Arlen Ward dot com

Arrow of Light, Crossover, and out the door!

Arlen — Mon, 27 Feb 2012 04:47:06 +0000

Last week was our pack’s Blue and Gold Banquet, a wonderful evening of food and ceremony where we awarded the Arrow of Light to fifteen scouts.

After awarding the AOL, just has been done for years in our pack, we crossed the boys over into Boy Scouts where they were received by three different troops in our area. The whole thing went relatively smooth, the boys seemed genuinely excited about joining a troop, and the parents were beaming and proud.

This is all well and good, but something still nags at me. We give these boys the highest award in Cub Scouts, congratulate them for five years of hard work, then promptly send them off to Boy Scouts where they start all over at the bottom of the heap. Time at the top of the mountain? About 5 minutes total.

Are we doing these boys a disservice by crossing them over at Blue and Gold? I don’t get the impression that the boys really want to stick around, they have had their fill of Cub Scouts and are ready to move on to something new. It is hard to have a program that is equally entertaining to 1st graders and 5th graders, and doubly so when the 5th graders have seen it all already.

Nobody is complaining, I just wonder if there is a better way to handle Arrow of Light and Crossover.

Nothing New Under The Sun

Arlen — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:04:49 +0000

I remember seeing a South Park episode where Butters was trying to take over the world, but every idea was shot down as something that had already been tried on the Simpsons.

A filmmaker named Kirby Ferguson has put together an excellent set of four videos on the role of using other peoples creativity (or ideas) in creating new work. They are entitled “Everything is a Remix” and has a blog located here. Check out the videos, there’s some facinating stuff in there.

Part 1: The Song Remains the Same

Everything is a Remix Part 1 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Part 2: Remix Inc.

Everything is a Remix Part 2 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Part 3: The Elements of Creativity

Everything is a Remix Part 3 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

Part 4: System Failure

Everything is a Remix Part 4 from Kirby Ferguson on Vimeo.

h/t: Peta Pixel

…and on to 2012!

Arlen — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 00:39:30 +0000

Last year at this time I ended a blog post with this:

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.

Time well spent? I can say, looking back on 2011, I got to spend a lot of time on things I love. Family, Scouting, and travel. What a year!

We started the year off by getting a new puppy! A two month old Rottweiler named Toby.

I gave the Scout Sunday sermon at the church I grew up in.
I was a course participant in Wood Badge course W5-61-11-1

Toby got bigger.
Traveled to San Francisco at the beginning of the Summer
Watched our kids start piano lessons, and take to it like fish to water.
Toby got bigger.
I was a camp councilor for our regions’s Junior Camp for 3rd through 5th graders.
Took my son to Resident Camp in Longs Peak Council. I really enjoyed just being a Scout’s dad instead of the Cubmaster!
Our family went down to the Philmont Training Center to take a Cubmaster training course.

I started my second year as Cubmaster for Pack 223, with a great group of boys and volunteers.
Toby got even bigger.
I got a new camera, which should result in more photos being shared here as well as on Google+.
We went back to San Francisco for Thanksgiving, having a wonderful time with my sister and her family.

At work I got a brand new lab in a brand new R&D building, all ready for fantastic things in the next year!
Toby got bigger still.
I finished my Wood Badge ticket in December with a workshop on the physics of the Pinewood Derby.

Spent Christmas here in Colorado, seeing family and friends for the holidays.

Not to be outdone, ’12 is going to be another year packed with activities.

Unpacking all the stuff we moved to the fancy new lab
Travel to Israel with my wife, mother-in-law, and some friends to see the Holy Land.
I am going to be the Director (in Training) of Junior Camp for our Regional Churches.
Continue to put on the best Cub Scout program I possibly can for the families of Pack 223.
Head back to Philmont for the Philmont Leadership Challenge. A week in the backcountry of New Mexico extending the skills I learned in Wood Badge.
Hopefully the end of 2012 also finds me working closely with the next Cubmaster of our Pack, because my tenure will be up by that coming summer.
One thing is for sure: the dog will continue to grow.

Building a Better Pack Meeting

Arlen — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 21:20:02 +0000

As promised in the last post (long ago), I wanted to mention some of the things covered in the The Strictly for Cubmasters class during Week 7 at Philmont Training Center. I know it has been a while, but for some reason I never hit the “publish” button on this one. Hopefully there are some ideas in here you can use in the new year!

Interactions with the two trainers Debbie Spohn and Jim Hou started well before the week at Philmont. Introductory emails explained the Race Fan theme for the week, and little notes and small gifts (candy!) showed up every few weeks as we counted down to our week. That was a lot of fun!

