SeattlePioneer

May I ask what methods did you use in your recruiting effort?

The idea of listing schools you recruit from is an interesting idea. The only trouble is that my pack can recruit from about eight different near by schools. We're chartered by a Catholic Church, but only a few pack members are church members and anyone is welcome. I ten to say that the pack meets at the church to be inclusive, but there's probably a better way of doing that. I spent a good deal of time designing the pack pin, and it's the best I've seen (in my opinion) when I cruised the BeAScout.Org website. Take a look ---- zip code 98116 look for pack 240. Any suggestions welcome....

Hmmm. le Voyageur seems as judgmental as the BSA he deplores. He insists that his non-normative values be the norm.

Hello qwazse, Can you describe the groups you recruit from in more detail?

I've been recruiting from three public Elementary Schools and one parochial school. I counted up the number of schools in the area I could recruit from, and it totals seven public elementary schools and two parochial schools. More, really.

This is a new life experience. I never expected to see a rant about roasting marshmallows!

Hello jamist, Glad you found a second wind at the ECOH. As a district volunteer, I undertook to revive a pack that was down to a single boy three years ago. At present we have about sixteen boys and several good adult leaders. I've notified the CC of my intention to leave as Cubmaster at the end of the year. I intend to continue providing some assistance to the pack, notably with spring and fall recruiting. There ought to be sufficient leadership to allow the pack to continue and grow larger and more robust. But if not, I can't justify spending very large amounts of time keeping things going. It's sink or swim time. The district has a hole with no Cub Pack in it but substantial numbers of boys who could be served by a new pack. I might spend time getting a new pack started there. There is a low income area where I live with no Cub pack, but which has substantial Boeing employment and headquarters for the Boeing Machinists Union in a fine building near by. I'd also consider starting a Cub Pack at the union headquarters, aiming to attract children of Boeing employees and children from the local community. There might be the possibility of attracting union members into supporting a program for "their" Cub Scout ---- and perhaps Boy Scout program eventually. I found examples of that happening at a United Auto Workers union in Michigan that I investigated. I'm sort of a Johnny Appleseed character for Cub Scouts! But once planted and tended, the saplings have to be able to grow on their own.

I don't use themes or character connections in pack meetings, and Den Leaders don't either. Just tough to work them in, so far. As in much of Scouting, there are loads and loads of things suggested for leaders to do --- much more than anyone can do. That means that leaders must make choices about what to do in developing a program. So I make choices that are the best I can do, working within the limitations and resources I have available. So far, character connections haven't made the cut.

There seems to be a wide variability between councils on the availability of a Cub Scout Resident Camp. In our council, that program begin on Thursday and ends on Sunday, four days and three nights of camping. Cost this year was $170 for Scouts and $100 per adult. Here's a description of the program: http://www.seattlebsa.org/etotem/septcamp/brinkley.pdf I visited the program this year, and found every parent I talked with very enthusiastic about the program. Only two adults are needed to bring any number of Cub Scouts to camp, but adults reported that almost every Cub Scout was accompanied by a parent who WANTED to be there to share the camping and program experience. I was impressed. The most successful packs in my district tend to be the ones who make Cub Scout Resident Camp part of their regular pack program, finding ways to budget for the costs through the popcorn sale and perhaps a car wash or other fundraiser. Each district also has a day camp, so the Resident Camp is a choice in addition to that. The resident camp is at a council camp that used to be a Boy Scout Camp. They ran seven weeks of Cub Scout Resident Camp this summer, which indicates a substantial demand for this program. I'm working to sell this program to my pack, especially for 1st and second year Webelos. Doing the Tiger Twilight Camp, then the district day camp for Wolves and Bears is good, but I'd like to see a new special activity for Webelos. In addition, the Resident Camp program would help Webelos Scouts complete Webelos requirements which seems like quite a challenge. The Cub Scout Resident Camp had seven program weeks this year. By contrast, one Boy Scout Camp had eight program weeks and a second five weeks of operation this year. (This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

