OwntheNight

Been there, Done That AND got Two T-Shirts out of it!! Had ours 2 weeks ago! Don't forget: Where's your buddy? No running in Camp! Please don't bring Tuna Fish or Egg Salad for lunch, if you can't keep it cold! No, you may not play William Tell at the range! Really Walking Den Leader, that phone call is more important than helping your boys? It's always FOR THE BOYS!!! Have a great week!(This message has been edited by OwnTheNight)

In February, I took over as CM for our pack. The previous CC was very organized and did a lot of jobs that could have been farmed out to other people. But there were problems with the communication skills of this CC,(very blunt, emails being fired off the cuff, etc.) Unfortunately, this created a power vacuum of 1. The previous CM was good friends with the CC, and they began acting as 1 voice. Due to those power struggles within the pack, we lost our tiger and bear dens to another pack. Our COR finally stepped in and had to take control of the situation. The CC resigned, and the CM stepped down. At the beginning of March, I got to sit down with our COR and discuss the vision of the pack and how we can bring that vision to reality. He told me to focus on the program side of the unit and he would focus on the committee side, first by getting a CC in place, then by working with them until he worked himself out of a job as acting CC. Here is what he told us: The CM is the face of the unit for the boys and is in charge of the program side of the unit. The CC should be heading the committee meeting and delegating responsibilities to the committee in regards to the business side of the pack. Many hands make light work. One of his quotes to us, "If the CM wants to do something for the boys, It's up to the CC and committee to make that happen for him, without interference" Obviously, that's not a blank check for me to do whatever I want, but a challenge to provide the best program I can, even if I need to think outside the box. The CC and I are working together setting up the program for next year. I'm working on the actual program ideas while she is figuring out the business side of how to run that program. The nice thing is that I still keep her in the loop regarding the program side even for things very trivial, and she is constantly asking how the committee can help and if there's anything I need. She's even taken the lead on working with the ACM for planning our Summer program. All I did was put down the events I wanted to do, She and the ACM have put it on the calender without me meddling or micro managing the process. The CM and CC need to be able to trust each other enough to not step on each others toes, and keep the same vision for the pack. It's also nice to get a different perspective on ideas when I present them to the CC. She's been with the pack for only 2 yrs as a parent only, I've been in Cub Scouts for 7 yrs, sometimes I get tunnel vision and need a reality check, my CC provides that for me.

Normally, we give the boys in that group some sort of outdoor tool. ( we did firestarters at B/G, along with compasses for all boys in the pack) At our bridging ceremony during our Spring campout, we gave them flashlights. I found some discontinued 6 LED flashlights at Home Depot for .98 ea. Bought a bunch just to have around, and gave them to our 4th graders going into 5th grade.

Speaking of Great pictures: Here is a cool bugler photo. This has made it's way to my workstation background. http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/traveler-magazine/unbound/boy-scouts/

Our troop doesn't use one, even though we have a bunch of boys in band. I'm trying to convince Scoutson to try it when he reaches 1st class. I've even joked with him that he could be the troop tubler if he brought his tuba. Imagine hearing reveille from a tuba at 6:30 am! I've been using the digital versions at Day Camp this week, and haven't had any complaints so far. Maybe because people are looking at their watches and checking their pocket schedules for what is next. I did get to go over and talk to our Tigers and explain the significance of the bugle and explain the different calls to them. (no self respecting kid was going to put Bugler on his adv records) So when did Bugler become a position of disrespect? During the civil war, bugler and flag man were considered honorable positions and highly cherished, yet now bugling is a lost art and an unenviable position. It is a difficult PoR with having to learn all the calls. But my gosh, I'd rather hear reveille than a bunch of cell phone alarms that are programmed for all different times or hearing the SPL and ASPL shaking all the tents yelling "WAKE UP" around camp. just as I'd rather hear "TAPS" at night to reflect on the day for those few moments, instead of just hearing "Lights Out" I respect the bugler, even though I don't know how to play it (Woodwind side of the band for me).While every PoR is important to how the troop operates, I feel bugler is the 3rd most important position behind SPL and PL. The bugler should be controlling the movement of the troop on input from the SPL. It's unfortunate that nobody in our troop wants to step up and even try it but they will fight over QM because it's one of the "easier" PoR's around. I even heard one of the boys complain about being historian, because he had to pull pictures from the troop website and make a slide show for an upcoming COH. That was his job for his 6 mo. term. Kind of sad if you ask me. Keep the bugler alive!

