Category: Cub Scouts

Categories
Cub Scouts

There Will Be Only One

So, tomorrow is my first Pinewood Derby that I’m in charge of, responsible for, however it’s best to think about it. I’ve helped out with two in the past, but others took care of all the planning. Right now, looking towards it, I can say I’m looking forward to it being done.

As much as the event itself is basically dropping cars down a ramp, it turns out there’s a lot more that goes into it from a preparation perspective. There are the trophies that have to be ordered. There are room arrangements that have to be made. There are people that have to be coordinated before the event for setup, during the event for running it, and after the event for cleanup. We have to come up with car rules for everyone to build their cars according to. We have to come race rules to handle fuzzy cases like ties or cars jumping their track (it does happen.) I’ve probably missed a few things, but it’s pretty obvious that dropping cars down a ramp is the easiest part of the whole day.

We have a smaller Pack this year, only 20 or so, so I decided to try an experiment that we hadn’t done in the previous Derbies I’d helped out with. We decided to pre-assign the kids to certain heats and then schedule times for them to get their car inspected and when their heat will race. In past years, we’ve simply opened up the event with the inspection and then waited for everyone to complete inspection prior to starting the race. There was a lot of down time with this method, and we still had multiple heats to run.

The goal with pre-assigning heats this year was to reduce the congestion at the inspection line. It’s one thing for a set number of people to weigh their cars and try to tune the weight as close to the 5 ounce limit as possible. It’s another for everyone in the Pack trying to do it. The line gets long and some people go back up multiple times attempting to “make weight.” By limiting the number of people who can submit their cars for inspection, we can limit the line length and, hopefully, keep things moving.

Further, once we get the first heat squared away, the second heat will be able to get their cars inspected and ready for their heat. Thus, we create a diversion of sorts that will serve to make the race day seem shorter because there will be something going on almost constantly.

Aside from that, we’ll also have a DVD running showing Herbie the Lovebug or Cars or something like that. Plus, there will be pizza which is always a hit.

I’m fortunate as well in that I’ve got a core group of people who are all capable and more than willing to help out wherever help is needed. No grousing or complaining. That alone makes my job a helluva lot easier.

Come this time tomorrow night, the Derby will be well over with. At least, it had better be. There will be one very happy Scout with bragging rights over everyone else. And there will be one tired Cubmaster, relieved to have it behind him.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Finished Cars

Categories
Cub Scouts Woodworking

Pinewood Derby Cars

I’m tempted to say “normally”, but I think that conveys a longer time period than 2 years. Or, at least, it implies that I’ve participated in more than 2 Pinewood Derby’s, or is it “derbies?” To tell, you the truth in all the excitement I just forgot… Maybe it’s because I’ve been building 2 Derby cars each of the past 3 years and that makes it just seem longer. Then again, maybe I’m just strung out from sniffing pine all day. You can huff pine, right? Parents these days…

So today, I did not watch any playoff football. Rather, well, I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now.

HEY!! How ’bout a picture?

{height=461}

If that looks like a coffin care and a bird car, pat yourself on the back. If it doesn’t, then what the hell is wrong with you? Of course it’s a coffin car and a bird car. Seriously, what else could they be? Wait, no. Don’t answer that. They just need a paint job and wheels is all. Hey, coffins are hard to carry. And birds get tired flying around. It can happen. Especially after huffing pine all day.

Here’s another angle…

{height=614}

I should have taken a few pictures of the bird car during construction. More specifically, it’s supposedly going to become an African Grey Parrot car, but first it needs a lot of paint. Luckily, we have the lass.

The basic shape I cut out on the band saw, including a fair amount around the head and shoulder area. But the beak and neck shaping I accomplished with my chisels. Thank God it’s pine, because it smells sooooooo good. I could just sniff it all day. And it’s soft, but not like a baby’s bottom. After the rough shaping, the sandpaper smoothed everything out and improved the look. It took me most of Friday afternoon to get that much done.

Today, I spent working on the boy’s coffin car. He saw a picture on the web of a skeleton coming out of a coffin for a derby car design and decided that’s what he wanted. Because I’m a fool, I didn’t talk him out of it.

So to the point pictured so far, most of that is cut by hand. The coffin shape I managed with my dovetail saw, making the down cut first and then coming in from the side second. I clamped it in my bench vise for all these cuts. After that, I used the bandsaw to slice the top, which would eventually become the lid for the coffin. Those slots on the to-be-lid are the original axle slots that the blank has. I drill holes on the opposite side for the axles, so the original bottom becomes the top. In a normal car, those slots would get cut off and discarded.

