I waited till after our Pack Meeting this week to post this, I emailed the same thing to Chris, so I'll use a —- to mark where the email ended and where I am adding, just in case.

Well last night was the climax of a months of hard planning and preparation. I can't speak for the other leaders, but I was nervous, and anxious to how well Cub Scouts would be received by the community. The community has been without a functioning unit of any kind since sometime in 2006. Our unit, while beginning with just two boys sometime a year ago, only began to find its feet earlier this year after February Snow drifts turned into March. What we had been planning since May or June now culminated in last month's Roundup. We had Five boys stay on into the next year, one of them was only semi active in the summer.

Before the boys even arrived, our District Exec, and Cubmaster went into several schools around the county to give boy talks about Scouting. Our round up night was designed to show the kids some of the fun things we may do in Cub Scouts, but also to try and convince them, and their families to make Scouting part of their lives. I am especially proud of my wife (and co den leader) for taking such a central roll in planning the events. In the end we had about eight stations. Each station save for one, was manned at all times by at least one of our Cubs, who administered the games, and dispensed the prizes, and a couple of them, the ones that required a bit more adult supervision is where we positioned our den leaders. Our cubmaster and committee chair were at the registration desk, handing the parents an info packet, and an application, and answering basic questions. They also received a handy 'sheriff's deputy badge' crafted from foam and safety pins with the boy's name added to them. That was our Cubmaster's idea, and it made learning the kids names, and feeling at home with them a lot easier. Some of the times the Cubmaster would also talk individually to parents at the tables in the center. I ended up running traffic, taking new prizes to the new stations. Helping to retie the lasso when it came undone, and talking to kids and parents as I had time.

While we weren't sure how things would go until setup, we pushed back the tables, and tried to setup a ring of stations around the room. It started on the left with a registration table. Then the boys could begin moving from station to station doing a number of fun activities. Station 2 was the Rope a' Ring Toss, where each child would try to toss a couple of rope rings onto a couple of cold juice bottles that were arrayed like a triangle of bowling pins. Rope a drink, and you win it, that was the name of the game. Station three was a 'shooting range' of sorts with can's piled up in a tall pyramid, and the boys would throw bean bags trying to knock as many over as possible, and would then earn a number of prizes that changed through out the night. Station four was a trail mix/drink stand to allow people to get a quiet snack or drink, and rest for a moment.

Station five though not a 'managed' station were the tables in the middle that served a dual purpose to allow parents to sit and fill out the registration, and also we had word puzzles, crayons and a couple of other scouting themed paper games they could play for a bit. Station six was supposed to be rope tricks, but after trying hard to follow the instructions, we shelved it as the rope we had just wasn't sufficient for that station, and replaced it with station nine (Monster Toss), which later we moved to the other end of the room with a couple of the other toss games as the game wasn't seeing much traffic. Station Six was face paint, our Bear Leader, and (my wife) would use water colors to paint on the kids faces, and she was so into it, coming to the event with a paw print painted on her own cheek, and the kids seemed to really like that idea. Station Seven was one we called "Horse Snot" We used a recipe that involved Borax water, and some food coloring (and maybe a few other items) to create a 'Gak' like substance that the boys really got a kick out of. Station eight was the 'Lasso a Bull' where the boys would take a rope and try to lasso a Cardboard cut out of a bull tied to the back of a chair. This was actually one of the more difficult attractions, and some of the older boys seemed to have more difficulty, but man did we get a kick out of seeing of a couple soon to be tigers rope that thing so easily after the older boys couldn't do it.

At each station there was some prize, and they weren't necessarily big or expensive ones, chinese finger puzzles, ball bearing mazes, tootsie rolls and hard candy, we even had some trails end balloons left over from last year that we gave out. We probably had in excess of 30 kids show up, some of them tag a longs, some of them big or little sisters, but all the children, with the exception of a couple older boys, and a few who weren't so into the activities seemed to enjoy it. At the near mid point of the night, our DE and Commish took all parents up stairs to give them a talk about the scouting program. I was so happy they were able to help with that as we had enough man power problems being a young unit. But it looks like it was all worth it, possibly 20 applications, and at least one new leader stepped up. I'm hopeful that after a few meetings we can convince a couple of other adults to join the crew as well.

