Beginning of the year

I know it has been awhile since my last post, but I had a quiet summer.  With the start of the Scouting year here I am going to try and post weekly about the Pack and Cub Scouting in this general area.

To start I will talk about our recruitment efforts from this summer.  As I have talked about in earlier posts we held a few recruitment events that gave some results, but not the big amount we had hoped for.  This past week the local Primary and Elementary schools held their Meet and Greet event and invited the 3 local Packs to attend.  The Wolf den leader Nick Calvetti came along with me, we both started in scouting together about 25 years ago.  We had set up our paper air plane launcher and our target.  Luckily Nick knows how to build a paper airplane because he was able to help the boys with it.  We used the Pack's flyer as the paper for the boys, this way they take the flyer home with them.  As the boys would pass by I would ask them if they want to make and plane and shoot it, from there Nick would take over and work with the boys while I spoke to the parents.  My thing with the parents is finding common ground then use that to establish a bond with the parent.  I had the pack's calendar with me and made sure to hand that to the parent along with a youth application for each of their child.  I know that Nick and I did a great job, when every boy left our table they talked about how much they now wanted to join Cub Scouts and most of the parents had a similar thought.

This brings me to planning our first meeting which is in a few days.  I have run into a small, but good problem.  Last week I was going to have 2 maybe 3 smalls dens to start.  I thought this is good it will give us time to get up to speed with the new program.  The problem is now I have a very good chance of having 5 full dens, like I said a good problem.  Since I only had 3 dens I did not recruit a Webelos den leader.  I should have thought ahead, but luckily I have made a lot of friends in the last 25 years.  I called in some favors and now have some people able to help until I can find a den leader.  Since most of the boys in the pack will be new to scouting we are going to have a few games for the boys to get to know each other and also work on the Bobcat Badge.  With the new requirements we will have to teach all the boys the Scout Oath and Law.  I want to shows the boys that we have fun in Scouts and also learn.

I feel the most important part of running the pack is making sure that the program has tons of opportunities to get the boys outside and active while they learn.  In the first 2 months we have 4 different events for the boys.  Too many times have I seen a Pack promise a program to the boys and not deliver on it.  The only way to keep the boys in scouting is to give them experiences they cannot get somewhere else.

Please feel free to let me know what ideas you have used for your pack and any you are waiting to try.

Little bits of progress

In the last couple of weeks Pack 29 has made some progress on the path to restarting.  First is I have a few parents coming over from a different pack and bringing their kids with them.  There is another pack in town that has been struggling and the Cub Master recently decided that he was not going to continue as Cub Master.  There was no one else that wanted to be Cub Master so a good portion if not all of the families are coming over.  My intention was not to have another pack dissolve, but I am glad that I am here to keep these families in scouting.  Also I held a recruitment event last weekend at local Runnings.  This place was amazing, they closed off a section of their vestibule for us and said we can have as much room as we need.  Another big plus is the lady that helped me organize is a Committee Chairman for a pack in a neighboring town.  It is important to find a location that is accommodating and want to have you there.

For the event I decided to bring our Pinewood Derby track, I figured this will get the attention of any kid that walks by.  There was not a lot of foot traffic that was in our target demographic.  I will say that out of the 15 boys that walked by 3 already belong to packs in other towns.  4 of them where too young by a year and a handful of parents we could not get to stop for the kids to race cars.  At the end of the day we did not get anyone to sign up, but we did get 4 parents that gave us solid commitments.  I know there is a big difference between signing up and someone saying they will, but I honestly feel that these 4 parents will follow through.  One of them I am extremely excited about, he is a former scouter and District Chairman.  He has seen the other packs in town, but was not motivated to join.  After talking for 5 minutes he said he is revitalized and can't wait to help out with the pack.  

I know nothing is official yet, but it looks like Pack 29 is going to have about 10 boys this fall.  It is not my target of 25, but it is a good start.  I still plan on holding one more public recruiting event in August and one for a local youth group.  Hopefully between those to events I can get a few more kids. I also have signed up to be part of a street festival that drew 1,000 kids last fall.  This event will be in October but it is never too late in the year to recruit. 

The best part about only having 10 boys is that it gives me a year to learn before I have to start managing a bigger pack.  After the year starts my biggest idea is to push the recruiter patch and hopefully get the boys excited to earn the patch.  I feel that once we show the boys how much fun Cub Scouts is they will ask their friends to join and earn a patch.  

Sorry about the lack of pictures, but we forgot the camera.

Pack 29's first recruitment event.

Just some of my patches from the last 25 years

Today Pack 29 had our first real recruitment event.  It was at the Canandaigua in Bloom festival, on Main Street and we expected a big turnout.  My wife and I had been working on crafts and games that would draw in kids hoping to set ourselves apart from all the other groups there.  My father and I showed up to the site and started setting up our area.  We had a 20'x10' canopy and a couple of tables.  From there we set up the portable Pine Wood Derby track we have.  I also displayed a Cub Scout and Boy Scout Uniform.  Finally we set up out paper airplane range, we made a launcher and a target for the planes.

My youth uniform and a Cub Scout Uniform we have

Now that we had everything set up it was time to wait for the kids to show up.  Unfortunately the crowds did not come, past events on Main Street have brought in huge crowds, but this one did not.  We did ask every kid no matter what age if they wanted to race Pine Wood Derby cars and that brought them in.  Most of the people we talked to are from out of town and already scouts, it is great to see but not too helpful for us.  We did reach out to some kids that are going into kindergarden and talked to their parents.  These people are interested and are now on our email list and are going to keep in touch.  I did talk to one parent that said he will sign his son up for the pack, but not until after summer soccer is over.  It is not a number but it is a start.

