Robert_ND

I like that idea a bit better than the "treasure map" approach. It would allow the adult volunteers a chance to get involved too calling out the directions (and would let them keep the boys directed if need be).

With Target selling compasses for $1 each having that as a prize is a great idea.

Robert.

I'm putting together the final activities for our July pack event (an outdoor skills day where the kids will learn how to use a compass, tie a bowline knot, read a basic map, ...).

The thing I'm stuck on is activities that can be used to let the kids have fun while practicing using a compass.

I was thinking of creating a course for them to follow with hints such as "20 yards south-east of the large oak tree" and "15 feet at 220 degrees from the wood pile".

Can anyone suggest any other games that would be easy for the cubs to understand?

There just has to be Compass Tag!

Robert.

True - a service project should involve service to others. My reading of the award requirments doesn't imply it needs to be a service project but rather a conservation project.

I guess the question would be what constitutes a conservation project.

On one hand, one could argue that making the auto garbage bags has the goal of reducing road-side litter and educating people on proper garbage disposal (would you rather clean the park or prevent it from getting dirty?).

On the other hand I imagine more people would make the argument that a conservation project should have an immediate and measurable impact on the environment (park cleanup, bird houses, gathering seeds, etc).

Perhaps a combination of the two that satisifies both groups would be to have the kids do a road-side cleanup, measure the amount of garbage they find (by the # of bags), discuss the impact of that on the environment and then make the auto garbage bags once they fully appreciate the need. 3-4 hours of work.

Robert.

Champ,

That's a really good idea. When the saw the pictures and realized (I was too busy to notice the day-of) that no boys wore their uniforms I felt like next time I should do something about that. I hadn't figured out what and your idea is just what I needed.

uz2bnowl,

I must have missed your personal message? I don't see anything about soda bottle rockets in your reply to this thread so I'm not sure what you mean.

Thanks.

Robert.

Ok - this is kind of an off-beat idea and I haven't thought it all the way through so maybe it stinks . More importantly I've never done this so for all I know it won't work ...

Disposing of garbage is a great theme for a conservation award but when I think of conservation I think of the "reduce, reuse, recycle" mantra. So I'd like to incorporate at least one of those into a conservation project.

So my suggestion is to make the garbage bag holder using a pair of old pants. First figure out how large of an opening you want in the top. I would imagine about a foot long - not too big but big enough to take a plastic bag. Next find some adult pants that are at least 24 inches around the waist (that should leave about a 12 inch hole when pulled tight). If you can find a 48" waist you could cut them vertically in half to have a pair of 24 inch pockets.

Now cut off the legs and sew up any open areas (leg holes, the sides if you cut 48" in half, etc). You could either pre-sew them for the boys, let them sew them (if they are ready for that) or let the boys use a fabric glue/tape.

Now that these are sewing up you have the "pocket" ready to go (speaking of pockets - it would be cute to have the pants pocket visible when they are hanging [i bet kids stick stuff in it! maybe glue them shut too]). All you have to do now is go to a sewing center or wal-mart and get some eyelets. Punch two eyelets into the pants - one at each corner of the top opening. You can either put the eyelets so the pants hang open or you could crimp both sides of the pants together so it stays more or less closed.

Now that you have the eyelets in all you need to do put some rope through, have the boys decorate them and hang them over the passanger side head rest.

You could even put a rope belt through the belt loops and allow the pocket to be "tied down" - not sure if that serves a purpose yet but it might be helpful for holding the bag in or keeping garbage from flying. There are those sliding crimpers (I don't know what they are called - they are on hamper bags, jacket hoods, etc) - you could use one of those to make adjusting the tension on the rope strap and the belt loop rope easier.

Maybe this is a bad idea - I don't know yet. But on the surface it seems easy enough for wolves, is in the spirit of the conservation award, is functional, is cheap (we all have old pants) and should be do-able in 45-90 minutes (unless you use a fabric glue that needs a long time to setup) depending on the boys.

Of course there is the old stand-by of picking up a park or hanging a bird house, too.

Robert.

First - thanks to everyone who responded. This amount and quality of advice has been great. Immediately important was the advice on the rules regarding campouts and the required training and forms needed to be proper. Thankfully I read ScoutNut's response a few hours before the event started and was able to get everything squared away by getting a former Webleos leader with the appropriate training (and still registered with the pack) to agree to camp out with us (I had already filed a tour permit).

It turned out the weather was not agreeable for a campout so when the derby ended at 7:00 we packed it in for the night but it was nice to know that we were on the up-and-up.

But despite the weather it was a great day.

The kids learned how to tie their own lines (I took some 8" sections of 2x4's and put a 3/4" eye hook in them and let them practice tying the knot on a large scale before having them tie off their own barbless hooks). After that they had a few contests (fishing themed - I made some plugs using dowel and small eye hooks to let the kids cast on land and we had distance and accuracy contests as well as practice for the kids who hadn't fished before). After that they played a few games (Ballon Battle Royale) and guessed the number of fish eggs in a jar (the fish eggs were just the white jelly beans - made counting them easier even though there were probably 500 beans in the jar overall).

Then it was a few hours of fishing and a hot-dog cookout.

The kids didn't catch much (there was a bad kill this winter when the reservoirs froze hard - they won't stock until later this June) but there was enough action to keep them excited.

If anyone cares to see there are some pictures here:

http://www.thehorvicks.com/

I'm a little disappointed at the low turnout but I did have several familes call and say they couldn't attend because of a local wedding. It turns out about half the town was there! But since this was our first time running an event of this scale (5 hours of activities and a meal) it was nice to have it be a little less crowded. We didn't run out of food, had enough rods for everyone, there was enough kids for games but not so many that we couldn't keep track of where everyone was when we were near the water. But considering the weather and the wedding we did alright (though my wife did have to run home three times to get little things we forgot).

