DYB-Mike

Baloos Bugle offers several Cubmasters Minutes each month.

http://www.usscouts.org/bbugle.asp

Use the monthly Core Value that is the theme of each pack meeting as a source of inspiration

YIS

Mike.

I bent my brain trying to figure out how to fill up an hour

Ahh Scoutfish, it sounds like you didnt heed the advice given in earlier threads PLAN and OVERPLAN!

As others have pointed out, the pack meeting is your domain as Cubmaster and you are responsible for planning and implementing the festivities.

Our first Pack Meeting is this coming Sunday and as Cubmaster Ive been busy. To prepare I researched games that fit this months Core Value Cooperation and assembled an agenda of the order of activities that I have distributed to the Den Leaders. Responsibility for the Opening Ceremony has been assigned. Ive got a song to open with and some songs to sprinkle in. We have rank advancements (two boys finished their Wolf over the summer), at least on Bobcat, and a host of other awards to give out. We also have a former leader coming in to help with our popcorn fundraising kickoff. Unfortunately the Dens arent prepared with skits or anything this month, but I think well have more than enough to fill the hour and then some. Again, all this has been laid out on paper so that the Leaders know what comes next and we keep things moving.

We go through this process every month and because of this I think our Pack Meetings come off pretty well.

It sounds like your Committee Chair is pretty involved and maybe you dont have the latitude to take full charge of the pack meeting. You should still do your homework beforehand and come prepared with an arsenal of games and songs, and props to put out there. You shouldnt have to bend your brain to fill up time, thats a recipe for disaster.

Judging the type of guy you appear to be (fun and gregarious) from your posts, Im sure you did fine at your first pack meeting. Hopefully youll love the challenge of making sure each pack meeting is fun-filled and fresh.

YIS

Mike

VigilEagle04, are you saying the title of your uniform session was The BSA Uniform: Sexy and Cool?

YIS

Mike

Sexy and cool - maybe this is an angle Nationals marketing folks should explore.

Then again, my wife thinks I look like a dweeb in my uniform. Of course, Im not the strapping young man Horizons son most likely is.

YIS

Mike

Acco, I see Ms. Brandi Carlile is working on her Bear rank between concert dates.

Definitely more easy on the eyes than our friend from Americas Got Talent.

YIS

Mike

Posted by moosetracker: but when in MA & NH it was definitely Soda.

AH! It depends where you were in MA. In the Boston area its tonic, or at least it was when my wife and I were growing up. I still encounter a few tonic drinkers but the usage seems to be fading. My wife and I are fighting a loosing battle with our kids who insist on using soda despite our influence. Ive now found myself slipping and using soda more often these days.

I dont know if any of you scouters out there were following Americas Got Talent on TV. My wife was so I caught a few of the episodes.

Last night was the Grand Finale. In addition to the finalists they had a variety of acts, one of which was a medley done by previous contestants who (obviously) didnt make the cut.

One of these acts was an overweight guy in short shorts (or something) who did cartwheels and jumped around the stage amongst the other former contestants. What this guys talent was was beyond me and it was perfectly clear why he wasnt in the finals.

Something caught my eye about the guy and I got up close to the TV to confirm what I saw. Hes wearing a scout uniform shirt! I exclaimed to my wife. It had the old red tabs and the Universal Emblem was quite clear. There was something on the temporary insignia pocket, but I couldnt make it out.

Not the type of exposure the BSA has in mind Im sure (hence the title of this thread). I wonder if this guy is actually associated with a unit.

YIS

Mike

Weve used liter and half liter plastic bottles for targets. They make a nice thump sound when hit and if you set them up right you can knock a bunch down at once. You could call it Sling Shot Bowling. You could also decorate the bottles as zombies (battling zombie hordes appears to be very popular these days) or other monsters. If you have the caps you might want to put a little water in for weight. The only drawback is you have to stop the action every so often to set the targets back up. The kids dont seem to mind.

For ammo weve used 1 superballs with a tarp as a backdrop to slow them down.

YIS

Mike

(This message has been edited by DYB-Mike)

Good luck Lisa. Let us know how things go.

