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.