DYB-Mike

Baloos Bugle offers several Cubmasters Minutes each month. http://www.usscouts.org/bbugle.asp Use the monthly Core Value that is the theme of each pack meeting as a source of inspiration YIS Mike.

I bent my brain trying to figure out how to fill up an hour Ahh Scoutfish, it sounds like you didnt heed the advice given in earlier threads PLAN and OVERPLAN! As others have pointed out, the pack meeting is your domain as Cubmaster and you are responsible for planning and implementing the festivities. Our first Pack Meeting is this coming Sunday and as Cubmaster Ive been busy. To prepare I researched games that fit this months Core Value Cooperation and assembled an agenda of the order of activities that I have distributed to the Den Leaders. Responsibility for the Opening Ceremony has been assigned. Ive got a song to open with and some songs to sprinkle in. We have rank advancements (two boys finished their Wolf over the summer), at least on Bobcat, and a host of other awards to give out. We also have a former leader coming in to help with our popcorn fundraising kickoff. Unfortunately the Dens arent prepared with skits or anything this month, but I think well have more than enough to fill the hour and then some. Again, all this has been laid out on paper so that the Leaders know what comes next and we keep things moving. We go through this process every month and because of this I think our Pack Meetings come off pretty well. It sounds like your Committee Chair is pretty involved and maybe you dont have the latitude to take full charge of the pack meeting. You should still do your homework beforehand and come prepared with an arsenal of games and songs, and props to put out there. You shouldnt have to bend your brain to fill up time, thats a recipe for disaster. Judging the type of guy you appear to be (fun and gregarious) from your posts, Im sure you did fine at your first pack meeting. Hopefully youll love the challenge of making sure each pack meeting is fun-filled and fresh. YIS Mike

VigilEagle04, are you saying the title of your uniform session was The BSA Uniform: Sexy and Cool? YIS Mike

Sexy and cool - maybe this is an angle Nationals marketing folks should explore. Then again, my wife thinks I look like a dweeb in my uniform. Of course, Im not the strapping young man Horizons son most likely is. YIS Mike

Acco, I see Ms. Brandi Carlile is working on her Bear rank between concert dates. Definitely more easy on the eyes than our friend from Americas Got Talent. YIS Mike

Posted by moosetracker: but when in MA & NH it was definitely Soda. AH! It depends where you were in MA. In the Boston area its tonic, or at least it was when my wife and I were growing up. I still encounter a few tonic drinkers but the usage seems to be fading. My wife and I are fighting a loosing battle with our kids who insist on using soda despite our influence. Ive now found myself slipping and using soda more often these days.

I dont know if any of you scouters out there were following Americas Got Talent on TV. My wife was so I caught a few of the episodes. Last night was the Grand Finale. In addition to the finalists they had a variety of acts, one of which was a medley done by previous contestants who (obviously) didnt make the cut. One of these acts was an overweight guy in short shorts (or something) who did cartwheels and jumped around the stage amongst the other former contestants. What this guys talent was was beyond me and it was perfectly clear why he wasnt in the finals. Something caught my eye about the guy and I got up close to the TV to confirm what I saw. Hes wearing a scout uniform shirt! I exclaimed to my wife. It had the old red tabs and the Universal Emblem was quite clear. There was something on the temporary insignia pocket, but I couldnt make it out. Not the type of exposure the BSA has in mind Im sure (hence the title of this thread). I wonder if this guy is actually associated with a unit. YIS Mike

Weve used liter and half liter plastic bottles for targets. They make a nice thump sound when hit and if you set them up right you can knock a bunch down at once. You could call it Sling Shot Bowling. You could also decorate the bottles as zombies (battling zombie hordes appears to be very popular these days) or other monsters. If you have the caps you might want to put a little water in for weight. The only drawback is you have to stop the action every so often to set the targets back up. The kids dont seem to mind. For ammo weve used 1 superballs with a tarp as a backdrop to slow them down. YIS Mike (This message has been edited by DYB-Mike)

