AnnLaurelB

We're going to Cub-O-Ree tonight; last Sat I went with the CC and some Webs to check out the campsite. We got a primo area with electricty and everything. Although I asked, "Why do we need electricity? We haven't ever had it, camping, before." The CC plans to put up a sheet AND SHOW A MOVIE tonight. W.T.F.?!? (I'll put a dollar in the jar) Does anyone else see my objection to showing a movie WHILE CAMPING?!? Please discuss amongst yourselves and get back to me on Monday; I have to go load the truck. (*mumbling to self*)

~*UPDATE*~ I talked to the Adv guy's son, and he said that Mr.C turned in his company car when he retired, and his wife won't let him drive HER car outside of the city limits. The Scout Store is 25 miles from here. And Mr.C does NOT do the internet -- not at all. He has never even embraced cell phones. So according to his son, that's why he can't do Adv anymore -- he can't go get the Awards.

Ouch. I'm a little stung by this thread. ANYWAY... Has anyone mentioned that the uniforming is simpy a "method"? I'm sure someone can explain it better than I can. But as CM, I tried to explain it to the parents, and then I addressed the boys and asked, "Would I EVER EVER want you to stay home just because you forgot your shirt, or left it at Grandma's or it got lost in the laundry?!?" And they all knew the answer, of course. No! Come anyway! Come always! Tell the ones who look sharp, "Hey! You look sharp!" Tell the ones not in uniform, "Man, I'm so glad you're here!"

(*head on arms, voice muffled*) I haaaaaaaaaate popcorrrrrrrn.

I just wanted to brag on muh little Bears. I did the Whittlin' Chip class in two parts, one on the 3rd, and one on this past Monday, since we're camping this weekend, and I wanted them to be able to take their knives on the camp out. May I just say that they were SUPER attentive, and knew the answers every time, and passed their quizzes, and did the practice handling/passing/closing, etc.. PERFECTLY? Then this past Monday, they all had their new knives, and they carved their (what else?) BEARS out of Ivory soap. They were SO proud! And they were so cute! (But I didn't tell them that!) I'm the proud Bear Den Mama! :0)

"There's what is said...and then there's what is done." I'm the CM, but I'm also my son's DL. I was his Tiger DL when we lost our CM, and the Comm asked me to fill in. I liked it, so I've kept doing both (my Den are Bears, now). In theory, there *should* be an "Events Chair", but ... since I plan the Pack meetings, aaaaannnnnd the Events generally are done on Pack meeting NIGHTS, it just sort of make sense that I head up getting the Events planned. Now, Pack meetings I usually plan alone, and just delegate skits, Guesstimation Station, etc... But Events I have to recruit help.

Heh. What I meant by "Bears & Webs" is that I've been CM for 1 1/2 years. By the time I get the Tigers I started with bridged to the Troop, I'll have been CM for 4 years (if they bridge at 18 months). If this gal continues in her ... forwardness, shall we say... I might be ready to move up with the boys and help behind the scenes with the Troop, rather than stay in Cub Scouts. It *IS* worth it, to a large degree. We have 37 boys with signed paperwork (up from 13 last year), which is a huge jump for us. So her recruiting worked. And as far as my CM duties being to "Program and Boys", I have free reign, and have been relieved of a lot of the drudgery. So those are good things. On the one hand, I did know that the ADV guy was retiring from law (his son told me a few months ago), but I *am* suspicious that he quit the Pack (without notice) 10 days after a rather ...obnoxious... Committee meeting. If he'd been planning all along to resign, he would have announced it to the Committee, right? But he didn't. He waited 10 days, did our Pack meeting, then told me and the CC he was out, and that was that. On the third hand, he's a grown man. I just don't like to think that he was run off by this gal that *I* essentially brought in as a ringer.

You know, sometimes I think folks answer questions from parents in a sort of all-encompassing way. Especially when it's, say, after a Pack meeting, and there's 11 people trying to talk to you, etc... It might be what THAT Pack has decided to do -- to do without an official leader, and ask the parents to simply do it themselves. But the whole model that BSA has set up, and how it all works, may not have come up in the conversation. The person may have just answered, "Nope. Tiger Den doesn't have a Den leader," without elaborating. Just throwin' in a side of slaw... :0)

1/2 of one, and 1/2 of another, so 1 total. We "share" our school with an "ethnic" Pack in this same town. And we "share" the elementary school that is halfway between our town and the next town, which also has a Pack.

I'm heartbroken. Our Advancement Chair, who's 78, and was the Cubmaster back in the 60's, stepped down (without notice) Monday night after Pack meeting. "I'm retiring," is all he said. Well, he *IS* 78 years old, and he DID just retire from his law practice. But... I think it has more to do with the in-your-face nature of the new CC. She's kind of abrasive. *Sigh* Bear and Webs. Just gotta get the boy through Bear and Webs...

