100 Days of Scouting: Day 20, Neckerchief slides

I had a pretty busy day today. We got up and went to church this morning. Right after church there was a pitch-in dinner to honor the old choir director that is retiring. The church wanted to have a dinner in his honor since this was his last Sunday to direct the choir.

This year for our Blue & Gold Banquet Penny's 1st year Webelos Den is making all the decorations. They are also setting up a station for the Scouts to do a craft while the Friends of Scouting fund raising presentation is going on at the beginning of the Blue & Gold. The craft they are doing is a neckerchief slide. Penny asked me to help her get ready for it by cutting out the little pieces of wood and the little PVC rings that go on the back of the wood. She plans on using a hot glue gun to glue the PVC ring to the wood. The Scouts will then decorate the wood to make the neckerchief slide. It should be a fun craft for them to make. So, I spent the afternoon cutting out all the wood and sanding it smooth, and then cutting the PVC into little pieces that were about 3/4" long. Tomorrow she plans on gluing the PVC to the back of the wood.

Other than helping with the neckerchief slides I didn't do a whole lot of other Scout related stuff today.

Tomorrow night is our Troop meeting. We are practicing for the rescheduled Scout Sunday Service. It should be a lot of fun watching the Scouts perform the service next Sunday. They always make me so proud when they do things like that.

That's about all for today. Have a great day and remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 19, Last minute ceremony

Today was a really relaxing day. I really didn't do much of anything other than going to the License branch this morning to renew my driver's license. Other than that, I took it easy all day.

I found out yesterday that one of the Cub Scout Packs in Fishers needed an Arrow of Light and a Cross Over Ceremony today but had forgotten to schedule it. Luckily, the Ceremony Team was able to get enough team members together last minute to put one on for them. My son, Tommy, is on the OA Ceremony Team. He and 3 other Scouts that are on the team did the ceremony. So, that's the title of this post, last minute ceremony.

That's just about all of my Scouting for today.

Until tomorrow, have a great day, and remember to keep your Scouting fun! 

100 Days of Scouting: Day 18, Pinewood Derby Track

What a busy day it's been today! It started at 3:30 am when my phone rang. It was the plowing supervisor calling to let me know it was time to start plowing. We had 2" of snow on the ground and it was still falling. When I went to bed at midnight it wasn't even snowing yet, so I was really surprised to see how much had fallen in such a short time. The other thing that surprised me was how much the wind was blowing and how much that little 2" of snow was already drifting. So, by 4:00 am I was pushing snow. And that's how most of my day went. I plowed until around 3:00 pm. After I got done plowing I thought I should run by the shop since I hadn't been there all day. I had some paperwork to do, and that took my till around 6:00 pm. By then I was getting pretty tired so I decided to head home. My intentions were to eat some dinner and then head to bed early, but that changed when I got a phone call from a Cubmaster of a really small Pack that has only 6 boys in it. They wanted to borrow or Pinewood Derby track so they could race their cars tomorrow. I told him to come over to the house and pick it up. I wouldn't have had anything to write about tonight that related to Scouting if my day had not ended up with something Scouting related. So, that's the title of this post, Pinewood Derby Track. I hope those 6 Cub Scouts have fun racing their cars. I know I sure enjoyed watching our Cub Scouts race theirs. Who knows, I might even run over and watch them race tomorrow!

This post was started on Friday night, but I ended up falling asleep right in the middle of writing it. After plowing all day after only having a few hours of sleep, I was just too tired to stay awake long enough to finish the post. So, I'm finishing it today. And who knows, I still might go watch those 6 Cub Scouts race their cars!

Have a great day today, and remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 17, Ceremony Team practice

I had a fairly quiet day today. There wasn't much Scouting going on. Just about the only Scouting thing I did during the day today was to send a few emails out about our upcoming High Adventure meeting.

Even though it wasn't directly related to Scouting, one nice thing I did today was that I went over to our church and picked up 5 boxes of food that were boxed up to help a family that lost all their food when their refrigerator quit working. Our Cub Scout Pack Committee Chair was going to deliver it to them tonight. Doing things like that for people in need always makes you feel really good inside. I guess that was my good turn for the day!

This evening my son Tommy had Ceremony Team practice. He has two Arrow of Light and Crossing Over ceremonies this weekend and the team wanted to get some practice time in before the ceremonies. 

