100 Days of Scouting: Day 52, Another Crossover Ceremony

Day 52, Thursday, March 31st.

Today was a busy day. Things were busy at work, but luckily I had time to answer several Scouting related emails.

After work Tommy and I went to a Cub Scout crossover ceremony. Before the ceremony started I took a couple of minutes to tell the Cub Scouts what the Order of the Arrow was and told them that when they cross over into Boy Scouts they too could work hard and be elected into OA and that if they wanted to, they could join the ceremony team as well. The ceremony went well. The team of boys that performed the ceremony have done several ceremonies together and always do a great job when working together.

After the ceremony was over we all had some ice cream. What more could you ask for!

Tonight was a fun night. I love watching the ceremony team do the Arrow of Light and the Crossing Over Ceremonies.

That's my Scouting for today.

Have a great day and remember to keep your Scouting fun

100 Days of Scouting: Day 51, Backpacking trip planning

Day 51, Wednesday March 30th.

I started the planning on my next backpacking trip today. I sent out an email to everyone in the Troop to see who was interested in going with me. So far I've got around a dozen people interested in going.

Since we already have a campout planned for April, this is just a little extra outing that I'm planning on the side.

My plan is to leave on Friday, April 22nd and get back on Saturday, April 23rd.

As soon as I find out how many people are interested in going I can put the finishing touches on the planning.

Thats my Scouting for today.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 50, Blog Reading Day

Day 50, Tuesday March 29th.

Not a lot of Scouting going on today. No meetings or anything, which is unusual for me.

This afternoon I drove down to the Indianapolis Scout Shop. I picked up a couple of pair of new uniform pants. I wear my uniform so often that I've already worn out 4 pair of the centennial uniform pants, and had to pick up a couple pair of new ones to replace the last 2 I just wore out. It's pretty sad that they only last around 8 to 12 months before they wear out.

I spoke with a fellow Scouter tonight about some Scout related stuff and then came home and spent the evening listening to several Scouting Podcasts and reading several Scouting blogs. I always pick up great ideas and useful information from the Podcasts and the blogs. Hopefully someone gets something out of my blog from time to time.

That's all the Scouting for today.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 49, Troop Elections

Day 49, Monday march 28th.

We had our Troop elections tonight. My son, Tommy, has served as SPL for the last 4 terms, but decided not to run for SPL again this time. I think he just wants to take a little time off.

There were 3 Scouts that ran for SPL tonight. The voting was really close, but in the end, Sean won. I'm really proud of him. He's been in the Troop for 2 years now and has really matured a lot since he first joined. I'm really looking forward to working with him as the new SPL.

Thats my Scouting for today, and it was a lot of fun.

Enjoy your day and remember to always keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 48, 3rd day of OLS

Day 48, Sunday March 27th.

I finished up our 3rd day of Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skill training this morning. After breakfast was finished we had a Scouts Own worship service. When we finished with the service we worked on the knots and lashings. We got everything wrapped up by around 11:00 am and was able to let the "students" leave about an hour early. It was not long after that when I was able to leave and head home. I got home around 11:30 am.

After unloading everything from my truck I took a much needed shower, and then sit down to relax a little. My son, Tommy, sat down with me and told me all about his merit badge classes he took yesterday. He really enjoyed both of the merit badge classes he took. They were Geocaching and Scouting Heritage. Most of the boys in the Troop signed up to take the classes. Tommy was able to get both of them finished. He had done some of the prerequisites before going and had everything completed by the time the class was finished.

I'm still pretty tired from the OLS class. I plan on taking it easy the rest of the evening.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 47, Day 2 of OLS

Day 47, Saturday March 26th.

Still up at Camp K doing OLS training. Things are going good with the training. We have 7 people taking it.

My wife, Penny, called me this morning to tell me about the "Scouting for Food" food collection that the Cub Scout Pack did this morning. She said that they had a great morning collecting food for the food pantry. She said they completely filled our Pack trailer with food. I was really happy to hear the great news. There are a lot of people that will benefit from it.

We just had our cracker barrel tonight, and it's almost time for the "students" to head back to their campsite for the night.

Tomorrow after breakfast we're having a "Scouts Own" service, and then from 8:30am till 10:00am I teach the Ropes - Whipping, Knots, and Lashings section of the training.

