Cubmaster Minute

"When I say ‘I will,' I am taking on a responsibility. When I say, 'I will take out the trash or walk the dog,' it becomes my responsibility I need to make sure I do what I said I would. A simple 'I will' turns into a pledge or a promise-a promise that has to be kept. Keep that in mind the next time you say "I will."

Responsibility Tips for Den Leaders

By Alice, Golden Empire Council

Check out these activities suggested by teachers and creative Den Leaders. They can help boys practice being responsible and also reward them!

Interpersonal Responsibility: Have Den Rules!
One teacher talks about classroom rules, letting her students help decide on rules and consequences. As a Den Leader, you can do the same – just make sure you have only a few basic rules that everyone understands. Post your list at the front of the den room each meeting – if a rule is being broken, just point to the list and ask “What’s the Rule?” No need to get into a discussion with an individual boy, since the den all worked on the rules and consequences together. (You might even have to check the boy’s ideas when they decide on consequences – they are often far too severe)

Behavior Journals: Send home Positive Reports!
Teachers often have students write in their own personal journals about their week’s behavior and how they handled problems that came up. At the end of the week, they take their journals home to share with parents.

As a Den Leader, you can help boys with behavior issues to take personal responsibility by having them write down what happened, and how they think the problem could be solved.
You can also give out “Positive” reports to take home to parents. Baden-Powell said “A pat on the back is a stronger stimulus than a prick with a pin. Expect a great deal of your boys and you will generally get it.” Set a goal to say at least one good thing about each boy at every den meeting. But don’t give undeserved compliments – boys know when the praise is genuine! Remember, “It’s better to build boys than repair men.”

A Taste of Responsibility:
Check this out under Gathering Activities

Responsible Service:
Have each boy make a coupon book to give to his parents or teacher exchange for service from the boy. Each boy can include things such as “sorting the recycling” or “sweep the back porch” or “pass out materials.” Then have the boys turn in their completed coupon books when they have taken responsibility to do each promised task. A word of warning: these tasks should not include regular chores or assignments – they should be for extra things each boy can do.

“Caught Being Good Coins:”
One Den Leader I heard of uses special plastic “coins” – when a boy is “caught” doing something good – helping without being asked, cleaning up after an activity, helping another boy with a project or craft. Boys cannot ask for a job to earn a coin – they are rewarded for choosing to be helpful and take responsibility for themselves and their materials, books, candy wrappers, whatever. Coins are redeemed for simple toys, stickers, party favor type stuff, sometimes a patch.

Assignment Organizer:
Teachers often have their students record their assignments in a special notebook, so they can check off what they do in class – whatever isn’t done becomes homework, which they take home. Both parents and students initial the list before it returns to school.

As a Den Leader, have a process for “homework” – things that must be done at home. Make sure there is some kind of check-off for the boy to do – you could have a chart to post at the Den Meeting, so that boys can initial or put a sticker when they have completed the homework. Some dens have an email system – so parents can be reminded. But it’s important to have some way for each boy to keep and mark off his OWN record as well, especially with assignments that require more than one week.

Money Matters:
To help students understand budgets, teachers often use play money, provide each student with a list of necessary expenses, and have them figure out how to use their “money.”

As Den Leaders, we can work on the scout or religious award requirements that involve learning how to use money. One possible “field trip” might invlve a visit to the grocery store where boys help find the best value, compare not only cost, but price per unit, and also nutritional value.

We can also let the boys take an active role in planning the expenses for a den or pack activity, so they get a realistic view of how much things cost. Every scout should have an opportunity to earn at least part of the money for Day Camp – encourage parents to offer chores for hire, or use a den or pack project, such as a car wash or popcorn sales – where the boy himself can be responsible for part of the cost.

October – A Month for Responsibility

by Alice, Golden Empire Council

October is a month filled with opportunities to be Responsible. Every Cub Scout can learn, step by step, to make good choices, finish the job, keep his promises and earn a reputation for Responsibility. Here are some ways to accomplish that:

October is Adopt a Shelter Animal Month
Even if every boy can’t go out and adopt a new pet, he can take responsibility for a pet he already has. Remember that your pet depends on you to give them fresh water, food, a safe place to live, and exercise. That’s how you show you love them!