Is your son allowed to have is cell phone in school; in his classes at school? Is your son allowed to bring his phone into church? Heck, is he even allowed to have it on in a movie theater? There are times and places for everything,and camp is no place for a cell phone. Actually, Yes. My son can take his phone,laptop or an ipad into school an connect to the school's network. I walk into the school, and my phone immediatly asks me if l would like to connect to one of the school's networks as a guest or a student. The school district has implemented a forward thinking approach to technology. Texting and voice conversations are not allowed during school hours. The students may use the network for research and studies, all in an attempt to go paperless and put more information in the student's hands. Teacher's plans are online and available all the time. The students also know that if they are caught texting or talking on the phone, the phone is confiscated and Mom or Dad have to come get it. They also know the school can shut down the network, and take the tool away from everybody due to misuse. Abuse is down throughout the school. If you tell them they can't do something, they're going to do it anyway. If you tell them they can do something, there's not a sense of getting away with something wrong. In church, I use my Bible app to pull up scripture, while on the church wireless network. Of course I could pull up the pastors sermon from his podcast which is updated on Tuesday mornings. I agree that camp outs are not the place for phones, but we tell our boys you can bring them, but they better be left in their pack. The only boys that are allowed to carry phones around are the SPL and the ASPL's. It's their responsibilty to set the proper example for the rest of the troop. In a year and a half with the troop, I've only seen 1 ASPL have his phone out and actively using it during a camp activity, and that was for an exercise for Emergency Preparedness. He was the "Missing Scout" and was texting info about his location. Sounds like High Tech Hide and Seek to me, I digress. We all talk about growing up without cell phones and doing just fine. Look at their side of things for a moment: You knew who the bad seeds were in school, and knew to avoid them. If you had a dispute with somebody, you handled it the mature way. "Bike Rack 3:00, BE THERE!!!" After Columbine and VA Tech, that's what these kids know. They have their phones with them all the time.That phone is their entire social existence. It is a different culture, I know I can't carry on 4 or 5 conversations at the same time, I've seen these kids do that without blinking an eye. Growing up, I was taught to keep my wallet with me all the time, now something doesn't feel right against my right cheek if my wallet's not there. Same thing with the phone for kids. It's what they've grown up with. Social networking is their communication tool. We can't stop it, only hope to contain it. Even then, kids verbal and writing skills are diminishing, so in that sense, it's good to get them out and communicating on a human level. Not a digital one. Years from now when history books are written about this time, it will be labeled the internet age. It was just 15 yrs ago that we were exclusively using 56k dial up service.We can't just bury our heads and just hope blanket rules will fix the problem. We have to be adaptable, or at the least, a half step behind them so we know what to expect, 'cause they will run away from us if we don't try and keep up. That's what I got out of the OP.(This message has been edited by OwnTheNight)

I have Day Camp CM duties starting tomorrow thru Friday and then Saturday night, we get on 2 charter buses with 84 boys and 12 adults and drive 14 hrs to Camp Alexander in Colorado. Out of the frying pan of Texas to the freezer of the Rocky Mountains Looking forward to this trip!