If everything goes well we should be out of here around 11:00 am.

I've had a great day of Scouting today, and I hope yours was a great day too.

Have a great day tomorrow and remember to always keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 46, Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills

Day 46, Friday March 25th.

I left work early today so I could get everything I need for the OLS training loaded up in my truck, and get up to camp by around 3:00 pm.

I'm here at Camp Kikthawenund tonight. We started our training around 6:30 pm and ran until around 9:30 pm. We covered how to select the proper campsite and First Aid tonight. After we got done with the First Aid portion it was still a little early so we showed a Power Point on High Adventure. It's not in the training syllabus, but I think the participants all got something out of it. The asked some questions about High Adventure, and then we had a good discussion that followed the presentation. After we finished talking about High Adventure we had our cracker barrel. This gave us an opportunity to talk about why we have cracker barrel. Some of the participants really didn't know that having some fat and carbs before going to bed would help you stay warm in your tent at night while you sleep.

We start tomorrow with food pick up at 6:30 am. The OLS participants will be cooking their breakfast in the campsite.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. It should be a lot of fun.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 45, Take it Easy Day

Day 45, Thursday March 24th.

Today was a quiet day at work. Nothing too exciting happened.

Tonight I grilled steaks on the grill and then just relaxed.

I also finished packing up everything I need for my Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills training that I'm teaching this weekend.

Other than the few things listed above it was a pretty quiet day. I sorta enjoyed it.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 44, Hail Storm Day

Day 44, Wednesday March 23rd.

My youngest son Jon had a choir concert tonight. While we were at the school watching the choir sing, all hail broke loose!

Then the storm sirens went off!

They made us all leave the gym and go into the main hallway just to be safe.

During the time we were in the hallway I called my other son Tommy, who was at home. He said that the hail falling was the size of water softener salt. All I could think of was how bad it was denting the hood and roof of my truck.

After the storm passed they let us out of the school. Luckily there was no damage to my truck.

When I got home I finished getting the stuff I need for the training that I'm doing this weekend ready to go.

Getting ready for the Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills training was the only Scout related thing I did today.

Thats it. There's nothing more to tell.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 43, Training Preparation

Day 43, Tuesday March 22nd

I spent the evening getting ready for the Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills training that I'm teaching this weekend.

Here are the specific parts that I'm doing:

Friday evening while the participants are arriving I'm doing a "Patrol Game". This is intended to keep everyone busy until the majority of the participants get there.

After everyone gets there one of the other trainers is doing the opening ceremony/introductions and patrol assignments/patrol method, and etc..

When that's done I'm doing the "Campsite Selection" portion where they learn how to select a good campsite. They learn things like how to look for unsafe overhead items, selecting area with good drainage, etc. This is also when the participants will set up their tents and get ready for the weekend.

There are other things going on Friday night, but none that I'm specifically doing.

Saturday morning the patrols will cook their breakfast. After breakfast the patrols will do the morning flag ceremony.

After breakfast there are several portions of the training that other trainers are doing. There is "Leave no Trace", "Packing & Hiking Techniques", "Map & Compass Skills", and "Cooking demo & discussion".

The patrols will then cook their lunch

After lunch I'll have a discussion about the evening campfire program where the patrols will perform songs and skits.

Next I will be teaching the "Woods Tools" portion where they will all learn how to teach the Totin' Chip to their Scouts.

Next I'm teaching "Fire Site Preparation & Fire Building".

Evening flag ceremony is next.

Then it's time for the patrols to make dinner.

After dinner there will be time for any individual coaching or helping with any of the areas we covered during the day.

We will then have our evening campfire program.

Next is a GPS presentation, Cracker Barrell, and Lights out.

After breakfast on Sunday morning I will lead the Scouts Own Service with the help of the patrols.

There will then be around 30 minutes of Webelos specific training to meet the requirements of the OLS training for Webelos Leaders.

Next I will conduct the "Ropes, Whipping, Knots, and Lashings" training.

It's then time to break camp, clean up, and pass out training certificates.

This is not our normal schedule for the OLS training, but since a couple of the other trainers had some other commitments that we had to work around this is the schedule we came up with.

I really love doing the OLS training. Of all the trainings I teach this is probably my most favorite one.

