OneHour

Let's look it on the bright side, it could have been worst ... it could have been red hair with a mohawk that comes complete with nose rings and earrings. Nothing is wrong with it ... (I just know that someone will come to the "rings" defense!). Dignitaries have to look past the "cover" and look at the "book!" This resembles the "long hair" Eagle debate of late. All it shows is Diversity in scouting! Ooopps, did I mention another "hot topic" word? Sorry. Let's see ... back when I was in scouting (circa 1978) ... I had my hair down past the ears ... enough for a pony tail! Might ask him, for one day, to comb it nicely instead of spike it . Scoutmaster can advise the scout as to the audience that will be partaking the event and points out to him how dignified the event will be. The scoutmaster can point out the "perception" that his red hair may present and let HIM decide for himself his course of action. That's what I would have done if I were in your shoes. No apologies to the dignitaries or anyone are needed. I would carry on with the ceremony celebrating his accomplishment ... for the person in him ... not his hair.

Hey Pack38Scouter ... we used this song last night at our B&G to send our 2nd-year Webelos off. It was great! Thanks.

Last night at our Blue and Gold ... it was my time to step down as a Cubmaster after two years. While walking around greeting everyone in our Pack, one mom took me aside and told me a little story about her son. Her son finally realized that I am stepping down as Cubmaster... for real. He told his mom, "Mom, that's sad. I like him very much." His mom asked him why ... he told her, "He makes me laugh and he is funny! I'm going to miss him very much." His mom told me that he broke down and cried. His mom became teary eyes while I tried my best to hold back mine! ******************************************************************* The whole Pack got together throughout the year and made me a scrapt book with every one of the 121 boys signed it! Now, this is why it is worth all of those "one-hours!"

We had our first race on our new Best Trak aluminum, 6-lanes track. Boy ... is it fast! Last year, on our wooden track the fastest average time was 3.9021. This year the fastest average time was 2.905. The aluminum shaved off a full second. We used Microwizard's starting and finishing gate. It only registered to the 1000th of a second. It seemed that this brought up a need for three tie-breakers. We used Derby Master as the software. Fairly decent software that you can pretty much do everything except for grouping the cars according to their average time after the first heat, which is what we are used to, but good software nevertheless. We ran 92 cars through each of the 6 lanes randomly within 2 hours ... with break, song, open class, and awards ... the whole derby lasted a hair over 3 hours ... not a disatisfied customer in the house! We handed out 92 ribbons (no one leaves without a ribbon) and 15 placement trophies by rank. This year we did something different! I was determined to get every single car across that finish line ... so we helped everyone at check-in to get their car up to 5 ounces exactly. We even provided lube stations. It was wonderful to see that all the boys enjoyed every single race ... and there were 6 heats with 16 races each! Except for one or two of the over-zealous fathers who thought that they have the "secret to success!" We had a lot of "cinderella" cars. Several that I helped to add weights and lube even beat my sons' cars! The best thing that came out of this is seeing one boy's face after I worked on his car. He brought a "plain Jane" car that he and his mother worked on. He kept on saying that he does not like his car and that other cars are much nicer than his. His mother was fairly stressed by this. I happened to have a page of "firebird" sticker. So I went on and applied the sticker to his car. You all should see the beaming smiles that came out him! Now that's worth all the trouble! His parting words were ... "wow my car is cool!" Of course ... the other neat story that I would like to share is that of my 2nd-year Webelos. He worked hard on his bullet car (he did 90% of the car ... the power tool is where I took over) and when we put on the axles .. the axle supports broke (all four). I did my best to help him remedy the car. I finally ask him if he would like to use my car (the one that I was going to use for the Open Class). He declined and wanted to use his because he made it himself. His car consistently finished 2nd and 3rd of each heat. At the end, I was proud to announce that his car took 2nd in the Webelos 2 division. He was very proud .... one can see from his face! From my observation ... he is ready to join the scouting rank and it was my proudest moment of him!(This message has been edited by OneHour)

Thanks Randy ... we found out that Racemanager will not work with our new Microwizard timer. I guess that we'll use Derby Master and its random lane rotation.

Does anyone know of a software that will work with MicroWizard's finishing gates that will rotate the cars through each lane like that of Supertimer's Racemanager. We had Racemanagner (DOS version for over 6 years). We recently got the MicroWizard's gates and its software does not do what we want. We need to have each car goes through each lanes after the first round. The software then groups the slowest cars together and the fastest cars together and race in different lanes than the first round. Then the next round, the software again groups the slowest together and the fastest together. So the cars will always be competitive and they won't always loose. Any software that will do that other than Racemanager (which doesn't work with Microwizard's gates)? Thanks in advance.(This message has been edited by OneHour)

I'm glad that you stood your ground. My wife and I did too. The school has been trying to label our son as ADD since Kindergarten. They tried to get us to put him on ritalin. We resisted. He has been doing well in class all A's and 1 B's for from 3rd to 5th. He still is a little easily distracted ... but manageable! My wife and I worked with him every night. So ... medicine and labeling are not our preferred method either. Good luck ... hopefully you and he will be back in scouting soon.

Try http://billoria.safeshopper.com/25/75.htm?801 (This message has been edited by OneHour)

Our best wishes for a full and speedy recovery from the Brazos District, Richmond, Texas.