Combined PWD and Blue and Gold

[Scoutfish]

WEll, a while back I asked what some of you thought about combining our B&G with our PWD.

 

Some thought it was a great idea, some didn't. WEll, we did it anyways and heres what happened and what everybody invovled thought about it:

 

 

WE started the day with our registration and weigh in. This began at 8:30. Usually, we have a "in line by" time as a cut off, but due to the weather playing havoc with us SEVERAL times in the last few months, we weren't so strict with the time table to accomidate more people.

 

After check in/ weigh in, we took the scouts outside to take part in a service project for the school where we have our bigger events. The school allows us to use their cafeteria/ multipurpose room/gymnasium ( yes, that is a weird set up, but it works) to hold our PWD, B&G, and Christmas parties.

 

WE built and put 6 benches in the ground with the scouts using post hole diggers and setting the posts in, leveling the benches and setting the right height, as well as packing and tamping the dirt in afterward.

 

WE took pictures for the local paper and for The Home Depot who donated the materials .

 

It also helped that we had e a beautiful sunny warm weather after so much rain and blah and snow.

 

At this time some scouts were busy with pre scheduled playoffs for indoor soccer and basketball games.

 

At 10:30 am, we strted racing. WE started with opening ceremonies: Pledge of allegience, playing the National Anthem ( on the race program) and then the "Gentelmen..start your engines!" call.

 

WE raced all the cars aand the boys had a blast.

 

But before we handed out trophies or announced the winners, we took 45 minutes to eat hotdogs and chips. We also served our B&G cake. WE gave the boys another 30 minutes to burn off unspent energy. and then prrsented awards for the races.

 

Now, I know some of you look at B&G as a cut off point for advancement. We do not. WE don't do it because people tend to try and rush and cram stuff in by B&G and then afterward, the programs kinda go into limbo after that as many do not put much emphasis on electives or such.

 

WEll, a birthday is a birthday, not a checkpoint. We do not move it klater either. That would be the same as celebrating your kids birtghday a month or two later just to make sure they pass their school grade first.

 

 

So anyeays, in the end...everybody loved the events being combined.

 

Parents did not have to spend a couple hours cooking food. We did not have to spend hours setting up a buffet or cleaning uyp all the mess afterward. WE didn;'t make a 3 hour event out of what usuallt can take place in 1 hour at a pack meeting.

 

Overall, we had 5 hours tied up into 3 events which would normaly take at least 3 hourds on their own. That means we saved 4 hours of time.

 

Kids were very happy, parents were happy and the leadership was estatic as we now don't have to face two or possibly 3 big events back to back.

 

Sure, we had a small thing or two we will revise, but we are thinking of doing it this way again next year

[Basementdweller]

While it worked for you......

 

Tradition is they are separate events and generally not a hot dog sort of event.

 

Scoutfish, correct me if your wrong, but you weren't a Scout as a youth?????? Tradition might not be important to you but the youth deserve it.

 

Soooooo, why don't you combine the entire year into a cub year family weekend.....the parents will love it you could hold the pinewood, rain gutter regatta, popcorn sale, blue and gold, graduation camp and all of the den meetings in a three day weekend. They will love the time it saves them in weekly den meetings, wear and tear on their cars.

 

I am being silly of course,

 

So what your saying is you short changed the boys in your Pack a Traditional Blue and Gold Banquet, and Traditional Pinewood Derby, because it was easier, hmmmmmm. Did you do your FOS presentation during the event?????

 

I didn't volunteer to be a Scout leader because it was easy.......At any point if I think it isn't worth it or I start short cutting traditions to make my life easier, I will resign.

(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

[Scoutfish]

No, we didn't do something to make it easier. We had a combo event because the weather screwed up many weks of planning and we lost a few meetings and had to reschedual.

 

The B&G happened on theplanned date.

 

But, since we don't turn BSA"s birthday into a "get your rank by date" and since the weather canceled many meetings, there really wasn't alot of awards to hand out. So what does that leave for B&G?

Food. So as parents, we could spend hours cooking a ton of fod that the scouts do not really like as much as hot dogs, chips, and cake.

 

Now, your talking tradition, but what does it mean to the boys who don't care for the B&G other than cake?

 

OIt means nothing.

 

Now, we could set our PWD backa month or two, but then our second year Webelos would miss out on it.

 

Now here's the bottom line: The boys loved it! The boys had a blast. Many of them commented that they liked the hotdogs and chips WAY BETTER than the usual food we have at B&G.

 

So it comes down to this: We can do tradition for the sake of tradition...or we can do something the boys like better.

Which in this case, that is what happened.

 

If the boys had a beter time and enjoyed it better...then we'd be shortchanging them to ignore that fact!

[AKdenldr]

I've now been in my pack long enough that the younger leaders say, "the tradition in our pack is.....". When it is how I designed things two years ago....