As you can see from all that goes on there is a lot to do to get ready for it. That's what this evening was all about.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 42, Court of Honor

Day 42, Monday March 21st

We had our Troop Court of Honor tonight. The Scouts did a really great job of putting it all together and delivering a great Court of Honor.

There were 37 Merit Badges awarded. All the new Scouts reached Scout Rank within the first meeting or 2. One of the new Scouts that crossed over early even earned his Tenderfoot Rank tonight.

That's it for today.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 41, Meetings Day

Day 41, Sunday March 20th

I started the day by getting up early and making breakfast for my wife and myself. The kids wanted to sleep a little later and decided to skip breakfast. Their loss I guess.

After breakfast we all got ready for church. We actually made it to church on time this morning, which is rare these days. My 2 boys are sooo slow at getting ready for church that we almost always roll in just before the service starts. I just hate being so rushed and running late.

At 2:30 Tommy and I had a OA LEC (Lodge Executive Committee) Meeting. When the new Lodge Chief was elected he chose Tommy to chair "Camp Promotions". This is the first position Tommy has held in OA. He's a little nervous about it, but I'm sure he can do it if he just puts his mind to it. We got home around 4:00 pm.

At 6:00 pm I had a Cub Scout Committee meeting. The meeting went well and we got a lot of planning done. One big announcement that was made at the meeting was that at the end of this school year I will be stepping down as Cubmaster. I've been involved with the Pack for 6 years, and 5 of them have been as Cubmaster. It wasn't so bad when I was a Den Leader and the Cubmaster both, but after taking over the Troop it's been a little tough being the Cubmaster and a Scoutmaster both at the same time. Sometimes I feel stretched a little too thin and not able to do both jobs to the best of my ability. So, with mixed emotions, I'll end my rein as Cubmaster in May. The Assistant Cubmaster will be taking my place. I know he'll do a great job, and we already have a new Assistant in place.

Thats my day in a nut shell. Mostly meetings. I'm not sure if my day was a fun day or a sad day. Hopefully the fun outweighed the sad. I guess that's the goal in Scouting, to make it mostly fun, so don't forget to make your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 40, Scouting for Food

Day 40, Saturday March 19th

This morning the Scouts from the Troop took the Scouting for Food bags around to all the houses in the neighborhoods of the White River Elementary School district.

Next Saturday is the food collection date and the bags will be used by the residents to set their food donations out to be picked up.

I had my Boy Scouts from my Boy Scout Troop deliver the bags this weekend, and then next weekend the Scouts from my Cub Scout Pack will go door to door and pick up the food donations. Putting the bags out speeds up the process because some of the people will already have the food sitting out to be picked up. When the Scouts go to a house that already has the food sitting out they don't have to ring the bell and wait for the person to go back into the house and get a donation, they can just grab the bag and take it out to the food wagon. If there isn't a bag sitting out they can still ring the doorbell and ask for a donation, but having the bags already filled and sitting out makes it so much easier.

I think the Boy Scouts had a fun time passing out the food bags. Next weekend the Cub Scouts should have a really fun time going around and picking them up. It really makes everyone feel good picking up food for the needy, and doing things like this sure is fun.

Thats was my Saturday. It was fun. I hope your day was fun too!

Enjoy your day tomorrow and remember to always keep the Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 39, Scout Shop Visit

Day 39, Friday March 18th

Today I took a trip down to the Scout Shop to pick up Merit Badges and Rank Patches for our Court of Honor.

While I was there picking up the supplies, 2 of our Boy Scouts from the Troop walked in to get new uniform shirts.

I decided that while I was there I might as well pick up a new uniform shirt for my son too. He's grown a lot over the last year and really needed a larger one.

Thats not a lot of Scouting for today, but that's just about all there was.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 38, Eagle Board of Review night

Day 38, Thursday March 17th

Tonight was Eagle Board of Review night.

The first Board of Review I sat on was with a Scout that was almost 18. It was a real pleasure to do his BOR.

The second Board of Review I sat on was with a 16 year old Scout. I felt really sorry for the candidate because he had just started getting over the flu and was still not feeling very well. Even though he was still a little sick, he still did a really nice job of answering our questions.

