Inappropriate Announcement song?

[fling1]

Our boys learned this song at Cub Scout resident camp and looked forward to it each year. It was quite a long version and a challenge to learn over the course of the four days. The staff sang it with *great* enthusiasm when the program director came out to make some annou -- er -- public statements.

 

 

Announcements announcements announcements.

 

A terrible way to die. A terrible way to die.

 

A terrible way to be talked to death.. a terrible way to die.

 

Announcements announcements announcements.

 

Speak free, the rat stands alone!

 

Have you ever seen a fruit stand a fruit stand a fruit stand

 

Have you ever seen a fruit stand, well look at one now.

 

We lost our cow... MOOOO.

 

We lost our cow... MOOOO.

 

We have no need (toot! toot!) for your bull now.

 

So.. pile it in the corner, pile it in the corner,

 

Pile it in the corner.. and watch the flowers grow.

 

Announcements announcements announcements.

 

Speak free, the rat stands alone!

 

Heeeeeeere's Andy! (or whoever it was).

 

 

You can imagine how pleased a young cub was when he could sing the whole thing by himself. :-)

 

We would usually let them have a few laughs with it at Pack meetings at the beginning of the year, since it emphasized the fun times they had at camp. But it was never a regular feature at Pack meetings. If it fired up when it wasn't welcomed, the Cubmaster would just wave it off and the boys were pretty good at complying.

[fgoodwin]

funscout, welcome to the Forums!

 

Has your CM been to training? If so, he or she should be aware that there are seven parts to a Pack Meeting, and NONE of them involve announcements!

 

http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/faststart/cubmaster/03.html

 

Hearing this song should be a reminder to all the adults that a Pack Meeting is for the boys, so the boys can be recognized, show off what they've done, and have fun!

 

A Pack Meeting is not a business meeting where adults drone endlessly on and on about announcements that the boys don't care about.

 

As the Fast Start training says, if you must make announcements, keep them short and put them into a newsletter that you can refer parents to.

 

Rather than changing the song, I'd say your Pack leadership should consider changing how they deal with announcements.

[funscout]

To fGoodwin:

 

Our cubmaster did get trained and really does a good job in most areas, but for some reason he practically reads the whole newsletter at our Pack meetings. I guess I should have spoken up and told him that we can all read the announcements, he doesn't have to read them to us! His son is crossing over to boy scouts this year, so I'll be sure to suggest to the new cubmaster that he doesn't need to announce things that we can read for ourselves. In our cubmaster's defense, he gave us 3 years when no one else would step up and he always had fun games planned that kept the boys' interest. One favorite is our December indoor snowball fight. We use nerf balls and split the room up so it's kids against adults. It's funny to watch the new parents stand back at first, but then they get into it just as much as the kids do.

 

I am always hesitant to criticize someone who is doing something out of the goodness of their heart, and not getting paid for it, of course. I guess I need to learn to be nicely assertive!

 

Thanks so much for all the ideas. I'm going to check out the websites that Lisabob mentioned. I know the boys will enjoy other songs just as well.

[fgoodwin]

funscout, I agree with 100% about being hesitant to criticise a volunteer who is doing a job nobody else wanted to do. Perhaps waiting him out is the best thing to do, and deal with the "new administration", as it were.

 

If other parents agree that announcements are getting out of hand, bring it up at your next Committee Meeting and have everyone agree that referring to the newsletter is sufficient -- they don't need to be read out loud.

 

Another way to deal with things like this is to get your Unit Commissioner involved. Sometimes a dis-interested third-party like a UC can say or do things that won't be taken personally, if the same thing was said or done by someone else already in the Pack.

 

If you don't have a UC (or don't know who your UC is), contact your District Commissioner, who should be at RT every month.

[FScouter]

Stop the announcements, and the song will stop too. Fred is right; announcements are not part of a pack meeting.

[Eamonn]

I can see how the little guys see this as being fun.

I can see how someone trying to make a quick announcement can see it as a waste of time and maybe get a little peeved.

I think newsletters work really well.

I know that some adults just don't know when to quit.

I never had a problem with it at the unit level, but a few leaders at R/T would on occasion start. I have been blessed with a very big mouth, so normally before they completed the first line, I had thanked them and just kept on talking.

One of my favorite lines when I'm dealing with younger Lads is that I tell them how polite I am and I'm not going to talk when they are talking and I know how polite they are and they aren't going to talk when I'm talking.

If they did I just stopped talking and without saying a word I put up the Scout/ Cub Scout sign and waited till they were done.

If this is a problem it needs to be talked about with the Den Leaders and they need to talk to the Dens. Of course with Boy Scouts the PLC is the place to address it.

I can't help thinking that the problem isn't with the Scouts but a couple of adults who think that it's funny.

Eamonn.

[OldEagle4Life]

On a cub scout level I can see why this song might be a little ambigious in its usage, with the references in the main verse to "horrible ways to die!"