Want to help a shelter animal? Check with a local shelter – they often need food, clean towels and blankets, and sometimes even people to come in and walk the animals.

October is also Disability Awareness Month
Try some of the Disability Challenges in the GAMES section of Baloo's Bugle. Invite someone to come and share how they cope with their disability.

Fire Prevention Week is the First Week of October
Visit a fire house, or invite a fireman to visit your den. In the past, my boys got to try on the boots and gear, turn on the siren, and even try using the hose! Check with your local fire department – they often have brochures, comic books, activity books, and sometimes other freebies – like pencils or even plastic fireman’s helmets! Have the boys distribute door hangers to remind people to check the batteries on the smoke detectors – they are real lifesavers!

And be sure to teach every boy to be responsible for his own safety – review Stop, Drop & Roll and how to get out of a burning building safely.

Monthly Theme - Responsibility

The core value highlighted this month is:

Responsibility: Fulfilling our duty to God, country, other people, and ourselves. Being responsible is being dependable and doing what you say you will do. Cub Scouts will have fun learning about responsibility while pretending to be on a campout.

Hints and Tips For New Cub Scout Leaders

Plan your meetings far enough ahead to allow time to gather materials needed. Set goals that you want to accomplish during the year. Outline your program for the year and plan ahead to involve as many people as possible. Plan each meeting ahead of time. You might find it valuable to plan next weeks meeting after just completing a meeting. Always have a plan B, each group will be different and activities that thrilled one den may bore another, and when they get bored they get rowdy. If they are showing signs of boredom drop the activity and go to plan B and you will rarely have discipline problems.

If you plan an outdoor activity, always have an indoor alternate planned.

Transitions from one activity to the next are easiest if the meeting is planned so that the next activity is always preferred to the current one. For example we begin with opening ceremonies that reinforce the values of Scouting (boring) then go to advancement activities (less boring but not as much fun as games which come next), after games we go to snack time (they are always willing to stop what they are doing for snack!). I use the fact that they have their hands full and their mouths full as the best opportunity for announcements and reminders. Their parents are beginning to show up, and it doesn't hurt that parents are also hearing the announcements and reminders, it also helps to keep those impatient parents from grabbing the Cub and leaving before the closing ceremony, since they intuitively understand that they should not take their child away during announcements.

Don't try to carry all of the load yourself. In Tiger, Wolf and Bear dens the family unit is central to the forming of the Cub Scout and activities revolved around the family unit. Get other parents involved. Help them realize it is their program and then depend on them to lend expertise on aspects of the program. Invite them to attend by determining their interests and using them.
Leadership is developed and learned. You can become an effective Cub Scout Leader if you will prepare yourself and take the time to learn. Remember to be flexible in your planning. There are no set answers to handling boys. Don't be afraid to experiment.

Get trained! Start out with the Cub Scout Den Leader Fast Start video. It is very short and enjoyable to watch. After you get settled in, attend the Cub Scout Den Leader Basic Training at your District. It is the best place to go to learn your Cub Scouting fundamentals.

Understand the Cub Scout program so you can help the boys grow throughout the program. There is a lot of resources available to help you. One of your best resources is the monthly district Cub Leader Roundtable, where you can exchange ideas with other Cub Scout Leaders.

Do your best, and, above all, have fun!