At the end of the Board of Reviews we usually ask the candidates if they have any questions for us. The second candidate asked us what the greatest moments in Scouting were for us. I would have to say that one of the greatest moments in Scouting for me are doing these Eagle Board of Reviews.

Thats it for today.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 37, Cub Scout Pack Meeting

Day 37, Wednesday March 16th

Tonight was our March Pack meeting. We had a Cub Cafe' night and the Cub Scouts had a ball.

We set up individual cafe' stores where each den sold different items. The Webelos sold hot dogs, the Bears sold hamburgers, 1 of the Wolf dens sold chili, the other Wolf den sold ice cream, 1 Tiger den sold chips, another sold cookies, and the 3rd sold soda.

The real goal was for the Scouts to learn how to handle money and to learn some people skills.

The fun part was watching them run their stores and sell their food.

The best part was that everyone had fun!

Have a great day, and keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 36, Troopmaster data entry day

Day 36, Tuesday March 15th.

Today was a busy day of data entry. Since next Monday is our Court of Honor almost every Scout had last minute things to get entered into Troopmaster. I spent almost 2 hours getting everything entered, but now it's done and everything is ready. Now all that's left is to take the advancement report to the Scout Shop and pick up the rank patches and merit badges.

Well, that's just about all the Scouting for today.

Tomorrow is the Pack meeting. We're doing the "Cub Cafe'" where the Cub Scouts set up individual food booths and sell things like hamburgers, hot dogs, chips, ice cream. and sodas.

I'm really looking forward to the pack meeting tomorrow night.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 35, Troop meeting

Day 35, Monday March 14th

Tonight's Troop meeting was crazy busy for me. We're having our Court of Honor next Monday night and it seemed like everyone needed something from me tonight to get ready for it.

I did 7 Scoutmaster Conferences tonight, which is the biggest number I've done in one night since I took over as Scoutmaster.

I just can't wait until next Monday night. I think we have around 8 Scouts advancing a rank at this next Court of Honor. I know that they have all been working really hard over the last 3 or 4 months.

Well, with this blog entry I should be all caught up after the weekend of camping when I couldn't write anything.

It's been fun sitting here remembering all the details of the last 4 days, but now it's time to get some sleep.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog over the last month. I've sure enjoyed writing it.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 34, Eagle Court of Honor

Day 34, Sunday March 13th

Woke up this morning at Bear Creek Scout Camp.

Got up around 6:00 am and realized that it was really 7:00 am due to the change for Daylight Savings Time.

Most of the Scouts were already up and dressed by the time I got to their cabin to wake them. Now it was time to get going on breakfast.

The Scouts made their breakfast in record time. I asked them to help me out by trying to get everything done quickly since I really needed to get on the road by around 10:00 am.

We got everything cleaned up and loaded into the trailer and got rolling by around 10:15 am. Not too bad.

The drive back to the church took around 90 minutes. We got all the gear unloaded and got the trailer parked by around  noon. So far so good.

The big reason I was in such a hurry to get back was because I had a Eagle Court of Honor to attend today.

The new Eagle Scout had been in our Troop since the time he joined until he made Life rank. He decided to transfer to another Troop where 3 of his friends were members. I was asked to speak at his Eagle Court of Honor and give a little history of his time in Scouts before he transferred. I was really honored to do so. This young man was a fine example of what an Eagle Scout should be. I had a really great time standing up and telling a few funny stories about some things that he had done as a young Scout. Everyone got a really good laugh, including the new Eagle Scout. The Court of Honor was really nice and I was really happy they had asked me to speak.

After the Eagle Court of Honor was over it was time to head home for a little nap, as I was just about totally wiped out.

My little nap turned into a 5 hour nap. I guess I was a little more tired than I realized.

So, that's just about all for Sunday. It sure was a fun weekend. Now it's time for the real world. Monday here I come.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 33, Totin' Chip Training

Day 33, Saturday March 12th

Woke up around 6:30 am this morning. It sure was nice to sleep in a cabin on this campout. Waking up in a room that's around 65 degrees sure is nice when you've been sleeping in below freezing temperatures for the last few months.

Got the Scouts up and got them going by around 6:45 to 7:00 am.

