SeattlePioneer

What we do for spring recruiting: 1. Plan a terrifically fun activity to attract the interest of boys and parents. The PWD would be an example --- stomp bottle rockets or a simplified Raingutter Regatta would be others. 2. The key for us is to visit schools during lunch or when we can get into classrooms and invite boys to come to our recruiting event. I do this the day before of the day of the event. The Council provides stickers that boys can put on their shirts which contains the recruiting night information. 3. The recruiting night activity should entice parents into working with their boys to complete building their derby car, rocket, boat and such. You don't need to spend a lot of time TALKING about Scouting if boys and parents have just EXPERIENCED a quality Scouting activity. 4. Have an organized program to welcome new families into Scouting and get the Bobcat award completed. People learn about Scouting by DOING Scouting by and large. To this end, the week after our recruiting event, we have a quality den meeting and organize a Bobcat Den for NEW boys and their parents. Among other activities, boys make a hot dog roasting stick, The following weekend, we have a quality hike which concludes with a hot dog roast at which boys get to use the hot dog roasting stick they made. By that time, boys and parents have EXPERIENCED three quality Cub Scout activities. 5. The Bobcat Den program then aims to prepare boys and parents for our June overnight Pack Campout. At the Campout boys may have earned their Bobcat Badge and are sorted into their new Dens for the next year. 6. We participate in a town 4th of July Parade, the July Cub Scout Day Camp and a fishing outing in August. So there is a continuing Cub Scout program to keep the interest of new and existing boys and families.

Around here Radical Brownies are Brownies stuffed with medical marijunana. < >> I wopuldn;t be surprised if this WAS a GSUSA group...

< You know from other threads the situation with one of the troops in my district, specifically the my Cub Scout pack's troop. They do not attend roundtables, do not attend district and council camporees, complain about the "lack of training" in the district, etc. We've tried getting district level folks to talk to them, to no avail. Had UC and acting UC (me, original UC passed away) talk to them, again to no avail. then this weekend happened.>> That's a good question! Ten years ago when I got involved with Scouting a second time as an adult, one of the Troop Committee members suggested I attend the District Committee meeting, which I did. After I attended that District Committee meeting a second consecutive time, the District Executive pitched me on being the District Membership Chair, a position I filled for the next eight years. The best way to get people involved in Scouting at any level is to ASK PEOPLE TO DO SOMETHING! Unit leaders, Chartered Organization Representatives and Unit Commissioners should all be looking at adults and inviting them to do stuff at both the unit and district level. And District leaders, the District Chair and District Commissioner, should be visiting units and identifying capable people they can invite to help with district and council activities.

As a Tiger Cub Den Leader, I make it a point that most den activities NEED the participation of the Adult Partner for the boy to complete the activity. It's rare that we even get chairs out for people to sit in --- both the boys and parents are pretty much constantly engaged in den activities and there isn't time for sitting around or chatting. One of the reasons I do the Tiger program is to get boys and parents in the habit of behaving in the Cub Scout way. So that tends to carry on as boys and parents go on to Wolf, Bear and Webelos.

<> Heh, heh! That's putting too fine a point on the issue! But I agree with those who would give all those who participated in Scout Sunday whatever credit and awards are due. Now ---- what about the Scouts who didn't bother attending ANY service? Frankly, I wouldn't say anything to them, either. My congratulations to your troop and leaders for organizing a terrific Scout Sunday event. As Cubmaster for a pack chartered by a Catholic parish, I tried to get a Scout Sunday event organized. A few boys and parents attended, but not many. The Priest made a few favorable remarks about Scouting. Well --- we Did Our Best.

Interesting question and replies. There's a LOT to be said for learning the imnplications of the Cub Scout motto early: "Do Your Best." As a Cub Scout leader trying to get that point across to boys at a young age is one of my priorities. My aim is to get boys IN THE HABIT of doing their best all the time. I don't know how much real success I have with that, but that's one of my aims. Once people have deeply ingrained habits of character, it's tough to change them, and that seems to be where the boy in question is at.

I saw a report that newspapers and wire services are increasingly refusing to use the term "illegal immigrant" in newspaper reports. This is political correctness as mind control.

Most people need to be INVITED into Scout leadership positions. And they usually need to be asked to start with small, simple things to do, and then graduate tomore complex activities if they do the simple ones. I don't see that changing with a change in generations. You have to GROW new Scout leaders all the time. As they see the things they do are rewarding for themseklves and others, they train themselves in the values of Scouting. Isn't that what Scouting has always done?

Our pack has a Den Chief who has been doing an excellent job this school year!

So.... How aware do you think most units are of district and council issues and programs? What kinds of participation in district and council decision making do unit leaders have in your area? Are improvements in unit participation important? If so, what means might help improve the situation? If you don;t know what I'm talking about, the level of such participation is probably LOW!

I attended the Mt Baker Council University of Scouting/Pow Wow a couple of weeks ago. At the Cub Scout Woodcraft class, a simple catapult was built by all: The materials were a paint stirring stick, a rubber baqnd and a couple of sections of 1/2" PVC pipe. Cut one piece of pipe a couple of inches long and put the rubber bacd around the pipe, then around the paint stirring stick and again around the pipe, so that the pipe holds the stick off a table. That's your catapult. Another small piece of PVC pipe is hot melt glued into an end of the stick to hold what you launch. Put a small marshmallow in the pipe to launch, AND BEND THE STICK DOWN TO THE TABLE ---- SPROOONG! A nice, simple project. lenty of fun having contests for distance and hitting targets. Probably would be a good activity for a recruiting night. Cheap, simple and fun.

