Binford

Lots of good ideas to discuss with the Pack Committee! Thanks, folks! Don't worry, Sasha. I'm not down. More amused than anything else, in a head-shaking sort of way! I had intended to do awards before we ate, but things were running pretty long as it was. We had our FOS presentation before we ate (did really well with that, well above goal!) and we also had to make time for a couple Den Leaders to take a few whipped cream pies in the face (anyone who sold $500 or more in popcorn got to put a pie in a leader's face!) By the time clean-up was almost wrapping up, it had been two hours. Meetings are usually an hour; a little longer perhaps during Pack Meetings, but not by much more than 15 minutes. I'm an ASM at my other son's Boy Scout Troop half way across town which meets the same evenings and I only made it in time for their closing ceremony. Enough time to talk things over with the other adult leaders, confirm a couple of our Eagle Scouts will be on hand for next month's AoL cross-over ceremony, etc. I usually have an hour following our Pack's meetings! But back to the topic...I'll bring up some of the ideas raised here at our next Committee Meeting so we can use this B&G meeting as a learning experience to make the next one much smoother. And we'll do awards after everyone's eaten. Again, thanks for the ideas! -- Tim Taylor Port Orchard, Wash.(This message has been edited by Binford)

Yep, real name is Tim Taylor. All my life it's been so! I can see the potluck working much better at a Troop than at a Pack. (I'm an ASM at my older son's Troop and see a huge difference in....orderly conduct! To be expected though.) We had parents sign up last week for what they wanted to bring to last night's P/L. Each Den was to bring a certain type of dish to avoid all desserts or whatnot. Unfortunately the Wolf Den, which was assigned the main dish, happens to be made up of the least responsible families as it turns out! Reminders were e-mailed out to the families by the Committee Secretary and everything. I can't imagine how we could have organized the thing any better! Which makes it all the more amazing and humorous to me! What absolutely stuns me, however, is the behavior of some of the parents--that they themselves, let alone their kids, would go back for heaping seconds before the other tables had even been called! I guess I assumed common sense is more common than it apparently is! And yes, we even called them in by table, two tables at a time, to line up. Not that this was abided by, mind you... Bottom line, I guess, is that we assumed too much. We assumed people would honor their commitment to bring their dish and that, if they forgot (hey, it happens), then we assumed they would not partake themselves unless there was any left over. We assumed parents would control their kids (I know, I know...my naivete is off the chart!) and we assumed the adults would put two and two together when they saw how many had yet to eat and how much food was on the serving table. I'm honestly not really too concerned by it all. I find it more amazingly humorous than anything else. But I also recognize that, if I weren't in Pack leadership and had this experience a time or two, I'd be looking for another Pack. It would be the responsible and polite families that we'd lose too. Then we'd be left with the louts. The only real problem I had with the chaos of the evening was the lack of attention during the awards portion of the evening. That's my own fault as, due to the time which we understood was going to run long, we gave awards out as the tables were being called, so little attention was paid. Not a horrible thing, but it is nice for the boys to have their moment in the spotlight when they're awarded for their efforts. I'll just do awards before eating next time or save them for the next gathering. That is, if the Committee ever decides to try another potluck! -- Tim Taylor Port Orchard, Wash.

I've been CM since late last summer and with an excellent CC at the helm, it's been working out fairly well for our Pack. So much so that another local Pack, in disarray and full of disgruntled parents, has transferred over to ours practically en masse, leaving them with a Pack of 7 boys (until 4 of them cross out to Boy Scouts in a couple months!) and us with a Pack of 40. Up from 23 in two months' time. Needless to say, this humble CM is still "adjusting." So we had our B&G banquet last night. A pot-luck. Learned a lot, I have. Still trying to figure out what exactly went wrong and if there's anything we could do differently to make it better next time. It's going to be a very interesting Committee Meeting next week, that's for sure! I could sell tickets. Several families neglected to bring a dish and naturally they were the ones signed up for the entrees! We learned last night that even many of the adults in our Pack apparently have portion-control issues, returning for heaping seconds even as half the tables were yet unserved. Were it not for a couple of our observant Moms who stepped in and started serving, we'd have been cleaned out before the other half had eaten. As it was, the TL's husband had to run to the store for fried chicken. It was about as comical as a pot-luck night could have been! I'm posting mostly to share in the humor of the event, but if there's any insight I can gain from anyone's comments, I'm certainly open to it! One thing's for sure, as long as I'm CM, there won't be another pot-luck at our Pack. Not that the Committee is fool enough to repeat the folly! There's just not enough time to conduct an awards ceremony and get everyone fed, especially with 105 people in the room. An no one was paying any attention to the awards, which I thought was unfair to the boys being honored last night. Got any pot-luck horror stories of your own? I'd LOVE to read about them! And what have you done since that helped solve the problems you experienced. -- Tim Taylor Port Orchard, Wash.(This message has been edited by Binford)