This is not a normal car.

{height=614}

So at this point I’ve hollowed out the coffin and also rabbeted the lid for a nice, custom fit. I actually accomplished the hollowing with a 1/2 inch upcutting spiral bit for my router that I mounted in my drill press. I hogged out the majority of the wood with that, then cleaned up the edges with a chisel. As for the lid, I scribed the rabbet depth with my marking gauge then used a 5/16 inch rabbeting plane. I just cut the rabbet down until those slots juuust disappeared when viewed from the edge.

{height=614}

At this point, I added some hinges to the lid and then a chain on the at what would be the top I suppose though in the picture it’s the bottom. It’s all so confusing. Where’s some pine?

The hinges I found at Michael’s for a buck, the chain is a piece of a chain necklace I also found at Michael’s. I used a nail from a picture hanger since it was small enough to fit through the links of the chain. It gives it a nice look. I’ve also got some other decorations for the outside that will have to wait for the paint job.

{height=461}

I think that’s Mini-Me. Or maybe a distant cousin…

Best moment of the day?

The boy is working on the axle nails, filing down the ribs near the head so the wheels won’t have something to bind up on- it’s one of those speed tricks you pick up on competing in Derby’s. Anyway, the nail is mounted in the chuck of my drill press, spinning away at roughly 600RPM and the boy is using a piece of that silicate wet sand paper with, like 1500 grit. He’s working on his 3rd or so nail and he says to me “Making a Derby car sure is a lot of work, huh Dad?”

I didn’t answer ’cause I was too busy sniffing pine.

Categories
Cub Scouts

BEHOLD! The Monkey’s Fist!

Alright, so the boy and his buddies weren’t the only ones bit by the knot tying bug the other night.

I first saw this knot during our trip to Battleship Cove last year. One of the other Dad’s pointed it out because of the name. It was just the sort of thing to stick with me.

So after the meeting the other night, one of the Dad’s mentioned that he had a book on knots and would be happy to lend it to me so I could learn some other interesting, useful knots. I figured he’d bring it along to the next meeting, or even forget about it. As it turned out, he dropped it off in my mailbox yesterday.

Naturally, the first thing I looked for was the monkey’s fist knot and to my delight, there it was. And to my surprise, it looked relatively easy form. The process is a 3 series of loops wrapped around each other with the sole trick being in the transition from on set of loops to the next. So I set about trying to accomplish it with a piece of shoelace I had, but had no success because the shoe lace is so soft and pliable.

Fortunately, I had the twine from the other night which was much better suited to the task. Turns out there are two difficulties with completing the monkey’s fist knot: the first is the knot has to be tightened, which requires drawing all the slack through all the loops in the knot; the second is trying to keep all of the loops neatly ordered during that tightening phase. Still, when it’s done there’s a nice sense of satisfaction. It’s an interesting looking knot.

Here’s the wiki page for it. I can confirm the weighting of the rope and being able to use it to aid in tossing. The book I used ends the section by noting that the monkey’s fist can consist of sets of loops of 3, 4 or even 5 and then suggesting that a fun pasttime might be to successfully embed a 3-looper inside a 4-looper inside a 5-looper. I don’t know how much rope that would take up, but it might indeed be an interesting way to spend some time…

Categories
Cub Scouts

Knots

I had my first den meeting of the New Year today, and I learned something: boys like ropes and knots.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised by this at all. I remember playing with ropes at various points. Either as part of some game or just sitting and tying knots in some kind of pattern or trying to figure out some knew way to make a knot. But I guess we forget some of these things, until present with such an occasion to remind us that, yes, we too were kids once.

For the record, I taught them the square knot, slip knot and bowline knot. I used a heavier twine because I figured it would be easier for them to manipulate than a floppy string or otherwise. I even showed them how to whip the ends of the rope with a piece of masking tape to keep it from fraying.

I really expected them to start tuning me out once I started demonstrating the knots- I just figured it would be the sort of thing they’d try, have trouble with and then get bored. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Every single one of them wanted to tie each knot themselves. I demonstrated the tying over and over and over again and in a few cases worked with the kids individually to help them figure out the process. Even more remarkable, they weren’t satisfied with their knot after I’d helped them- they still wanted to be able to do it without any help.

