The story of the Santa hat.

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

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

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.

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

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

 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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

Watching boy's grow

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

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

Helping the ADC

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

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

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

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

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

Popcorn and Twitter

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

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

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

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

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

Camp Flag Pole

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

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

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

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

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

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

Belt Loops and Pins

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

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

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

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

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

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

Not often

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

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

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

Scout Accounts: My position against them for my pack.

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.

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

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

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

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

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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?

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.

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

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

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.

It has to start somewhere.

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

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