After our arrival on Sunday afternoon, I initially met the instructors at a short check-in that evening. We made the introductions, and they had each participant make a slide to go with the checkered flag neckerchief we were given. Our theme for the week was racing, so everything was NASCAR or racing related.

The format for the class was a morning session that lasted about three hours then a break for lunch (when our families came back from their outings) then another three hours in the afternoon. We had class on Monday and Tuesday, then we were off for family stuff on Wednesday, and another two days of class on Thursday and Friday. It was a really nice mix of training and family vacation.

We spent time talking about meetings and recuriting, how to include outdoor activities in your program and the magic of campfires. We met up with the “Strictly for Scoutmasters” class and spent some time talking about what makes a sucessful transition from Webelos to Boy Scouts. At the end of the week we put on a Pack meeting on the lawn of the Villa Philmonte, adding a bunch of the extra touches we had learned during the week.

At one point toward the end of the class we did an exercise called 30 ideas in 30 minutes. The class wrote ideas down on index cards and then when yours was selected you stood up and talked about it for a minute. We had more than thirty, but that’s ok, we took longer than thirty minutes too. I think we could have continued this for an hour or more, it seemed that when someone would present something it would jog another Cubmaster’s memory about something that worked in their Pack. Hopefully something here is useful for you!

Here’s what we talked about-

Hold Blue & Gold outside.
Have Scouts earn pool time at the community pool by mowing lawns and doing yardwork at abandoned/neglected houses.
Dress in full Native American regalia for graduation.
Turkey bowling. Exactly what the name implies – bowling with a fully frozen turkey. Winner gets to take the “bowling ball” home!
Spirit Water – put food coloring in the lid of a baby food jar, and let dry (probably for 3-4 days, or use a blow dryer to speed the process). When you shake the jar filled with water, tell the Cub Scouts that it will only turn blue if they have Scout Spirit.
Lad & Dad Cake Bake – have the boys work with a male counterpart (older brother, dad, grandpa, even a neighbor) to bake a cake for the blue & gold.
Survival Bracelet
Use fake vampire teeth to present rank advancement awards to the boys. All representative animals (bobcat, wolf, bear) have sharp teeth, so the analogy is an easy one for the boys to grasp.
The Twix vs. KitKat election. A mock election to show the different ways we elect representatives. Dens vote for their favorite- first with one vote/den then based on number of members, and then elect a representative to vote for them, and finally a full vote of all Scouts. Everyone gets to take one of the winning candy.
Use Day Camp as a recruiting tool. Statistics prove that cubs who go camping within the first 60 days of joining stay with the program much longer.
Five after five. For popcorn sales, the boys hit “five after five” – five houses after 5 p.m. Five houses doesn’t seem overwhelming, and waiting until after 5 assures better odds of catching people at home.
Outlaw pinewood derby race as a fundraiser. The pack has created an “outlaw” category for the Pinewood Derby (similar to the Open Class), open to everyone. Invite local dignitaries to enter (such as Police Dept., Fire Dept., city council members) and charge an entry fee.
Ideas for an outdoor pack meeting: provide a bag of Frisbees for a gathering activity of free play. Make ice cream in a bag as a “game”.
Science Olympiad event at a pack meeting. Editor’s note: look back in old Pow Wow books and Program Helps books for information on “Genius Nights” and putting together genius kits. Excellent way to link school and Scouting.
Hand out a 1 page sheet with announcement and upcoming events at the end of each pack meeting rather than take up time during the meeting to read announcements.
Encourage attendance at religious retreats.
Invite the local TV weatherman to speak at a pack meeting.
Outing to a battleship with a sleepover.
Save campfire ashes and add them to the next campfire your pack has.
The glowing bobcat ceremony.
Year in a Night. A 15 minute talk about cub scouting and then we let the kids go have fun. We have 4 areas set up for the boys to go through. a) pinewood derby (our biggest event of the year), b) water bottle rockets (from day camp), c) cubmobiles (from a fall District event) and d) popcorn tasting (to let parents know about our fall fundraiser and to let the boys taste what they are selling. So 4 fun things for the boys to do representing 4 different events that they will get to experience during the year.
Popcorn blitz prize. We set up a goal for the kids in our pack to reach in a certain time frame. We tell the boys that if they sell $500 worth of popcorn in the first 14 days of the sale then we will reward them with an additional prize (typically valued between $10-15).
Get parents involved more with songs & skits.
Have a pack storage unit and use it to share materials between the leaders. This cuts down on the initial cash outlay for various resources, and encourages everyone to use props and things for pizzazz.
Pack Rocket Launch Party.
Do a pack family trip to an historic place for a weekend with families all staying at the same hotel.
If your state parks offer it, use the naturalist/historian. Time permitting, they’ll usually put on a great program at no cost.
Museum /ship overnighters. Ditto previous listing, including having a sleepover in a museum.
Make rope out of plastic bags. The idea here was to recycle plastic grocery bags and use that material to make rope.
Every pack meeting has a table for each den to showcase month’s activities. Not only does this glam up the room with displays, it encourages families to attend the Pack meeting, to pick up the things little Ralphie made!
Precook as much as possible for pack camping. Plan ahead! If most of the cooking is already done, and you just need to either reheat or mix up and serve. This can allow the cooks to actually spend a little more time with the family.
Have the boys decorate cookies for the Police Dept or Fire Dept. Deliver with a “Thank You for keeping us safe during the holidays” message.
Donate leftover food from Blue & Gold to the homeless shelter. Take Cub Scouts when delivering, and use this as a learning experience about their community.
Send a Care Package to troops. Include a banner signed by all the boys, and include their school picture by their message. Our banner said “Pack 913 Loves Our Troops”. Troops deployed in Iraq, Kuwait, and Afghanistan like to get care packages of disposable wipes, hand sanitizer, travel soaps & toothpaste, etc. One caution here: the USPS no longer delivers letters/packages addressed to “Any Soldier”. Work with your local recruiting or reserve center to get names and addresses of soldiers.
Do recruiting with an Eagle Scout.

