SeattlePioneer

I was a UC from 2004-4/2014. I was a UC for a pack, and during that time I brought that pack back from the dead once and helped get it new leadership at the last minute before it was about to fail again (both times when the "Cubmaster who did everything" left). I attended almost all the Committee meetings and occasional unit meetings as needed, and did the FOS pitch each year. I occasionally helped out a bit with the program when needed. Because I helped revive the pack from virtual death, I designed a lot of the annual program for the pack, much of which continues each each pretty much as I designed it. I was also UC for a Scout Troop for three years. A troop with a good program and good leadership. The Cub Pack I'm COR and CM for feeds this troop, and being UC helped me coordinate the program of the Pack and Troop. Back in April I was being badgered by an Assistant District Commissioner for not using the on line reporting of unit contacts. In fact I had been using the on line reporting feature, until I could no longer log on to the system. I was badgered by the ADC and DE to send in a report to a Council Secretary in that case, which I was not interested in doing. When they continued to badger me about that, I resigned as a Commissioner. I've since discovered (I think) that the library computers I used for such reporting weren't up to the logging on process, which also explained why I couldn't log on to this forum or internet rechartering. The past few days I've been using a park department computer center and suddenly I can log on to all this stuff again. But perhaps badgering a volunteer until they quit satisfied someone.

I handle recruiting and the orientation of new boys and families to Cub Scouts for my pack. One of my aims is to get every boy "in uniform" promptly after joining the pack. I do this by providing each new boy with a neckerchief and slide --- which I make. Usually I shop for cloth at a thrift shop, buying a sheet and then cutting neckerchiefs out of it. I use different styles of sheets and different colors. I cut neckerchiefs out of the sheets, then fold and iron them and put them folded into sandwich bags, ready for use. For neckerchief slides, I look for tree branches of a suitable diameter and cut them to appropriate lengths with a lopper. Then I use a spade bit to drill a hole in the section of tree branch. Of course there are a wide variety of sizes, woods and texture. Each new Cub Scout is invited to pick the neckerchief and slide that appeals to him before the awards ceremony. For the ceremony, I invite the boy and parent to come forward, and formally introduce the new boy to the den or pack. I take the neckerchief out of the sandwich bag and show the boy that Scouts care for their uniform by keeping it neat, clean and orderly. The parent is invited to put the neckerchief on their son, so they'll know how to do that in the future. New boys get applause as part of their welcome to the pack. I explain to parents that we want each boy to be "in uniform," and that the neckerchief and slide mean that the boy is in uniform when he wears it. Parents are invited to add additional uniform parts as part of their own family Scouting program. So they may want to provide a uniform blouse when a boy completes Bobcat, for Christmas, a birthday or whatever. Most parents are glad not to be pressured to buy expensive uniforms promptly. Boys are invited to decorate their neckerchief if they wish to do so, although few do. Personally I wear the same style neckerchief that I award to boys, and I've decorated my neckerchief with "Join Cub Scout" recruiting material. I can cut 10-15 neckerchiefs out of a sheet that costs the pack $5 or less, and I make the slides for free. Boys seems pretty happy with what they get, especially because they can pick among various neckerchiefs and slides for ones that appeal to them. I find this works well for my pack.

It took 19 years for my completion of Woodbadge to be recognized and posted as an official record. Took it in 1985 and had the Woodbadge Award ceremony in 2004. One of the district leaders had been a leader in the course and was kind enough to arrange for the award at a district roundtable for me.

I see that the comment I posted in 2005 still looks good to me.

< >> I've done this many times as a pack recruiting event. I cut boat shaped pieces of .75" wood and have rods for masts and cut pieces of corrugated plastic for sails. I salvage signs from along the street and use the wire form that holds the signs up for masts and the corrugated plastic sign for sails. I spray paint the sign to cover up the adevertizing, then cut the sig into various sized sails. I use bolt cutters to cut the advertizing sign wire into masts. I have three sets of raingutters. Boy pick who they want to race against. I make up Boat Racing Licenses and print them off on a library computer for free. Each time a boys wins a race, they are awarded a sticker they can put on their racing license or boat. I spray paint the boats in various colors before the event, and boys can decorate their boats if they wish. This is WILDLY popular with boys! They may not be able to remember what "Webelos" means, but six months later they can remember how many stickers they won! And it's a GREAT recruiting tool. I take a large model boat into Elementary schools at lunch and ask boys if they would like to come and make and race boats against their buddies --- the turnout tends to be fine. And the cost is negligible. Boats are cut from scrap wood and the signs are just litter along the road. I do much the same thing with stomp bottle rockets

Rather than asking for volunteers, it's FAR more effective to review your den and pack roster and look for the parents who have the potential to be effective leaders. Then ask them to do specific tasks. When registering new Cub Scouts, I copy information on the adult into the pack records from the Youth Application. That includes the adult's DOB, occupation, employer, previous Scouting experience and such. Often that's a useful guide to people who may have the education, intelligence and leisure to be leaders. But there are others without such credentials who can be good leaders too. Get to know your parents, and ask them to help you out on various tasks. The classic weak pack has the "Cubmaster Who Does Everything." When that person leaves ( and EVERYONE leaves, eventually) you have left a VERY deep hole for a pack to climb out of.