We all headed over to the dining hall to start cooking our breakfast. We had 3 separate Patrols on this campout. With the adult patrol cooking, that made 4 separate cooking areas. The oldest Patrol is the Cobra Patrol. Next is the Lightning Patrol, and last is the new Scout Patrol. They decided to call themselves the Dragon Patrol. I was really impressed with how well the Dragon Patrol did on their cooking. We just put a new Grubmaster program in place this month and this was the first campout that we practiced it. Our new program is different than the way we did it in the past. In the past we had a different cook for every meal. The Grubmaster bought the food that everyone in the Patrol had planned. Our new Grubmaster program takes all the planning and cooking and puts it in the hands of the one single Grubmaster. The Grubmaster plans the menu, buys the food, and then cooks every meal the entire weekend. The advantage to this program is the ease of tracking the 1st class requirements of cooking the meals.I thought there might be some complaining about not having any say in the meal planning by the other members of the Patrol, but to my surprise I didn't hear one complaint.

After breakfast had been cleaned up I took the Dragon Patrol out to do some Totin' Chip training. Normally I would have had the older Scouts do this training for the new Scouts, but they had some Pre-req's for the Geocaching Merit Badge they needed to get done before the upcoming Merit Badge class. So, while the Cobra Patrol and the Lightning Patrol were off hiding a few geocaches I started the Totin' Chip training. It went pretty smooth. The new Scouts really enjoyed learning all about knife, ax, and bow-saw use. After the class was over I gave them some time to practice their whittling skills. They all really enjoyed making some sharp pointed sticks to run with.

After lunch the Scouts went looking for the geocaches they had put out. The Cobra Patrol looked for the ones that the Lightning Patrol had set, and the Lightning Patrol looked for the ones that the Cobra Patrol had set. We split the Dragon Patrol between the other 2 Patrols and they got to do a little Geocaching too.

After hiking all over the woods in the afternoon it was time for dinner. It went really well, with all the Scouts getting their fill of the good food the Grubmasters prepared. The adults got their fill too.

After dinner we watched a movie. It was "Race to Witch Mountain", which all the Scouts really enjoyed.

Then it was Cracker Barrel and bedtime. After such a full day we were all pretty tired, so it didn't take long until everyone was snoozing soundly.

That's all for Day 33. Keep reading for more!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 32 Leave for Campout

Day 32, Friday March 11th

Due to our weekend campout, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday blog entries are being entered on Monday, March 14th. Here is Friday's blog entry:

I took the day off work today so I could get ready for the monthly campout. This month we're camping at a little Scout Camp in Connersville, IN called Bear Creek Scout Camp. I had several things to do to get everything ready for the campout. One thing I had to do was to get all the propane tanks topped off. 2 of the tanks were empty, and all the others were low. I also had to make a trip down to the Scout Shop to pick up some things.

We met at the church at 5:45 pm so we could get everything loaded into the trailer before we left. We had planned on pulling out at 6:00 pm, but one of the Assistant Scoutmasters was running a little late. We ended up pulling out at around 6:15 pm.

The drive to Bear Creek takes around 90 minutes. We had fun telling stories and singing along with the radio on the way there.

We always do a cabin campout in March with the new crossovers, so setup was pretty easy when we got there. We got all our gear put away in the cabins and then set about getting the kitchens set up. The dining hall at Bear Creek is a large empty room with plenty of room to set up the patrol cooking areas. It's really nice to be able to cook indoors for a change.

The patrols got their kitchens set up while the adults put their stuff away in the camp dining hall kitchen. This is the one month each year that we get the luxury of cooking in an actual kitchen.

After getting everything all set up, we headed back to the cabins to turn in for the night. The Scouts went to their cabin while the adults headed to theirs. The Scouts had a big one room cabin with 8 bunk beds in it while the adults had a 2 room cabin with 2 bunk beds in each room. It was nice to have 2 separate rooms since one of the Assistant Scoutmasters is female. She was able to have a private room all to herself.

We all hit the sack around 11:00 pm. It sure was nice to have an actual bed to sleep in.

Thats it for Friday. Read my Day 33 blog entry to hear more!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 31, District Roundtable

Day 31, Thursday March 10th:

Well here it is 1:00 am and I'm just now writing my blog. It seems like it gets later and later every night.

The day started out just like most every other day. I spent the morning answering the phones and dispatching the trucks. After lunch I ran a few errands.