 

And there are the subsequent versions about:

 

Santa Claus is DEAD

Here Comes peter cotton tale, hopping down the bunny trail, BANG

 

my personal favorite that we created a few years ago was

 

Who lives in a pineapple under the sea, Sponge Bob Square Pants has DROWNED

(but then again, i hate spongebob and think he is an entirely innapropriate cartoon for youngersters, even before the entire androgonous comments about the cartoon came out last year)

 

Now on a Boy Scout level, this is one of my and everyone I know's favorite song. From being a summer camp staff member for years, this was always a camp favorite. We avoided using the phrase annoucements as much as possible and scripted it into a single place every week in order to ensure that we did not waste or go over board singing it (our version has at least 10 verses and goes on for quite a while).

 

However, I do have a digital copy of an ultimate song book that I was working on for many years that never got published or finished, could never get it to print right, one day I will. It has many songs on many topics, cub scout and boy scout alike, if anyone is interested in attaining a copy, send me a message, and I will gladly email it to you.

 

OldEagle

[jteamnmj]

We only use the first part of the song:

 

Announcements, announcements, announcements,

A terrible death to die, a terrible death to die,

A terrible death A terrible death

A terrible death to die

Announcements, announcements, announcements.

 

Then usually one of the other leaders will jump in with another song like:

 

Noel Noel Noel Noel...There is no water for there is NO well

 

Then the boys chime back in with:

 

Announcements, announcements, announcements,

A terrible death to die, a terrible death to die,

A terrible death A terrible death

A terrible death to die

Announcements, announcements, announcements.

and the song ends.

 

My Husband (who is Cubmaster) has learned to choose his words very carefully. He usually says he has a few administrative items. He did slip up once right in the beginning of the year a few months after he took over. The boys don't get to sing it very often but when they do it's always a really fun thing cause they know they either caught the CubMaster or another leader using the word annoucement. I believe it's only been sung twice this year.

 

[scottteng]

The boys have fun doing it says it all. That's what cubs is all about.

[johndaigler]

scottteng,

 

WELCOME!

 

I agree FUN is truly important, but there are times and places for fun. Not to draw too dark a line, but if the local pastor has a few announcements at the end of a Sunday service and your boys break out into this song -- is that a good thing? Or at school?

 

IMHO, "FUN" can't be our ONLY criteria for what we're doing with Cub Scouts. There's just a time and a place and a "quality" for good fun. I doubt your Pack Meeting, or anyone else's, relies on this song for the evening's FUN. There would be much greater issues to discuss, if that were true!

 

Pack (and Den) meeting's have many opportunities for FUN -- if there's a feeling in funscout's crowd that this song goes overboard, why keep it sacred? I think funscout's crowd are better served finding their fun in the "purposeful" activities they're doing each meeting.

 

 

jd

[Lisabob]

Some boys have "fun" kicking and punching each other too but we wouldn't let them do that at cub scouts (I hope). So no, I don't think that's a good enough standard. I don't mean this in a nasty way Scotteng; I just think this gets to the main point of the discussion. I wouldn't have any problem with the song jtea describes in the previous post, either in terms of lyrics or how it is used. I would have a problem with the original poster's version. I don't let my child talk to or about other people like that at home and I wouldn't expect him to be encouraged to do so at cub scouts.

 

Lisa'bob

[Oak Tree]

Our pack doesn't use this song, and I wouldn't encourage it with Cub Scout age boys. The troop does use it, though, and they seem to have a great time with it. They seem to take it in the spirit of good fun, so I have no objection to their continuing to use it.

 

Oak Tree

[SWScouter]

The announcement song seemed to be rather popular throughout the week of my woodbadge course. Also, it is in my woodbadge song book.

 

SWScouter

[evmori]

You must be kidding! Why is such a big deal being made about this song? And encouraging someone to sing it is hazing? Have we caved into to the PC crowd that much?

 

funscout,

Does anyone in your unit have a problem with this song?

 

If a CM or CC wants to have announcements as part of their Pack meeting they can. There is nothing preventing it, but these announcements should be kept short & sweet. After all, this is probably the only time during a month when the entire Pack is together in one place.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Herms]

To be honest with you, I love the song. It reminds me (Cubmaster) and our leaders, to KEEP THE FOCUS OF THE PACK MEETING ON THE BOYS AND FUN, rather than making them information meeting for parents.

 

I have a great time with the boys as they try to trick me in to saying the "A word" so that they can sing the song. (And I'll give in about every other pack meeting.)

 

Here is how our boys sing it:

 

Announcements, announcements, announcements!

What a horrible way to die, what a horrible way to die,

To be bored to death, what a horrible way to die.

 

Have you ever seen a windbag, a windbag, a windbag,

Have you ever seen a windbag, well there's one right there.

 

Make announcements short and sweet, short and sweet,

short and sweet, make announcements short and sweet,

Because they're so boring!