<> I think this is a nice feature of the Chief Seattle Council popcorn sale. Perhaps more councils would adopt this practice if more units started asking for it. Do other councils offer this kind of council support of unit popcorn sales --- or perhaps other policies that help units with issues like bad checks?

On the PWD trophies boys made last year, the 2x4 riser was cut at a 45 degree angle, with a nail in front. The car sat on that angle and was held in place by the nail. I make pumkin carving tools for use at Halloween. The rthin metal in a hanging file is removed and cut to length with sheet metal shears. Boys put the metal between two pieces of wood and then nail the two pieces of wood together with the meatl in the middle. The metal can be sharped easily with a grinder and cut to length as needed. I'll be making stilts next Tiger Cub meeting. A 2x2"x8 foot piece of lumber is cut in half by the boys and two pieces of 2x4 lumber are nailed on as steps. Once built and decorated, the boys have fun learning to use their stilts.

On the PWD trophies boys made last year, the 2x4 riser was cut at a 45 degree angle, with a nail in front. The car sat on that angle and was held in place by the nail. I make pumkin carving tools for use at Halloween. The rthin metal in a hanging file is removed and cut to length with sheet metal shears. Boys put the metal between two pieces of wood and then nail the two pieces of wood together with the meatl in the middle. The metal can be sharped easily with a grinder and cut to length as needed. I'll be making stilts next Tiger Cub meeting. A 2x2"x8 foot piece of lumber is cut in half by the boys and two pieces of 2x4 lumber are nailed on as steps. Once built and decorated, the boys have fun learning to use their stilts.

Our pack does a variety of competitions, including Pinewood Derby, sailboat race, stomp bottle rockets and paper airplanes. In all of them boys choose who they want to race against and the winner of any race wins a sticker for their car/boat/rocket/plane or whatever, or a driver's license/pilot's license or whatever. There is no explicit recognition of the boy who wins the most stickers. Each boy decides for themselves what the stickers mean to him. Personally I find this a satisfactory amount of competition for boys this age. They all want to compete, they all want to win and they all lose some of the time. This gives them the courage and fortitude to compete and the courage to experience losing, too. This is the kind of competition boys organize for themselves.

So.... What are the characteristics of a good Cub Scout (Tiger Cub, Wold or Bear) woodworking project? What are good projects you have seen or done? What ones didn't work well, and why?

<> I don't think so. "A Scout is thrifty." And according to BSA that means (in part) that a Scout pays his own way. For our packs, boys (families) that sell $300 in popcorn get a pack membership for the next year that would otherwise be $84 out of the family;s pocket. So boys who sell popcorn can pay their own way. I think that's a good practice.

How do the other Scouts react to these kinds of issues? If they don;t like it, perhaps they should elect a "reform" Senior Patrol Leader.

Four classes that were excellent and one a dud. The best was on recruiting adult leaders. I frequently take this course when its offered hoping to pick up new ideas. This one had four or five excellent adults leading it, including the Council Commissioner. My compliments to the Mt Baker Council headquartered north of Seattle in Everett for this excellent program.

A week or so ago I sent in applications for two Den Leaders and the Cubmaster to be awarded the "knots" for their uniforms. I suggested to the DE that he could award the knots to these excellent unit leaders at the Pack February Blue and Gold Dinner when he comes begging for FOS contributions ---that ought to offer him an incentive. Also, my district has various recognition awards, including an "Extra Mile" award. Each unit is invited to select one leader to be recognized with that award at the district recognition dinner. This year I'm going to nominate our Cubmaster who has not only done a fine job for two years but also was the Popcorn Colonel this year! Take a look at the various ways Scouting already has to recognize leaders who are making Scouting work!

60 degrees and sunny today in Seattle ---- 63 degrees yesterday. I went out walking today in shorts and a tee shirt.

Heh, heh! Volunteer trying to AVOID being a martyr.

Well, I attended the Mt Baker Council Pow Wow/University of Scouting Saturday. Among the classes I took was one on recruiting new adult leaders, one I take pretty often to get new ideas. This one was EXCELLENT! Four or five experienced class leaders plus the Council Commissioner. Among the interesting ideas was this article on using the Oreo Cookie Leader Test to identify promising leaders you can invite to be Scout leaders: http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/02/26/try-this-identify-potential-scout-leaders-with-the-oreo-test/

On the bright side, I suppose Troops will no longer be hearing complaints about Troops doing their summer camp out of council... Perhaps this is a smart move though, Since Scout Camps are expensive to maintain considering their often limited amount of use.

Our Pack charges $84/year in dues, free with $300 in pocorn sales. Sell more than $300 and you get 20% of the additional sales as a SDcout Account. For those joining in the spring and fall, we charge $7/month times the number of remaining months in the year. We make a point of making it possible for those recruited in the fall (September) to participate in the popcorn sale and get a free membership.