I do the recruiting and Tiger Cub program for our Cub Pack, so I've developed ways of introducing the Cub Scout program to new families that have worked well for me. I go over the Cub Scout promise with new boys, with parents looking on. I explain that by "duty to God" we mean 1) Cub Scouts respect the religious traditions of their families 2) Cub Scouts respect the religious traditions of other families. That seems to work quite well. We had a Moslem family that was uncomfortable attending our Christmas Party last year. We invited the Mother to describe the religious traditions of the Moslem religion, which she did quite capably for about ten minutes or so during our Christmas Party. Everyone seemed pretty happy with that. The pack is chartered by a Catholic parish.

We have an existing adult leader whose YPT training expired in the past few days. He completed that training again as requested. However, his on line training validation doesn't show that as being completed, and the recharter package I've printed out still shows that proof of completion is needed. He tried to go back and print out the YPT certificate of completion, but hasn't been able to get back to that. I've e-mailed my DE and District Commissioner about this, but no replies so far. Any ideas?

< >> My brother attended Camp Parsons in the 1960s. It's on Hood Canal, which is an inlet of the Pacifi Ocean like Puget Sound. The troop went to Camp Parson on a Sea Scout ship, which was a cruise that took six hours or so. I thought that was pretty nifty.

<> I volunteered for a while with a troop that advertized that they did their own long term camp. That would have been fine but they lacked the volunteers to actually do it, so boys didn't have a summer camp experience. So Basement, where have you found that better and cheaper alternative?

All Webelos Den Leaders have my sympathies....

All Webelos Den Leaders have my sympathies....

Well, you can click on the "comment" option at the bottom of a post. (flag, quote, COMMENT Like)

Launchers are easy to make and make good den projects. Cut a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe about three feet long and a second piece about two feet long. Glue the two pieces into a 1/2" PVC elbow. Cut two pieces of 2x4 about two feet long. Use 1/2" pipe clamps to clamp the three foot length of PVC pipe onto the 2x4 sections. Sometimes putting some rubber from an old bicycle tire will help make things work better. Fit a 2 liter plastic soda bottle onto the end of the three foot pipe. Use a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe as a mandrel to roll a sheet of 8x11 paper into a rocket --- the ,long way. Use a stapler to close one end of the paper tube, and mount the paper rocket onto the two foot PVC pipe. Stomp on the soda pop bottle to send the rocket into the air.

Launchers are easy to make and make good den projects. Cut a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe about three feet long and a second piece about two feet long. Glue the two pieces into a 1/2" PVC elbow. Cut two pieces of 2x4 about two feet long. Use 1/2" pipe clamps to clamp the three foot length of PVC pipe onto the 2x4 sections. Sometimes putting some rubber from an old bicycle tire will help make things work better. Fit a 2 liter plastic soda bottle onto the end of the three foot pipe. Use a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe as a mandrel to roll a sheet of 8x11 paper into a rocket --- the ,long way. Use a stapler to close one end of the paper tube, and mount the paper rocket onto the two foot PVC pipe. Stomp on the soda pop bottle to send the rocket into the air.

Launchers are easy to make and make good den projects. Cut a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe about three feet long and a second piece about two feet long. Glue the two pieces into a 1/2" PVC elbow. Cut two pieces of 2x4 about two feet long. Use 1/2" pipe clamps to clamp the three foot length of PVC pipe onto the 2x4 sections. Sometimes putting some rubber from an old bicycle tire will help make things work better. Fit a 2 liter plastic soda bottle onto the end of the three foot pipe. Use a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe as a mandrel to roll a sheet of 8x11 paper into a rocket --- the ,long way. Use a stapler to close one end of the paper tube, and mount the paper rocket onto the two foot PVC pipe. Stomp on the soda pop bottle to send the rocket into the air.

Launchers are easy to make and make good den projects. Cut a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe about three feet long and a second piece about two feet long. Glue the two pieces into a 1/2" PVC elbow. Cut two pieces of 2x4 about two feet long. Use 1/2" pipe clamps to clamp the three foot length of PVC pipe onto the 2x4 sections. Sometimes putting some rubber from an old bicycle tire will help make things work better. Fit a 2 liter plastic soda bottle onto the end of the three foot pipe. Use a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe as a mandrel to roll a sheet of 8x11 paper into a rocket --- the ,long way. Use a stapler to close one end of the paper tube, and mount the paper rocket onto the two foot PVC pipe. Stomp on the soda pop bottle to send the rocket into the air.