Definitely not being lazy. Due to requests from people all around the country for flags that have been flown at the capitol. It has gotten bigger than they can handle. My Wood Badge tent mate was on staff for one of our congressmen, and told me that they put a box full of flags up on a crane and raise it up, technically flying the flag over the capitol. With all those requests, it would take forever to do them individually. They still perform full honors when they raise the crate up, so the flags are still treated with respect. Congratulations to your Eagle

KC9DDI, I don't see how giving staff any special patches or lanyards or face paint or anything would enhance our emergency preparedness. Good training, and having proper emergency procedures in place is really all that you need. Your right in the fact that having these items does not enhance our preparedness. We definitely want to be prepared for any situation. Our reasoning for using the lanyard system, is to be able to identify quickly the adults who are trained for these situations. Our day camp staff is 8 people. The rest of the "staff" are parents of the boys in camp. Some are registered BSA leaders, others are just parents spending 4 mornings or afternoons with their sons. During our registration process, we've asked everybody who will be attending camp to inform us of any certifications they have and the cooresponding paperwork to go with it. This way, we can try and group them with groups that might not have any training. While all the staff and all the stations will have walkie talkies, some of our stations are 200-300 yds from HQ, and calling for the medical director is first, if you see somebody in the group that is trained, they can step in and begin treatment if necessary. We ran into a situation last year at camp. We had to activate our emergency evacuation procedure due to lightning and storms in the area. As I was going around telling the groups to head to our designated meeting point, I had Den Leaders, who were supposed to be responsible for a den of 10-12 boys, grab their own sons and head off to their cars and leave camp, while leaving the only other Den leader trying to get the boys to our meeting point. Myself ,as Cubmaster, and the Course Director were supposed to be the authority figures from where information was coming on what to do. While it wasn't a medical situation, the fact is if I have a leader who doesn't want to follow procedures and protocols, how can I trust them if that situation arises, especially if they don't have the training. I've seen people without any official certifications but an abundance of common sense "jump into the action" and do an excellent job managing a situation until professionals arrived. I've seen people with every certification under the sun freeze up or completely botch a situation despite having an assortment of certification cards and patches. Actions speak louder than words. I've seen those same people as well, but I've also seen the ones who stand around and don't do anything out of fear of not knowing what to do or believing the stories and rumors of people trying to help others and getting sued or having negligence placed on them for helping out. That's why there are good samirtan laws on the books. I agree that we don't need a doo-dad on our uniform for specialized training, hopefully our training and instincts take over, or even better, that we don't have to use that training ever. It's good to know we have it though. If the CPR certified get a special patch, then why can't the certified life guards get a special shoulder cord? Hey, they get the cool red shorts, the suntan, and the best seat at the pool. Shouldn't that be enough for them?

The Card your participants get will be their credentials. With all the temporary patches that are out there, It might be difficult to figure out who's got what cert. and so on. Now in a large camp setting, you would want something for those individuals who are certified. At our day camp this year, we will have our medical staff at HQ, but then, any individual who is CPR certified will wear an additional lanyard that has the letters CPR in bright red on it. Everybody has been told at training, that the ones that are certified and current will have this. Until National comes up with a viable curriculum and standards for all units, and a way to have a recognized patch,that can be updated when you recert, I just don't see it happening soon. The leaders who are certified will be the one who jump into the action when it's needed,whether they have a patch or not. The ones that aren't will stand around waiting for somebody else to do it.

BD, While the game was free to setup and play. The game offered "upgrades" to their players for extra energy, weapons, etc.for a price. Yes, a Debit Card was "borrowed" from my wife's purse to procur these upgrades, without my wife's knowledge. How many points of the scout law have been violated at this point? Unfortunately, this is one of those "lesson learned" moments. We tried disputing the charges with the bank, but they wanted us to sign an affidavit against our son for using the card without our permission. Sorry, I'm not prosecuting my son for 350.00.The explanation I got from the company, was that the billing info is done on a seperate server, and when these upgrades are purchased, a seperate window opens to complete the transaction. So there are a lot of hoops to jump through to validate the purchase. My advice is be very careful and watch what sites your kids get on like a hawk.