So for almost 45 minutes, we sat and tied knots together in the den meeting. Amusingly, I purposely waited until the end of the meeting to work on the knots because I was so sure they’d be over and done with it so quickly. My mistake meant some of the kids ended up staying almost 30 minutes later than I’d originally planned. Parent’s were showing up and waiting on their son because they insisted on finishing their knots.

So now, I’m thinking I’ll try teaching them a new knot at each remaining meeting. After today’s experience, why knot?

Categories
Cub Scouts

Cub Scout Progress Trackers

Being the Den Leader for the Bears, and having done the Wolves, I can say that the one thing that turns a mind into mush is figuring out the combination of Achievements, and the further combinations of requirements for each Achievement. Then, keeping it all straight for each Scout. Yuk.

A Google search revealed this site which has Achievement trackers for a variety of Scouting levels and activities. The trackers themselves are in both spreadsheet format and PDF. Even nicer, the author was aware of the existence of OpenOffice, so even though it was developed for Excel, it works with OO, or Libreoffice (the debian-ized version of OO).

Speaking for the Bear tracker, it’s quite a bit of work put into the sheet, but it’s well documented and pretty straight forward to use. I’ll be using this of my guys this year. If you’re a Den leader, these are definitely worth a look see.

Categories
Cub Scouts

First Den Meeting

The weather didn’t help me today.

My Cub Scout Den is full of active, high energy kids. I had planned on getting them outside to work on some of their Achievements, but it started raining about an hour prior to the Den meeting. Since taking them outside in the rain wasn’t really a viable option, I had to do my best to keep them moving indoors.

I also decided to stray from my normal “no snack” protocol because my meetings this year are immediately after school. I anticipate that most of them will have the munchies to varying degrees, so giving them some snacks would be necessary to keep their blood-sugar levels stable enough for me to actually be able to accomplish anything with them. For this meeting, I brought pretzel sticks, though a bunch of them also had their own snacks.

So after I distributed the snacks, the kids start laughing. I turn and look, and one of them has stuck a pretzel stick up his nose. Shortly after that, another one has one going from his nose down into his lower lip, so it looks like some gangly tooth sticking up his schnoz. After that, another one decides to set a Guinness record for most pretzel sticks in a nostril.

Let’s just say that it made the Den meeting a challenge.

As Bear Scouts, they actually have some latitude in what they do to earn their Rank Badge this year. There are 4 categories which they have to satisfy Achievements. Each category has a different number of Achievements to complete, totalling 12. But the handbook lists 24 overall Achievements, so they have quite a few different ones to pick from. That at least makes the curriculum possible to accomplish in a year with likely only a couple of Den meetings a month.

The hard part of the Den meeting is trying to keep the material fun and interesting for them. For instance, they all have to review their Bobcat Requirements, and the newer Scouts have to learn them. So rather than have them just sit and memorize the material, I ran a relay race with them where they had to answer a quiz question involving one of the requirements. So they got a chance to practice plus they got a little exercise along the way.

But some of this stuff doesn’t always fall so easily into a game. I discussed the concept of “respect” with them today and I had about 5 minutes or so before I lost the entire room. Some of the kids aren’t even listening when we start the discussion. How to turn a talk about respect into a game? I suppose there’s a way to do it, but I’m not the one to figure it out. At some point, these guys have to grow up a bit and learn to listen to things other than farting and belching. Of course, this could likely be as much about my own limitations as a presenter of the material. But hey, someone has to do it.

The next Den meeting looms now. My preference will be for something where I can get them outside. But it’s Fall in New England, and counting on the weather is never a good idea.

Categories
Cub Scouts Family Football

Rentschler Pics

Here are some pics of Rentschler from yesterday’s Scout Day, all from the Fifty.

Obviously, that last one isn’t from the fifty…

Categories
Cub Scouts Family

A Good Day

We met the boy’s fellow Cub Scout buddies around 8:30 this morning. It was just a coffee and donut start to the day. Coffee for me and the other parents, donuts for the kids. Caffeine versus sugar- if we’d left them together for too long, sugar would have won.

The ride down to the stadium went surprisingly quickly. We made one pit stop to pick up some simple tailgating supplies along the way. We were keeping things pretty simple.

We arrived at Rentschler Field a little after 10. Game time today was noon. The boy was full of questions about football. Who to cheer for? Does offense have the ball or defense? What’s a down? I weathered them as best I could while trying to concentrate on not getting into an accident. The boy is constant priority interrupt and the lanes marked out to guide vehicles to a parking lot are narrow. The parking attendants aren’t too friendly either.