I do my Cubmaster Minute during opening about whatever that month's Core Value is. I just did "Cooperation" this past Monday night. Paper with Letter, spelling out the word, Cubs up front, holding up letters... I sang the first line, and had the audience sing the chorus. Cubmaster Minute -- Cooperation Without cooperation we would be just a bunch of people, but with cooperation we are a Pack! Song: Cooperation (Tune: This Old Man) This Cub Scout, number one, taking turns is much more fun! Chorus: With a knick knack paddy whack, We'll COOPERATE; We know Scouting's really great! This Cub Scout, number two, with his friends theyll work for you. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number three, taking turn's a gift thats free. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number four, find a partner, we'll do more. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number five, for helping others he will strive. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number six, teamworks one of Scoutings tricks. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number seven, he will surely go to heaven. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number eight, gives goodwill and he feels great! (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number nine, groups solve problems -- that's just fine. (Chorus) This Cub Scout, number ten, with his friends they'll be great men! (Chorus)

Had a similar experience this summer. I planned a fishing day in and a festival (part enjoying the festival/part handing out balloons & Pack info) in June, a State park and a Camp-in in July, and a playground day at a local peach orchard, and a swim party in Aug. Now, I only had 12 Cubs. But only 2-plus-mine came fishing with us, and NO ONE came to ANYTHING else (except for the swim party at the end). I still took MY son to the festival, he still handed out balloons (in uniform!), we still enjoyed the State park together, we camped out in our back yard, we played on the playground and ate peach ice cream, and we of course played hosts at the swimming party. I awarded him the Summertime pin; anyone else who had shown up to only ONE of the two events each month would have gotten one, too. They chose not to. That's okay. I absolutely did not take it personally. I was going to take my son to all of those place, anyway. By putting a fun family day on the Cub Scout calendar, we might have enjoyed the company. But it's understandable that folks just have other stuff going on during the summer. It did feel like the parents wanted a break, too.

The SM and I were *just* talking about this yesterday; we agreed to try to come up with an idea. Love, love, LOVE the "Fun To The Finish" idea with the cars! I copied, pasted, and emailed the idea to our CC and DL's! Thank you, thank you! :0)

I totally understand the concern! I just thought it was funny that I begged for help/more input/involvement for a solid year, and was told, "Find other people." So I WENT AND FOUND THEM! :0) Both the new Treas and the new CC are transfers from other Units; they're both already all registered, trained, etc... They've been with those Units for 4 and 5 years. When we were in death throes, and the now-CC offered to help, and said she might know a Treas who would transfer, too, I asked the DE what he thought. He approved of them, having worked with them over these past few years within their previous Units. I think the statement currently goes to the church office, and the church secretary gives it to the old dude who's been doing the books since the children's minister lady retired. I understand his concern, but he needs to either put up or shut up, pardon the term. He wouldn't even keep the Individual Scout Accouts that we had to put in place for the Camp Cards last spring. *I* had to do it, because he literally refused. Um... hey, Treasurer? That's what Treasurers DO. But again, I appreciate his caution. My only point was that I can't solve his dilemna for him.

That being said, I'd like to share this site: http://www.cakepopsrecipe.com/ They are sooooo much fun! A little bit of extra work, yes. But they were a BIG hit! Please ignore the photo on their front page right now. It looks very unappetizing, but I made some plain, easy ones for our swim party last month, and they were ADORABLE! I can't wait to make them again. Score some extra points for the bakin' CM! :0)

I like the silent auction idea! What I would do in that case is hold it sometime when, say, another population could be present (our CO church, in our case). I'd tell the pastor ahead of time to come by and write $5 on a cake that had no bids, for example. Other staff members and a couple of church ladies to do the same thing...EVERYONE's cake gets bid on. But I like it! :0)

Perhaps slightly off-topic, but we ended up having recruiting nights for BOTH of the schools we draw from on the SAME night. So we said, "Ok. I (CM) will go to School A, and the DE will accompany me, and the CC will go to School B, and the UC will accompany her." Easy peasy, right? Well, I got to looking at the school calendar, and I realized it wasn't just SCOUT NIGHT. It was BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT! They weren't giving us a dedicated evening for ONE presentation. Oh, no. We were put in classrooms, and it was a REVOLVING DOOR. It was bedlam; BEDLAM I TELL YOU! I was running around the room trying to answer questions, explain Scouting, pass out info, interest the boys, etc... My poor DE was over there trying to process apps as fast as he could. The boys (and various siblings) were bouncing all over the room. It went simiarly at the other elementary school. NEVER LET THEM PUT YOU ON CURRICULUM NIGHTS! I'm still twitching!