Other than the few things listed above, it was a fairly slow day for Scouting. I wonder what tomorrow will bring? I guess I'll find out soon enough! Until then, remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 16, High Adventure planning

Spent around 1/2 hour this morning answering all my Scouting related email. Some days I wish I didn't have so much email, but other days I'm so happy we can communicate so easily.

One big thing I got done today was to get an information meeting scheduled for the parents to get info about our upcoming High Adventure Trip. We're going to the Boundary Waters in June for a 6 day canoe trip, and there is still a lot of information to be handed out. Several of the parents have questions too. This is the first High Adventure Trip the Troop is doing since I took it over.

Other than the Troop meeting we had on Monday night, I don't really have a lot of Scout related stuff going on this week. It feels a little unusual to have several nights off in a row, but at the same time it's nice to be able to relax a little.

With all that said, I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow, and remember to keep it fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 15, email day

Even though I went all day without ever putting my Scout uniform on, I still got a lot of Scouting done. I just did it a little differently today. Here's how it happened.

While writing my 20th Scouting related email of the day I wondered how we ever got anything accomplished before we used email. This got me thinking about all the different ways we communicate with our Scouts and their parents. While thinking about communicating with the Scouts and parents I then started thinking about our policies on electronic devices going on campouts and other outings and how the Scouts are using them. My mind was racing while I thought about the different ways our Scouts communicate. The more I thought about all this, the more I started to realize that some really big changes are happening with the boys in my Troop right now. A lot of them now have cell phones. Some even have smart phones with email and calendar. A lot of them use Facebook. The way I communicate with them is changing rapidly too. The days of calling a parent to have them pass a message on to their son is gone. Even the way the Scouts communicate between each other has changed. They text, they Facebook, they instant message, they email. They probably have ways of communicating that I'm not even aware of. Things are really changing and I need to be a part of the change. If I don't stay up on top of all the changes I feel like I might loose touch with some of these Scouts. Things are changing and we as leaders need to know what these changes are. I still don't think most electronic devices need to go on outings, but my views on cell phones are changing a little. I'm not sure what the final answer is yet, but I do know that this is something I need to be giving serious thought to. the other thing I really thought about today is how much we can get accomplished by using things like Facebook and other social media. I can get the word out about something to a good majority of the Scouts really fast just by posting it on our Troop Facebook page. Thanks to all these changes I've been talking about I got a lot accomplished today. Just by using email and Facebook, I let the Scouts know about classes at the Merit Badge University and about several other Merit Badge opportunities that are coming up soon. I let the other leaders know about the District Awards Dinner, upcoming leader training, and several other Scouting items. I did get a lot done today. All thanks to the different ways we communicate. Stay up on it because things are changing.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 14, Troop meeting

Not much Scouting stuff to report during the day other than getting ready for tonights meeting. The Troop meeting went great tonight. The 3 new Scouts that just crossed over had a fun time, and we had 3 Webelos visit us a 3rd time. Hopefully they choose our Troop to cross over to. I guess we'll find out soon!

Thats about all there is to report for today. Keep it fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 13, Cub Scout Committee Meeting

Woke up this morning after spending the night with the Boy Scout Troop at the church. We were all so tired after the indoor rock climbing and the bicycling that we all just crashed Saturday night. The Scouts all slept in one of the classrooms that has some couches and chairs in it, while Brian and I slept in the Boy Scout room on the floor.

After we all got up we had some doughnuts and milk and started packing up our stuff. We had the parents pick all the boys up by 8:00 am. This gave me a chance to get home and get ready for church.

One really big thing that happened today was when one of the members of the church told me he wanted to help support the Troop by making a donation. He asked me what gear we could use and asked me to make a list of some things we needed. I made a list of some tents, stoves, lanterns, and so forth. After I gave him the list he asked me to put prices on it and to add it up. The list came to a total of $1,080.00. He looked at the list and said to me "I think I can handle this. I'll see you next week with a check". I didn't really know what to say other than "Wow, okay, thanks!" I was caught totally off guard with that! I guess I'll see what happens next week.

Went out to lunch after church, and then got a haircut. After that I decided I was still really tired so I took a little nap. Felt a lot better after the nap!

Had a Cub Scout Committee meeting tonight. Finished up the final details for our Blue & Gold Banquet. Also finished up the planning for the March Pack meeting. All in all it was a good meeting.