Don't mind my terrible job cutting

The portable track

While we did not recruit an entire pack full of kids we created interest for ourselves and created connections with parents.  Some other positives from this event, the local news paper is going to do an article about the rebirth of Pack 29 and we are being asked back to other events on for the City of Canandaigua since we had such a great presentation and had the most interesting area.  Also we have been given the contact information for a local youth group that has a lot of Cub Scout age boys.

My Scouting History

I wanted to take a some time and explain my history with scouting.  I started as a Tiger Cub in September of 1991in Pack 30.  It was a large pack and from what I remember it functioned well.  The only thing I remember from that year is my Pine Wood Derby car, it was orange and had some flames.  From there I remember a few camping trips at Camp Cutler with my dad and my den.  Somehow my best friend Brendon would always end up throwing up on my dad.  Also I remember as a Bear we went to visit the Buffalo Naval Park.  It was a fun trip that allowed me the opportunity to spend a weekend on the USS Little Rock.  In the Spring of 1995 I crossed over to Boy Scout troop 30.  I spent about 2 years in troop 30, in that time I went to Gettysburg for the first of many times.  Also we spent a weekend staying in the barracks at Fort Erie, to this day that is still one of my favorite trips.  I think my second favorite trip was when the troop did a family trip to Herkimer Diamond Mine.  After feeling out of place in troop 30 I moved to troop 33 with about 5 other guys from the troop.  We were only in troop 33 for about a year, but in that time I was elected into the Order of the Arrow.  I had no idea what I was in store for with that.  After about a year in troop 33 the same group of guys and a few others moved on to create Troop 37.  I spent the rest of my youth scouting career there.  I became Senior Patrol Leader and held the position for 2 years, in 2000 I attained the rank of Eagle.  Also during that time I became more active in the Order of the Arrow, joining the ceremony team, and holding a few lodge and chapter positions.  In 2002 I attained the Vigil Honor, though my favorite experience with the OA was attending the National Leadership Seminar.  This was a life changing seminar that helped shape me into the man I am today.  I have been to the National Jamboree and worked on summer camp staff.  I spent some time as an adult leader helping out with troop 37.  After living out of the area for some years I moved to Geneva.  During that time I was an assistant Scoutmaster in Troop 4.  It was a challenge and I know I did some good work with the boys in that troop.  I lived in Maryland for 2 years and after I returned I joined Troop 29 as an Assistant Scoutmaster.  Currently I am working on restarting Pack 29, which is why I have started this blog.

Why I am restarting Pack 29

The reason why I am doing this

I remember back when I joined Cub Scouts as a Tiger Cub all the way back in 1991.  I did not know what I was doing but I got a cool orange shirt that my mom would iron tiger paws on for my advancements.  To be honest I cannot remember a single event we did that year, other than the Pine Wood Derby, but I know I had fun and always wanted to go back.  This was back in the 90’s when Canandaigua had 5 packs all full of kids.  The year is now 2015 and Canandaigua has 2 packs, one with over 50 kids and the other is not as lucky.  My wife and I decided that if Canandaigua used to be able to sustain 5 packs it can do 3.  With that we have decided to restart Pack 29.  It has been about 2 years since this once large pack has held meetings and had members.  I knew that starting a pack would be not be easy, as a youth I was involved with starting a Boy Scout troop and remember how difficult it was.  I do have some advantages with restarting a once thriving pack, we still have supplies and funds that are left over.  Also many of the committee members of Troop 29 used to be with the pack and are lending their support.  The biggest help has been 20 plus years of scouting experience and friends willing to come to my recruitment events. 

The biggest thing when recruiting people is to make yourself visible.  With that in mind we made a Facebook page and an email address devoted to the pack. I started posting videos and generic photos for now.  I also have signs around town promoting our upcoming recruitment drive.  Soon I will be putting up invitations in all the stores in Canandaigua that will let me.  If people do not know we exist then how could they know about joining.   

This brings me to my first event, we billed it as an informational meeting.  The local school district was going to be including a flyer in the take home packets for all the kids in the primary school.  Since we are a new pack we only had about a weeks notice on this, but that was all we needed.  We went online and found some fun and easy games for the boys.  First we made a paper airplane launcher and a target for the planes.  This was fairly simple, you can check out this blog post to see how to do it.  The other games involved making a puppet out of paper, straws, and a penny.  After making the puppet you try to have it climb yarn, it is surprisingly tricky. We also printed materials to show parents places to go camping and what the new Cub Scout program is all about.

I asked a friend if he could come help out with the meeting, and luckily another friend came to help out.  We were all set for a nice meeting hoping to recruit some people.  Our end result was 5 friends hanging out for an hour talking, nobody showed up.  Another pack was holding an information meeting based off that same flyer.  They also had no new people show up.  I had two ways to take this night, as a failure or a success.  Even though nobody showed up we still had a good time and talked about ways to help the pack grow.  I am counting that as a win. Our next recruitment event will be June 6th during the Canandaigua in Bloom festival.  We will be on Main Street from 10-4, we will have games and displays for the boys and parents.My hope is to recruit 5 to 10 boys and some parents.  

I am going to be doing updates after each recruitment event this summer.  My plan is to document the process of recruiting for a pack with zero boys in it.  After we have some members and are holding events I will shift the focus to running a young pack and what we are doing to be successful.