If you followed the saga last spring of my Pack being on it's last breath due in large part to a hands-off "ghost committee" among other things, you might find this sort of funny. So, I begged for help from another Unit. Their CC was in the process of turning that Pack over to the parents of younger Scouts. When she heard our plight, she agreed to come on as CC here, and she recruited another mom from a third Unit to come over, too, as Treasurer and an extra Committee member. All well and good, right? The new CC introduced herself to the Committee (although 2 of 4 of them were missing in action, and the CORep didn't show up, either). The TWO who DID show up approved her as the CC. Well, the gal who's coming on as the Treasurer (whom 3/5 of the dudes haven't met) called the current (really not interested in helping in any tangible way) guy who's had the checkbook, and asked to meet him at the bank to get added on to the account. Now he's all nervous and doesn't want to do it, not knowing her (understandable), but he came HERE to ask whose authority it was to let him do that. All I could tell him was, "Not mine. I work for you. YOU are the Committee." "But I wasn't at that meeting." "Yes, I know." "Who has the final decision?" "The CORep." "Was he at the meeting?" "Nope." "Then what do I do?" "I don't know. That's up to you 4 men, and the CORep to determine. Not me. Sorry." "But...but...we don't know how any of this is supposed to be done." "Right. I know that. Nevertheless, YOU folks OWN the Pack. YOU have to decide how to run it. I work for you. YOU have to tell ME how you want it." He went off grumbling about tracking down the other Committee members. YAY! FINALLY! For 2 years, they didn't want to DO anything. And now that someone wants to take it off their hands, they don't wanna give it up. How ironic. :0) But hey, now at least we're getting some action!

I just discussed this with our new (very gung-ho) CC. I thought we'd have Tiger Den 1, 2, 3...Wolf Den 1, 2, etc... But she said that there's ONLY ONE "Den 1" in the Pack. It might be whatever rank. The kids who have been in the longest are my Bears, so we're Den 1, and will continue to be so, until they bridge. I think either way works.

Plowboy, I think this is very much true. Since I spend an awful lot of time pouring over Cub Scout stuff, very often I'll find something during prep, and say, "Hey! You can do this right now!" Now, a gung-ho parent, if they familiarized themselves with their kid's Handbook, would realize that they can work a lot of stuff in just in regular every-day life. But most of them don't. So if my kid happens to benefit from extra instruction time and/or bling as a side-effect, then so be it!

Thank you, thank you, may light shine upon you, etc... :0) You're awesome!

I keep getting a "404 Error" when I try to search things, even with the little search window on this site...so maybe someone here can tell me: Where is the "Which Core Value for Which Month" ? I know the answer is probably absurdly obvious, but as I can't search...I'm stumped. Anyone know? TIA

I took my laptop and a projector and had a loop running of pics of my current cubs throwing tomahawks, dropping off rope swings over the swimming hole, toasting marshmallows, etc... I chattered about everything fun we did to the boys, while answering questions from the parents about the academic side, etc... It wasn't easy being the one-gal show, but it went okay. Next time I'm taking a grip of popscicle sticks and showing the boys how to make "grendades". Great fun! :0)

Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. I don't think this gal has a control issue, but she did describe herself as kind of a "balls-to-the-wall" kind of worker. Her self-described goal is to make sure that EVERY adult who has a kid in the Pack has SOME duty, even if it's addressing envelopes. She keeps repeating, "You were left to do it all, which isn't your job. You're the FUN GAL! I'm the bad cop. You're not on your own, anymore." One of my FAVE new Tiger families from last year, the mom is going to be the Wolf Den leader and I'm SO excited! She was at the Committee meeting, and heard the new CC's vision. They are a great family, and will be a good ambassador for what NEEDS to happen. I think EGBOK. :0)

Heh. We don't HAVE any other Pack leaders. Due to circumstances and events* ... I'm it right now. Her role is to recruit leaders either from the current parents (who were enthusiastic last year, but who would not help) or from (hopefully) new familes on our Scout Nights. * The former CM was removed for bad behavior 18 months ago, only to be assigned as CC (when the other CC left the CO) by the Ghost Committee in all their (lack of) wisdom. He was then removed by the CO for further bad behavior. * The only other DL has a grandson in the program who has special needs, and whom no one can stand. The parents of the 2 other kids who would be in his Den said, "No way." However, neither of those 2 parents will (or can--1 of them is the bad CM, ironically enough) be that Den's leader. So the grandma is being moved to the Committee as the publicity/events coordinator, leaving us with NO other Den leaders. Sink or swim, I guess. And if the person with the life-preserver also totes a megaphone, well ... y'know.