Sad the weekend is over. It was a great weekend and I really enjoyed the Scouting.

We have our Troop meeting tomorrow night though, so I'm looking forward to that. It will be the first meeting as a Boy Scout for our new crossovers. I hope they enjoy it!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 12, Geocaching on bicycles

What a tough day today was. After spending the night at a lock-in at Climb Time Towers doing indoor rock climbing all night, the Scouts wanted to go bicycling and Geocaching. They had planned on doing the bicycling and the Geocaching last month, so everyone had brought their bicycles and helmets to the church Friday night before we departed to go climbing. I don't think they realized how tired we would be after sleeping maybe 2 or so hours on the mats at the climbing place.

After we got back to the church this morning and had breakfast, they were determined to go on that bicycle ride. I could hardly keep my eyes open, but I went ahead and jumped on my bike with the boys and off we went. I talked them into combining the bicycling with the Geocaching though because I knew I wouldn't be anywhere near able to do a bicycle ride and then turn around and go out hiking very far to go Geocaching.

It didn't take long before everyone was getting pretty tired, so they decided to head back. We had lunch and a nap and then just relaxed and took it easy for the rest of the afternoon. We all tossed the football around some in the early evening and pretty much just relaxed.

After a great dinner we watched the movie Scout Camp. Most of the Scouts are asleep now, and it won't be too long until I am too.

It was a long and tough day, but I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday! Hopefully the things I did this weekend will make a little difference in a boy's life.

Troop meeting Monday night. We have a den of Webelos visiting. Hopefully a few will cross over to us.

Enjoy the week!

100 days of Scouting: Day 11, cross over ceremony

Had another very busy day at work today, but was still able to leave by 3:00 pm so I could get ready for tonight.

Tonight was the Blue & Gold ceremony at Pack 116. There were 5 Webelos crossing over, and 3 of them crossed over into our Troop. My SPL was part of the ceremony team, so my Troop Guide and one of the Patrol Leaders came and helped receive the new Scouts.

After the Blue & Gold ceremony was over I headed down to Climb Time Towers to join the rest of the Troop that was there taking the Climbing Merit Badge. The Troop is doing an overnight "lock-in" and climbing all night. And guess where I'm at now! That's right, I'm at Climb Time Towers.

2 Scout functions tonight for twice the Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 10, Eagle Board of Review night

Today was a really tough day at work. It was one of those days when you just want to go home and start all over. Even though it was a tough day, I got through it. I think knowing that I have a Scouting function at night makes the day go by easier. Even the tough ones.

The third Thursday of every month is usually one of my favorite nights of the month. That's the night I get the privilege of doing an Eagle Board of Review. Since tonight was the third Thursday of the month, I hurried home after work, got into my uniform, and hurried over to the church where we do the Eagle Boards. The Eagle candidate that my group was reviewing tonight was a really bright young man named Chris. He had just recently turned 18, so this was it. If he didn't pass tonight there were no second chances. All things considered, I think he knew there wasn't much of a chance he wasn't going to pass his Board of Review. He was a really bright young man that did a nice Eagle project and showed great leadership. He passed with flying colors!

That's just about all I have to write about tonight. Tomorrow evening I have a Blue & Gold Ceremony to attend. There are going to be three Webelos crossing into the Troop. Also, the Troop goes indoor rock climbing tomorrow night. It's going to be a busy night, but it should be a fun one!

That's it for this blog entry. Until tomorrow night, remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 9, first real 100 Days of Scouting

I've been reading several blogs over the last week or so that were all about the 100 Days of Scouting. They all looked really interesting and were full of a lot of really useful information, so I thought I should find out more about it. I emailed my friend Bryan and asked him what it was all about. He gave me the details and then asked if I would be interested in writing about my 100 Days of Scouting too. It sounded fun, so here it goes.

Today I:

--Made a few phone calls, to make sure everything was still on schedule for tonights Cub Scout Pack meeting.

--Emailed one of my Assistant Scoutmasters about our weekend Troop outing.

--Answered a few other emails about this weekend.

--Had a great pack meeting! We had Coyote Chris from Silly Safaris come with his animals and put on a show. He brought a 25 lb Boa Constrictor, a 3 foot long alligator, a huge owl, a bunny rabbit, 2 turtles, a rat, a hedgehog, and a handful of huge cockroaches! The Scouts had a ball watching the animals perform, and after the show was over they got to line up and pet some of them. This is the 3rd time we've had Silly Safaris come to a Pack meeting, and every time they've come it's been a huge hit. We have them come every other year. I can't wait until we have them back. I always love watching the show.