This afternoon I answered several emails from parents asking questions about the campout this weekend. We have a half dozen new Scouts in the Troop and some have not camped much.

District Roundtable was tonight. I really enjoy listening to the other Scouters talk. They have some really good ideas that I can often use in my Troop.

We talked about training tonight. This is something that's really important to me since I'm on the district training team.

I'm getting ready for our campout tonight. I went to the store and got our groceries. It should be a fun weekend.

That's just about all there was tonight. Thanks for reading this, and remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 30, Menu Planning

Day 30, Wednesday March 9th

I spent the morning answering phones and dispatching my tow trucks. My dispatcher was taking some training and I was the only one in the office to answer the phones.

Late this afternoon I took my daughter to a car dealership to look at new cars. She was in an auto accident 2 weeks ago and her car was totaled. Now she needs to replace it. I think we found one she likes. I guess we'll see if changes her mind or not.

Tonight I went over to the church and got into the Troop trailer to make sure that everything was ready to go for our Troop campout this weekend. Everything seems to be in order in the trailer, so I guess all that's left is to load up all the personal gear and take off Friday night. We're camping at a little Boy Scout camp called Bear Creek Scout Camp. It's a small camp that is not in the best of shape, but we sort of like it.

I can't wait to see how the new Grubmaster program works out. I'm also excited to see how the new crossovers do on their first campout.

At this time last year we had 13 boys in the Troop. As of Monday night we had 21 boys in the Troop. We only had 2 patrols last year. Now we have 3 Patrols. Things are starting to shape up for us now.

I spent the rest of the night working on the menu for the Adult Patrol. I just hope everyone likes what's on the menu for this weekend.

That's my day today. I hope everyone that reads this had a great day too. Remember to have a good time and keep your Scouting fun! That's what keeps the boys coming back each week!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 29, Not a very Scout filled day

Day 29, Tuesday March 8th

Today was a day that didn't have much Scouting in it.

I was busy most all day long, and I really got a lot done today. I just didn't have much Scout related stuff to do.

I probably spent around 1/2 hour total time today answering email that was Scout related, but that's nothing new. I do that most every day. For me, it's a lot easier to communicate through email than any other way. I can read and answer them with my phone in between doing other things. That's what makes it such a good way for me to communicate.

Other than the email I didn't really do much else that was Scout related.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow night though. We have our District Roundtable on Thursday nights. I get to talk with other Scouters and get to exchange ideas and have discussions on ways of doing things better. It's one of the highlights of my month.

So, tomorrow night I should have some decent stuff to blog about. Until then, remember to keep the Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 28, Troop Meeting

Day 28, Monday March 7th

When I started writing this blog I had every intention of posting to it every night. I've discovered how hard that is. Some nights I'm so tired by the time things finally wind down that I just can't force myself to turn the computer on. Several nights I've actually started dozing off while writing the blog. So, here it is Tuesday night and I'm just now writing Monday's blog. Hopefully I can remember everything that happened. So, here's how Monday went.

The day started out just like any other normal Monday. Work was crazy busy, but that's normal for a Monday. I was late getting out of there, which is normal for a Monday. I rushed to get ready for the Troop meeting, which is normal for a Monday. I rolled in just in time to unlock the church and let everyone in, which is normal for a Monday. I guess today wasn't much different than any other Monday.

We had a good start to the Troop meeting. We showed a video about how geese all work together when they fly, and then related that to how the Scouts in the Patrol work together to get things accomplished. It all went pretty well. The Scouts seemed like they all understood what we were trying to get across to them.

We had 2 new Scouts join the Troop tonight They are brothers who recently moved here from Kentucky and were looking for a new Troop to join. They visited us 3 times before they decided to join. They also visited other Troops in town before making their decision. I'm glad they put a lot of thought into which Troop they wanted to belong to. Some Scouts will visit a Troop 1 time and decide to join that Troop without ever visiting any other Troops.

With the addition of the 2 new Scouts we now have 21 Scouts in the Troop. This has allowed us to form another Patrol, which is something I've wanted to do for the last year.

Tonight we put our new Grubmaster program into use. We handed out the Grubmaster guideline sheet and gave the 3 Grubmasters each a check to pay for their groceries. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it all works out. I'm sure it will be a little tough for the Scouts at first, but I'm sure that it won't be long before everything falls into place and everyone gets the hang of it.

