sales.

After writing this, I think I'm not as opposed to scout accounts as I am scared of them, scared of the change, scared of the unknown. So I'll end this with a call to the reader's. How do scout accounts get implemented in packs? How do you track all this? How do your core costs get paid?

Leadership: the next big business item.

2008-09-23T14:34:00.001-07:00

Man, how time gets away from you. As the popcorn Kernel, I have my big kickoff this weekend. Whew! what time getting popcorn figured out. Since Fundraising is a big agenda item let me give you a few words of wisdom, maybe.

Ok so popcorn is the BIG money fundraising for the year in South Texas. Many people groan when popcorn time comes up. After all, in the current times how many people are going to but $9.00 of popcorn let alone the big $50 tin. The research supports just about everyone your scouts ask will buy it. Before we get into the sales portion of it. lets talk about who gets what from popcorn. It is my understanding that the money is distributed as such. Your unit gets 30% of the sales and 5% bonus for meeting deadlines, taking training, and selling 10% more this year than last. I was told that 35% stays with the council. and 30% goes to Trail's End. They encourage you to use their prizes but you can opt for the 5% cash instead of prizes. So if all the numbers I have be given are right the popcorn costs $2.25 for the $9.00 tin. The rest is a donation to scouting. Who wouldn't give $6.75 to help scouting?

My leadership team voted to get the 5% cash instead of prizes this year. So This brings me to the slippery slope of scouts accounts in a Pack. I am sooooo against scout accounts in a cub scout pack. I just do not think that it's right. But anyway here's what led me here. I need to figure out prizes for the boys. Gift cards: Check, Camping Gear: Check, Recharter Fees: ?check?, Day camp Fess: ?check? Should the boys be able to delay their gratification for a couple months and get more from scouting? I'm leaving the items as options, but not sure If I put them on the list as a parent or an 8 year old. If I knew I could save the money for an awesome camp in the summer I might go for that as a 9 year old.

Ok back to leadership, Most of our district recharters in Febraury. I like this, because you don't have back to school, popcorn and recharter all at the same time. I'm bald already don't give me help like that. So when do you need to start looking for who will replace those that are leaving? How about as soon as you get new boys in September? So for October, I'm breaking out my copy of Microsoft Visio and we're going to find out who we have and who we won't. You can almost always count the Senior Webelos leader out. We will also lose the Cubmaster, Secretary, and Pack Trainer. We had the Cubmaster covered with an Assistant. So we're looking for a pack trainer, secretary, assistant cubmaster and tiger leader. My feeling is the Pack trainer needs to be someone mid way through the cubscout program who is trained in at least one other position or is a professional trainer. The Wolf leader stepped up to ACM, cool. Blah blah blah.

What do you really need to know about leadership? Who do you pick? What position do you put them in? Ask your den leader's who would they think would be a good fit in the various positions you need. Will your charter org investigate them or rubber stamp your choices. Chances are you'll get the rubber stamp. Will council kick them back? Chances are no...I don't know how the new background checks will effect this. Talk to every parent you shake hands with see if they will fit in anywhere in your leadership and if they want to. Think about assistants for every position. Crack open your Leader's book and bone up on the poistions your unit should have. I will say there seems to be a rule of thumb whenit comes to pack leadership, about 1/3 of the parents will volunteer.

So what do I want my reader's to take away from this.

Always look for leader's

Expect 2 out of 3 to say no.

have depth in your leadership.

Have the XXXXX to ask a leader to move to another position if you think they would fit better elsewhere.

Asta pronto,

Chairman Garry

District Committee

2008-09-19T14:35:00.000-07:00

I told my self this month was the month I was going to a district committee meeting. So last night was the district meeting. It was basically my committee meeting on a higher level. I have to say that I went to myscouting elaerning and took the district committee fast start. So I knew what not to expect.

So my committee meeting and the district was basically reports from all the sub committee's then new business and old business. Blah. blah. blah. The meat of it, really didn't matter as most things taste like chicken.

After taking the district committee fast start, I have started to rethink my committee meetings. I may restructure the November Committee meeting to work like the "ideal" district committee meeting. I know I have an October Committee Meeting in three weeks, but this is going to be out of the ordinary anyway. We are doing the committee meeting at our campout. This should put what we do in front of all of our parents. It would be the perfect time to do something different and it is also a bad time for it. I'm opting to try the different method in a more familiar enviroment.