6 am reveille is better than the 4 am "Nature Hike" 300 feet away from camp. Still haven't gotten use to having an old nalgene in the tent for such adventures

10. Your neighbors don't mind hearing "reveille" at 6 AM 9. If you don't like the view, turn your tent 8. You don't have to worry about losing the key to your tent. 7. Pay per view is taking the rain fly off and looking at the stars 6. Nobody ever got silly at Cracker Barrel and pulled the fire alarm 5. Dutch oven Cobbler 4. Housekeeping is as easy as shaking your tent out. 3. The calories don't count when you eat outside 2. Soap? We don't need no stinking soap! 1. You can't have a huge bonfire in your hotel room Happy Camping all!

"I doubt yeh could find an adult in da country that's actually read all of 'em. And let me tell yeh, I don't think a single one of 'em is enforceable as written." Not until a certain 12 yo racks up 350.00 worth of charges for a "free" game. And then when you have to call Germany to try to get the charges reversed, because according to their TOS, he had to be 13 to setup an account. When you try and argue that point, their response in a nutshell. "Too Bad, So sad, we got our money, and you won't get it back." Needless to say, there was definitely a long conversation about the Scout Oath and Law that day. But on the bright side, I won't be paying for a lawn service this summer.

As a DL with Scout son, I experienced the BURNOUT, and looked forward to the summer break, just to get my head clear and to prepare for the next 9 mos. I realized that I was doing every thing myself and wasn't sharing the wealth with anybody. When I became the DL for wolf son, I took shared leadership to heart, and began letting go of some of the responsibility, things couldn't be better now, the boys in the den get a different perspective from different leaders every week and look forward to den meetings. As a CM now, I accept that kids have lives outside of Scouting, and I encourage them to play sports and stay active. The two can go hand in hand, not against each other. As we plan our events in Scouting, we try and do things the boys don't get to normally do, so that they are still interested and excited about Scouting. Burnout on the kid level is when they are doing the same things over and over each year, you know, the "Been there, Done That, got the tshirt" bit. Would both of my sons like to sit around and play video games all day... You betcha. Do I still get resistance from them for going to Troop and Den meetings...Absolutely. But after a troop campout or Pack activity, they still tell me they had a blast, and can't wait for the next event. "Maybe Cub Scouting isn't meant for these children" I disagree, I think it absolutely is. Here's a prime example. Yesterday we were at Wolfson's end of season soccer party, I brought our stomprocket set up for the boys to mess with if they wanted to. When we got there, all the boys were out playing what? Soccer of course. After my boys set up the rocket launchers THEMSELVES, they proceeded to start making their own rockets and began launching them. After pizza and trophies, the other boys on the team saw my boys playing with the rockets and wanted to get involved with it. The boys that play soccer year round, were enthralled by the rockets and came over to me to ask me to make rockets for them. That was the their mentality, "What will you do for me?" My boys were the ones making the rockets,not me. My boys aren't so reliant on Mom and Dad doing everything for them, Scouting has helped them become more independent and self confident. They set everything up, they helped the other boys build the rockets. All I did was bring the supplies.Certainly made me proud to be a CM and an ASM. The whole reason I got into Scouting as an adult, was because I'm selfish and wanted to spend more time with my kids. I didn't want to be a sideline parent, I want to be active in my kids' lives. I just wish more parents could see how fun it is to be involved, instead of just watching from the bleachers. Of course, it's pretty cool to work with a whole den of boys, and watching them grow up as well!