I got a brief sense of relief as we drove by the stadium- it looked like we’d have pretty good parking spots within site of the stadium. I even told the boy as much. The thought made him happy ’cause he didn’t want to have to walk very far.

But then we kept going. And going. And going. In the end, I was right that we were still within site of the stadium, but only because of the lights sitting atop it.

Once the parking was set, the boy and his buddies immediately started tossing a football around. There was grabbing and yelling and laughing and occasionally, the ball changed hands and it started all over again. I decided to wade into the middle of it all and started tossing them the ball. We were in between a couple rows of cars with real tailgating going on around us. None of the Scouts had very good control over their throwing and there were several near misses on tailgaters. Thankfully, they took it all in stride.

The time went by quickly. We finished our snacks and then packed up and headed to the field to pick up our tickets and get to our seats. The kids didn’t even bother complaining about the long walk. They were too busy chatting about the upcoming game and rooting for the Huskies.

Our seats weren’t top-of-the-line, but they were pretty darn good- front row, corner endzone on the visitor side of the field. It was Scout day, so we were sitting with Scouts all around us. Once the game started, there was plenty of hooting and hollering. The older Scouts were yelling for the cheerleaders. When they finally came by I joked with our guys to keep their eyeballs in their heads. The boy joked about his sister wanting to be a cheerleader.

The Jumbotron was a huge hit for all the kids. They probably watched it more than the live action on the field in front of them. The boy had an overpriced hot dog and drink. I had an overpriced pulled-pork sandwich. How overpriced? The sandwich was $10; a 7lb slab of pork butt costs $15. Next time, we’ll be a little more aggressive with the tailgating. But then, the boy enjoyed his overpriced soda. At least it was more soda than ice.

Sometime in the 4th quarter, the Boy Scouts made there way down and started pounding on a tarp in from of us, chanting “Let’s Go UConn!” and stuff. Our guys joined in and the camera man came by and filmed them cheering on the Huskies.

The kids started getting antsy in the 2nd half for the field. Being Scout day, it had been arranged that the Scouts would get a chance to go on the field after the game. With about 5 minutes to go, and the game more or less settled, we started heading for the far end of the field where we’d been told access to the field would be granted. Our guys kept trying to race with one another to be the first one. It was pointless though, because the marching band had taken the field. And yes, they refused to yield. I still don’t know what was the deal…

Ahem. Sorry.

While we were waiting for the band’s performance to end, the boys noticed the large crate of footballs that had been brought on th field. They could barely believe their good fortune that so many of them were available. After the band finished their set, we were finally allowed on the field.

Even though I rarely get the opportunity, I still feel at home on the field. I spent the better part of 8 years on them during the Fall. It was nice to be back on one. Even though it was crawling with Scouts.

The boy didn’t actually get a ball when we first got on the field. They had run out. But one of his Scout buddies had, and they immediately starting tossing it around. I wandered to the 50 to take a few pictures. When I got back, the boy had managed to procure his own ball. We tossed it around a bit, then he wanted to throw it through the uprights. So we tossed it back and forth that way for awhile.

Then we started to have a little fun.

It had thinned out a bit around midfield so the boy and I moved into that area. We started about 10 yards apart. After he caught a few, I stepped back a few yards and kept going. He caught a few more and I stepped back a bit more. He caught a few of those and he started getting a smile on his face. He was catching a real football from farther than he’d ever managed before.

After a few more reps, my arm and shoulder were warmed up and we were now about 30 yards apart. I varied between lobbing them in and putting some zip on them. He was into it now, caching them with his hands when he could. Giving it his best shot when he couldn’t. His arm got tired and he couldn’t make the throws back to me anymore, so I’d move closer to make the throw easier, then move back to make a throw to him. We were 35 yards apart with him on the 50 and he was still catching the ball. It had thinned out more where he was at, and some of his buddies were hanging around him.

So I did the only reasonable thing. I stepped back to the goalline and let fly.

There’s something about a football sailing 50 yards through the air. The tight spiral, the arc of it’s flight. It’s just fun to watch. It’s also irresistible to anyone near the landing zone. As such, the boy never had a chance to catch it because every other Scout within 5 yards wanted to catch it as well.

The boy never did catch anything from that far. But he had a lot of fun trying.

Unsurprisingly, he fell asleep on the ride home.