I'm trying to figure out how to break down the committee into sub committee's I'm thinking 4 months of activities, and Pack meeting. The rest of the committee is genearlly reports. Do that for 15 - 30 minutes than come back and go through reports new business and old business. while I'm thinking about it, i come across both good points and bad points. Right now I'm thinking I may be adding unneccessary length to the meeting. Yet I think that the people involved in activiteis and pack meeting really need to have meetings outside the Committee Meeting . I know this isn't happening, but everything gets pulled together somehow.

Recruiting is for the most part done. Popcorn is in a lull. though I have to come up with Prizes and quick. As the committee opted out of the Trail's end Prizes this year. I may have time for a quick breath. Oh I need to go over my wood badge ticket items with my troop guide this weekend, too.

One last thing as kind of a PSS. I ran into a former employee last night. I finally told him how pissed I was about his behavior when I asked him a direct question 4 years ago when I last saw him. It really felt good to tell him that.

SN4S and September Roundtable

2008-09-05T06:58:00.001-07:00

It has been busy the last two nights. We had our district wide School Night For Scouting on the 3rd. My district, Keystone picked up a few more than 300 scouts. I turned in 15 scouts with one withheld for payment of fees. We had a great night in my opinion, but not on the same level as last years when I transfered packs. We had half of a cafeteria table for space. We didn't have enough room to give a presentation at all. It was also our schools parent oreintation night for Kinder through 2nd. That was awesome, if scouting has a target audience we had it walking right past us. My son's den was there to have a den meeting and had games for the new scouts to play.

For a break down: we had 8 boys sign up for Bears, 6 that signed up or are coming back for more information on wolves, 2 signed tigers and 3 coming back for more information, two signed webelos and three possibles. I admit I should have better numbers for the breakdown but haven't had a chance to sit down and look at the applications. The district met at a local Pizza Hut for turn in. That took nearly two hours plus time to network. That plus having lingering effects of a bad restuarant from last Friday has kept me wiped out.

Last night was the roundtable for September. I was worried about my wood badge ticket as being on roundtable staff is a ticket item. I jumped in and helped out. The theme "Adventures in books" was difficult to pull together in the very short amount of time we had. In our joint session, we had all the usual plus a Wood Badge Beading. If you've ever been around for a beading ceremony you know that add at least 20 minutes to the agenda. As I'm working my ticket, I understand the importance of beading. But when your only working on an hour a week, it makes it tough. We also had announce ments about training, etc. tha gave us about 3 minutes for the theme. As all of us non district folk knew in our heart the district does have secret meetings. I was invited by the District Commissioner and My UC to drop by have a bean nacho and a tea. It wasn't really that big of deal the Boy scout staff planned out who had what topic through December. They started to go into the new year, but were reminder that our one district will become three seperate districts in January with new roundtables and the whole nine yards.

Ok so we know that we are being redrawn other than that we do not have many details yet. Here's how this huge news got out. First some time in August, the DE said it was going to happen as of January 1, but everything was in the air. Then I went to TDC and one of the guys there said 2 districts were getting chpped in half, one of them being mine, and the new districts were like pie slices around the metro area. I think I was at the a district training meeting when some one offered the center point was around the intersection of I-35 and I-37. Then over the last two nights it came out the new districts would have no more than 40 units in each that means my district which has 137 units will be no less than 3 districts with a small area going into another district. I am going to have to go to the district committee meeting this month. With not enough people to run the current district committees people are going to have to step up.

Speaking of Committee Meeting, I have one next week. I better get cracking on the agenda tonight.

Back to School Pack Meeting

2008-09-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

Friday we had our first pack meeting since school started. We invited all of our prospects. We had 3 that joined, one brought back the application from our school'sMeet the teacher night. That is a little less than 20% rate of return on the parents that signed in that night. I think that is about half of my Centennial unit goal.

Otherwise back to the Pack meeting. We started late by ten minutes or so. But we wrapped up at about 1 hour and 15 minutes. I always try to throw in a couple * sparklers*, run ons, quick skits, etc. to the meeting. This month I had our lone tiger try the Wire for the cubmaster run on. He was not very enthusiastic about it. It flopped horriblly. I had a Webelos 1 doing the "Taking my case to court" run on and it worked much better. I'm sure our pack meetings don't have the entertainment value that Cubmaster Chris' meetings have, yet we try to have more fun each time. We scarfed all of our returning scouts and handed out mucho cub scout belt bling and webelos' loot.