YIS

Mike

Schiff, thanks for the info. I didnt know the USPS had that no organizations commemorative policy.

Still, the design seems disconnected from the groups and sentiment mentioned in the article. Maybe depicting some youth (boys and girls) sitting around a campfire or hiking with backpacks would have been a better generic design?

The thing that galls me the most about the design is the hat. Now if it were a campaign hat the stamp would be more palatable to me, somewhat resembling the Baden Powell drawing of the crouching Scout that one often sees. Again, were not commemorating Baden Powell, but at least the design would have been more scouty.

YIS

Mike

I agree that the stamp design leaves a lot to be desired. I disliked it so much that I only reluctantly bought a pane just to mail letters and Im a stamp collector!

Contrast the stamp with the commemorative US dollar issued a few months previous. It is clearly a BSA design, with a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and female Venturer saluting on the obverse and a big bold, BSA emblem on the reverse. Its a nice design and I made sure I obtained a proof copy from the mint.

All this is to say that, given the dollars design, I dont think politics influenced the design of the stamp. What they were thinking, however, is beyond me. I will say that in the latest issue of the American Philatelist, a stamp collecting publication, a drawing of Baden Powell, dressed much like the cowboy on the stamp and scouting about in African bush, accompanied a discussion of the stamp. Was there some such drawing of Baden Powell that influenced the design? Even so, we are celebrating 100 years of the BSA, not Baden Powell.

YIS

Mike

Hi Tiger Lisa,

If the weather report is so ominous that it is giving you pause then I would cancel the event.

While the safety concerns are paramount, theres another angle to consider: a miserable, wet campout may turn off inexperienced Cub Scouts and also many parents, leading perhaps to some drop-outs.

Do you have any money invested in food? If you have a good sized meeting space maybe you could do a camp-in. If you have food that needs to be grilled you could borrow a couple of grills and let those hearty committee folks stand out in the rain and cook.

YIS

Mike

Im not assuming anything. I guess for some of us its just a knee-jerk reaction that it would have been more appropriate to have boys competing, not the adult leaders.

We don't know what happened in the back where the shirt was launched.

You raise an interesting point with that. Id hate to think that the adult dove into the midst of a group of boys to secure the shirt.

YIS

Mike

Basementdweller, I thought the exact same thing about the scouter who participated in the guitar playoff. I also attended a Shining Light simulcast (or whatever you call it) with Cub Scout son and I leaned over to him and said He should have given that shirt to one of the boys. He lost serves him right.

I didnt know what to expect from the show a large-scale campfire with skits and songs? I thought it was pretty impressive, a good mix of scouty, patriotic stuff offset by the contemporary bands and Mike Rowes great bit. I thought the Scout Camp dance was a hoot as well.

Was Taylor Swift scheduled to perform? Scout son, who is at the Jambo, told us she was and he was all excited about it. Even Cub Scout son kept asking me when Taylor Swift was coming on.

Scout son texted us after the show and said it was awesome. He was 15 rows from the stage. As you can imagine I spent most of the time looking for him in the audience (didn't see him).

I wish they could have gotten a few more heavy hitters to do the birthday greetings. A magician and ventriloquist? Nothing against them, but Bill Gates Senior and Junior would have made a greater impression. I know Scout son would have been impressed.

We do need more folks like Rowe out there plugging Scouting.

YIS

Mike

Just the thought of any of this or even seeing a scouting symbol or looking at my scouting stuff I worked so hard on for the fall makes me ill.

leader1118, I know youve been through the mill and are disheartened and, dare I say, disgusted by what youve experienced, but please rethink on disassociating yourself with Scouting and helping your son along.

Sure, there are a lot of jerks out there, but there are also a lot of great volunteers with their hearts in the right place. In my small experience as a scout leader Ive had my share of frustrations and run-ins with the jerks. All this frustration, however, was more than offset by the great folks Ive been privileged to collaborate with in working to put forth a fun and worthy program for our boys.

Check out some packs with your son, observe their programs, and talk to the leaders. Im sure youll find one that your son will enjoy and that will make you feel good about scouting again. We need all the good volunteers like yourself we can muster!