There are a whole lot of classes offered through the Philmont Training Center in 2012, and if you hurry and register you can get the discounted rate through the end of this week!

A Training Vacation

Arlen — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 21:39:01 +0000

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.

…and now we resume our regularly scheduled program

Arlen — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:19:20 +0000

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.

Days 72-79: Faith

Arlen — Mon, 16 May 2011 05:19:55 +0000

I’ve mentioned that we started the God and Me program with the pastor of our church. During days 72-79 of the 100 Days of Scouting we had our 3rd and 4th meetings with the pastor. While the program is open to anyone, this go around we had two Cub Scouts in the class, both in 2nd grade.

The whole process has been a lot of fun, with some great activities to show the scouts what it means to have faith. An added benefit was the chance to spend an hour every week with the pastor, getting to know him as a person rather than the guy who stands up front and talks a lot on Sunday morning. If you read this Mark, I just want to say I don’t think you talk a lot, but you might from an 8 year old’s perspective, OK?

**Whistles and looks around…**

Waits for the lightning strike…

OK.

I know that most religions have their own programs for the religious awards, and most of those have programs for the different ages. The God and Me program is the 1st through 3rd Grade program that is managed by PRAY Publishing. This was well tailored to this age, and I look forward to doing it again next year with my daughter. I am going to try and offer the different levels of the God and Country program within our church whenever there is interest. The different groups are:

God and Me (1-3 Grade)
God and Family (4-5 grade)
God and Church (6-8 Grade)
God and Life (9-12 Grade)

There is also a God and Service Award for adults, but it is not a class you work through as much as an award to recognize service to youth both within and outside of the church.

In our pack, which isn’t chartered by a specific religious organization, there is a wide range of faiths represented. I know we have Protestant and Catholic scouts, Jewish and Hindu scouts, some that don’t have a home church, and a few I doubt have ever been inside a church. Every rank in Cub Scouts has a faith component, and recognizing those that have earned their religious award provides another opportunity to point out to all the scouts and parents that part of the character building is looking around and looking within to help build and strengthen their faith, no matter where that faith lies.

I think our pack could do a better job teaching the faith part of the program, and I would like to see us celebrate the differences (dare I say diversity?) that make us a great organization.

Days 69-71: Cub Scouts Outside

Arlen — Fri, 06 May 2011 06:44:33 +0000

Campfires are always a great hit with Cub Scouts. What’s not to love? You combine the outdoors with singing songs, performing skits and being loud and having a good time. Also, don’t underestimate the power of the fire. It doesn’t take much to take a 7 year old back to his caveman roots.

For April we had our pack meeting outside. A local park has a great fire pit surrounded by a low wall and a grassy hill. We had an indoor backup plan (the school cafeteria) if the weather didnt’ work out, but thankfully didn’t need it. The weather was a gamble, as any Colorado resident can tell you, but in the end we prevailed.