 

We have a non-traditional pack. We have less pack meetings and more of the boys' experiences are in dens or combine den events. At one point we had our B&G in May because thats when the dens where done with their rank advancements! Is it always the best? no Does it work for our families and our volunteering effort? Yes Do the boys love it? yes

 

The longer I am in scouting, the more I realize how every pack and troop are doing things differently.

 

Do whatever works within the program. Thanks for your service to the boys!

[Scoutfish]

Thinking my last comment might have come out sounding snappier than I meant it to.

 

I'm just saying that I'm more for giving the boys a great time than I am for following tradition just for tradition's sake!

 

[SeattlePioneer]

As a way to dig your way out of a weather created bind, it sounds excellent!

 

 

Otherwise, I'd be in agreement with Basementdweller.

[Beavah]

Yah, Scoutfish, looks like a job well done.

 

As AKDenLeader says, pack tradition as far as the boys are concerned is whatever happened last year.

 

Most of da B&Gs I visit I find to be not very kid-friendly. Whoever got the notion that elementary school boys and banquets should be put together really needs to have been taken out back and used as a target for Arrows of Light. Banquets? With 7 to 10 year-olds? Really?

 

I think your modifications are just fine. Times change, traditions change. And sometimes old traditions are more about being lazy and not lookin' at what kids and families really want than about scouting. The boys will remember a great time, and will want that experience for their kids someday.

 

I ain't ever known a lad to remember a banquet. Heck, I try not to remember da banquets I have to attend!

 

Beavah

 

[SeattlePioneer]

Beavah,

 

 

Perhaps the Blue and Gold tradition is a poor one for 7-10 year olds, but it's a great setting to pitch the Friends of Scouting! Could there be a relationship do you suppose?

[John-in-KC]

Beavah,

 

You obviously never had my Sainted Mom's fried chicken, which was her standard offering to B&G. Nor did you have Mrs. Smith's chocolate cake ... it's been 45 years, and I still remember how good that was...

 

We were more formal, even in having fun, 40 years ago...

[clemlaw]

I became a Cub Scout in 1969, and it's surprising to me how many supposedly revered traditions did not exist in 1969.

 

I must have gone through three Blue and Gold Banquets, but I really don't have much recollection of them. I have only one vague recolection of being in the Legion hall where it took place, but this might be a composite memory of all three of them. I have no idea what food was served. I had never heard of a "crossing over" ceremony until recently (although I have been informed that they did exist in at least some packs back then). No elaborate arrows were awarded to anyone. I have a slight recollection of making a clunky blue car that placed close to last place in the Pinewood Derby. (If the track had been computerized, I'm sure I would have made first place.)

 

I do remember generally having fun.

 

But the main thing I remember from Cub Scouts is balancing yard sticks on the tip of our fingers, which we did in our Bear den. I still remember that the champion yard stick balancer was Alejandro, an exchange student from Mexico. I assume that this is because he was able to practice back home with meter sticks, and the yard stick was so much simpler by comparison. (It also might have had something to do with the fact that he was a couple of years older than the Cub Scouts in our den.)

 

The second thing I remember from Cub Scouts was being at a Pack meeting of my brother's pack before I joined. As part of the Christmas party, a magician pulled a candy cane out of my ear. As my wife points out, this probably explains many things, since there is presumably a candy cane shaped void inside my head.

 

Since my return to Scouting, I have yet to see any den have a yardstick balancing competition. I have yet to see a magician pull a candy cane out of a little brother's ear.

 

I can only assume that this is because you yungin's don't have any respect for the traditions that made Scouting great.

[CalicoPenn]

The most important Cub Scout tradition to follow is to Keep It Fun. If the Boys had a fun, then you did it right.

 

Congrats on creating a program that works for your unit.

 

As for FOS presentations - the best meetings to have these at are regular Pack meetings - you know, the ones where the Den Chiefs and some Den Leaders can take the Boys (and siblings) outside for some fun while the adults stay inside an listen to yet another boring sales pitch. Nothing makes a Cub Scouts face glaze over into utter boredom faster than some guy they've never seen before asking their parents for money.

[Basementdweller]

I remember being hung upside down while mom pinned my bobcat too my shirt.

 

I remember my grandfather giving me a cub scout knife for my birth day....I still have it.

 

I remember my dad and I destroying the oven during the father son cake bake and winning with a cake that was more charcoal under the frosting.

 

I remember all of my blue and golds....first as a wolf walking across the school stage and drinking punch.

 

I remember as a bear at the blue and gold being assigned as a greeter and handing out programs.

 

I remember as a webelo, being greeted by the scout master of the troop I was going to join. No cross over then either. He shook my hand and handed me a book and introduced me to the other Boy scouts. It was at the blue and gold......

 

 

 

 

[clemlaw]

>>>>>I remember being hung upside down while mom pinned my bobcat too my shirt.