I warmed the parents on the the budget and popcorn sales as the sale starts the day after our next pack meeting. I still have to figure out our order on show and sale. We allowed our fledging Charter Organization to sell nachos and raffle tickets at the meeting. Our Charter organization is a whole other post. All I have to saynow is thank you Plano Pack 754 for doing it first or at least before us.

Our School night for Scouting is tonight. I'll try and post tomorrow.

Recruiting and Goals

2008-08-26T12:29:00.001-07:00

We are in the midst of our recruiting drive for Fall 2008. As I have been sidelined in one of my recruiting schools, I had to make a presence at a pre-rally night event or "Meet the Teacher" night. My objective at this event was to soothe my parents who have kids attending the school. My DE ninja'd the school from my recruiting plan for this fall. For those not familar with the term Ninja'd, in many online games it refers to someone swiping reward, loot, booty, etc. from the deesrving player while they are distracted.

Either my DE pulled the wool over my eyes on this or he had the wool pulled over his eyes. The DE says that the unit he ninja'd my school for has 6 scouts. The unit leader at the event said 21 to one person and 17 around me. I am not, at this point, assigning any blame to anyone.

Being the A-1 high speed, low drag, goal oriented scout leader that I am, I took our council /districts offer for School Night for Scouting training. It would appear that the things I heard in the training they did not or they did not attend the training I did. One of the top things they said was get people to sign in. If they stop and talk, they'll sign in. If they sign in you can follow-up and see if they joined or if they did not, and why. The Council even provides 2 copy carbonless forms for this. It sounds simple, right. I guess not. My top recruiter/leader provided the other unit these forms and they did not use them. I was like, why? Why bother showing up? Why bother trying to help? Why? Why? Why?

Rather than rant, Here is how I feel you should set up recruiting at events not specfically setup as recruiting events. I like this method as it is not a high pressure tactic, people come and get information, you allow them to sign up if they want to, otherwise they can leave. This gives you the chance to set a good and lasting impression.

Ask for a great location where people can see you. Either at the entry door, or at an area where everyone must walk past you at least once.
Setup your area in a fashion that works. If you have a table next to the wall use the science project display boards. Take any thing that a boy would think was bling like and or fun. For cubs this means, Derby cars, Regatta boats, Space derby rockets, have the pack buy a cub scout belt and every belt loop just for the recruiting display. Remember if they can touch it they will want it. If the see it they will remember it. if you tell them about it, you have lost them. Take you pack flag, If you are a new pack make ribbons to hang from it. Above all remember this is the only first impression you can make.
Hand out as much information as you can to the kids and parents, if you don't normally make a Pack newsletter, make one for this. you can use the Cub Scout Pack templates off the national council site. http://scouting.org/cubscouts/resources/newslettertemplate.aspx This should include everything you can think of for the next 90 days in your upcoming activities section. If scouts are busy, they are tired. If scouts are tired, they had fun.
Record the name of the boy and parent, their phone number and / or email address. Even if they are not old enough or too old to participate. If they are too young, tell them about all the great things they will get to do when they join in the spring. Summer camps, pool parties, baseball games, anything you do each summer. If they are older than your program send them information on units they can participate in and send their information to your district so they can have the right units contact them.
Follow-up! The best person from your unit to contact them is their den leader. Make sure you communicate the next few meetings with them. This is somewhat presumptuous, but it will work. The best way to tell or sell someone about scouting is to show them scouting.

We all setup Centennial Unit goals for recruiting. The council will measure it for you at the end of the year, But it is up to you to track and keep progress on your goal. Only you can measure the steps of a boy asking about cub scouts and becoming a cub scout.

There are things I missed or skipped here, but this should get you through a school fair or meet the teacher night. I hope to blog some more about recruiting at the Scout Night.

Training, What do you need?

2008-08-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

The night I was told I was going to be Comittee Chairman, I was trained as a den leader and nothing more.
That same month, I went to Committee Chair Training. The funny thing was it was the same training as Cubmaster. Do I think it was adequate? Not really. Didn't cover much except that the cubmaster ran the boys and the chairman ran the leaders. So while I know what the cubmaster knows, I'll still go to a new cubmaster course sometime.

