My wish to you

Happy Chanukkah, Merry Christmas and seasons greetings to all.  Thank you to all of you who I know, met online, staffed trainings with, fellow Wood Badgers & Scouters and Friends.  And to those of you who just read the blog and listen to the podcast that I don’t even know.  You all have made a huge difference in my life.

If your in the Cubscout Pack that I am a Cubmaster for, on the District Committee, in the District, in the Council thank you for your direct support. If it was not for your (atlest) one hour a week, Scouting would not be what it is.

I posted this to several Wood Badge people the other day and thought that it’s fitting here too.  If you have not taken Wood Badge, that is fine.   Your still on a path.

God, Take a Woodbadge walk with me,
And see what I’ve discovered;
An inner strength I hadn’t known,
new skills that I’ve uncovered.

My body may feel tired now
But my spirit soars on wings
As I reflect on all we’ve done
And heard, and felt, and seen.

Thank you for new friendships made
And old bonds now renewed,
And help me live the Oath and Law
In all I say and do.

As I depart from Gilwell Field
With ticket firm in hand,
Lord, help me do the best I can
To help my fellow man.

For my journey does not end today,
In fact, it’s just the start,
So take a Woodbadge walk with me
And hold me in Your heart.

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December Caroling

This is the first year that our Pack has gone Caroling.  We put out an email to our Pack Parents asking for a volunteer to coordinate all of it.   A Parent anwered and hit the ball out of the park.  We rehershed three songs over the month in Den meetings, Scouting for Food and a Pack meeting.  This generally qualified for some of the Music Beltloop.  With a Pack of 47 Cubscouts we had 22 Cubscouts show up along with other sister and brothers who sang.  Our coordinator found music to accompany us, even including Cubscout Vespars.

I am very proud of the Cubscouts and that we did this.  I suspect that this will turn into a tradition.  I also suspect that we can come back to do other activities such as Memorial Day and Flag Day.

Due to Youth Protection, I have smudged out the faces of those under 18, if they were not hidden.

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Cubscout STEM Science Beltloop Day

The Cascade Pacific Council put on it’s first STEM based event that was aimed at the Cubscout Units.   While it was not touted as a STEM based event online, after talking to both the Scout Executive and Program Direction, who were there, they gave me the full low down on STEM within the Council.  Needles, I am very very happy.  The group who put on the session (morning & afternoon) are from Mad Science company.  I have seen them at the Program & Training Conferences before and liked them.  This is my first real experince in using them.

The Cubscouts were able to go through the day and earn the Science Beltloop and Pin.  With the opening segment, everyone earned the Beltloop.  The rest of the day was spent on the Pin sections.

1. Use these simple machines to accomplish tasks: lever, pulley, wheel-and-axle, wedge, inclined plane, and screw.
2. Learn about solids, liquids, and gases using just water. Freeze water until it turns into ice. Then, with an adult, heat the ice until it turns back into a liquid and eventually boils and becomes a gas.
3. Build models of two atoms and two molecules, using plastic foam balls or other objects.
4. Make a collection of igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks and label them.
5. Learn about a creature that lives in the ocean. Share what you have learned with your den or family.

There were 5 different sessions that were 45 minutes each.  Each session was led by a Professor.  Each one had a great lesson and explanation of what was happening and what the Cubscouts should do.  Our Pack had four Cubscouts attending.  We were put together with other Packs which is just fine.   The parents basically followed the boys around from station to station and helped as needed.  The great thing about this is, that it was seasoned professionals who put this on.  It was not Scouts teaching Scouts.  Which, is not to say it’s a bad thing, it just that sometimes at camps it can be lacking and distracting.  This was not camp

The opening segment was great.  Madame Chaos rocked the show.  She got the Cubscouts in the right frame of mind and kept their attention.  (I silently want that power at Pack Meetings!).  The one great trick that made me learn something was about Bernoulli’s principle .  She did it with a Leaf Blower, Plunger & a roll of Toliet Paper.  It rocked.  Everyone howled!  Guess, what I am going to use…;)

The two Moms who came to the event had nothing but glowing reports on how much they liked it.  They thought it was perfect in getting the boys involved and showing them how to do science.  Both understand how much planning and prep it takes to put things on, since they both volunteer at the school.  They would both like to see more of these things put on.

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December for the Pack

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I just sent out an email to the entire Pack.  It’s something that I really try not to do, since I did it alot awhile ago.  I delegated information passing to my Den Leaders.  However, this was different due to the upcoming December Pack meeting.  This is one where we are getting all the items together to send over to Afghanistan.  We are hoping for a lot of blankets and other items to send over.