Launchers are easy to make and make good den projects. Cut a piece of 1/2" pvc pipe about three feet long and a second piece about two feet long. Glue the two pieces into a 1/2" PVC elbow. Cut two pieces of 2x4 about two feet long. Use 1/2" pipe clamps to clamp the three foot length of PVC pipe onto the 2x4 sections. Sometimes putting some rubber from an old bicycle tire will help make things work better. Fit a 2 liter plastic soda bottle onto the end of the three foot pipe. Use a piece of 1/2" PVC pipe as a madrel to roll a sheet of 8x11 paper into a rocket --- the ,long way. Use a stapler to close one end of the paper tube, and mount the paper rocket onto the two foot PVC pipe. Stomp on the soda pop bottle to send the rocket into the air.

Boats are cut with a table saw from 3/4 inch wood stock of whatever is available for free or cheaply. Boats are cut about 6" long and 3" wide with a point cut for the bow. I collect old steel rod and cut it in various lengths for masts, using a grinder to sharpen one end so boys can pound the mast into the boat. I collect corrugated plastic roadside signs and spray paint them, then cut them into various sizes. Boys choose the sails they want on their boat and run the rod through the corrugated plastic. I spray paint the boats in various colors since paint wont dry fast enough if boys try to paint the boat hulls. However, boys are encouraged to decorate their boats and sails with crayons and markers. Each time a boy wins a Raingutter race they get a sticker to put on their boat or sail, which makes things competetive enough to appeal to younger boys. It takes about five minutes for a boy and parent to make a boat, and boys and parents working together makes a good Cub Scout experience for those new to Cub Scouts, I find. This makes a terrific recruiting night activity to draw boys and families into Scouting, second only to the appeal of stomp bottle rockets.

<< Our CM had luck last year by showing some Video at lunch time at the school to the 1st graders, then reeled the parents in at a school open house night. He also set up the derby track in the cafeteria and had practice races. >> Hmmm. We will bemaking and launching stomp borttle rockets or doing a simplified Raingutter Regatta at our sign up night this fall. Usually I'd be visiting boys at school lunches, showing them the rocket or boat and handing out stickers with the date, time and location of the signup night/activity. But I could probably set up the Raingutter Regatta trays or rocket launchers at the playground to interest boys after lunch, and hand out stickers after boys have had a chance to try out thwe rocket launch or boat race. The only issue with that is that boys will have already tried out the activity. Most boys will still want to make the boat or rocket and race them repeatedly at the sign up night I suppose.

<< We have a den leader who loves to sing songs with the kids and it goes over very well and most songs are do as I do say as I say. >> What about the OTHER den leaders?

Boy Scouts is different than Cub Scouts. An issue in one program probably isn't going to be an issue. For example, homosexuality can be an issue in Boy Scouts but is unlikely to be an issue among Cub Scouts ---at least among boys. But as long as you mention it, I might favor a shorter Boy Scout program that has as it's main aim achieving First Class and then moves boys on to Venturing.

I don't doubt for a minute that a talented person can get great results leading a song. My experience is that the average den leader doesn't care much for leading songs, usually does a poor job of choosing and rehearsing songs. Songs are likely to be better than skits, though, especially for Tiger Cubs and Wolves. Just out of curiosity--- how did your Tiger Cub den do with skits this past year?

Hello mdp, Cub Scouts is too long now and 'way too many boys (and parents) get bored and drop out now. Will you and your son still be excited by your den and pack programs after having done them several more times? Write us again in four or five years... (Personally I think the Tiger Cub year is the best year in Cub Scouts)

Skits? Really? I find that most skits are poorly rehearsed by den leaders and MANY boys are too shy to speak loudly eneough to be heard. Bears and Webelos can maybe do skits reasonably well, but I avoid them for Tiger Cubs and Wolves in particular. Songs are better and can be done more reliably. But the key is usually to choose a simple song with a familiar melody, and often a poor choice of song leads to a poor performance. A lot of den leaders don't have much skill at leading songs and do a poor job, which doesn't help matters. Small art projects--- I like to make decorating pretty much any project a den does a part of the program. Some boys really like that and others couldn't care less. The problem is that if you make an art project the OBJECT of a den project, the boys that don't care about such things rapidly become bored. As an example, we made paper airplanes and then decorated them and had contests flying nthe planes, with a boy receiving a sticker for their airplane each time they won one of the numerous contests. Boys were welcome to take as much time decorating their airplanes as they wished, or they could ignore that part and go on to flying their airplanes.