For the audience, the background was three Native American Totem Poles, built in the traditions of the Pacific Northwest.

The totem poles became the basis for the campfire program. As the night progressed we talked about totem poles and how they tell stories, and how Cub Scouts has its own story. So naturally we built our own totem pole throughout the evening!

While we built up our totem, we stopped at each level to talk about animal totems and some of the characteristics associated with the animals:

Bobcat: Curiosity and Learning
Tiger: Energy and Unpredictability
Wolf: Loyalty and Teamwork
Bear: Independence and Power
Webelos: Leadership and Being an Example
Arrow of Light: Talked about the meaning of the 7 rays

As the Pack’s totem was built up step by step we stopped along the way to award rank badges to the dens.

Spread out between the advancement ceremonies were skits and songs by the different dens. Some were elaborate, others simple, but everyone had a great time on “stage”! Our two Assistant Cubmasters did run-ons through the evening, providing the bridge between skits or awards.

As the awards were finished, the songs sung and the last of the skits were performed, the fire was burning down. This is the point where the campfire took a more serious turn and we started talking about the traditions of scouting.

One tradition we talked about was the use of campfire ashes to connect the current campfire to those that have gone before. The idea is that you bring ashes from previous campfires and add them in. Then after the campfire is out you collect up some ashes to take to the next one. At the end of my Wood Badge course we were given some of the ashes from our campfire, along with a sheet that gave an abbreviated history of the campfires connected to them. I say abbreviated, because the complete history is 25 pages long! The ashes I added to the fire that night had connections back through training courses, National and World Jamborees, and even a trip to the moon in 1971.

Those ashes had connections all the way back to a campfire at Brownsea Island in 1907.

After I added the ashes to the campfire, I explained how we would collect some up after the fire was put out. I talked about how we would add those ashes to the campfire at our fall camping trip and collect them up again, and how we had a new tradition in our pack to connect us all the way back to scouting’s beginning. I told the Webelos that when they crossed over to Boy Scouts next February we would be sending them with a small container of ashes, so they would forever be connected to their time in our pack no matter where they go after they leave us.

After the talk about the campfire ash tradition, I reminded all the scouts that they are part of a larger movement, bigger than their den, our pack, or even the BSA. They are scouts like boys and young men around the world, all working to better the world around us. Then after a moment we taught them Scout Vespers, sang through it, and everyone was encouraged to quietly go home.

Campfires are a magical place. I hope it was true for the youngest Tiger through the oldest Webelos, because it was certainly true for the Cubmaster.

Day 68: The Scout Show

Arlen — Thu, 05 May 2011 04:19:07 +0000

This was the day of the Denver Area Council’s Scout Show. It was a lot of fun! For me it was a marathon scouting day from getting the booth supplies down to the show at 9 until packing up and taking it all home from 4:30-5.

The show was at the National Western Stock Show complex, with a large interior space for booths, an outdoor area for troop cooking demonstrations, and an arena for pioneering projects.

This was the first time I had attended the scout show, but it didn’t disappoint. The best endorsement of the day was the fact that my 8 year old son spent the entire day there, from 9:30 AM until 4:30 PM and did not complain about being bored even once. It was a blast with tons of things to do!

Packs had a lot of different activities, Pinewood Derby Races, leaf blower hovercrafts, different belt loop stations, and the ever-popular archery and BB gun shooting ranges. Troops had canoe tug-o-wars, skill stations, dutch oven cooking, and pioneering towers and bridges. Crews and Posts had equipment from their organizations and displays for their specialties. Add to this the district and council camps and activities and the scout-friendly businesses, and you have more than 250 booths and activities to really showcase what scouting is all about.

Days 63-67: Skits and Recovery

Arlen — Thu, 05 May 2011 03:11:58 +0000

So after the second weekend of Wood Badge, I was in need of recovery. Time spent with the family, some time processing the experience, and a little bit more sleep.

We spent a den meeting working on the skit the boys in my son’s Wolf den were going to perform at the next week’s pack meeting. They decided to do the Airplane Disaster skit.

I dug a couple of big cardboard boxes out of the basement, and before too long the boys had props for their skit!

This was also the week where I got started on my Wood Badge ticket items, specifically drafting a parents guide for the pack and figuring out a Den Chief program. This is the main reason I got further behind on the 100 Days of Scouting blog posts. When I found I had a few minutes, I was spending it on those two ticket items instead of blogging. Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up and keep it going the next few weeks.