I also sent out this info too:

Holiday Caroling:
As a Cubscout Pack (Scouts only, no siblings) we are going to the West Hills Retirement Home on Saturday Dec 17th @ 2pm.  The Cubscouts have been invited to have a Dessert with the Retirement Home’s Veteran’s Group.  We will be singing four songs.  They are Frosty the Snow Man, Jingle Bells, Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Cub Scout Vespars.This event will count for a Service Project, part of the Music Beltloop and an outing.  We will be singing these songs at the Pack Meeting for practice.

Other Upcoming Events:

PINEWOOD DERBY: The cars will be handing out on the Dec 12th Pack Meeting.  The Race is on the February Pack Meeting on Monday the 27th.  More info about Car turn-ins soon.
Mt Hood Pack Snow Day:  It is on Monday January 16th.  This is at White River Sno-Park.  See attachment for more info.  This event is for all Pack 221 Families.  Yes, this counts as a Winter Activity/Outing.

January Pack Meeting: We are again putting on a First Aid Meeting.  Last year’s was a huge success.  We have invited two local Boy Scout Troops (41 & 221) to help us with this event.
February Pack Meeting: Pinewood Derby.  It’s also the Scout Birthday Month.
March:  Pack Campout at Scouter’s Mtn.  This is the Webelos II (Fire Scouts) Arrow of Light/Crossover event.  The Pack will camp in Box Cars, have dinner, play games, watch movies.  But the most important is the awarding of the Arrow of Light to the Fire Scouts.  The Order of the Arrow Ceremony Team will perform the ceremony that move the Fire Scouts into Boy Scouts.  This overnight on March Saturday 17th.

I post this info here, so others can see what’s up in the Pack and gather ideas.   I am also going to shortly send out an email to all the Den Leaders about the Cubscout Outdoor Activity Badge.  As we talked about in the Cubmaster Podcast, I think it’s part of providing a quality program.  If the Den/Pack is putting these things on that the boys can go do, then they should get it.

This Pack Meeting is almost running itself.  There are a bunch of segments/awards to hand out.  Coupled with this and the Service project, it’s going to be a fun night.

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Youth Protection Apology

On December 8th, one of the Scouting Organizations made a huge leap of faith.  They came out and put their foot down.  I have not closely followed this issue, but have seen some reports while staying close to their borders while traveling for work.  My own Scouting Organization has been and is faced with Scouters who, in my eye are not Scouters due to their violation of the youth in their charge.  There is not any part of any Scout Oath and Law that covers this action.  You actually stop being a Scouter at that point.

Living in Portland, Oregon, I am keenly aware of what’s going on.  It was April of 2o10 that the bubble burst in Portland for the BSA.  I wrote a post about my feelings back then.  It is now a BSA National Policy for all Scouters who register to have Youth Protection training every 2 years.  It’s available online.

We cannot as Scouters of any Organization stop for one minute in the protection of the Youth in the program, and any youth.  My fellow Scouter, Scoutmaster Jerry even created a podcast about it.  Overall, having Scouts Canada come out with this apology in the way that they did, says a lot.    One of the ways moving forward is actions like this.  It is unfortunate that these violations happened at all.  But knowing it happened, will re-double everyone’s efforts to not let it happen again.

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Scouter Adam #4 Podcast “Cubmaster Roundtable”

  While I was off on work the other day, I gathered up a few Scouters to help me record a Cubmaster’s Roundtable.  It included Phil Peck (Scoutmaster) and Jeff Hoppe & Eric McIntosh.  Our topics were: How Packs fail, Your Unit’s program and Patch of the Podcast.  Since this was our first time out in this format a few techincal issues happened and well, we talked for about 100 minutes. We all agreed that we had a blast and that we want to do it again.

Here is the Feed. Here is the Cubmaster’s Roundtable podcast.

I am working on getting a feed so it’s not all through iTunes.  Not everyone uses it.

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Webelos Fitness Activity Pin

At this week’s Tree Scout Den Meeting, the Scouts will be going over the Fitness Activity Pin.  You can read the requirements within the link provided.  After looking it over, you can see that with a hearty discussion after reading of some material and a week of writing down what they eat, the Webelos Scout can work through this with ease.

However, we ran into a snag here at the house.  It’s a combination of things.  First, no one really did the home work for recording of the meals.  No big thing, We can do it this week and submit when complete.  At the beginning of the year, Elliot, myself and my wife did sit down with him and talked about YPT and what to do.  We also talked about it briefly again tonight.  But here is the sticking point.

The Planning of the Meals.  The wording is : “With a parent or other family member, plan a week of meals.”  So, my son was really wanting to do something else other than Scout stuff tonight.  He argued about it for 10 minutes.  It was basically the same amount of time we took in talking about some of the points.  We still need to do more.  He really wanted to play video games and watch TV than this.   My wife chimed in that I was going to be away all week for work, so why should he plan the meals if I was not going to be home to cook them.  She also asked if there were other things he could do to earn the pin.

