SeattlePioneer

As District Membership Chair, I'd been watching a pack chartered to a Catholic Church failing for several years. Not wanting to see it fail, I got involved with it three years ago when it had one active Scout --- 1st year Webelos. It's doing well enough now that I plan to bow out as a leader at the end of the year. So it can be done. Your idea of concentrating on fall recruiting is good. The second step is to convert new parents into signing on as leaders. The methods I described in my posts can be effective in doing that.

Also---- what other schools do you have in your area from which you can recruit? I'd be aiming to recruit from more than one school if they are out there.

I might add that I'd do the boat race for the recruiting night. The following week I'd do a den or pack meeting, using the time to plan a weekend hike and marshmallow roast or hot dog roast the upcoming weekend. The following week schedule a parent meeting. Use the parent meeting to plan the following months program and to ask parents who show up to do specific tasks that need to be done during the next month. Don't ask the parents to volunteer. By that time you should have an idea of who can do what. Ask the best people available to do the tasks that need to be done. You want to SHOW parents what a quality program looks like and feels like and then ask them to help you continue to provide a quality program for the Scouts. An important part of your den meeting and outing would be to go over the Bobcat requirements so boys and parents will start to understand the program and the boys will qualify for the Bobcat award ASAP.

Mmmm --- the link to my recruiting night activity didn't post, so I'll try again: http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=325530

Yes --- use my recruiting night activity. Take one of the boats with you to the school lunch the day of the recruiting night and repeat your invitation for boys to attend--- "How would you like to make a model sailboat tonight and race it against all your buddies to see who has the FASTEST boat?"

> Hello Beavah, It sounds like we have agreement! For me, Scouting is my main charitable activity. I work mainly on the unit and district level, with more council level activity recently. And I depend on the council, regional and national BSA to sort out priorities on a national level in a responsible way. I don't feel I have an obligation to solve the problems of the country and world --- I just "do my best."

Gen X, Y and Z would be smart to demand that their tax money go to a new retirement program that will benefit THEM! Social Security and Medicare are Ponzi schemes that depend on new generations of suckers putting in their money to avoid collapse of the programs. It's grossly irresponsible for government to require young people to fund Ponzi schemes. The classic Ponzi scheme makes long term promises but uses current income to pay benefits rather than fund a savings pool to pay the promised benefits. That describes Social Security and Medicare.

> Shucks Baden P, the tea party seems like a case study of how a minority in one house of Congress can call the tune for the country. Quite a lot is being done from what I see.

Hello Eamonn, Your last post gets to the heart of the issue I raised. You are pretty clear that you support an activist government --- and you are certainly entitled to your political views. But I think that's quite different than the duty to your country or the duty to help other people as in the Scout Oath. I don't think the Scout Oath contemplates required support for policies of social activism by government. I suggest that the Scout Oath permits holding a very wide range of political opinions, but requires support for only a few. Those few would include things like voting, obeying the laws, engaging in peaceful efforts to change laws one doesn't agree with and so on.

What's happening to the participation rate of after school video gaming?

Yes, my intention was to plumb our obligations as citizens, as Beavah describes. I didn't realize my comments were vaque! Actually, I think the section of the Scout oath dealing with duty to God and country is probably more relevant to that question than the duty to help other people, which seems to me to apply to dealings we have with other people on a more or less personal basis. But that still tends to beg the question: does the duty to country mean an obligation to support government spending plans aimed at helping people? To me, sometimes it might when the issue is good enough and clear enough. But I don't think it's an obligation to support such programs as a general rule. It gets into rather complicated political territory at that point!

Hello Tampa, The purpose is to have an activity that provides a powerful appeal to boys to bring their parents to a recruiting night, and for boys and parents to have a fun experience at the recruiting night to maximize the likelihood that families will sign up for Cub Scouts. In addition, I am encouraging Cub Packs to choose this as their recruiting night activity if they don't have another they wish to use. Too many packs do nothing or little as an activity, making it tough to attract families and persuade them to sign up. With this method, the district is offering an effective method packs may choose to use. The hope is to improve the results of recruiting nights around the district.

By "support" I'm talking about political support for spending programs.

Well, it's not really role playing. My intention is to have boats avaialble for adults to assemble and decorate, and raingutter trays so that those interested can try out the boats for stability and such. I'll have copies of the boat racing license and stickers. I imagine that some people will try out their own races and earn a sticker or two. But the main idea here is to train pack leaders in how to carry this off as an activity. While the boats are pretty simple to construct, practicing in advance is worthwhile, as is understanding the stability of the boats--- they can be capsized easily enough, especially if people are cutting them themselves. I think people will have a chance to understand the fun of the activity, and have a chance to understand how to present the promotion and activity so it will work effectively. In any case, it's usually desirable to make Cub Scouts fun for adults, too, and Cub Scout Roundtables in particular should be fun. The ice cream social should add to that as well.

In my opinion, the problem with the Family Talent Worksheet is not that it asks too little, but that it asks way too much. It is burdensome for people to fill out and people therefore resist filling it out. I make up a simplified form, which asks people to volunteer a few things that might be good at doing or would like to do for the unit. The idea is to provide enough information to get an idea of what things people might be able to help with, and provide a basis for calling people and chatting with them about particular things with which they can help. People prefer to avoid filling that out as well, but less resistant than with the BSA form. School and e-mail address are on the BSA application form.

We had our combined Boy Scout/Cub Scout Roundtable tonight going into some depth on how to manage a unit popcorn sale. We had an excellent program and good attendance, especially for an August roundtable.

I remember when I was a new Assistant Scoutmaster I thought lashings were quaint and useless. In fact they have been one of the Scout skills I use most frequently.