What do you really need to know? Now this is my humble opinion, you need to have an idea of what everyone does. I know of no better way than to attend training for every position. Is it overkill? I hope so.

I want to focus on this duty in the job description: If the Cubmaster is unable to serve, assume active direction of the pack until a successor is recruited and registered. If you read the Cubmaster job description, you will find that he needs to be ready to fill in for any den leader's that can't serve. He also needs to be ready to fill in for you. This goes back to my earlier point that you really should be aware of the duties of every position and if possible be trained for that position. What better way to be aware of the duties of the position than to be trained for it. Many cubmaster's are selected as they can't or don't feel they have the availability to be Den leader's. Same is true of many Committee Chair's. I venture that the Cubmaster and Committee Chair need be the most available and most active members of the Pack. In many ways you and the Cubmaster are the glue that holds things together when they want to fall apart.

Now on to the regular blog posts.

Agenda, Agenda, Agenda, almost like announcements.

2008-08-25T07:08:00.000-07:00

So what does my agenda look like...

Here's the outline:

Opening
Invocation / Prayer
Team builder
Reports
Cubmaster / ACM
What is going on with the pack, needs, concerns, etc....
Advancement Chair
Normally just the date for advancements to be turned in.
Activities Chair
Reports status of activities for the next 120 days. who's chairing, what they need etc.
Tresury report
Last months ballance, Expeditures, Current balance
Pack trainer
What training is needed, when is the next training, I may work in enhancements in the future.
Popcorn Kernel if needed.

Business
Old Business
Second reading of decisions, tabled items etc.
New business
Items brought up in reports. Needs from the Treasury. Items we may know are coming down the pipline.

Annoucements
Closing

Taking over the World of my cub scout pack

2008-08-19T14:55:00.001-07:00

So now that I had the position what do I do?

Scouters need training... so I went of to training. I was a bit shocked that the Committee Chair recieved Cubmaster training. Is this right?

I needed to watch a couple of committee meetings before really digging in as my old pack just winged it. No committee Meetings so I needed to see what they expected. Spetember and October I watched.

Ok the current committee meeting was just random items listed on a sheet of paper produced the night of the meeting. That has got to change. So off I go to Google. I stumbled across a template for a troop committee meeting with Woobadge across the top of it. This has to be good. So I downloaded it and set off to make it my own. Derned if I can find where I found it now. So you're out of luck if you want the wood badge one. I saw that this was basically broken into two sections. Section one of the meeting was reports from the various chairpersons. Section 2 was the actual business of the meeting.

So I created my first agenda for November, the meeting was canceled for lack of attendance. Argh! Ok lets go with Decmebr then. Redo the agenda... way too many things to talk about in a timely fashion. We made it through that meeting. And I have used that agenda for the next 6 meetings.

How did I become Chairman of the Board for Cub Scout Pack XXX

2008-08-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well the story starts off with very little scouting experience as a boy. Probablly more informal than formal. Formally a year here and year there. Enough of that, So we time warp ahead to 1999.

It was April in 1999 that My son was born. I knew that he was going to be in Scouts just as soon as he went into second grade. Another time warp to 2005.

What is going on here? He's in first grade Scouts starts in second grade. My first rude awakening.

Ok so I'm a tiger parent. Then the leader moved and I'm the only returning parent. Automatically I'm the wolf Leader. Whew, I made it though that year. Well we moved summer 2007, just far enough I wasn't going to be able to make it back and forth to the old school. Ok so school night is coming up. Well I think it would presumptuous of me to wear my leader's uniform, I buy a blue and gold polo from the scout shop.

Now, I see that was my undoing. I walked into Scout night. and instantly the Cubmaster sees the shirt and starts the full court press. I must admit I was looking for a place to be a leader, but THE LEADER. Well at least I have until January to work this all out. In the mean time I'm registered as an assistant den leader.

Hah! I start taking over meetings in November.

The start of a Committee Chairmans blog.

2008-08-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

It has to start somewhere.

Here are my plan's for the next few posts.

How did I get here. Prior scouting, that fateful night in 2007.
Taking over the World. How I transitioned in to the Chairman of the board.
What I use to run the show.
What training I think you need and was any of it adequate..
Regular posts about issues and committee meetings.