theysawyoucomin' 10 Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Quick survey: How much does it cost to go to Pow Wow in your council? Do they charge extra for any craft type classes that you may wish to take that could require extra materials? For those of you that are Den leaders, If you could attend a Crystal radio class(bear elective 3) and you actually made a radio that worked and were offered the knowledge to teach the boys would all that be worth $8 to you? Thank you in advance for your reply. Link to post Share on other sites
Eamonn 61 Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Quick pile up the sand bags!! Yes I admit that I'm the bad guy in our Council who when I was Council Training Chairman did away with Pow Wow. We used to charge about $15 -$20.00 for Pow Wow, with a catered hot lunch. But attendance was low. So we changed the Lunch to a bag lunch and charged $8.00 and attendance remained low. People said bring back the hot lunch and do a B&G Banquet, so the price went back to $20.00 and attendance remained low. In fact we were not seeing hardly any new faces just a group of hard line Pow Wowers!! While we tried to not have any extra costs, it just wasn't possible. So we charged the cost of materials. Mainly for leather and one time I remember someone done rubber stamping and sold some sort of a tote bag. As long as the people know what the cost will be ahead of time (When they sign up for that class) I don't see it as a problem. But if you wait till they get there and spring it on them. Boy will you catch it. There is nothing in this world as bad as a rampaging gang of upset Pow Wowers - They make Her Who Must Be Obeyed look like a bowl of cherries, even when I forget to put the seat down!! The very Best of British Luck -I'm still in hiding. Eamonn. Link to post Share on other sites
MarkS 11 Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 You can buy a crystal radio kit from your local scout shop or scoutstuff.org for $9.50. Assembly instructions are pretty straight forward so I don't think I'd spend $8 on a course too. The kit works too! I am a amateur radio operator and we hooked it up to one of ham antennas and we picked up an AM station on the East Coast from the Midwest. It was very faint and I couldn't hear it buy another parent and the boys could. Link to post Share on other sites
theysawyoucomin' 10 Posted December 6, 2005 Author Share Posted December 6, 2005 Well MARK S it seems like I have you beat by $1.50. I'm talking about instruction ie., history, and the knowledge about what makes it work. In addition to the components which the leaders will wire to a board and the earphone and the ground rod. I'm talking a working rig here.All for a buck and a half less than that kit. BTW I wish all you hams(my brother in law included) would get together and share knowledge with the cubs. Why, with all the hams who really understand the process and theory, aren't 95% of all cubs in America doing this elective. And the east coast is great range for a crystal radio from your location. Great job! or as you say BRAVO ZULU. In the USMC I was a 2531 with attendance at IMCO school at NTC San Diego I could do 12 words a minute but it near drove me nuts. Link to post Share on other sites
KurtB 10 Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 In our council, Pow Wow was $14 this year, including a very tasty catered lunch, and all class materials. If you wanted a printed copy of the manual, instead of the CD included in the price, it was an additional $5. As for attendance problems, our council this year did a "University of Scouting" - combining traditional Pow Wow training classes for Cub Leaders, but also various classes for Boy Scout leaders, Venture Leaders, and Den Chief training. Attendance seemed to be quite large, and the leadership seemed pleased. The only problem that I was aware of was 1 instructor the failed to show up (unfortunately, it effected one of the classes that I signed up for, so I had to quickly change my schedule and join a "class already in progress"). Overall, I would do it again, even if I had to pay more to cover the material costs for some of the more expensive classes. Kurt Link to post Share on other sites
MarkS 11 Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 uz2bnowl... my thought is after taking the class you would still need a second kit to assemble yourself during your den meeting activity as the boys build their own kits. My preference is to have an extra kit with which to demonstrate each assembly step rather than take one of theirs to demonstrate the step. Given that the book that comes with the kit has all the info you're looking for, I'd rather spend the money on an extra kit for the den activity than a class. Even if it's a buck fifty more. It's also kind of fun to learn along with the boys. Don't know about BRAVO ZULU, pretty much just a code operator--rag chew at 20, contest at 30, and can hear my own call sign at 40 WPM. Link to post Share on other sites
theysawyoucomin' 10 Posted December 10, 2005 Author Share Posted December 10, 2005 BZ was a two letter prosign for "good Job" Covered in ACP125 (allied communiction publication) Can't remember what my wife said yesterday but I remember that from 1981. FED EX employees get that award for small"good turns". Their CEO is a former Marine. Link to post Share on other sites
bbng 10 Posted December 10, 2005 Share Posted December 10, 2005 Pow Wow costs $20; if registration is late, it costs $25. There are no extra costs; all materials are included as well as lunch, the patch, prizes, and a CD of all course materials. It's worth the cost, though it's hard to get people to attend, and any extra costs would make it harder still particularly as our council has made it a priority to keep training free or very low cost (low cost for supplementals other than Woodbadge which is $150). Link to post Share on other sites
Lynda J 10 Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 I just staffed ours. The course was $10.00 and you furnish your own lunch. Some of the craft classes did have a supply charge. We were full. I had three classes and there were 28-31-34 in my classes for map and compass. Link to post Share on other sites
MarkS 11 Posted December 12, 2005 Share Posted December 12, 2005 Ham radio ops don't use ACP125 but I suspect many who were in the service are familiar with it. The ham equivalent for BZ is FB for fine business--meaning excellet. http://www.ac6v.com/morseaids.htm#CW provides many of the typcial abbreviations hams use in Morse code. We also use Q signals (google it for more info). Link to post Share on other sites
theysawyoucomin' 10 Posted December 13, 2005 Author Share Posted December 13, 2005 Thank you for the link Mark. I really do learn something new every day. Notice how there is a "B" in each one. Do you think that is becease a "B" is so easy to hear? We sent a flyer to roundtables discussing the options for this class. I have 7 attendees from the first roundtable. Link to post Share on other sites
theysawyoucomin' 10 Posted December 17, 2005 Author Share Posted December 17, 2005 Thanks to all who replied. Eammon, I wish you could come to Albany NY in late March. The folks that run Twin Tivers PowWow do a great job! 12 people have signed up in advance,extra fee was OK for radio parts, and the info has not yet been out to the general public. Link to post Share on other sites
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