jrdalys

I think I know the family in question...went to Webelos Woods a couple of years ago with my son and was rather surprised at the interesting people running the show.  If its the area I think it is, you have a DE who is fairly new but has a District Director (or senior DE) who has been around seemingly forever in the same office (but the DD is responsible for the neighboring district to the north).  I wouldnt really expect either to help you very much beyond facilitating a discussion with the SM.  Perhaps that would suffice.

We are a smaller pack - we started the year with only 8 boys and had another 8 come to the meeting plus some siblings...maybe 20 or 25 total kids participated. We did it as more of a 'fun' event than our pinewood derby tends to be (the kids have fun there too, but its taken much more seriously) and just allowed the kids to race whoever they wanted. No eliminations, no recording of results, just races for fun.

We also had another cool water oriented item also set up (a bit harder to explain...two old fashioned hand pumps set up on barrels full of water, pumping water through sloped gutters into the other barrel). The kids tended to rotate between racing/modifying their boats and playing with the pumps.

I spent most of the event talking to prospective scouts/parents and helping get registration done...but there were 4 adults who set up the whole thing and ran it (mostly helping kids assemble boats, preventing absolute mayhem), and they seemed to have had fun with it too.

With a larger group I'd suggest more 'lanes' than the two we had, in order to keep the kids from losing interest.

have fun!

We had the 'cut down pool noodle' type raingutter regatta last week. We did it as a build then race type event at our first pack meeting of the school year, and also invited all the prospective new cubs to come to the meeting.

It was a FANTASTIC meeting. The boys had a great time, the new parents saw how much fun everyone had and felt good about signing up with us...heck, the ONLY bad thing is that our follow on meetings are going to get judged against this one!

I'd highly recommend it, even if (especially if?) your group doesnt normally do the traditional regatta.

Our council (Cascade Pacific) takes in funds wherever it can. We have the annual sporting clays event someone suggested earlier...we have a 'rappel off an office building' annual event in Portland, FOS...the council slice of popcorn sales (and candy bars/meat sticks in the Spring) is only one part.

Now all that said, our unit last did popcorn 3 years ago. The boys knocked it out of the park and we didn't do it again the next year (we dont spend much typically, but we offset half the resident camp expense for any of them that went to camp).

I was the last Popcorn Kernel (while also being the Wolf Den Leader). I'm cubmaster now...and the committee couldnt find someone to be Kernel this year (and there's no way I was doing it again...that stuff took over half my house, and the constant flow of people checking product and money in and out was pretty intense). This year we sold first aid kits...did well...but I don't think thats repeatable.

so....guess what? We will be doing popcorn again this next year.

My pack tries to give something to every car...as a way of recognizing all the work that went into building the car, and to make the day more engaging for the boys that may not have cars that are as competitive. The way it works is that one of the adults has a list of potential awards (most artistic, best use of the color yellow, scout spirit, most interesting, fastest looking, etc.) figured out ahead of time, and will then walk around the 'paddock' and decide which cars to give which award to.

We DO of course have cars that are faster than others, and some boys still get upset about losing/not winning (choose your preferred term), so it isn't like a "soccer where everyone wins" event, but it is still nice that everyone gets some kind of recognition for the effort.

Don't you think that the LDS church, with it's thousands of units, had their say on the issue already?

My daughter is a girl scout - just bridged over to Juniors after two years as a Brownie. Girl Scouts DO have a uniform, but they aren't too picky about it, and allow alot of variance in how its worn (at least around here). The girls don't have a hat that they need to wear (there's an optional one, and I have never seen anyone wear it). They are SUPPOSED to wear a white shirt and tan pants (their choice) and wear either a uniform sash or vest. That's it.

It is lower cost than my son's cub scout uniform, but at least his uniform doesn't change (aside from wear or size) until he hits Boy Scouts. Every 2 years the girls change program levels and need to buy new stuff.

I agree with the comments about the perceived value of the product. My son was one of the top three in sales in the pack this past popcorn season, and I acted as the unit Kernel.

The people who bought from us definitely felt like they were making a donation rather than buying a product.

