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One of my Wood Badge ticket items is to attend a training course for Cubmasters that goes beyond what is covered in the Position-specific training. The second part of that ticket item is to bring back something I learned and implement it in my pack. It was part of the same quest that brought me to Wood Badge in the first place, I knew there was a lot more to learn.

Previously I had looked through the courses offered within our council, and within the council to our north, but nothing really jumped out at me. So I started looking through the Philmont Training Center website. I knew I wanted to go someday, and my Wood Badge Ticked gave me the perfect excuse. It turns out that Philmont is only a 4 1/2 hour drive from my house, so there really wasn’t any excuse not to go.

The Philmont Training Center was created in 1950 to provide training to the BSA’s volunteers. As the only national training center (at least for now) it has the best staff and faculty the BSA has to offer. Everyone was friendly and knowlegeable, and the energy level was topped out. Every day I was amazed, especially with the staff that worked with the kids. That takes a lot of energy!



Philmont is one of those places that evokes strong memories for those that have been, and most of those memories are made during 10 day treks. Between 300-500 Scouts arrive every day to go on the backcountry treks that have made Philmont famous. I did not ever make it to Philmont when I was a Scout, so this trip seemed like a perfect opportunity to see what it was all about.

After researching the course for a while, I realized this might be a good experience for the whole family. PTC seemed to have an extensive family program, both for spouses and any kids that came along. The more I researched it and asked around, the more I was convinced. After talking to my wife (and she took some convincing) we agreed that it would be a good trip to take. Family time, learning skills to be a better Cubmaster, and cover a Wood Badge Ticket item? Sold.

Strictly for Cubmasters Course

This conference offers everything Cubmasters and prospective Cubmasters ever wanted to know about their responsibilities, including delivering a quality pack program, the charter renewal process, Webelos-to-Scout transition, conducting the pack meeting, practical ideas for ceremonies and keeping the pack program energized.

Our time at the Philmont Training Center did not disappoint. The week is a great combination of spending time together and also letting the everyone try out activities with their peer group. The course I took was exactly what I was looking for, the faculty and classmates became friends that I will share with even now that we have returned to our home units.

The class was taught by Debbie Spohn and Jim Hau, and there were 9 Cubmasters in the class. Some had been in the position for weeks, some for many years. The size of the Packs ranged from 20 to 120. Debbie and Jim covered recruiting, meetings, campfires, outdoor activities, and how to add pizazz to your Pack. We had great group discussions, spent time outside playing the games we were learning, and laughed. We laughed a lot!

There’s way too much to cover, so I’m going break this up into a couple of posts. One on the Strictly for Cubmasters course and what we covered and one on the family program. I’ll link to them here when they post.

On Independence Day I met up with a friend and Roundtable co-conspirator at the district’s recruiting booth. He reminded me that this blog is overdue for an update and I left him hanging with the end of the 100 Days of Scouting.

So here you go Mike!

To wrap up 100 days of scouting:

• Days 80-83 were spent preparing for and conducting our pack’s annual planning meeting. I have another post for that topic coming up soon. (no, really, I do!)
• Days 84-85 were spent preparing for and conducting my first roundtable breakout session, starting down the path of completion of another Wood Badge ticket item.
• Days 86-89 were focused on a pack service project for our elementary school, cleaning up and adding mulch where needed.
• Day 90 was Mother’s day and the day my son was awarded his God and Me during the service.
• Days 91-92 were all about the final school year den meeting for Wolf Den 5. We met at the library, learned how to cover books and toured the facility (including a sorting robot!)
• Days 93-94 were about the last Leader’s meeting for the school year. We talked about the pack’s summer plans and the our pack camping trip that is coming up in September.
• Days 95-96 were spent on the Pack’s last meeting of the school year. We had a picnic, awarded the Tiger Cubs their rank badges and launched water bottle rockets. We also ate a lot of food.
• Days 97-99 were spent meeting with the den leaders for coffee in 1 on 1 seasons. I really like getting feedback that way. The conversations took many different directions and I made lots of notes for the next year.
• Day 100 was spent reading all the great reflections posted for day 100, and starting to organized all the scout stuff that had accumulated in my garage during the last few months.

How do I remember all this two months later? Each one of those was a draft post I didn’t get finished. Hopefully I’ll be more timely moving forward.

How did people run packs before e-mail? For that matter, how did they do it before text messages, cell phones, the internet, and social media?