Are we splitting hairs about this? My 12 yo has a FB page and an email acct, that I set up for him. I'm friends with him on FB, I also have his password to FB and his email shows up on my desktop. Unfortunately, my son never checks his email, but is in contact with his patrol through FB. While the troop uses google groups for parents, ASM's, PLC, TTFC, committee members, I'm only on 3 of those lists. If my son's PL sends something out through the patrol page, my son will never see it due to it going to his email and not mine. So if my son's PL sends out a list for the next campout through email, and my son doesn't get it, is he now violating the scout law by not being helpful? Now if he's using those medias to talk bad about somebody or spread ugly rumors, then I will sit him down and explain the unscout like behavior. Unfortunately, kids communicate different today, than we did. Social media is how these kids communicate now. A lot of kids don't use email now, because it's not immediate, and would prefer to text or IM their friends. If my son were living by the Oath and Law 100% of the time, then my job as a parent is done. But I know that's not the case. He's not perfect and neither am I, but I know he and I DO OUR BEST to live by those words every day. There are times when we're not so succesful and the oath and law and our faith make us stop and pause for a moment about our actions. As a leader, if I see any of our scouts outside of Scouting not being Scoutlike, I might give them a courtesy nod or wave to let them know I am seeing their actions. Just because I am a leader, that doesn't give me carte blanche to browbeat the oath and law outside of scouts. If I show them the respect they've earned as Scouts, then the one time they come to me with an issue, they can trust me to be open minded and fair about it. Now, if I catch them doing something seriously wrong, I don't have a problem letting their parents know about it. My role is to mentor these boys to become young men of character, not be the disciplinarian or the oath and law police.

First off , welcome to the forums and thanks for wanting to be involved with your den and pack. This might be one of those"lesson learned" experiences. Now how do you go about implementing change for the better. You've already started that process by getting onto the PWD committee, you have a voice in how things can be changed for the better of all the boys involved. Ask the other parents what they thought about the derby, not just the ones running it. Feedback is a great tool. If the other parents had concerns about the finishing device,or any other part of the race, that can be addressed with the PWD committee. Clear and concise rules need to be in place for next year's race. You've seen all sorts of rules and formats on the internet and theses forums as well. Start getting stuff together to present to the committee.And then vote on it. PWD is always evolving from year to year. It's taken our pack a few years to come up with a fair and balanced means of racing. But, we took our lumps as well to get to this point. We're still not satisfied with the end product, and are always looking ways to improve it. PWD can and sometimes remains in the hands of the "GOB" network. You know the type, "Well, we've always done it this way, why should we change?" You said this was your first year with the pack, Is your son a tiger, wolf? Are the adults that are running the derby parents of older scouts? If they are, they'll be most likely moving on when their son graduates from the pack. If you have 3-4 yrs left in Cub Scouts (unless there are younger siblings in the pipeline for you), you'll be heading that committee (or being Cubmaster if you choose ) in no time. At the end of the day, your son won't give a flip about winning or losing because of technicalities or a faulty track. He'll remember the fun time he had with his buddies and the time spent with you working on his car. Remember, Keep it simple, make it fun.

Right there with you, our schedule has been chaotic to say the least. But I wouldn't trade it for anything. All the work has been building up to our crossover campout next weekend. Then we kick in the summer program, when day camp starts at the beginning of June. First Weekend-Prep work and planning for Pack Meeting at City Park Last Weekend- Pack Carnival ( Don't even get me going on the Bounce House, and the PWD track) This Weekend- Day Camp Training for all the Walking Den Leaders and Station staff. Also trying to wrap up our Spring Fundraising to get all monies collected and turned in by the end of the month. Next weekend- Spring Campout and Crossover. I just have to remind myself: An hour per week (per boy LOL!!) It's been worth all the work, in all these efforts, I've gotten the boys to recruit at least 3 more boys into the pack. Boys that otherwise wouldn't have been involved in Scouting. By my account, I should get a break by the end of June I haven't even included the Troop schedule, in all this (This message has been edited by OwnTheNight)

Do you have a local bike shop that could bring part of their team out? We had one of the shops come out and they brought a couple guys from their freestyle team to do a demo of freestyle (Think x games) for our pack. They also did full safety inspections and adjustments on all of our participants bikes. Try and find a bike rodeo that's being put on in your area and go visit to see what they do. We've done a rodeo for the last two years and the boys and their families loved. We included all riders, even siblings. A couple of events the kids really enjoyed: Stop on a dime- Riders build up speed and then try and stop before getting to a predetermined line. We measured from the tire to the line to determine closest without going over. Of course, the boys turned it into the biggest skid mark competition, and the girls ran away with that one! The skills events definitely challenged the boys, but they enjoyed it. It wasn't just about speed. There had to be some finesse as well. Good Luck, and don't forget water stations for staff and riders!