I have been looking into other fundraisers that might provide more value for money, and in turn might provide better profits. The Interstate Battery fundraiser that gets advertised in Scouting magazine looks like a real contender. for a replacement of popcorn this fall.

Yeah, I didn't expect them to fit like a suit, but honestly...who did the sizing on these things? I like that they have the stretchy waistband things you can tighten, but when no amount of tightening can make them stay up on a typical 7 year old with the smallest pants they sell (size 'S' / 6) it makes me wonder.

That said, my son really does like them. He kept playing with the leg zippers in the pew next to me on Sunday (Scout Sunday). Even better, the weekend before, he got his Light of Christ award from the Archbishop of Portland, and told me that he and the other boys in the front pew had a great time taking the zipoff legs on and off during Mass.

Boys will be boys. :-)

My son (Wolf) announced to me a few weeks ago that he needed a pair of uniform zipoffs. Our pack is a 'shirts only' group, so he'd gone through his Tiger year with me not worrying/noticing, but here's what I discovered after going to the Scout Shop to pick him up a pair:

Those things are HUGE! I bought him a pair of 'small' cub blue zipoffs (labeled size 6), and they look like they could go on a 5th grader! With the elastic waist strap things all the way tight, they slide right off...only if we cinch the belt tight do they stay up.

Also, these are unfinished pants (fine...less stock for the store to worry about), so we have to hem them. This hid another fun fact - if we zip the legs off, we're left with his pants ending at mid-shin; these things look like knickers!

He isn't unusually small...he's a pretty typical Wolf cub size.

Did others have similar experiences, or did my son get the only 'special' pair of pants?

I'm a Wolf DL, and my son just earned 'Light of Christ', which is the Roman Catholic religious emblem award for Tigers and Wolves.

In going through the program with him (we don't have a religious emblem coordinator in the pack, and we aren't sponsored by a Catholic church), I learned a few important things. One of those is that the parent really needs to be on board with the religious emblem program; that it shouldn't be part of a regular den/pack activity. That's because not all of the boys are of the same faith, and you really can't and shouldn't put them through programs for a different faith (again, unless Mom and Dad approved...but that could be trouble down the line with the Priest/Deacon/Preacher who has to sign it off).

You could certainly offer a program on a different day/time than your den/pack meeting for interested boys to come work on it together, but I really wouldn't even try to take a mixed faith group through it.

On a side note, my cub pack growing up was 100% Catholic and sponsored by the Church, so we DID go work on Parvuli Dei together as Bears, but again...we were NOT mixed faith in the Den.

For your boy who is of a different faith community (JW?), I'd suggest having his folks talk with their Pastor about what he/she would suggest and support.

If anyone is interested in perusing the "Winning of the West" book that SeattlePioneer referenced, it is available for FREE through Project Gutenberg.

http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11941/pg11941.html

I was a member of units sponsored by the Catholic Church (actually it was probably Knights of Columbus, but that's not an important distinction) when I was growing up.

I can only remember ONE time attending Mass while on a campout, and that was the year that they had a priest come out and celebrate mass under a large dining fly at Camporee.

Sounds like alot of variance in practice from one troop/area to another.

BTW - we usually got back in the mid to late afternoon, and while it was theoretically possible for us to make it to evening Mass, I don't know any of the boys in the troop who would actually do so.

Yeah....that's an area our pack could do better at.

We have so far had only one 'committee meeting' since back to school time in September. We are short on adult leadership, with only two people who might attend such a meeting that aren't also program leaders (den leaders, cubmaster).

I do wish we got together more, but I think I'm the only one who wants to be more organized and involved...which does concern me for the future

Actually, that's probably a good place to hunt for Sea Scout officers - Coast Guard and Naval units. My Sea Scout skipper was a Coast Guard reservist, and I'm fairly sure that some of the mates were too.

Sea Scouting for me was everything Boy Scouting wasn't. It was fun, it had plenty of activity, and it was mostly youth run.