All in all I had a great day of Scouting, and I'm really looking forward to the rest of the week. Tomorrow night I have Eagle Boards, and Friday night my Troop is going indoor rock climbing. Several of the Scouts are taking the Climbing Merit Badge. We're staying the night and having a lock-in. Should be a great time!

This is why I really love being both a Scoutmaster and a Cubmaster. Twice the Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 8, Charter renewal time

I'm writing this on Wednesday morning because it was just too late Tuesday night to sit up and do it. So, here is how my day Tuesday went:

I had a pretty normal day at work today. Nothing real exciting to report.

After work is when the good stuff started. I left the house to head to the Scout room at the church to get some Scouting work done. I had to stop at Staples on the way to get some supplies. Spent way too much money again. That happens every time I go into Staples. Tommy had come with me to help me do some things and we decided that we were too hungry to wait until we got back home to eat, so we decided to stop at Chick-fil-a to have dinner. We both really love their chicken sandwiches!

We got to the church around 8:00 pm, which was a little late to get started on everything, but I had a lot I just had to get done. I started by putting together some 3 ring binders with important Troop information in them. We are expecting around 4 or 5 Webelos crossing over into the Troop this year. Not as many as some of the other Troops, but still good growth for our small Troop. This will bring us up to around 18 or 19 Scouts in the Troop after the crossing over ceremonies. I'm pleased with that. Anyway, we hand these 3 ring binders out to the boys when they join the Troop. They can keep their merit badge cards, rank cards, and other important information in them. I start out by putting a lot of important info in them that they need to get started with.

After getting the binders done I decided to start on our rechartering work. Being a small Troop it only takes me around 10 to 15 minutes to do it, but I still had not started it yet. The District Executive had sent an email asking me to get it done since it was late, so I thought I probably should get on it. I got it done in just a short time. Glad that's over with. Now all I have to do is print it off and turn it in with a check! Mission accomplished!

That's my Scouting for Tuesday. Tonight is our Cub Scout Pack meeting. I love being both a Scoutmaster and a Cubmaster! Twice the Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 7, Time for a change

I had a great day today. We were really busy at work, which makes the day go by fast. I left a little early to get ready for our Troop meeting. The Scouts were getting ready for this weekend. We're going indoor rock climbing Friday night and then coming back to the church to stay the weekend. They decided they wanted to do a little Geocaching Saturday along with some bicycle riding, so they made their plans and put the finishing touches on everything.

After the Scouts had all their plans made I had the opportunity to tell them about a big change that I'm putting in place. After listening to a presentation at our last Roundtable I've decided we're making a big change to the way we handle the grubmaster duties and the cooking during campouts. In the past we used a duty roster for each patrol that allowed a different Scout to cook at each meal. Starting with our March campout we're following our new plan of having a grubmaster from each patrol that plans the meals, buys the groceries, and cooks all the meals for his patrol. I can't wait to see how it works out.

Since tonight was Valentines Day I decided I would treat the Scouts to a little party. I stopped by Meijers on the way to the meeting and picked up some treats, ice cream, and soda. They really enjoyed the little party! The meeting went really well and they really got a lot accomplished. What more could I hope for!

And the best part of the night was that everyone accepted my big change without any complaints! I guess it really was a great time for a change.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 6, Happy Birthday!

Today is my Birthday. Other than that, theres not much to write about. Not much Scout stuff happening today. Went to church this morning. My family had signed up to be greeters for today, so thats what we did. We greeted everyone as they came in the door. I really enjoy doing it. Penny, not so much so. Now the boys are a lot like me. They liked it.

After church we did the usual lunch out thing. Penny and Jon had Panda Express and Tommy and I had Firehouse Subs. I guess the people at Firehouse are pretty used to people bringing their food from Panda over and sitting with someone eating at Firehouse because it didn't seem to bother them at all that we all sit and ate together.

After lunch I went to the old shop for a few hours to move more stuff into storage. Almost done now. Just a little more to move and then I'm finished.