Our arrival back home was well timed. The Wife had just finished making dinner and serving herself and the lass. The lass had scored a goal in her soccer game. The Wife had found some new shoes. A good day for everyone.

Later, when it was time for bed, the boy told me “Dad, I wish we could have stayed on the field longer throwing the ball. It was more fun than I thought it would be.”

That’s the cruel side of fun, that it has to come to an end. But then, there’s always a next time.

Categories
Cub Scouts Family

Scout Camp

Spent the day with the boy at Scout Camp yesterday. It was virtually identical to last year, allowing for the usual sorts of modifications camps make in an effort to improve the experience year-to-year. All that by way of saying, the boy and I had a lot of fun.

The boy had the better of it though, as my day consisted of “herding cats.” Actually, to be fair, the boys weren’t as bad as that. Though the extra year does make for a bit of a different challenge. They’re all less googly-eyed in the presence of adults, a bit more standoffish when they’re tired. To make it through, a little more patience and finesse is required including “letting things go” that an adult might otherwise not.

As for specifics, the boy had an interesting day. Starting at the beginning, archery, he hit the foam wrapper on the stand for the target. Twice. It wasn’t anywhere near a bullseye, but all the other kids were marveling at the feat, unintentional though it was. After that we moved on to BB’s where he had the second-highest score in the den and hit 2 bullseyes out of 8 shots. Finally, at fishing he was the only one in the den to catch a fish. It was a tiny blue gill that the boy quite literally plucked out of the water near the shore. It was so small that one of the other den leaders decided it would be more entertaining to use the fish as bait to try and catch a big fish. No such luck ultimately, but we didn’t have to worry about re-baiting his hook.

He also learned how to tie a square knot and a Bowline knot. The latter took most of the hour session to figure out. Mainly because the Scout who taught the class had to work with each kid individually and it takes quite a few iterations to finally figure it out. It took me awhile as well because it wasn’t obvious, while watching him tie the knot, that the loop the knot starts with isn’t the loop the knot ends with. Once the boy learned it he retained it, as evidenced by his demonstrating how to tie it to the Wife later.

Of all the changes to the format, the biggest is the extra hour added to the day. I was pretty sure some kind of brawl would break out between the kids just based on general fatigue levels from hoofing around the camp all day. Fortunately, nothing of the sort materialized, though it was touch-and-go during their soccer game at the end. The activity leader their didn’t exactly regale himself in leadership skills as he basically sat and watched the boys argue over various rules about the game.

Today is “Crazy Hair Day” at the camp, and the Wife spiked his hair for the occasion. He thought he looked stupid, but the Wife and I thought it looked good on him. It was too bad the Wife didn’t have any colored hair spray since he’d have made an awesome punk rocker.

I told the boy that it’s also “Hump Day”, since after today the week will be past half-way over. Even though he’s enjoying the camp, he confessed it wasn’t as much fun this year as last year. I told him it was probably just because it wasn’t all new. It certainly wasn’t for lack of friends. Not trying to toot my own horn, but I also suspect part of it is because I can’t spend the entire week with him at the camp like I did last year, though he hasn’t said anything to that effect. My only evidence is a Father’s intuition. Whatever the reason, I think part of him is looking forward to having his own time again come Friday.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Gone Camping

Today is our Spring Campout for the Pack. I’m off to go get things going.

Tomorrow is Father’s Day they tell me, so pre-Happy Father’s day to any other dad’s reading out there.

See you manana (you’ll have to imagine that funny squiggle over the ‘n’.).

Categories
Cub Scouts

Battleship Cove

Our Pack’s overnight was at Battleship Cove. It’s a historical military site where the USS Massachusetts, which is easily the main attraction, resides. There’s also the USS Lionfish, a submarine; the USS Fall River, a cruiser; and the USS Joseph P Kennedy, a destroyer. They’ve also got a PT boat exhibit.

If you’ve never been on a battleship, then I highly recommend doing so. It’s an impressive experience. The scale of the ship alone is enough to make the mind boggle. The tech specs are equally mind boggling: like the 16-inch canons that could hit targets 22-miles away (it’s just a big bullet- not a propelled object). The rounds were packed with 5000 lbs of gun powder and no one was allowed on deck when they were being fired. Yet the ship was designed such that when they were fired, no one felt the recoil on the ship. They also had 5 inch guns capable of shooting up to 5 miles away. The ship itself was the better part of 800 feet long. When in service, the fuel tanks held nearly 2 millions gallons of crude for fuel and the ship could run flat out for 9 days on that supply.