Case in point: a few days ago I got an e-mail (on my phone) from one of our Den Leaders. It said “I think the Tiger Picnic is scheduled for the same day as the Elementary School’s Carnival Night”. So I looked up the number for the school office (on the internet via my phone) and gave them a call. After confirming that they were indeed scheduled for the same night, I looked at the pack calendar (still on my phone) and figured a week later was Memorial Day weekend so that was out. But a week earlier didn’t seem to have any conflicts.

So I called my Assistant Cubmaster (who was responsible for reserving the city park where we are having the picnic) and left him a voicemail saying that we were changing the date by a week. A couple of minutes later I got a text message from him that he got my message while he was at the city desk filling out the paperwork to reserve the park. Just in the nick of time!

So long story (sort of) short, all this wonderful technology helped fix a pack problem within minutes all while I was driving down the highway at 80 miles an hour. No, not really. I was in the lab at work. But imagine how much more problematic that would have been without these technologies.

Today I used quite a bit of these technologies to coordinate pack stuff:

• I listened to the latest “An Hour A Week” podcast on my way to work. Do you want to know what a Blue and Gold Banquet can be? Listen to this. This is Rockstar Cub Scouting at it’s best.
• I sent out an e-mail to every parent in the pack reminding them about our meeting next week.
• I sent my sister **waves** the Annual Planning Meeting Document that I mentioned in yesterday’s post. She is on a mission to help keep a Pack in San Francisco on it’s feet after some not-so-helpful leaders (CM, CC, DLs, and others) are going to drop it and walk away after their kids get the AOL in May. They are making zero effort to make sure there is leadership in the pack after they go. Grrrr.
• I added that same sister **waves again** to our Pack Leaders email distribution list so she can see how we do things. I also forwarded her the Leader’s Meeting notes from Wednesday.
• I emailed my Unit Commissioner about the Outstanding Volunteer Awards that I submitted from our Pack for the District awards. Just wanted to make sure everything was in order.
• I caught up on the #100DaysofScouting blogs and was inspired (again)
• There was more of the same, but all in cases it involved using these technologies to keep the communication open.

Tomorrow is my Wood Badge pre-course meeting. Don’t really know what to expect, but I’ll be there bright and early with bells on!

Last year during the 100th Anniversary celebration Scoutsigns did a “100 Days of Scouting” challenge where participants volunteered to do something for scouting every day for 100 days.

100 is a powerful number. 100% is everything. $100 still matters. 100 days is enough time to change lives.

For the next 100 days, 100 Days of Scouting will offer a glimpse of the most significant things I’ve done for Scouting each day.

Every day.

I didn’t participate last year (mostly because I didn’t come across the idea until much, much later), but many people took him up on the challenge.

Well, here it is a year later and the gauntlet has been thrown down again.

This time around I’m on board. 100 Days of Scouting. It will be documented here. Join me. Heck, join us! Starting on February 8, 2011 (BSA’s Birthday), and going for 100 days until May 19th.

As Scoutsigns said:

“The purpose is to record the positive things I do for Scouting each day–big or small. It also makes sure I focus on accomplishing something each day for Scouting. Busy, tired, can’t think of something? Something must be done each day.”

2010 was a pretty good year.

• We took a family road trip to Texas to see a niece and nephew that had moved there from Colorado. Got to see Cadillac Ranch and the Big Texan on the way there and spent a morning at the National Scouting Museum



• I finished my PhD in Mechanical Engineering, and my family (including my Mom, yay!) was able to make it to my graduation.
• Learned how to Geocache and introduced it to family, friends and the Wolf den.



• Took a family road trip around Wyoming, including Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. We even found some geocaches along the way.



• Traded in my Tiger Den Leader role for a Cubmaster role in my son’s Cub Scout Pack.
• Took my son to the Central Wyoming Council’s Centennial Rendezvous with his cousins and Grandpa.



• Volunteered for two days at Adventure Base 100 when it came to Denver, and took the family on the day I didn’t work there.



• Attended University of Scouting for the second year, actually getting to take classes this time, since I spent the whole day in BALOO training in 2009.
• Continued my outdoor training by taking the Webelos Leader Outdoor Training and Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills combined course.
• Had a fantastic Thanksgiving with my side of the family in Wyoming.
• Had an equally great Christmas my my wife’s family at home in Colorado.



• …and now a quiet New Years at home with my wife and kids.