We are fortunate to have a "Sea Scout Base" on the Columbia River that has a number of slips for ships to moor their varied craft. I can tell you that we had extensive carpool networks to get to meetings, and it would typically take over an hour each way to get to them...and we STILL had fun.

SP, Cascade Pacific Council, which I don't think EXACTLY adjoins with yours to the South (we go as far North as Longview WA) has three different resident camp experiences for Cubs.

We have Cub World, oriented for incoming Wolves and Bears, though Webelos would be welcome too. This one is (IIRC) at Scouters Mountain, a council property just outside Portland OR. The Cubs camp in train cars and other entertaining shelters - adults tent it.

We have Butte Creek Scout Ranch, oriented for incoming Webelos. The Scout Ranch is about an hour outside Portland. This one is (I think) a wall tent setup, and has as its main feature horseback riding.

We also have 'Adventure Cove' at Camp Clark out on the Oregon Coast (next to Camp Meriwether). This one looks alot like Boy Scout summer camp (and is in fact a couple of miles away from Boy Scout summer camp). This one is in 'mini Adirondack' shelters for sleeping.

I guess my point in going into all of this is that 1) I feel very fortunate to have all this wealth of resources and 2) I'm pretty sure the council welcomes packs from outside the council

ASM, from viewing the video on the Squareup website, the seller will enter the amount of money we are charging on the phone, and scan the card. The payor will then 'sign' for the charge with their finger, 'approve' the payment by pressing an approve button, and then can enter either a cell phone number (for an SMS sent receipt) or an email address (for an emailed receipt).

UCEagle, maybe you can answer a couple of questions I have then...

1) Is it true that if you sell more than $1,000 through Square that you'll get the money delayed for some period of time? And if you know...how long is that?

2) What account would you connect to the device? The unit checking account? A parent's checking account (the parent with the smartphone)?

BlancMange - that was the very first question that got asked after the "Oh Cool" finished. The 2.75% will come completely out of the unit share. The point that the presenter made was that while it's a reduced unit share / commission, it's better than NO unit share / commission.

We came out of THAT discussion with the understanding that we should use the card reader as a last resort, to save a no sale, because the money comes right out of the unit.

I attended the council popcorn sales kickoff as a semi-willing Popcorn Kernel last night (long story). During the event, one of the council staffers announced that they had worked out a way for us to take credit cards from folks buying popcorn, as a way to get around the 'I don't have any cash on me' problem.

They passed out free credit card devices from "Square Up". The devices will plug into Android or Iphones, and have no monthly fee. We will tie the devices to a checking account, and Square Up will deposit the funds to that account minus 2.75% for a fee.

Does anyone have experience using this company? One of the folks at the meeting (another unit's Kernel I think) mentioned that they have used them before, and said that things are great until you get to $1,000 in total payments

UCEagle - do you mean to say that half uniforming took over the whole Canadian Scout movement? What do their Scouts do without guidance on what pants to wear? That is just plain shocking!

:-)

so...did anyone notice the pricing of their uniforms? Adult Large uniform shirt for $20 Canadian!

Wow, somehow they have Scout merchandise that sells for something most of us would recognize as reasonable. Shirts that actually cost something close to what a Shirt costs.

Who would ever have thought THAT was possible...

http://www.scoutshop.ca

We allowed resident camping for Tigers as long as their adult partner came along as one of the adult leaders.

Don't know if thats "officially ok" by national rules, but that was allowed by Council.

Similar to others, we make parents and scouts aware of the awards, and let them achieve them if they wish. We DO make a point of telling the boys about activities in the Pack or Den that might 'count' as requirements for the awards though.

On a (somewhat) related note...my CM and I (I'm a DL) have felt that the LNT award wasn't too well thought out. It's a large diamond shaped patch that really doesn't go anywhere on the uniform (though we've seen boys/parents trying to sew it in various 'creative' locations) except in the 'temporary' patch spot. Our council is big on the 'segments' that only really work around a circular (typically District) patch on the right pocket, so that spot doesn't work. Sure they could sew a loop on it and hang it from the button I guess, but that isn't the best either.

Kindof a bummer when the boy earns the patch and discovers that they really can't put it on their shirt.