A Simpler, Kinder, Gentler Pinewood Derby

[SeattlePioneer]

Good idea desertrat!

 

 

Perhaps I haven't thought of that since I tend to like to help with Cub Scout cooking myself. But finding someone else to do that sounds like the smart idea, and might give a new parent a good experience to boot!

[Eagledad]

>>. We will not stand by and watch one parents ruin something for everybody else out of fear of upsetting that one parent!

[Scoutfish]

Nah, it's not parents are looking for somebody to mess up so we can lynch them.

 

And VERY VERY far from nazi mentailty!

 

But as leaders ( at least in my pack) We stop things when they are small in order to prevent them from becoming big.

 

Two examples at PWD:

 

Example 1:

 

A parent just wanted to add a touch of graphite to his car after check in. Really, no biggie because he meant to add it before, but got talking and forgot.

 

Did I think he was honest? Sure did, but if we allowed him to "tinker" with the car after checkin, then we had no basis to stop everyone else from tinkering with theirs...including the cheates.

 

Rules apply to EVERYBODY! NO EXCEPTIONS!

 

Example 2:

 

We look over and see a mom picking up cars and looking at them. We didn't even notice her until after she picked up, looked at and set back down...how many?

 

I walked over and told her she cound not under any circumstances touch the cars as people could/would blame her for cheating if something happened to their cars or if they ran badly.

 

Before she said anything, I explained that "I knew" she wasn't doing anything, but al the other parents might not be inclined to think so.

 

When I did notice her, she was gingerly picking up cars, looking at then,and very carefuly setting them down. She;s an art teacherat one of the 3 local elemtry scholsand was admiring the cars.

 

I really believe that she was not doing anything wrong, but rules are that once cars are checked in,they are off limits to everybody but the PWD staff.

 

In both instances, we acted quickly and while the incident was small.

 

There were no BIG incidents at all because we did not let them get big.

 

 

Point is, enforcing rules so that all scouts get equal oppertunity in the scouting program does not makes us brutes or nazis, or bad leaders.

But if we sit back and allow any parent to do what they want, anytime they want..we'd be more fair to the scouts by not even having a pack at all!

[AnnLaurelB]

Boy oh boy oh boy! This is a touchy topic!

 

Last year as the Tiger leader, we just went along with what the Pack did, and at that time we had a brand new CM (which I am, this year). He had never been in Scouts at all, and when the District announced the Invitational, he assumed we needed to do it.

 

We sucked. Oh. My. Gawd. Did we suck! And it was huge and overwhelming and not very fun. Fast forward to me being the Cubmaster, and our Pack Derby was SOOO much fun! We had a blast.

 

But then it didn't occur to me (just sort of copying the previous CM) that we didn't HAVE TO go to District Derby. No one wanted to drive all the way out to the race site the night before, then go all the way back in the morning, so that former CM and I took ALL the cars to turn in.

 

Yeah, our scale is OFF. WAY OFF! We were there for freakin' HOURS trying to get 12 cars to weigh in. It was HORRIFYING. I wanted to cry. The District coordinator asked, "Why did you bring them ALL?"

 

"Because the parents didn't want to drive out here."

 

She put her arm around my shoulder and said, "So what? Then their kids don't race their cars. May I suggest that you simply OFFER the District race next year? Whomever wants to come...delivers AND ADJUSTS their OWN car. This is not your job. Your job is to stand up there and make it sound fun. The ones who WANT to race their cars against the District will come. The others...won't."

 

(And we sucked at that race too. Worse than last year. No fun.)

 

I can't tell you how liberating her words were! I emailed the Committee that night and said, "Next year, we are just going to make HUGE FUN SPECTACULAR event out of our own little Pack race, and THAT'S IT!"

 

Our Pack race was great! We have a really, REALLY nice track that an Eagle made as a project like 7 or 8 years ago. It's spiffy! I had medals and certificates and design judges. It was a ton of fun!

 

(One of the Committee members made a face when I told him we were boiling the hot dogs in the church kitchen. He said, "That's gross. I'll bring a Weber and grill them for you outside. It was one of the few times a Committee member has HELPED!)

 

 

[AnnLaurelB]

I love the idea of a drivers license!

 

I'm not sure I'd try doing them the day OF the race; some of our funnest few joint-Den meetings were Pinewood workshops. I think I'd still like them to be able to (see them) cut into the shapes they choose, then they sand, and paint and all.

 

HOWEVER! The Great Wheel Fiasco of 2011 is NAWT something I want to repeat (my therapist says I shouldn't even mention it).

 

I think what might work is to pass out JUST THE BLOCKS, with instructions to NOT damage the little wheel wells, that those have to remain intact, then let the Dens do WHATEVER with the cars.

 

Then on the DAY of our race, you hand every parent a set of nails and wheels. They put them on in front of you, turn them in, and that's it. That's how they race.

 

Talk about kindler, gentler!

[AnnLaurelB]

Oooh! Oooh!

 

I meant to say too that I don't like the District derby because THEY DON'T LET THE BOYS TOUCH THE CARS.

 

I think each driver/crafstman should carry their own car up to be placed on the track.

 

But it was just them looking at their names on a screen, then seeing their car race FROM AFAR. It's dumb. They have no personal interest in it.

 

It WAS boring and tedious and they were racing against boys they didn't even know.

 

I have no use for it. It's one of those things that I'm marking "NA". Never Again.

 

 

 

[Lisabob]

Done well, district PWDs can be lots of fun (and still competitive, too). Of course many are not done well. But they do tend to be run by the same hardy few folks who volunteer to do lots of things. So one approach is to avoid the district PWD. Another is to offer to help make it better. Both have their place, as far as I'm concerned.

[SeattlePioneer]

Well, we had our simpler, kinder, gentler Pinewood Derby yesterday, and it was a GREAT activity:

 

 

 

[meschen]

 

 

I summer I half-seriously threatened to do this for this year's PwD. I swear, one father turned purple and nearly passed out.

[BadenP]

 

As long as you allow parents to be involved in the PWD in any way other than pure spectators you will never have a simpler, kinder or gentler event, that is just the sad truth.

 

Let the boys and ONLY the boys ready and race their own cars, warn the parents upfront that if they interfere in any way their boy will be disqualified, and the decision of the judge is FINAL then maybe you stand a chance of your PWD going fairly smoothly.

 

The boys in the pack will thank you at the next meeting.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Baden P,

 

 

Have to diagree with you there. Check out my description of our PWD this year. Boys and parents came in on a Saturday and got their PWD kit still in the box.

 

Adults brought in a variety of woodworking tools which were shared by all.

 

Boys did most of the work, with adults helping out occasionally when that seemed like a good idea. But the norm you saw when watching the work being done was that boys did most of the sawing, sanding, painting and such.

 

The races weren't high stakes for a trophy. Instead, boys either decided who they wanted to race against or just slapped their car on the first available track and raced against whoever was on the other tracks. The winner of each heat got a sticker for their PWD Driver's License certificate.

 

It worked even better than I hoped. At out parents meeting Monday the PWD got rave reviews from parents who were happy with it and didn't miss the formal racing.

 

My theory was that mostly boys wanted to race as many times as possible and have a chance to get some small amount of recognition for winning.

 

The least number of stickers won that I saw was six, and a number of boys had twenty plus, and those were while the racing was still going on.

 

We never determined which Cub Scouts had the most stickers. They had to figure that out for themselves.

 

I think it had the right amount of competition for young Cub Scouts. We don't have any Webelos --- possibly they would like somewhat more formal competition.

 

Those who want sharper competition can do the district PWD race April 30th.