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Quick survey:

How much does it cost to go to Pow Wow in your council?

 

Do they charge extra for any craft type classes that you may wish to take that could require extra materials?

 

For those of you that are Den leaders, If you could attend a Crystal radio class(bear elective 3) and you actually made a radio that worked and were offered the knowledge to teach the boys would all that be worth $8 to you?

 

Thank you in advance for your reply.

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Quick pile up the sand bags!!

Yes I admit that I'm the bad guy in our Council who when I was Council Training Chairman did away with Pow Wow.

We used to charge about $15 -$20.00 for Pow Wow, with a catered hot lunch. But attendance was low. So we changed the Lunch to a bag lunch and charged $8.00 and attendance remained low.

People said bring back the hot lunch and do a B&G Banquet, so the price went back to $20.00 and attendance remained low.

In fact we were not seeing hardly any new faces just a group of hard line Pow Wowers!!

While we tried to not have any extra costs, it just wasn't possible. So we charged the cost of materials. Mainly for leather and one time I remember someone done rubber stamping and sold some sort of a tote bag.

As long as the people know what the cost will be ahead of time (When they sign up for that class) I don't see it as a problem. But if you wait till they get there and spring it on them. Boy will you catch it.

There is nothing in this world as bad as a rampaging gang of upset Pow Wowers - They make Her Who Must Be Obeyed look like a bowl of cherries, even when I forget to put the seat down!!

The very Best of British Luck -I'm still in hiding.

Eamonn.

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You can buy a crystal radio kit from your local scout shop or scoutstuff.org for $9.50. Assembly instructions are pretty straight forward so I don't think I'd spend $8 on a course too.

 

The kit works too! I am a amateur radio operator and we hooked it up to one of ham antennas and we picked up an AM station on the East Coast from the Midwest. It was very faint and I couldn't hear it buy another parent and the boys could.

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Well MARK S it seems like I have you beat by $1.50.

 

I'm talking about instruction ie., history, and the knowledge about what makes it work. In addition to the components which the leaders will wire to a board and the earphone and the ground rod. I'm talking a working rig here.All for a buck and a half less than that kit.

 

BTW I wish all you hams(my brother in law included) would get together and share knowledge with the cubs. Why, with all the hams who really understand the process and theory, aren't 95% of all cubs in America doing this elective.

 

And the east coast is great range for a crystal radio from your location. Great job!

or as you say BRAVO ZULU.

 

In the USMC I was a 2531 with attendance at IMCO school at NTC San Diego I could do 12 words a minute but it near drove me nuts.

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In our council, Pow Wow was $14 this year, including a very tasty catered lunch, and all class materials. If you wanted a printed copy of the manual, instead of the CD included in the price, it was an additional $5.

 

As for attendance problems, our council this year did a "University of Scouting" - combining traditional Pow Wow training classes for Cub Leaders, but also various classes for Boy Scout leaders, Venture Leaders, and Den Chief training. Attendance seemed to be quite large, and the leadership seemed pleased. The only problem that I was aware of was 1 instructor the failed to show up (unfortunately, it effected one of the classes that I signed up for, so I had to quickly change my schedule and join a "class already in progress").

 

Overall, I would do it again, even if I had to pay more to cover the material costs for some of the more expensive classes.

 

Kurt

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uz2bnowl... my thought is after taking the class you would still need a second kit to assemble yourself during your den meeting activity as the boys build their own kits. My preference is to have an extra kit with which to demonstrate each assembly step rather than take one of theirs to demonstrate the step. Given that the book that comes with the kit has all the info you're looking for, I'd rather spend the money on an extra kit for the den activity than a class. Even if it's a buck fifty more. It's also kind of fun to learn along with the boys.

 

Don't know about BRAVO ZULU, pretty much just a code operator--rag chew at 20, contest at 30, and can hear my own call sign at 40 WPM.

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Pow Wow costs $20; if registration is late, it costs $25. There are no extra costs; all materials are included as well as lunch, the patch, prizes, and a CD of all course materials. It's worth the cost, though it's hard to get people to attend, and any extra costs would make it harder still particularly as our council has made it a priority to keep training free or very low cost (low cost for supplementals other than Woodbadge which is $150).

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