SIGNS UP SIGNS UP SIGNS UP SIGNS UP SIGNS UP

[Basementdweller]

So what is it with Screaming "SIGNS UP" at cub events?????

 

At a Webelos event this weekend I was lucky enough to be paired with a Webelos Leader that spent 10 hours Saturday screaming "SIGNS UP" every two minutes.

 

I never had to do this, is this a common practice. If I need their attention, I put my sign up and wait. Generally a minute or so the boys quiet down.

 

So do you guys do this????

 

 

I will say, I couldn't have been prouder of my scouts, participated, enjoyed, scouted, sang, skitted, ate, and finally slept. Other than the screamer a very enjoyable weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Lisabob]

Yes and these are the same adults, typically, who appear to make poor boy scout leaders because they can't stand back and let the boys do their thing without interfering and being overbearing (generally speaking).

 

One of my pet peeves too.

 

 

[SSScout]

Nah, this is a man who hasn't "got it" yet.

At CSDC, I had to educate my CD in the Ways of the Sign. First day, we had the inevitable "SIGNS UP!!!" when the Cubs didn't IMMEDIATELY quiet down and pay attention ("Ah'm soo pooor, I cain't even pay attention!"). So, I told the Cubs the story about the Jamboree gathering of umpteen thousand Scouts, and how the Chief Scout on stage would raise his sign up and within about 15 seconds, everyone had THEIR sign up, and all were quiet and listening. So we make noise... AHHHHHH... I put my sign up, and watch my clock. "Aha! 45 seconds, not bad, we can do better. LET ME HEAR IT!!".... AAAAAHHHHHHH..... (sign up) "yeah! 20 seconds! I like that!" So each morning, at opening flag, we used the sign as a Den competition. Worked at each Statiion thru the camp, too.

It is an education for the Scouts and for the Scouter. You make the Scout more responsible (yeah, even Cubs) and the Scouter less responsible (they should wait for me to yell? I don't think so.) Camp doesn't start, Archery doesn't start, THE FUN doesn't start until EVERYONE has their sign up and is LISTENING. I can wait, I'm paid by the hour.

ANd your conversation with the yeller was...?

[Basementdweller]

Well after the second station of this......I mentioned that I didn't need to do this with my boys and she really didn't need to keep yelling.

 

Her response was the reason my scouts were well behaved was because of HER efforts and that we were an undisciplined mob. I think the boys paid attention at the activity pins because of the fun we had walking station to station.... I knew I would never change her mind......cause she was right.

 

Hey if the shoe fits......I am not going to have my scouts walking two by two in a line behind their den flag. If we see something cool along the way they have my permission to explore it.....We discovered an entire log covered in puff balls and everyone had a turn popping them. great times, my boys were muddy from sliding down the hill on their bottoms, kool aid mustaches, and dirty knees from building the fire for breakfast.

 

 

Yep we looked pretty rough.

 

She was not happy with our boys playing ghost in the grave yard after the campfire.... we had samores and the boys played a game.....we were in our tents and quiet at the designated quiet hour. Her group marched in brushed teeth and into their tents right after campfire at 8:30.

 

My interest will be looking at the crossover and retention rates. I bet I keep more of my boys......(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

[Beavah]

Yah, this is a pet peeve of mine, too. Like nails on a chalkboard, only worse.

 

Sometimes I just pull the scouter aside and ask 'em to let me try something. Then I give the sign and just wait. If need be, I give a glance to an older lad who gets the hint to nudge a few boys in a group that aren't lookin' around. Easy peasy.

 

Beavah

 

[Stosh]

I never used sign's up when dealing with boys in my troop. I didn't address the boys as a group very often and when I did I was asked and the boys were already paying attention to who was speaking in the first place.

 

Stosh

[OwntheNight]

When we get our new group of boys at our recruiting night, the first thing I teach all the new Cubs is the "Signs up" sign. I let them yell as loud as they can and then pull the signs up out. I do this a few times, encouraging the boys to get louder and louder between each sign's up. By the time I'm done, all the boys know it's time to be quiet when the Wolf ears come out. I've never had a problem with the boys at den or pack meetings settling down quickly. Parents, on the other hand, still haven't figured it out. That's OK, when parents are still talking during Sign's Up, I can get those boys pretty loud in no time, parents then have to take their conversation else where. HEHE, I do love being Cubmaster!

[Scoutfish]

I will say "signs up" ONCE at the begining of pack meetings. Say it, not yell it.

 

But truth is, that's more for the benefit of the parents. With the scouts, I only have to raise

my hand up in the sign.

[Papadaddy]

I used it at a medical conference once...there were enough fellow scouters (or former scouts) in the audience that it worked like a charm.

[CalicoPenn]

Papa - great story - I can so picture that.

 

Basement - sorry you had that experience - I would have either told the other leader to knock it off, or I would have split my group completely away from hers and not look back.

 

I never used "signs up" - I think it does a disservice to the real meaning of the Cub and Scout signs - in all the descriptions of the meaning of the signs, I've not found one yet that says it means "shut your yaps and pay attention".

 

I'm used to public speaking - I've done it enough - can't use "signs up" at a meeting of non-scouts (most of the time), and hollering "Hey, Ya'll, can we settle down" just doesn't seem to start things off on the right foot. I've never had a problem getting a group - any group - from rowdy Cub Scouts at Day Camp, to talkative adults at a presentation - to quiet down and pay attention simply by standing in front of them looking prepared to start talking. Start looking at the audience instead of your paperwork, and within moments, things quiet down. People seem to be more attentive when you let them quiet down without requesting it - in a sense, they've made the decision to stop talking and start listening - and I do think that means something.

 

If you go to one of your Scouts, hold up the Cub Scout sign or the Boy Scout sign and ask them what it means, and they say that it means to be quiet, something important has been lost.

[Eagle92]

Until I got to CSDC, I have not said signs up. Now I did do a few "Gentlemen, I got all day," "gentlemen, I got all nite," and "we are wasting your game time."

 

I was told by one scouter that, "The Cub Scout sign represents the ears of Akela the Wolf. When the sign goes up, the mouth goes shut. The eyes are locked onto the person who raised their sign, and the ears are open so that you can hear what they have to say.

[Beavah]

Yah, I once had a UUA scouter tell me that da cub scout sign was the "quiet coyote". Then he joked that if da adults didn't respond to the quiet coyote it could become da angry unicorn.

 

Beavah

 

[Eagle707]

I remember SCOUTS in my troop doing this and, as a younger Scout, I thought that was the way things were supposed to be done. I heard "signs up" as an order instead of as "sign's up." Eventually, my troop moved away from that though, and we were better disciplined once people stopped yelling "sign's up." Boys figuring something out on their own? Who'd have thought it?

[Basementdweller]

No apologies, It seems scouting brings out the worst in some adults........If I have learned anything, that is it. It seems people who can't control anything else in their life relish the control they can exercise over kids.

 

My boys weren't loud or rude....but they were very dirty from having fun in the woods.

 

I let them explore, I gave them the map of the stations and offered suggested routes knowing kinda what I wanted them to see and do.

 

Ya the trek we took station to station, led us past the pool, thru the dining hall where they got cookies from the IOLS course staff, thru the nature center, some log flippin salamader findin, skipping rocks on the lake, thru the creek, visited the troop using the rifle and shotgun range and watched the activity......told them when they crossover they get to experience that too.

 

The crowning event was the trading post stop for slushies and airheads.....we walked into the last station of the day with them......The other den looked sad....

[Tampa Turtle]

My old CM used a giant foam "signs up" hand she got somewhere in lieu of yelling.

 

I am a afraid I yell. I realize it is a character flaw.