$100 is a bargain. See what happens when you keep the council from getting their hands on your money?

As district membership chair, I will be encouraging packs to adopt my simplified Raingutter Regatta as a recruiting night theme and activity. I will be using that as the opening fall meeting for my pack recruiting night as well, September 12th. The key will be a simple Raingutter Regatta boat that can be purchased for 25 cents apiece and assembled and decorated in a few minutes. ( http://soltbox.com/index.php?p=1_5_FUN ). The boat comes with a mast (which I cut short) and I provide a sail cut from corrugated plastic sheet of the kind found on plastic signs. This gives me something exciting to boys to promote when I visit schools. I can show boys a painted and decorated boat and say "How would you like to make a boat like this and race it against all your buddies to see who has the FASTEST boat?" It's hard to beat that kind of appeal. Since crowds tend to be attracted by this activity, I have forty boats, which I've spray painted in various colors. Each family that checks in signs in with their name, address, phone number e-mail address and grade level of the boy. In return, each family gets a boat kit a a boat racing license for each interested child to fill out with their name. The families then take whatever time they wish to assemble and decorate their boat, and to fill out the boat racing licenses with the name of their children. Three pairs of raingutter regatta trays will be set out on tables. These will be raced by (1) 1st grade and younger children (2) 2nd and 3rd graders (3) 4th grade and older children --- or whatever arrangement you wish. Children arrange their own races from among those in their line. The winner of each heat receives a colorful sticker for their boat racing license and is free to get back in line and race as many times as they wish. Children in a family can share a boat, racing one boat while others wait to race. Supervision is provided by Cub Scout parents. Parents are given a chance to observe the racing and satisfy themselves that the children are properly supervised. Those who are interested in joining Cub Scouts are invited into a separate area and given an application to complete and a short description of the pack Cub Scout program. If someone has a tablesaw, the boats can easily be cut from 3" x 6" pieces of 3/4" wood. Masts can be cut from wood dowels or from steel wire. I will be using our September Cub Scout Roundtable as a model recruiting night to show pack leaders how this recruiting night method works. After observing it, pack leaders should be able to replicate this recruiting night for themselves if they wish to do so. The basic method of the Roundtable will be to put leaders in the position of being parents and Cub Scouts, so they will FEEL the excitement and fun this method generates. Unit leaders will have a chance to build and race their boats. Similarly, we don't have to talk much about Cub Scouts being a family activity at our recruiting night, because parents will have just experienced the fun of a quality Cub Scout activity for themselves. Mostly it's a sign up night at that point.

> I didn't say all taxes are evil. I said taxes are a NECESSARY EVIL. You seem unable to understand the concept of this kind of duality. Neither have I made excuses for tax avoidance or tax fraud in any way. When taxes are legally owed, we do indeed have a civil obligation to pay them. But we also have a civil obligation to resist taxes from being imposed that we find are excessive or unreasonable. That is a large part of the idea behind republican government and the constitution. Control of taxing power is reserved to the Congress, the political process and the American people.

Hello Scoutfish, Let me know when you'd like to attend my pack meeting! I think unit leaders do need help selling such programs. A pack for which I was Commissioner hadn't had a history of attending our districts excellent day camp until I asked the excellent day camp leader to come and make a presentation to a pack meeting. He came with several Cub Scouts and put on a skit. Ever since then the pack has had good attendance at day camp, but none at resident camp. Once people experience a good program, they will embrace it. But they seem to need to be sold on the program before being willing to give it a try.

Thirty years ago I was the youngest Scoutmaster in my district. Now I'm the oldest Cubmaster in a different district. You don't have to sell camping to me, but I could use help selling the idea to Cub Scout parents. We have an OK program, but it could be better. A good many parents don't want to invest more time and money to add more camping. In particular, I want to see our new Webelos den do more camping, but the den leader is aiming at doing more of the Cub Scout program. One of my aims has been to send the Webelos Scouts to the Cub Scout resident camp, which is HIGHLY regarded by all the parents I talked to when I visited the program last week. But raising the money and setting that as a goal isn't receiving notable support or enthusiasm from anyone but me. There's only so much you can do until a leader comes along who wants to make that kind of thing happen. As Cubmaster I can't really influence the Webelos program very much. Our Webelos Den Leader took his son to a one day camp experience last spring, but that didn't inspire him with a desire to do the resident camp. I don't see other parents in the den who are inspired to do more either. When I visited the Cub Scout resident camp program, pretty much all the parents said that the parent-Cub Scout ratio was mostly 1:1 --- parents WANTED to attend the resident camp with their sons. But how to get from where I am with a lack of enthusiasm to getting parents to give the resident camp a try? If they try it, the odds are they will like it ----a lot.

Very principled Beavah. You don't like the spending the Republicans did and you really like the much greater spending done by Democrats. Your suggestion that we can choose between the massive spending we've done in recent decades and Somalia is offering the error of false alternatives. You have a very weak line of argument in my opinion.

To provide an answer to my own question--- One pack in our district erects flags at people's homes for a fee ---- $20 to erect flags four times/year. I understand they pound a piece of rebar into the lawn and then use a piece of PVC as a pole to which the flag is attached. I thought that was an interesting fund raiser.

Hello Beavah, Sorry, but using appealing words like "citizenship" does dress up what is fundamentally strong armed robbery. I also disagree with you that there is no such thing as a necessary evil. Taxes are a good example of a necessary evil in my opinion. You want to do a sales job on people to make them LOVE paying taxes, and that goes too far by half in my opinion. In my opinion people should be highly skeptical about government demands for tax revenue. People spend their life earning income, and government should lay a claim to that income only for the best possible reasons. Sorry Beavah --- I think you are just plain wrong with your arguments and we'll just have to disagree.