> Democrats and environmentalists have been waging war on the working class for decades. Never more clearly than the Spotted Owl campaign in which they sought and won hegemony over control of public and private lands in Oregon and Washington. The current campaign is over gaining control of public waters, with the salmon sitting in for the Spotted Owl. This campaign involves destruction of hydroelectric dams, which is already proceeding apace. In exactly the same way, the Endangered Species Act is being used by the same enviironmental organizations to seize control of waterways and dams. No lumber companies to blame here, Beavah. The dams are owned by the Federal government and local governments of various kinds. But the greed for power and control is the same as in the Spotted Owl campaign. The same greed for power and the same campaign is seen over and over again when the ESA is trotted out by environmental organizations to grab power and resources. Your denial avails you not. The pattern of behavior is 'way too obvious.

Hello Beavah, > So, clear cut logging was corporate conspiracy. I'm not surprised that would be your explanation. My explanation is that the extremist Endangered Species Act is used by VERY powerful and well financed environmental groups to grab control of public and private lands and resources. The Spotted Owl was a useful tool used to grab control of much of the forest lands of Washington State and Oregon and put them under the control of environmental groups and values. Personally, I suspect that many environmentalists were gleeful when those vile wood butchers were put out of work cutting down the Cathedrals Of the Forest ---- part of the state religion of nature worship that prevails these days.

The air and water are already 'WAY too clean for my preferences.

Hello CC, That looks like a good set of practices, but it looks like it involves a LOT of counting of inventory and money. That would rapidly drive me nuts. Perhaps that just means I'm the wrong person to take charge of that function. I'm attracted to the "take order" method, where you show a popcorn catalog to people and record the sale on an order form. Maybe you collect money at the time of sale. You only need to deal with inventory once, when people collect the product they have sold. You may need to collect money a few times, but that can probably be done under controlled conditions when money can be accounted for with care. Frankly, the site sale scenario sounds pretty chaotic to manage, although it's a popular method. Seems like it's fraught with a variety of inventory and money management risks unless you do a LOT of counting. Incidentally, out council takes the risks on any bad checks, and takes the responsibility for any collection costs or bad checks. That's a big plus.

How many weeks do your council summer camps operate? The Seattle area's Chief Seattle Council operates two Boy Scout Summer Camps and one Cub Scout Summer camp. One Boy Scout summer camp operates for five weeks, the other operates for eight weeks. I see one week is already filled up for next year: http://www.seattlebsa.org/etotem/2012Parsons.pdf The Cub Scout resident camp operated for seven weeks this year, each week running from Thursday to Sunday. Presumably operating more weeks per camp helps reduce costs by spreading fixed costs over more weeks.

Hello KC9, Why might a council oppose collecting money in advance? Interesting question --- I can only speculate. No receipts are typically issued when sales are made. Collecting money, cash especially, without handing out receipts would be a poor cash management practice. Collecting cash and issueing receipts has its own risks. There are going to be people who accept cash, provide receipts and pocket the cash. Usually there are only a few days between pickling up popcorn and when payment is due, perhaps reducing this window of risk and exposure. If people can go for weeks issuing receipts and holding on to cash, very likely the risk of loss increases. I'm only guessing here, of course. The utility where I used to work had an effective means to control payments received in the field. Employees filled out a three part receipt, with one copy going to customers, a second copy turned in with the payment to cashiers and a third copy remaining in the employees receipt book. That protected everyone pretty well. Still, two people were fired for pocketing cash payments, even when it was a cinch that people would complain and the payment would be documented. Not a few people can be led into temptation....

Personally, I've never been to Philmont, other "high adventure" bases, Nationaql Jamborees and such. Too costly and the Boy Scout Equivalent of Disneyland is my impression/supposition. I have no objection at all for people using those facilities. But I can find plenty of high adventure and wilderness in the mountains of Washington State, British Columbia or Oregon by walking up almost any valley that doesn't have a road or trail. My bias is to keep Scouting costs low. That can be a REAL adventure these days!