Two scouts brought friends - both took forms and one signed up on the spot. His father has even expressed an interest in being a den leader.

It was a good day.

This is a long post. Im writing it to serve two purposes:

1) to vent.

2) To share my experience so far and to solicit feedback on what I could have done differently and where I should go from here.

Ive been a den leader for two years (Tiger and Wolf) and in that time have seen two CMs come and go. The first CM was good but with a few major flaws. He and his wife ran the pack pretty well. The kids had lots of activities, there was good scout retention and the pack grew in size by almost 30% in one year (were a town of about 2000). The two major flaws are:

1) They did not delegate any responsibilities but rather tried to do it all. It was all magic to everyone else. Stuff just happened.

2) They did not help the den leaders. No training. No materials. I didnt even know the Program Helps existed up until about 2 weeks ago.

The second were worse but probably not all their fault. The first CM was leaving and he needed to find a replacement in a hurry so this other guy stepped up before considering how much time it would take. All that stuff that magically happened stopped happening. Pack meetings would be canceled at the last minute (literally the day of). The den leaders had even less help (if that was possible).

That CMs own boys lost interest (you cant miss 2 pack meetings in a row and expect kids to want to come to the third) so he has stepped down.

I dont begrudge him. He just took on more than he could handle.

So enter me - the new CM. I dont know everything I need to do but I know its going to take a lot of my time. To help stay balanced I disengaged myself from all of my other volunteer work (which was hard - but will be worth it). My wife has been a GSA troop leader for 5 years and will now (also) be my asst. CM so she knows what shes getting into as well.

First order of business was calling the charter org contact and all committee members to find out when the committee last meet and to introduce myself.

Turns out 3 of the 4 committee members didnt even realize they were on it and the chair hadnt signed a paper in 3 years (which made me wonder how the old CM became official) and does not want to continue to be involved. She has agreed to stay on long enough to sign the papers making me the CM.

So there is no committee.

The charter org. contact wants to remain involved (though re-chartering isnt until January).

The treasurer has also stayed on board (his son is a 2nd year Weblos) good too only he can write the checks!

Next order of business was to call all of the den leaders.

They all quit. Every last one. I understand their frustrations with the pack and hope they will consider helping with a few summer time activities while we found new leaders (actually - Im hoping they will see the pack is changing and get that excitement about being a leader back). Most wouldnt commit to helping this summer but Im still hopeful.

So I called our district office to get some help. They were wonderful. I walked in clueless and walked out still clueless but with an arm full of training info, hours of videos and lots of phone numbers I can call when I need help (and they have always answered and helped).

So Im sitting here with two choices:

1) Do nothing until September and hope that something magic happens.

2) Try to jump-start the pack by holding a pack activity each summer month (why not earn the National Summertime Award, I figure). Hopefully that will build at least some momentum going into fall (people might at least realize Im serious about not letting the pack die without a fight)

If I do #1 then the pack might as well send our gear over to the charter org and fold. By the time back to school night happens the kids will all be in other activities and well have to scramble so hard to find leaders that nothing will get done.

So I choose #2. Without a committee or leaders to call on were running solo.

Tomorrow we have our first activity. Its a fishing derby at the local reservoirs followed by a (weather permitting) campfire program and camp out (the most common complaint I heard from parents was why arent we camping?). I got the idea when I visited the state DNR website to find out about local trails/parks and learned that June 4/5 is the weekend when resident adults dont need a license to fish.

The district office loaned us 10 rod/reel setups. A local Sportsmans Warehouse has donated about $50 worth of gear to give as prizes (plus there is a special prize that any scout who brings a non-scouting friend is eligible to win) those guys were great all I had to do was ask and 10 minutes later we were setup. And after about 10 hours of planning and shopping Ive about gone insane trying to make sure were ready (I swear planned less last time our family went on a 10 day camping trip through the Black Hills).

I ran a notice in the local paper inviting any family in the community interested in scouting to please come out and join us and every active scout (even ones I know have quit) got a personalized letter inviting them to come and to bring a friend.

Im not nervous about what to do to fill the time. Im not nervous about the weather. Im not even nervous that some kid will get a hooked on the pier.

What Im nervous about is that no one will show up (ok I know at least 6 people will be there my family is practically a den on its own! That this year went so bad that the sour taste hasnt left peoples mouths yet.

No matter what happens we are meeting in July. Momentum takes time I can be patient. People are more willing to volunteer when they see things happening and a plan.

For July Im thinking of trying to involve our charter org (local volunteer fire dept) perhaps having the kids learn how to use a compass and some outdoor skills and have the fire dept. run a clinic on first aide and/or fire safety for the kids and perhaps CPR for the adults (kids can learn that too but that might help attract parents who might not have otherwise come).

So what did I do wrong (or could have done differently) and where do I go from here?

I have thick skin and lots of time. Lay it on me.

Thanks it was nice to vent.

Robert.

After a couple years as a den leader (Tiger and Wolf) I have accepted the role as the CM for our pack.

I'm sure I'll have (I already do) many questions - but for now I'll just introduce myself and say "Hello".

My name is Robert, I'm married (10 years) to Sue (and now the asst. CM), I have four children (10[g], 8, 7, 3[g]) - two of which are in scouts (entering Wolf and Bear).

I'm looking forward to my first year as a CM and hope to be able to help answer as many questions as I know I will be asking.

Robert.