YIS

Mike

I dont know how disappointed my son (who is at Jambo) is that the President is not speaking in the flesh, but he was happy to hear that Taylor Swift will be there!

I personally am disappointed with the Presidents decision. I agree with the comment that the concerns about security are hogwash its a military base after all, far more secure than Bar Harbor, and he would be speaking to Boy Scouts. As a former community organizer you would think that speaking to members of an organization of which service is one of its core principles would be appealing to the President. One would think that he would realize that the gay/religion conundrum has little meaning to all those boys gathered there, but for those boys to be able to say that they saw and heard (and hopefully were inspired by) the President of the United States would be something they would carry with them for a lifetime. Bad, unfortunate decision. If its for politics it sort of falls in line with the old saying that Scouting is fun until the adults (read political pressure) get involved.

I guess they needed all that extra security for Chelseas wedding.

YIS

Mike

Funny, I was just discussing this very thing with a scouter friend the other day.

While Im proud of my Tiger and Cub Scout Den Leader knots (I certainly earned them!), the patch that means the most to me is my old Explorer patch with the big funky E outline with the flag of the Explorers Club on New York within the E at the bottom.

Im a little hazy on the details, but apparently the Explorers Club of New York sponsored Boy Scout Explorers posts back in the early 1970s (maybe they still do). The focus was on science and as I had indicated an interest in archaeology on a high school questionnaire I was invited to join the Post that operated out of Boston University.

It was a fun and interesting experience, but the most meaningful part was that I became close friends with a couple of guys who joined the Post at the same time and with whom I remained close well into my adult years. One is on the West Coast now, the other is unfortunately deceased. My deceased friend introduced me to one of his co-workers and through that guy I was introduced to a whole new circle of friends, one of whom would become my loving wife of 22 years and four kids.

I never did become an archaeologist, but joining that Explorer Post set in motion enjoyable events that have brought me to where I happily am today. You could say that it even brought me, through my boys, back into Scouting.

YIS

Mike

They might sign their sons up, but consider the structure too cliqueish and complicated to get involved in themselves.

Ive heard from acquaintances who are members of the committee that runs one of the youth baseball leagues in town that things can get pretty complicated and heated there are well. I guess the scouting observation that its all fun until the adults get involved holds true in youth sports as well.

BP, I wouldn't brush sports off so quickly as not playing some factor. Youth sports have become far more expansive than they were back in the day. Kids start younger, there more opportunities for play (inside and outside of school), and more team sports to choose from. I have talked with some that think youth sports have become far too serious and demanding, sucking the fun out of it and leaving time for little else. Couple all that with the perception of sports as cool that is encouraged by many adults and the media. If lost membership due to sporting conflicts is affecting our Pack it must be affecting others as well.

YIS

Mike

Based on my personal experience, the biggest problem for our Pack is organized sports. We have become a society fixated on professional sports and its highly paid heroes and that fixation has trickled down to the local level.

Sports are a year-round activity and even when you think the season is over there are travel teams and camps. In addition to the staples (baseball, football, basketball and hockey), soccer, lacrosse, and flag football have taken off around here. Other posters have mentioned folks not wanting to commit the time and money, but I dont necessarily buy that as I see all the time and money that parents commit to their sons sport activities.

I can say definitively that weve lost several boys to sports. I had one boy in my Wolf Den who did earn his rank (according to his parents), but hardly attended any meetings or events due to sport conflicts. After earning the rank his parents told me that he would not be back because the sport commitments were just too much. Now you might say to me that perhaps our Pack program is not engaging enough, but when I talk to the parents of the sport boys they tell me that their sons do have fun at our meetings and events, but the sports are just more important to them. Im aware of a number of parents who make an effort to balance activities (sports, scouts, music, etc.), but unfortunately many do not.

I make an effort to publicize our activities in the local papers (look at the fun our Pack is having), but its more glamorous to be Little League champions than to earn your Arrow of Light.

