Pesco

Hm. I had a hard time editing my post. I was getting a syntax error. I just wanted to clarify that our pack is in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. (That's Tidewater Council)

Hello, I've been a long-time lurker or scouter.com. Just wanted to introduce myself and talk about our new effort and hopefully get some comments and general advice. I'm sure I'll be asking specific questions when they come up, but maybe people could help me avoid some common pitfalls. My son is now 8. He is diagnosed with autism and had a very hard time last year with participating in our den and pack activities. I volunteered and was the den leader, but despite the best of intentions of all the adult leaders there were a number of reasons participation in that typical pack was difficult. My wife started an autism charity & community group and she asked if I would take on creating a Pack chartered by her new org. Jump ahead a few months and we're an officially registered pack with 5 registered boys and 6 adult leaders (all parents). We are about to start our program, although I really need to consult with the other parents and help delegate some of that development. Any tips, pointers, or advice would be greatly appreciated. On a related topic, the organization my wife started, called Autism Fellowship, has an online message board. The website is http://www.autismfellowship.com. The forum link is on the left. I've created a specific forum on the message board called "Scouting with Autism" where I'd like to pull together the efforts people have made to provide scouting programs for boys with autism in typical and specialized units. The direct link to that forum is here: http://forum.autismfellowship.com/viewforum.php?f=16 The whole message board is only a couple months old, and I haven't had the chance to add much scouting content yet. Also, I'd like to publicly thank Starwolfmom who wrote an article published in Scouting Magazine in September 2006. It can be located here: http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0609/a-boys.html The article did a great job of raising awareness of autism in the Scouting community. Thanks in advance to everyone for their feedback. ~Pesco