Came home after the moving and got ready to go out for my Birthday dinner. I picked Jimmy up on the way and off we headed to Red Lobster. We don't eat there a whole lot, but I will admit that I really do like it when we do. I love seafood! I enjoyed a Birthday dinner of shrimp and lobster. What a feast it was too. I'm so stuffed that I can hardly move! 

After dinner its back home to relax. Thought that if I'm going to keep up on this blog that I had better get going on it.

One last thing I wanted to mention was that I had over 45 friends on Facebook wish me a Happy Birthday. I couldn't believe I got that many wishes for a Happy Birthday. Its a little humbling to have that many friends wish you a Happy Birthday.

Troop meeting tomorrow night. Time to get ready for that, and then off to bed.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 5, Not enough hours in the day

Some days it seems there are just not enough hours in the day. Today was one of those days.

The day started out pretty normal for a Saturday. I didn't have to be anywhere very early so I decided to sleep in until around 9:00 am. After I got up I decided to check my email. I had several messages that were Scouting related, which isn't new considering how involved I am in Scouting. My first message was from Greg up at Camp K. Today was the day that my son, Tommy, was supposed to have his camp staff interview to work at Camp Kikthawenund for Cub Scout day camp and for Webelos Adventure Camp. I guess there weren't enough people interviewing today, so Greg had to cancel the few interviews that he had scheduled. He said in his email that he would reschedule the interview. I really hope he gets the interview rescheduled so that Tommy can interview with him. Tommy has been looking forward to working on camp staff since he was in Webelos.

The second email was from my good friend Sandy asking if I wanted to work in the kitchen during OA Ordeal again this year. She knows how much I enjoyed working in the kitchen last year. I answered her back and told her that I would be happy to help in the kitchen again. I'm really looking forward to working with all my good friends. We had a ball last year during Ordeal.

I had a few other Scout related emails, but nothing too terribly important.

I decided to have a cappuccino and a slice of cold pizza that was left over from dinner last night for breakfast. I love cold pizza! After having some breakfast I decided to sit and read for a while before I had to head over to the shop for the day, but this didn't last long. My phone soon rang. It was one of my employees needing my help with something, so I put my book away and got ready to leave.

Over the last month I've been moving my business into a new location. We just got our new office set up last week and are now operating out of it. We've been moving equipment out of the old shop and putting it into storage until we get our new building built. I hope to be able to start putting the new building up as soon as it gets a little warmer, but in the meantime we have to get everything out of the old shop. The people that are moving into my old shop are anxious to get moved in soon, so I really need to get everything out. I told them I would have everything out this weekend, so after helping my employee handle some things I spent the day moving stuff into storage. I would have gotten a lot more done, but it got too dark to see. We decided to call it a day.

As I was leaving the shop my oldest son, Jimmy, called and asked me to help him hang a mirror up in his new apartment. Since his apartment was on my way home I told him I would help him with it. As I left the shop I realized that I hadn't even stopped for lunch and was getting pretty hungry. I decided to stop at Taco Bell on the way to Jimmy's apartment. A couple Tacos and a water and I was good to go. We got the mirror hung up in just a few minutes. He asked me if I wanted to stay for a while, but I was getting tired so I decided to head on home.

Even after spending almost the whole day working I still don't feel like I got a lot done. I guess this was one of those days when there were just not enough hours in the day.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 4, Making a little difference

Well, here goes my very first attempt at creating a blog. I'll be the first to admit that I don't really know what I'm doing, but if someone gets something out of my daily ramblings then it will all be worth the time spent.

So here is how my day went today.

I have a female Scouter friend that was having a little problem with the mother of one of her Scouts. The mother thought my friend was being a little to hard on her son, and had my friend all upset. After talking with her for a while, we came to the conclusion that what she expected from her Scout was well within the normal expectations of any Scout. Given the fact that this particular Scout is an Eagle Scout, we naturally hold him to an even higher standard. Anyway, after talking to her about it I think she felt much better. Hopefully the things I said, and the advise I gave will help.

After lunch I had the opportunity to talk with another female Scouter friend that was a little down in the dumps today and dealing with an issue that was troubling her. A few words of encouragement hopefully made her feel a little better. Sometimes all someone needs is to just be reminded that you care about them, and that can make a huge difference in their day.

No Scout functions going on tonight, so I get to take it easy.

I'll close this blog with just one simple thought for the day. Don't forget to tell those you care about how much they mean to you whenever you get the chance.