2011 is shaping up to be a good year too.

• I have been invited back to my hometown troop to give the sermon on Scout Sunday.
• I’m signed up for the spring Wood Badge course WE5-61-11-1
• We’re going on a family trip to San Francisco to visit my sister and her family.
• A summer full of scout camps, including Cub Scout Day Camp with our District and Cub Scout Resident Camp in Long’s Peak Council
• I signed up the whole family to go to the Philmont Training Center in July so I can take a Cubmaster Training class

While 2010 was a pretty great year, I am excited for the potential of 2011. Looking at all the plans we have it may be busy, but I am sure it will be worth it in the end. I wish each of you health and happiness for you and your families as we start off in 2011, and when we look back on it a year from now I hope we will all see it as time well spent.

Happy New Year!

I know this blog has become a never ending stream of videos and comics lately, but this is too good to share. Maybe it rings true to me these days because I just recently added myself to the ranks of the iPhone users.

I love my phone. I hear that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery, but if anyone wants to tell me their favorite iPhone app in the comments, I wouldn’t mind!

OK, you bunch of slackers.

I sent out the e-mail. I posted it on my blog. Told you all about the great causes that it will benefit. You know, things like the Prostate Cancer Foundation and the Wounded Warrior Project. That’s right, the group that helps those that volunteered to defend you and got severely injured in the process. I also mentioned the good karma it would produce, just in case.

I even gave you a link to my page on the charity site, where you can see progress to date. Have we noticed the lack of progress?

I know what you are waiting for. You need someone to sweeten the pot! So here you go. El Hefe at Emergent Fitness, a.k.a. Chris, has offered a prize to the person that raises the most money for the event. It is an iPod shuffle that is engraved with the Fight Gone Bad III logo. So here’s what I was thinking:

I will provide said iPod to whoever donates the most help me with this cause!

This of course requires two things:

1. Out of all the participants from EmerFit, I have the top dollar amount for donations.
2. Out of the multitudes that are going to donate to help me, you have the top dollar amount for donations.

Remember, if someone beats you out, you can always add to your donation!

Even if you already have an MP3 player, don’t you think a shuffle would be great for your own fitness excursions? Plus, I will ship it to you for free, even if you live in Brazil!

Now how can you beat that?

Ahem, now click here please.

P.S.- The “Bleg” in the title is not a typo, just a combination of Blog and Beg. I don’t know where I saw it first, but thought it was fitting for this post. Kinda makes you want to donate, doesn’t it?

Alright people, it looks as if I am now signed up to do a CrossFit workout for charity. The causes are Athletes for a Cure (to support protate cancer research) and the Wounded Warrior Project (to support and aid our service men and women who are severly injured in service to our country).

The workout is “Fight Gone Bad” and there are plenty of examples of it on YouTube.

Here’s the explanation from the Emerfit blog:

In this workout you move from each of five stations after a minute. This is a five-minute round from which a one-minute break is allowed before repeating. We’ve used this in 3 and 5 round versions. The stations are:

1. Wall-ball: 20 pound ball, 10 ft target. (Reps)
2. Sumo deadlift high-pull: 75 pounds (Reps)
3. Box Jump: 20″ box (Reps)
4. Push-press: 75 pounds (Reps)
5. Row: calories (Calories)

The clock does not reset or stop between exercises. On call of “rotate,” the athlete/s must move to next station immediately for good score. One point is given for each rep, except on the rower where each calorie is one point.

So how about it? Ready to donate? Here’s my page on the charity site, you can donate there. I have a goal of $1200, so feel free to forward this to everyone you know. These are both good causes, they will do good things for your money. Knowing what I know about most of you, the additional good karma isn’t a bad thing either.

Have you donated yet? Get on it!

For those with clear skies tomorrow night, there will be a total lunar eclipse at 8:01 MST. It should last about 50 minutes or so, and will be visible in North and South America, Europe and Africa. The moon won’t disappear, but will turn red in color due to the light coming off the Earth’s atmosphere. Check it out if you can, next one is December 2010!

I saw an interview with Cookie Monster from NPR on one of their blog sites. Other than insight into Cookie’s sordid tales of compulsive eating and the trials of stardom (no, not really), I was interested in the reference to the modified questionaire the interviewer used. It turns out to be the “Proust Questionnaire”, now often used as a personality questionnaire. So I thought I would run though it here just for fun.

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