I should say that Im not down on sports. My sons and daughter have played soccer and baseball and there are a lot of positives you can get out of participation, but its not the end-all be-all activity for us like it seems to be for some. One of my pet peeves is when parents tell me about the mandatory practices and if Johnny misses those hell be left on the bench. I wonder what the reaction would be if I started mandating Pack meeting attendance!

On a completely different slant, I often wonder the rise in the fear of sexual predators has affected enrollment. I bring this up because Ive actually have had the mothers of two potential recruits tell me that the boys fathers did not want them to participate because of a fear that they might be abused! Ironically, these men were sports-oriented, so Id like to know what makes them think their boys have more of chance of being molested by the Cubmaster than by the soccer coach. Maybe its the uniform.

As to the gays and God rational that started this thread, I dont see it having an affect on the Packs and Troops Im aware of. Its not a big issue nor do we go out of our way to make it one.

YIS

Mike

Scoutfish, when I read the topic I thought your Pack imploded or some such other disaster, but its a GOOD THING!

Congratulations, you will have a blast!

Like you, I started out as the helpful parent when my oldest son joined the Pack as a Bear. I found that I was having as much fun as he was so when I was offered the position of ACM at the end of his Webelos I year, I jumped on it no sales pitch needed.

Two years later, after my oldest son crossed over to the Troop and my youngest joined and completed his Tiger Rank (I serve as his Den Leader as well), I found myself in the position of being able to choose between Cubmaster and Committee Chair. While the organizational aspect of the Committee Chair role had some appeal to me because of my regular job, I chose the Cubmaster position because, in my humble opinion, its more fun!

Ive just finished my first year as Cubmaster and I have no regrets. Judging from your posts Scoutfish youll love it as much as I and the rest of the Cubmasters here on the Forum do.

YIS

Mike

My Aunt Came Back made me think of another good one: The Cat Came Back.

I had not heard of the Aunt song and thought it might be a variation of the Cat song, but they are very different.

Google The Cat Came Back for the lyrics.

Da Moose, Da Moose is a real favorite of mine and the lyrics can be found by Googling them.

YIS,

Mike

Mini-hijack

Unfortunately, they never got to the point that there was a functioning committee, so the Cubmaster ended up doing almost everything. When he started working longer hours, events didn't get planned properly, and things got disorganized. No one was there to back him up.

Over the summer, several families were frustrated with the lack of organization and decided it was easiest to move to the very large pack nearby where they wouldn't have to get involved.

That is really sad. The Cubmaster works his butt off for the kids of parents who are too lazy to get off theirs and his reward is Youre not doing a good enough job. See you later! I really feel for that Cubmaster!

Now, back to topic.

YIS

Mike

I think were all in the same boat Engineer61.

I think the posters, myself included, noted token respect based on rank or age.

The difference is what would you do for a boss who you didnt respect? Clearly you would do your job as defined, but would you do any more than that? Would you watch that persons back?

If you respected your boss, and he/she demonstrated respect for you, would you be motivated to go above and beyond your job description (self-serving reasons aside)? Would you be inclined to look after that persons interests as you would your own?

YIS

Mike

"How do I MAKE scouts respect me, and how do I punish them if they don't?"

Your question should be:

I feel I dont have the respect of my scouts. How do I go about earning that respect?

Its really an introspective question. What am I doing as a leader that is not encouraging respect? Perhaps your (and Im referring to our hypothetical leader) method of leading does not include mutual respect and trust?

While reading these respect threads the words of the Roman Emperor Tiberius kept coming to mind: let them hate me, so long as they fear me.

Respect is a two way street. Treat others with respect and youre bound to get it in return. While an adult should get a token level of respect just because of the fact that they are adults, I would much rather be respected as a person, with guidance based on life experience to offer, rather than simply because I am an adult. I think this is a far more beneficial relationship for all concerned.

YIS,

Mike

Pack212Scouter, thanks for trying to clarify things, but I still dont see much difference, with the exception of maybe resident camp. I have not had any Cub Scout resident camp experience as yet so Im not sure how that works. From your post it appears that parents are required to accompany their scouts to resident camps as well?

YIS

Mike