Well, that explains why my dad and some of the other ASM's in my troop wanted to set up their campsite so far away! I always thought they were teaching us the 300' rule! In all seriousness though...Instead of a SM minute, It needs to be a CC minute explaining to these guys that we expect the boys in the troop to be professional in their actions while they are travelling to and from events, because as representatives of the BSA, they are held to a higher standard, regardless of who the boy is. The same goes for us leaders, we are held to a higher standard and example to the boys we serve. And with the whirring of helicopter blades all around us, those standards can be set for what seems out of reach. We need to exceed those expectations of how the Scout Law applies to us, because the boys and their parents will see right through it all, if we don't.

SctDad, Will you be attending the Council facility in a camping format (Resident Camp, Day Camp, etc)? If you are, you might talk to the Camp ranger or Camp director to see what kind of projects they have available for the Cubs. When our Webelos attend resident camp, there is usually a camp award for a conservation project done during camp week. All we had to do was go ask, and we were put to work. One year, our project was to clean up all the dead branches that had fallen around the camp site. Spent about an hour during one of our free time sessions taking care of it. We ended up being the only pack to take the ranger up on his offer. Everybody else thought it would be too hard to do. You don't know until you ask.

Right now I've got 7 official scheduled events for the Summer, just don't have the dates set. Worry about June, nah, I'm worrying about May right now with a Pack Recruiting carnival and our Family campout at the end of the month. Here's what we've got planned out so far 1. Day Camp for our Tigers and Bears, Webelos resident Camp, This is the only we have hard scheduled. 2. Welcome Home a Hero- DFW International Airport is one of only two airports in the country, that is the main hub for soldiers coming home for R & R, or finishing their deployment in Iraq/Afghanastan. Usually, these warfighters had spent the previous 24-36 hrs catching flights to Germany, England, wherever. These flights that land here, are the first time these soldiers have touched American soil in at least a year. It is very inspiring and an honor to be able to go out there and welcome these soldiers, marines, airmen, and seamen home. 3.We'll do a movie night at our CO, make popcorn, show a movie on the wall 4.A geocaching event at one of the local parks. The boys have had a blast doing this before. 5. Minor League baseball game-It's cheap, It's fun, It's baseball! 6. Our annual bike Rodeo at our CO's parking lot. This always draws a good crowd, we end up recruiting a couple of boys from this event. Last year, we had a team from one of the local bike shops come out and do some demos for the families. Trick riding and so on. 7. End of Summer Pool Party- We take over one of the local pools for a night and just let the kids have fun in the water. I've also got the BSA museum in Irving if I really need to pull something out of my back pocket. I try and schedule at least 2 per month, in case a boy can't make one, then he can get to another. While we don't schedule den meetings, this works out for a relaxed atmosphere, and the boys get to see each other through the summer. I'm still trying to figure out how to get all the leaders together for a "planning meeting" on the patio of one of the local watering holes! It's hard to plan when the band is playing!

That was great, thanks for sharing. I might have to use that at my JSN presentation to get people to step up to volunteer.

Or one can do like a lot of troops do it. Mess as a troop and then you don't have to worry about any of this. OK Stosh, you've piqued my curiosity. I get as a troop with a dining facility, like Summer Camp, but on a regular campout? Is it like family style, where different patrols fix different items and then the whole troop eats together. Or is it more like the family camping from Cub Scouts where you have a group of people cooking everything for the whole troop. I can honestly say, I've never seen a troop do that outside of an extended camp environment. If it is family style, I might be intrigued by that, just to foster a sense of total community or village, and maybe some healthy competition between patrols.(This message has been edited by OwnTheNight)

You might be on to something! Remember it takes quite a few years for government and military inventions to reach public usage. WWI-1916, Cub Scouts fully integrated with BSA-1930. Hmmmm!