What an Iron Squirrel Taught Me

[Frostbyte]

Some months back, I was tapped for taking over as our troop's Scoutmaster. The biggest top of mind I had was bringing fun back to the meetings. I happened to be in a World Market store and saw a $7 iron squirrel doorstop, and picked it up because I thought I could use it at some point as the trophy for some games we were kicking around. It has since become one of the mainstays in our troop monthly program, now dubbed the "Iron Squirrel Competition." Each month the adult leaders come up with a challenge that all the scouts participate in. These should combine some type of useful training/skill with the competition. This has become the boy's favorite monthly program piece and has heightened the fun and competition in the troop. This taught me a few things:

• Making sure to keep it fun. Fun covers a lot of flaws!
• Create something that is your own. While Iron Squirrel Competition is now a part of our Troop DNA, finding something that your troop "owns" would be fun. Not just the award, but the flavor.
• Go cheap and tawdry. Don't have to put a lot into this. Find something unique though that is funny. 

I am interested in what you other folks have done that are unique to your troop that is keeping it fun. 

Here is a link to our "Iron Squirrel" webpage.

Edited January 25, 2018 by Frostbyte
misspelling

[MattR]

That is a really great idea

[Hawkwin]

Should make this thread a sticky!

[Frostbyte]

21 minutes ago, Hawkwin said:

Should make this thread a sticky!

 

9 hours ago, MattR said:

That is a really great idea

Thanks both of you, really nice of you to say that.

What I am really interested in is great ideas others have had so I can shamelessly steal them and use them as we build our troop program back up. There are so many good ideas that get sprinkled in a bunch of thread on here. Not so much theory, but very granular examples of what you all have seen work well!

[.40AET]

I read this last night and loved it! We do an Iron Chef competition between the patrols every year and it's a big hit. The PLC decides on a theme for this year and the Scouts compete for the best dish. Bacon was a theme once that was a huge hit. Who would have thought broccoli cooked in bacon fat would be so darn good.

We have a Chile specific Iron Chef every so often. Getting the stoves out to cook gives all of the boys an opportunity to use a lightweight stove and check the requirement off during the event. 

[Frostbyte]

1 hour ago, .40AET said:

I read this last night and loved it! We do an Iron Chef competition between the patrols every year and it's a big hit. The PLC decides on a theme for this year and the Scouts compete for the best dish. Bacon was a theme once that was a huge hit. Who would have thought broccoli cooked in bacon fat would be so darn good.

We have a Chile specific Iron Chef every so often. Getting the stoves out to cook gives all of the boys an opportunity to use a lightweight stove and check the requirement off during the event. 

That is a dang good idea right off the bat! I am going to do an Iron Squirrel Chef event for sure. Thanks!

[walk in the woods]

34 minutes ago, Frostbyte said:

That is a dang good idea right off the bat! I am going to do an Iron Squirrel Chef event for sure. Thanks!

Make sure your wording is clear and you don't get a squirrel cook-off in iron :).  It's takes a lot of stew to cover the taste of squirrel.  Just sayin.

[.40AET]

27 minutes ago, walk in the woods said:

Make sure your wording is clear and you don't get a squirrel cook-off in iron :).  It's takes a lot of stew to cover the taste of squirrel.  Just sayin.

I felt that sharing some good stuff was necessary since I've already been on Amazon looking for squirrel door stops. 

[MattR]

There are several board games you can turn into a human form. Battleship, Foosball, and Risk are what we've done. So, for Battlehip hang a tarp to split the "sea", scouts sit in chairs on their side of the sea, put a bunch of balls in there as bombs, and the scouts toss them over the tarp where, if they hit a scout or his chair, he's out. The scouts must stay in their chairs. There's a lot of guessing where the scouts are on the other side of the tarp. The general idea is to make it so everyone moves as often as they can and at the same time. It's no fun to wait.

We've also made fun orienteering courses. Give each patrol a unique course (bearings and distances) through a set of labeled flags. Get points for getting the labels correctly. We did it at halloween once and put scary movie titles on the flags. The best part was always the last point. Each patrol starts from the same spot and there are a bunch of flags out in a field. Each patrol is given a bearing and distance that will put them on one of the flags. It's all about accuracy, and having a bag of candy as the trophy.