I admit I was worried about the round up, I was not sure how well it would be received, but I am pleased with the attitude of the children who came along, and most of the parents. A few things I learned though, were that having the meeting a week before to discuss what the stations would be, helped enormously. I'm not sure we would have been as organized, even in the semblance of so much noise and chaos had it not gone that way. While we didn't realize they would be there, having our DE and DC made a world of difference. They were able to get a consistent message about the cub scout program, and most of the parents were very enthused by their pitch. Next time I will make a point to do a better publicity campaign with flyers and signs put out in stores and along the road way ahead of time. If there is an event that requires some practice, like the rope tricks, I'll make sure to see that it is tried before we get to the night. There just hadn't been time before to do it, but in hind sight, I'm not sure how much interest the kids would have had in that activity, unless it was an activity they could participate. Also, if you have a Plan B, as we did by adding the Monster Toss (the elective where you cut out a monster eye and mouth in a card board box and throw bean bags in it), make sure you have all the equipment you need to run it. Now I had bean bags with me, but they were being used in the can toss game. So I tried to come up with a solution, by taking a couple of sandwich baggies, and stuffing them with a bit of rope, and some paper towels. While the weight was good, their size was too large for the cut out, so instead we used what was on hand and taking a little borax, poured enough to form a smaller square in the ziploc bag, removed the air, zipped them, and shaped them into a square, and taped them up with thick masking tape. They ended up working very well.

In the end, aside from at least one parent making some rather snide comments about the fact that mothers were involved in leading cub scouting, and at least a couple of boys who were not interested in getting involved and playing the activities, the night ran pretty smoothly, and we hope all twenty of those boys, plus a few more who were not able to make it that night. After cleaning up, it was obvious that our cubs who helped out had fun too, and we let them play the games a bit while we cleaned up some of the things, and started putting the room back together. Our Commissioner thanked us for inviting her and said that it was one of the best Round-Up's she had gone through. I was a bit surprised by that, maybe because I felt it was our first try and wasn't expecting to do it well though we certainly did do pretty well. When I asked what was so different about ours, she said that a lot of Packs, don't have anything for the prospective Cubs. They herd them into a room and then perhaps talk only to the parents. I don't know if that is true for a lot of packs or not, but I definitely recommend trying to do something like what we did. The Carnival like atmosphere was noisy, yes, but if you can keep the kids occupied enough while the parents are being spoken too that may do a lot more to hook the kids than that.

Our plan is to have a Pack meeting next week with Cake and Ice Cream to welcome the new cubs, and present advancements from last year that had not been done before the Summer 'break'.

Thanks for all you do on your show.

Tim Western
Pack 466
Summers County, WV

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Well, we had a pack meeting the next week, same exact time and location. And most all of those boys came back, and we had 2 or 3 show up who hadn't made it Our bear den grew by three from what we had move up, the Wolves grew too and we had a healthy tiger population I think. I was shocked that we had 4-5 Webelos sign up. Though most are Webelos 2, the reality hit us that we are going to have to get a Troop started sooner than expected. The gentleman slated to be the Webelos leader though was delayed returning from Duty over seas, so it looks like I may be picking up there to help, and let my wife lead the bears for now. This is going to be interesting. I was not expecting to have to figure out the Webelos program that soon, least of all figuring out how to cram both Badges into a single year for the older group of Webelos. So my fears about how scouting would be received have now been alleviated. Now if we can just turn a few of those parents into Den Leaders and Assistants in the next year, we'll be in great shape I think.

Anyhow, the pack meeting was Awesome. Our previous year boys got their pins, patches, and badges, but not before all of the new boys were recognized (loved the name tags), and each was given a key, "Key to scouting" to wear around their neck as they crossed over and Cub shook hands with our existing leaders. I think those boys were really excited. The kids really loved the Marshmallow cross bow demonstration too. Anyhow. Looks like we are going to have a full year, and more to plan!