All of the Scouts who came enjoyed the day. The weather was perfect and it was something most of them hadn’t seen before. We had gone once before with our own kids and they’d also been taken there by the Grandparents. So they were veterans of the ships. But sleeping overnight on the battleship was a new experience.

The overnight program was well organized and well run. Once they were closed to day visitors, the overnighters were given some historical orientation about the ship, including a chance to talk to the (I believe) last living crew member of the USS Massachusetts whom is 90 years old. For an old timer, he still had plenty of spunk. More than enough to keep a bunch of grade schoolers in line while he was talking and answering questions.

Speaking of which, we were 25 of about 550 people staying over night. The vast majority of which were Cub Scouts. People were there from all over the Northeast. The ship was built to house like 3500 people, so we had plenty of room.

After the orientation, there was a dinner followed by a few different presentations including a Morse Code class, a knot tying class, a 1940’s cartoon time featuring Disney cartoons as well as a story teller. There were no obligations to attend anything and we were free to wander as much or as little of the ship as we pleased. The boy tried his hand at knot tying, but lost interest when his friends did, so we moved on from their. The military story telling time entertained them though.

Aside from that, the boy and his buddies had a grand time aiming gun turrets and “shooting” cars and signs and whatever else tickled their fancy. They weren’t supposed to run because it’s a battleship. Things were built to handle the rigors of war, so the ravages of a bunch of grade schoolers was, eh, child’s play. I was amused to notice every couple of minutes one kid or another limping or holding a side that slammed into some unforgiving piece of metal. They didn’t do much running after that. Experience really is a good teacher.

As the night wore on, the crew closed more and more of the ship down, limiting where the kids could get to and thus opportunities for problems. Officially, lights out was at 11, but a few of ours were done at 10. There were warning bulge calls at 15, 10 and 5 minutes to lights out. The ones who fell asleep early didn’t budge. The bunks we slept in weren’t luxury accommodations, but they were good enough for tired visitors.

They certainly sufficed for tired kids.

Reveille was a 6:30 this morning. Most of the kids were already waking up by then. From there, we spent a little time on deck before we had to wait in our bunk area for the crew to escort us to breakfast. After that, the exodus began.

The ship served in several campaigns, but never lost any crew members. In fact, the only “major” damage it took was to its hull on the front side. Before we left, the boy wanted to see what the damaged area looked like. After a bit of searching (it’s a big ship) we located the spot. They’d preserved a piece of the plate with the hole from the projectile that penetrated it. Even that was heady stuff to look at, since the hole was big enough for me to stick my head through. Despite that, it never posed any serious danger for the ship itself.

Satisfied with the find, he was then ready to head home. He hadn’t had enough to eat at breakfast, so he was hoping to have a little extra when we arrived at the house.

That was our overnight at Battleship Cove.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Gone Overnightin’

I’m heading out for an overnight slumber party on a retired Naval vessel with a bunch of Cub Scouts. With any luck, the kids will sleep. I seriously doubt any of the adults will. Should be a great time!

Back tomorrow.

Categories
Cub Scouts

The Bike Rodeo

I’m not sure where the term “bike rodeo” came from, but that’s exactly what we did last night for our Pack meeting. Basically, a bike rodeo is a chance for kids to get their bikes checked out for safety, get helmets fitted, and ride their bikes around.

We had a local bike dealer come out and setup to checkout the bikes and make sure that helmets were properly fitted to heads, while another Dad brought along a compressor to take care of bike tires. This was our “gathering” activity, basically the pre-meeting stuff. It took about 20 minutes for everything to get completed.

I wanted to keep the meeting part of the evening a short as possible. We had about 20 kids whom had arrived expecting to ride, not be talked to all night and I didn’t want to disappoint. So after our opening flag ceremony, I went through a short list of announcements about upcoming events and then formally introduced the bike shop owner who came out to help. I also mentioned that they were all going to earn their Bicycling Belt Loops.

It turned out to be good practice for him since he’s been approached by 4 or 5 other Packs for the exact same thing. He spoke for about 5 minutes about safety: what side of the rode to ride on, what to do at intersections, how to properly wear a helmet. His only mistake was to ask if there were any questions because he started getting stories about different things that happened to the kids when they rode their bikes here or there. Fortunately, he figured it out quickly and got them heading for the doors.