The 10 Commandments of Den Control:
1. Regularly use the Cub Scout Ideals: the Motto, the Promise and Law of the Pack, in ceremonies, and as a guide to conduct. You must set the example.
2. Use Den Rules. Start using them immediately. Boys need to know what is expected of them. Make sure both boys and parents know what the rules are.
3. Make uniforms important. Have regular uniform inspections and instill pride in wearing their uniforms. Boys behave differently when they dress up.
4. Be firm, fair and consistent. They will test you from time to time to make sure that you really mean it.
1. Use positive incentives. When the conduct candle burns down or the marble jar is full, give them the special party or outing you promised.
2. Make each boy feel special. Use warm greetings, compliments, words of praise, and fond farewells, liberally for each boy. Make them feel appreciated and wanted.
3. Boys must have input to rules. If you want them to cooperate they should feel that they have some control of how the den operates. You empower them and teach responsibility when they help set the rules.
4. Den programs must be full of short, fun activities. Boys at this age are active and quickly become bored or frustrated. Long talking sessions and complicated craft projects make it difficult to keep control of the meeting.
5. Use lots of help. From time to time, boys require individual attention. They will need help, encouragement, reassurance, advice or just want to tell you something important. You can't give them that attention if your doing it alone.
6. Get to know each boy. Every boy in your den is a unique individual with his own dreams, fears, and sense of humor. He needs to know that you care about him.

September – A Month for Cooperation

By Alice, Golden Empire Council

September 3 – Uncle Sam’s Birthday
Uncle Sam is now considered a symbol of the United States, and was widely used to help recruit people to serve in the army, and also to encourage people to help save materials that were needed to make equipment for the military.
The government realized that they needed the Cooperation of everyone – including people who weren’t in the army, but who could collect or give up using materials that the military needed, such as rubber or metal. Boy scouts were very much involved in collection efforts!

Here’s the popular version of the rest of the story:
During the War of 1812, Samuel Wilson, a meat packer from Troy, New York was supplying barrels of meat for soldiers – he stamped the barrels U.S. for United States, but the soldiers started calling the meat “Uncle Sam’s.” After newspapers picked up the stories, the nickname stuck.

In the late 1860’s a political cartoonist named Thomas Nast, started drawing Uncle Sam with a white beard and stars-and-stripes suit – Nast also drew the modern image of the round, jolly Santa Claus we usually picture, and came up with donkey and elephant as symbols of the Democratic and Republican parties.

The picture of Uncle Sam on the poster was drawn by James Montgomery Flagg, who added a top hat and the pointing finger. During World War I, Uncle Sam was put on recruiting posters.
Finally, in September 1961, the U.S. Congress declared Samuel Wilson as the “progenitor of America’s symbol of Uncle Sam.” Troy, N.Y. now calls itself “The Home of Uncle Sam.”

So whenever you see Uncle Sam, remember that everyone must cooperate to keep our country strong!

September 4 – Newspaper Carrier Day
A lot of people work together to put a newspaper together, and even to deliver the newspaper to your front door. If you have a boy or family that deliver newspapers in your pack, invite them to share examples of how they work together to do the job.

You could also play “Delivering the News – Together” game in the Games Section.

September 5 – National Cheese Pizza Day
You can have a lot of fun cooperating to make a cheese pizza – and it will taste great, too!

September 7 – Neither Rain Nor Snow Day
Today is the anniversary of the opening of the New York Post Office building in 1914. This inscription was carved on the building:

"Neither snow nor rain not heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."

Also, in September 1789, the very first post office was opened in the United States – so this is a good day to thank your letter carrier! Or visit a post office and find out how the mail is handled – a great example of cooperation, because many people work together to make sure the mail gets delivered on time.

September 10 – Swap Ideas Day
This day is celebrated by Girl Scouts – but Swapping Ideas is a great way to cooperate. Many people call it brainstorming. If you are planning an activity or trying to decide what to do, everyone gives their ideas – the only rule is that there are no bad ideas – so No “put-downs” of someone’s idea – even your own.

September 13 – Positive Thinking Day
Explore Positive Thinking – you will discover that it’s contagious – if you are a positive thinker, it will rub off on others around you!

Positive Thinking can also help you DO YOUR BEST in school this year!

Here are some good ideas for Practicing Positive Thinking:
· In every class, look for positive people to associate with.
· In every lecture, look for one more interesting idea.
· In every chapter, find one more concept important to you.
· With every friend, explain a new idea you've just learned.
· With every teacher, ask a question.
· With yourself, keep a list of your goals, positive thoughts and actions.