Good luck Lisa. Let us know how things go. YIS Mike

Schiff, thanks for the info. I didnt know the USPS had that no organizations commemorative policy. Still, the design seems disconnected from the groups and sentiment mentioned in the article. Maybe depicting some youth (boys and girls) sitting around a campfire or hiking with backpacks would have been a better generic design? The thing that galls me the most about the design is the hat. Now if it were a campaign hat the stamp would be more palatable to me, somewhat resembling the Baden Powell drawing of the crouching Scout that one often sees. Again, were not commemorating Baden Powell, but at least the design would have been more scouty. YIS Mike

I agree that the stamp design leaves a lot to be desired. I disliked it so much that I only reluctantly bought a pane just to mail letters and Im a stamp collector! Contrast the stamp with the commemorative US dollar issued a few months previous. It is clearly a BSA design, with a Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and female Venturer saluting on the obverse and a big bold, BSA emblem on the reverse. Its a nice design and I made sure I obtained a proof copy from the mint. All this is to say that, given the dollars design, I dont think politics influenced the design of the stamp. What they were thinking, however, is beyond me. I will say that in the latest issue of the American Philatelist, a stamp collecting publication, a drawing of Baden Powell, dressed much like the cowboy on the stamp and scouting about in African bush, accompanied a discussion of the stamp. Was there some such drawing of Baden Powell that influenced the design? Even so, we are celebrating 100 years of the BSA, not Baden Powell. YIS Mike

Hi Tiger Lisa, If the weather report is so ominous that it is giving you pause then I would cancel the event. While the safety concerns are paramount, theres another angle to consider: a miserable, wet campout may turn off inexperienced Cub Scouts and also many parents, leading perhaps to some drop-outs. Do you have any money invested in food? If you have a good sized meeting space maybe you could do a camp-in. If you have food that needs to be grilled you could borrow a couple of grills and let those hearty committee folks stand out in the rain and cook. YIS Mike

Im not assuming anything. I guess for some of us its just a knee-jerk reaction that it would have been more appropriate to have boys competing, not the adult leaders. We don't know what happened in the back where the shirt was launched. You raise an interesting point with that. Id hate to think that the adult dove into the midst of a group of boys to secure the shirt. YIS Mike

Basementdweller, I thought the exact same thing about the scouter who participated in the guitar playoff. I also attended a Shining Light simulcast (or whatever you call it) with Cub Scout son and I leaned over to him and said He should have given that shirt to one of the boys. He lost serves him right. I didnt know what to expect from the show a large-scale campfire with skits and songs? I thought it was pretty impressive, a good mix of scouty, patriotic stuff offset by the contemporary bands and Mike Rowes great bit. I thought the Scout Camp dance was a hoot as well. Was Taylor Swift scheduled to perform? Scout son, who is at the Jambo, told us she was and he was all excited about it. Even Cub Scout son kept asking me when Taylor Swift was coming on. Scout son texted us after the show and said it was awesome. He was 15 rows from the stage. As you can imagine I spent most of the time looking for him in the audience (didn't see him). I wish they could have gotten a few more heavy hitters to do the birthday greetings. A magician and ventriloquist? Nothing against them, but Bill Gates Senior and Junior would have made a greater impression. I know Scout son would have been impressed. We do need more folks like Rowe out there plugging Scouting. YIS Mike

Just the thought of any of this or even seeing a scouting symbol or looking at my scouting stuff I worked so hard on for the fall makes me ill. leader1118, I know youve been through the mill and are disheartened and, dare I say, disgusted by what youve experienced, but please rethink on disassociating yourself with Scouting and helping your son along. Sure, there are a lot of jerks out there, but there are also a lot of great volunteers with their hearts in the right place. In my small experience as a scout leader Ive had my share of frustrations and run-ins with the jerks. All this frustration, however, was more than offset by the great folks Ive been privileged to collaborate with in working to put forth a fun and worthy program for our boys. Check out some packs with your son, observe their programs, and talk to the leaders. Im sure youll find one that your son will enjoy and that will make you feel good about scouting again. We need all the good volunteers like yourself we can muster! YIS Mike