She’s not a Scouter and has no real desire to know the way Scouting works.  I don’t blame her.  So, I had to explain a few things.  In Cubscouts, it’s Parent led/reminded to the Cubscout.  More as a Tiger, but less than as a Webelos.  In Boy Scouts it’s all up to the Scout.  With very minor reminding from the parents.  Her response was, well you wait till the last night before a Den meeting.  Well, yes, in some cases.  But, we had not done anything on a Pin for awhile, so I was getting him going on this.  He had to also do a chore list, which she did with Elliot at the last Den Meeting and turned it in.  I was not aware that they did that.

I explained that Elliot wanted to do it next week, but that was not possible.  He needed to start now for the week of recording the information.  Also, there are no changes within requirements due to the specific rules within the BSA.  No, I did not quote the Advancement Guide verbatim.   What I did explain is that the word PLAN is in the wording and not “PLAN & COOK” a week of meals.  I explained that all he has to do is plan what he would like to eat and then explain the ramifications of those means as they pertain to being healthy.

What Elliot has to do is write down what he eats.  Which is really easy.  toast/oat meal/cereal for morning.  School Lunch (copy from lunch calendar) snack of Nugo bar and then either mac n cheese, pizza, hamburger or something really good for you from mom.  My wife asked why is all this really needed.  I explained that this is one of the required pins for the boys to do to get the Webelos Badge.  It’s to help show them what is good to eat and what is not good to eat.  It’s to help let them understand healthy choices are needed.  If you follow my other Blog about my weight loss, you will know how important it is.

So, this week while I am gone, Elliot will be tracking his food.  I will call and remind him as need.  Big thing is that at the end of the week, he will get it completed and will get the pin.  This will bring to a close all the Pins he is required to earn for the Webelos Badge.

This issue brought to light that, I need to explain better why and what Pins are for Elliot to my wife when she asks.  It’s a good reminder as well to explain them to parents if they have questions.  Not everyone GETS the Scouting program and why the requirements are the requirements.

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A day of sharing

Several things happened today in the Cox Family as it related to Scouting.  First, it was Scouting for Food.  Each year the Scouts send out Bags to houses to be filled with canned food.  On the first Saturday of December we pick them up as we go from house to house.  If a house has a bag on the stoop, then they pick it up.  If not, I ask the boys to knock on the door and explain what SFF is and what they are doing.  That way, we get more food.  Today, I was told by several parents who went along that some houses just shut the door on the Cubscouts.  In a rude way as well.  I explained before we all headed out that SFF is just like Halloween, but we are getting food for those who need it.  I asked them to knock if need be and be respectful and say thank you.  Off they went.

About 90 minutes later all the food started coming in slowly from each area.  We gathered together and pitched it into the back of my Dodge 1500 truck and took a photo.  A few Webelos I went to the Church where we drop off.  It took about 30 minutes to unload.  According to the official bag counter we had 300 bags.  Which, I estimated to be about 5 pounds or so.  We did well.  The lady said that combined we brought in more than all the rest up to that point.  That felt good.

With SFF done, my wife took my son to the Mom & Lad outing at the local Scout Camp.  From what I could tell, they had a great time.  All the basic’s of BB Guns & Archery were had.  There were crafts, some very edible and games.  This was the first for the Council and it seems to be a hit.  It was cold towards the end of a very long day, so they bailed early.  It was about 11 hours total for the whole day camp.  This was my wife’s idea to go to the camp.  My son went along because he told her he wanted to go.  It was good on that end, since I do all the events with Elliot.  My wife got to experince Scouting and Elliot got to experience it with Mom.

The other fun thing is that our Scout Executive got into a conversation with my wife.  She kinda knew that he was a big shot, but not until I explained who he was.  She at first thought he was a District Exec.  He asked her opinion on what she thought on the whole event.  She let him know.  I think it was a good conversation since she’s a Mom and not a Scouter.    She did identify herself and who I was.
During this time I had the day with my Daughter Rachel.  That was a lot of fun.  We basically did everything she wanted to do.  Well, we were going to do Tea, but apparently needed reservations.  Oh, and either $32 or $14 depending on the place.  Ok,  not too excited for that.  So, off we went to Sushi, eating what she wanted.  Off to Puss and Boots the movie and then for two games of Bowling.  We talked a lot about her stuff and what she likes.  Apparently there are boys at school that get their finger and toe nails done.  She thinks that weird.  We then came home and had some freetime and ended up having Mac n Cheese for Dinner.

It was a good day.  Spending time with others and a day with our kids.

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