September 15 – Good Neighbor Day
Good Neighbor Day is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in September – challenge your den or pack to choose a special way to be good neighbors. They could make some cookies to share, rake leaves for a neighbor, host a Neighborhood Watch meeting, help a neighbor fix a fence or paint some window frames. Every one has a neighbor – find a way to be a Good Neighbor – and demonstrate the Scout challenge to “Do a Good Deed Every Day!”

September 16 – Collect Rocks Day
On a den or family hike, collect some smooth rocks with interesting shapes – smooth river pebbles are great to use for art projects! Check out the idea for a Gathering Activity to make a “Model of Family Cooperation.” Of course, boys could also use these rocks to start their own rock collection.

September 20 – First Railroad Station Opens
The Broad Green Station was the first ever opened, as part of the Liverpool route in 1830 England. But Americans quickly decided they also needed a railroad to open up the vast regions of the West.

It certainly takes a lot of cooperation and hard work to operate a railroad. The first transcontinental railroad was built across America in the 1850s and 1860s – but it took lots of people working together! The Congress wanted to build a railroad even in 1840, so that people could move to the West and be able to get people, supplies and products back and forth to the rest of the country.

But no one could agree on what route to follow. Originally, surveyors agreed that a southern route was the best, but politics and the beginning of the Civil War made that impossible, so the northern route won out. The Union Pacific began building in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the Central Pacific started in Sacramento, California. It wasn’t till May 10, 1869, that the two rails finally were joined at Promontory Point, Utah.

But a lot of Cooperation was needed before the railroad was finished: Theodore Judah laid out a route through the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and then brought together the Big Four to create the Central Pacific. And people from many countries worked together to actually build the railroad – men from Ireland and other parts of Europe, freed slaves originally from Africa, and finally thousands of Chinese. There was a lot of racial bias, and many objected to importing the Chinese, but they did the dangerous job of carving tunnels and setting charges so the Sierras could be conquered. The population and history of California and the West were forever changed. The Railroad served the North during the Civil War, made Western expansion possible, and built the fortunes of influential men. Years later, its importance dwindled with the rise of interstate highways and air travel, and much of it was pulled apart for materials for later war efforts. But the history of cooperation lives on in the stories of the people who built the railroad.

September 21 – International Day of Peace
People who understand each other can live together in peace. Peace definitely requires Cooperation! So learn about another culture or country so you can better understand and accept the differences. Invite pack families to share some stories and information about their cultural backgrounds – what do you have in common? How are you different? What do you admire about their culture? What surprised you?

September 22 – Boy Scouts & Band Aids
Can you imagine life without band aids? Well, until 1920, no one had that wonderful little box of band aids in their medicine chest or kit.

Earl Dickson was a cotton buyer for Johnson & Johnson, and noticed that his wife often cut her fingers while working in the kitchen. But the gauze and adhesive tape didn’t stay on the cut very well when she was working in the kitchen, especially when they got wet. So Earl decided to make something better. He took a small piece of gauze, attached it to the center of a piece of tape, and then covered they whole thing to keep it sterile and dry.

When Earl’s boss saw the invention, he decided it was well worth manufacturing to sell to the public – and he made Earl Dickson a vice president of the company!

But here’s where Boy Scouts connects to this story. People were slow to buy the new product. Then Earl’s boss decided to donate some of the new band aids to Boy Scouts – and they loved them! They stayed on even when wet, protected the cut from mud, and were easy to carry on hikes! By 1924, band aids were machine made and almost every household had a box!