Our riding time was in the bus loading area for the school. This turned out to be perfect because rather than a large parking area, it was a circular roadway with a center line through it so the kids had a natural path to follow. We simulated an intersection and made sure the kids stopped and waited. We even had a couple of live drills when some late workers at the school got in their cars to leave.

The kids had a great time with it and for the final few minutes we gave them some free ride time where they could just tool around as they liked through the parking lot. Frankly, the night couldn’t have gone much better. For anyone thinking about organizing this sort of event for their own Pack, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s a slam-dunk for a great night for the kids.

Categories
Cub Scouts

First Pack Meeting

I didn’t have a chance to blog it last night, but it was my first official Pack Meeting as Cubmaster. My debut was helped by 2 things: one, with the graduation of our WEBELOS II Scouts we now have a small group and two, we had a presenter who end up taking up the bulk of the night. It’s always nice to be able to delegate.

So basically, I had an opening talk where I discussed this month’s Scouting core value of “compassion.” In all, probably the weakest part of what I did. One of the things I learned early on in the Den meetings is to try to not stand up and talk to the kids for too long. The kids don’t have a long enough attention span and standing up there discussing something like “compassion” just doesn’t hit their hot button. That said, I’m supposed to do my best and I kept it as brief as possible.

From there, our presenter for the night got to work. The Pack received it’s new charter and also received and award for the effort we put forth in promoting Scouting in our town. I had the previous Cubmaster on hand to receive the awards and charter because she had done most of the work in getting that stuff done. It was only right that she be recognized for her efforts.

After that, there was a fundraising sort of presentation. It’s one of those obligatory presentations that our local Council gives to all the Packs in the area. It actually has little to do with the kids and is aimed more at the parents, since they have the checkbooks. But the kids were real good and we were making good time, so I decided to reward them with a break to play a game.

The game was to work with a partner to carry 2 balloons across the room. This task proved more difficult than expected, mostly because the kids all just wanted to shoot across the room with their own balloon tucked under there chin but without their partner. The balloons served as a nice distraction all by themselves after the activity was over.

We then talked about the Summer Camps for scouting. This ended up taking a little longer than I anticipated, probably because I ended up talking quite a bit about how much fun the camp is to attend. Of course, I also ended up with a lot more to do since I have to coordinate the Camp for the Pack now.

The evening ended with some awards and rank badge presentations. A new Tiger Scout had earned his Bobcat badge, so I presented that to him, complete with a little speech about what he’d learned. Then I had the other Tigers come up so I could present them with their new Wolf neckerchiefs, since they had all crossed over previously at our Blue and Gold. The final award presentation was some Belt Loops that one of my Wolf Scouts had earned.

With that, I announced a couple of our upcoming events and closed the meeting. So not too bad, in all. I think for future pack meetings, I’d like to keep them more on the fun and active side. I’ve had some ideas about game nights and a bike rodeo or bike Spring-tuneup type theme. We’ve only got a couple more meetings to go for this school year though, so some of those ideas will have to wait.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Collections

Following is a slightly modified version of the meeting minutes I sent to the parents for our latest Cub Scout Den meeting. As usual, names have been removed.

To start things off, a few of the Scouts had completed a number of home assignments and earned a second Tracking bead on their way to earning their Wolf Badge. Following is a list of all the home assignments and the achievements they correspond to:

  • Healthy Habits Chart- Achievement 3a
  • Emergency Contacts- Achievement 4a
  • Family Fun- Achievement 10
  • Duty to God- Achievement 11
  • Making Choices- Achievement 12

In their notebooks we’d handed out earlier this year, their was a Healthy Habits chart as well as Emergency Contact worksheet to complete. I’ve also included some pdf’s of worksheets I made to help out with the other assignments.

There have also been a number of “lesser” home assignments related to things like chores, making their own breakfast, and doing the dishes.

After getting the administrative stuff out of the way, we played a little touch football outside to take advantage of the nice weather. All the Scouts enjoyed that. I played QB for both teams and miraculously, the game ended in a 6-6 tie (no extra points in touch football).

After that, the rest of the evening belonged to the Scouts. Everyone brought a collection to show and talk about for a few minutes. We got a chance to see Pokemon card collections, hockey card collections, a coin collection, a couple of rock collections, a crystal collection and a dinosaur collection. All the kids did a nice job of presenting and listening.