There are people who take popcorn, sell it and pocket the money. It can be tough to get that money back. If you have a signed contract that makes people liable for collection costs, attorney fees and court costs, you've got a far greater ability to get your money. If someone defaults on buying popcorn, you need to sell it to someone else. If someone places an unusually large order, perhaps you should get paid in advance to protect yourself. Frankly, I don't see that contract as being unreasonable. It simply puts people on notice that they can be held responsible for doing what they are supposed to do. Also, I'm guessing that councils aren't going to beat up people willie nilly. Let's suppose someone is taking a van full of $5000 of popcorn to deliver. They are carjacked and the van and popcorn are stolen with a police investigation conducted. If there is no insurance on the vehicle, I doubt that the council is going to go after the volunteer who was carjacked.

I was a volunteer for a homeowner's association and was tasked with getting people to move their fences that were encroaching on the common areas. The worst offender was the association President, who had fenced off one entire common area, more than doubling the area of her property. She ASSURED the board the would remove the fence when she sold her property, and I couldn't get the board to let me go after her. A few years later, she put the property up for sale, including the encroachment. When she got an offer on her property, I had my attorney file a lawsuit against her on the encraochment including a lis pendens action which prevented her from selling the property until the lawsuit was concluded. Imagine how unhappy she was! How TERRIBLE I was! She wound up removing the encroachment and paying me $5,000 to settle the lawsuit. Tieing up property when someone wants to sell it can be a great way to get paid or get leverage over someone.

In the same spirit, perhaps Obama will point with pride at Paccar, an American truck manufacturer, making a $200 million investment to build an entirely new truck plant: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016071620_paccar01.html

Personally, I think that much of the purpose of having that stuff is to encourage people to wear it and be walking Wood Badge advertisements. That strategy seems to work very well. Personally, I think Wood Badge tends to be over advertised and over promoted. Too often I go to council events in particular where most people have already taken Wood Badge and get ten more minutes or more of Wood Badge promotion. Too much, and wrong venue.

So how does an Alka Seltzer rocket launch work? Haven't heard of that one. I've found stomp bottle rockets to be a powerful draw to recruiting nights. The only downside is that parents want to keep watching the boys launch the rockets rather than come inside and sign up for Cub Scouts!

Hello Jblake, Having a party to a lawsuit fail to appear in small claims court is very common. Usually that produces a dismissal of the case if it's the plaintiff who brought the case failing to appear, or a default judgment if it's the defendant who fails to appear. I've never heard of a judge issuing an arrest warrant for failing to appear for a small claims court case, but perhaps that can happen if you annoy a judge enough some way. It would be very unusual, anyway.

Hello nldscouter, Is that typically handled in small claims court? I'm guessing that the best way for units to protect themselves is to have money, checks and order forms turned in early and often. Our council takes the risk on bad checks and engages in collection action on those, but loss or fraud by sellers is the responsibility of units.

Hello NoName, That sounds very tough. I think I'd be inclined to try having only a few activities, but making those activities really special so that parents would be attracted to participate and help. At least that might be an option to consider. Especially when you have no help, you are probably overwhelmed with meetings and such, so you may wind up with routine activities that don't attract parents. Are there district or council activities that you can lean on? Are there parents who have a special hobby that they do? How about asking the golfing parent to take the boys golfing? You can give the boys an opportunity to talk about fun things they do with their families and gain valuable intelligence on the kinds of things you can ask parents to do!

McGovern lost the Presidency in 1972 in part because of his $.50/gallon gasoline tax proposal. Personally, I hope Obama goes with a $2/gallon gasoline tax in 2012. We Republicans need all the help we can get to win back the Presidency. My liberal friends always seem able to come up with bright ideas for a dozen new taxes if they sit down together over a six pack of beer.