September 23 – Native American Day
Native American tribal groups were a model of cooperation, among themselves and even when the first white settlers came to America. Even young children had important jobs to do in helping prepare food, getting the family or village ready to move, protecting or harvesting crops, or in honoring and learning cultural history, dances, art and music. For example when a mother or grandmother worked on traditional pottery or weaving, small children were also there to help, according to their ability and size. Among tribes that planted crops, the children were often assigned to chase away birds who wanted to steal the seeds that had been planted. When the first white people came to America, their was a lot of cooperation between both peoples – the Native Americans shared information about local conditions, crops, and resources, and how to deal with weather and the natural world. The pioneers provided new materials and tools made of metal that were an improvement over what the natives had available. Both groups benefitted from the cooperation between them. Unfortunately, this didn’t last – but if you aren’t familiar with the stories of the first pioneers and how the natives helped them, you might want to check out the story of Squanto – it could make a great skit for a Thanksgiving celebration in October or November!

September 27 – Crush a Can Day
Cooperate to clean up around your meeting place or neighborhood. Then have some fun crushing any cans you find and take them to a recycling center.

You can also have some fun before you crush those cans – play an old fashioned game called “Kick the Can.” It’s a simple thing – Divide into two groups and give each group a can. Identify a starting and ending point. Now, on signal, the first boy in each team kicks the can until he crosses the finish line, then kicks it back to the next boy in line. The winning team gets every team member back to the starting line first. And then you can all enjoy a CAN of your favorite soda! (But don’t forget to recycle those cans! Remember that Scouts Leave No Trace!)

September 30 – Safety Pin Invented
Cooperation is how people work together – but safety pins help keep fabric together. Pins were used to fasten clothing together even in Roman times – but people were always getting stuck! A mason and farmer in upstate New York, named Walter Hunt, invented the safety pin in 1848, while twisting a piece of wire and trying to think of something he could invent to pay back a $15 debt. He later sold his patent rights for the safety pin to the man he owed - for $400. His pin was made from one piece of wire, coiled into a spring at one end and a separate clasp and point at the other end, so that the point could be forced by the spring into the clasp. Hunt designed it to keep fingers safe from injury – so he called it the safety pin!

He also designed lots of other things, and was granted many other patents – machinery for mills, a knife sharpener, streetcar bell, artificial stone, road sweeping machinery, a stove to burn hard coal, and even a sewing machine.

Safety pins have lots of uses – in scouting, we sometimes use safety pins to make a craft.

Mothly Theme - Cooperation

The core value highlighted this month is:

Cooperation: Being helpful and working together with others toward a common goal. Cub Scouts will gain a better understanding of the importance of cooperation as they work together to make the pack harvest festival a memorable occasion for everyone, including the new families.

Cubmaster Minute

Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting said: “Honesty is a form of honor. An honorable man can be trusted with any amount of money or other valuables with the certainty that he will not steal it.” When you feel inclined to cheat in order to
win a game, just say to yourself: “After all, it is only a game. It won’t kill me if I do lose.” If you keep your head this way you will often find that you win after all. It’s great to win, but if you can’t win, be a good loser.

That is certainly a different attitude than the phrase many of us I am sure have heard that goes ”Winning is everything."

Some people have decided that they must win whatever game they're playing, no matter what it takes. Sports coaches and even parents sometimes put a lot of pressure on their kids to win. But there is something much more important than winning. That something is doing your best. As we get ready for a new school year, let's all decide that we're going to make this a year when we do our best, whether it's in the classroom, on the playing field, at home with our families, or at our place of worship. Never forget that if you are honest and do your personal best, then you are a winner, no matter what the final score happens to be.

Monthly Theme - Honesty

The core value highlighted this month is:

Honesty: Telling the truth and being a person worthy of trust. While participating in various Cub Scout summertime activities, Cub Scouts will gain a better understanding of the importance of following rules, being fair, and being trustworthy in games and in daily life.

Webelos Camp at Goshen Scout Reservation

Webelos 1 Alex D, just returned from a week at Scout Camp at Goshen Scout Reservation in Southern Virginia. If you went to Day Camp and thought you had a good time, check out some of the pictures Alex's dad took during their week at camp!

http://picasaweb.google.com/joseph.durnal/GoshenRoss2011

Alex was the only boy from Pack 195 in camp, but the program director made an awesome decision to put him in with one of the largest packs there, 1483 from Ashburn Va. They had 15 boys at camp this year and the group just absorbed Alex like he was one of their own.