After last night, all of the Scouts have done enough to earn a 2nd tracking bead. Those Scouts who have also completed all the home assignments will have earned a 3rd tracking bead. With only 3 achievements remaining, I don’t see any problems with them earning their Wolf Badges this year.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Taking Over

Last night officially marked the beginning of my reign as CubMaster for our Cub Scout Pack. It was just a planning meeting for our next Pack Meeting, as well as starting to think about some of our forth coming events like our annual fishing derby and Spring campout and crossover.

The hardest part about the night is our younger Shepherd. He’s very much a watchdog and he hasn’t had nearly enough practice with letting people into our home, so he barks. And barks. And barks. And when he’s done, he barks some more.

I will say that one thing I’m coming to appreciate quickly as someone in a leadership position: waiting around is a good way for something not to get done. I’m finding it’s better to get on something early, rather than to blithely assume things will work out. I’ve gotten away with that approach to a degree with the Den meetings I’ve done. But that won’t work on a larger scale.

The boy seems pleased with the fact that I’m running the show. I guess he likes being “the boss’ kid” or something. Plus, for last night’s meeting, we had several child guests as well. Cub Scouts being basically an all-volunteer sort of thing, the other people who came to the committee meeting had to be able to bring their kids if they didn’t have alternate arrangements. The boy and the lass both were happy to have the company.

He’s already looking forward to the next meeting.

Categories
Cub Scouts

Passing the Baton

I guess, officially, I became our Cub Scout Pack’s new Cub Master after the Blue and Gold Banquet. However, it wasn’t until today that I got together with our previous pack leader to go over some of the outstanding items and also collect some of the Packs’ belongings. It was only 7 or 8 plastic bins worth of stuff: camping items, holiday decorations, various displays, road-side pickup stuff and the like. I also received a lot of the paperwork and history of the Pack, which might be interesting reading.

Either way, it’s my ship. I just have to figure out where to steer it.

Categories
Cub Scouts

First Den Meeting 2011 School Year

These are the meeting minutes I wrote up following our 1st Den meeting of the current school year on Sept 29. I recovered it from my email archive. I’ve only modified it to remove names, per my custom here on the blog. I’m adding them to the blog for 2 reasons: first, because my being an SAHD is the major reason I’m a Den leader making the content entirely blog appropriate; and second, they might prove useful for other Den leaders looking for ideas.

The beginning of the meeting was spent taking care of things like patches, books, neckerchiefs and slides. The Pack does supply these items (not shirts or baseball caps). Please check the following list and let me know which of these your Scout needs:

  • Wolf Cub book
  • Neckerchief
  • Wolf slide
  • “Den 2” patch (on sleeve of shirt- if your Scout has a new shirt, he likely doesn’t have this patch)
  • “26” patch (on sleeve of shirt)
  • CT Rivers Council Patch (on sleeve of shirt- large patch with red border)

We then spent time reviewing the Bobcat requirements, such as the Scout Promise, handshake and so forth. We’ll continue to work on these for each of the next several den meetings to help the newer Scouts come up to speed.

The guys got a quick break to play some games and then we moved on to discussing the American Flag. In particular, we discussed flag etiquette and how to fold the Flag properly. All the kids took turns folding the flag for practice, satisfying requirements 2c and 2g in the Wolf book.

By that time, it was time to adjourn the meeting.

Categories
Cub Scouts

First Den Meeting 2011 School Year

These are the meeting minutes I wrote up following a meeting we had on Oct 13 of last year. I recovered it from my email archive. I’ve only modified it to remove names, per my custom here on the blog. I’m adding them to the blog for 2 reasons: first, because my being an SAHD is the major reason I’m a Den leader making the content entirely blog appropriate; and second, they might prove useful for other Den leaders looking for ideas.

We started out last night’s meeting with our own Flag Ceremony, complete with a color guard, raising of the flag, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and finishing with the Scout Promise. This is something we’ll continue to do at our meetings so the Scouts get plenty of practice at it. As it happens, this allowed us to complete almost all of the Flag achievements (these are the thing the Scouts have to complete to earn their Wolf Badge at the end of the year).

From there, the rain barely held off long enough for us to run an obstacle course outside. That gave the kids a chance to have a little fun while completing another one of their achievements, “Feats of Skill.”

After getting everyone settled inside, we welcomed a new Scout into the Den and practiced all of our Bobcat requirements again. Also, I went through a list of the upcoming events that the Pack will be doing, which I will detail at the end of this mail. Finally, we wrapped up with more practice with flag etiquette and folding.

All the Scouts helped clean up the Rec room to make sure it was as good as when we arrived.