Tonight was a good night of Scouting. It was fun, and that's what it's all about!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 27, Scout Sunday Service

Day 27, Sunday March 6th.

Today was a great Scouting day. We started the day by having our Scout Sunday Service at church today. It was supposed to be on February 6th, but with the terrible ice we had that week we had to cancel church on that Sunday. I really hated that we had to cancel the service, but it was just too unsafe for people to be walking on the ice. Since we had to cancel on February 6th we decided to reschedule it for today.

The Scouts performed almost the whole service. We started off with a responsive reading of the Scout Oath followed by the Scout Law. After that came announcements. I told the congregation about how many new Scouts we had added over the last year. I also told them about all the fun activities we had done over the last year. After telling about what we had done last year I told them all about what we had planned for this year. The Scouts collected the offering and also passed the communion. I was very proud of them. They did a great job and the service was wonderful.

At 5:00 pm we had a PLC meeting. The PLC did some planning for the next campout along with some other stuff.

At 6:00 pm the Troop committee meeting started. We had a great meeting and got a lot accomlished.

That's how my day 27 went today.

I hope you had a great Scouting day too, and remember to keep all your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 26, Blue & Gold Banquet

Day 26, Saturday March 5th:

I started the day by taking my son Tommy to the Merit Badge University that was going on this weekend. He was taking the Citizenship in the Community merit badge this morning. After dropping him off for his merit badge class I headed home to get ready for our Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet.

I loaded up my truck with everything I needed for the Blue & Gold Banquet and headed up to the camp. We had our banquet at Camp Kikthawenund, which is one of my favorite Scout camps.

I got there around 11:00 am and started getting everything ready. I had a few other leaders helping with everything, so the set up went really smooth.

We started cooking around 1:00 pm. We were having baked ziti, meatballs, bread sticks, and salad. We had everything ready to go by around 3:45 pm.

The banquet started at 4:00 pm. We had our FOS presentation first and then awards. Most every one of the Scouts made their rank and it was really good to see all the awards that were being handed out.

After the awards were finished we had dinner. The dinner was really good and everyone enjoyed it. After dinner was over we had the Arrow of Light and the Crossing Over Ceremony.

The 2nd year Webelos all crossed over into Boy Scouts. I was a great evening and everyone had a great time.

All in all I would say it was a total success.

And the best part about it all was that everyone had fun. Thats what's important.

100 Days of Scouting: Day 25, Merit Badge University

I was late leaving work tonight, which made me late getting Tommy to the merit badge university. I wanted to get there around 5:45 pm, but it was almost 6:15 pm before I made it there. Classes didn't start until 6:30 pm, but I needed to sign blue cards for several of the Scouts before their classes started and I was really rushed to get them all signed.

While the merit badge classes were going on, we had a training team meeting. There are 5 of us on the training team that do all the Cub Scout training for the district.

Tommy took the Woodworking merit badge tonight and takes Citizenship in the Communiy tomorrow morning.

Tomorrow will be a busy day. I have to get Tommy to the merit badge university by 8:00 am, and we're having the Pack Blue & Gold banquet tomorrow night.

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

100 Days of Scouting: Day 24 District Awards Dinner

I had a busy day at work again today. It seems like we've been busier than normal this week.

Tonight was the District Awards Dinner. There were several awards handed out tonight. My wife, Penny, was awarded the Boy Scout training award. One of my good friends, Joe, was awarded the District Award of Merit.

I really enjoyed watching all the awards get handed out and it was also nice to see all my good Scouting friends.

I hope your day was as good as mine was. Thanks for reading my blog, and remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 23, High Adventure meeting

I had a busy day today. I spent the morning working in the office.

After lunch I met one of the other Cub leaders at the GFS outlet store to do the grocery shopping for the Blue & Gold Banquet. They have a really neat computer program that I just love to use. When you get there they give you a handheld scanner that you can scan the bar codes on the merchandise with. After you scan the bar codes you take the scanner up to the computer and download the products you have selected into it. You enter the number of people you need to serve, and then the computer makes a list of the quantities of everything you need based on the average serving sizes of the products. It's not absolutely perfect, but it sure takes most of the guess work out of trying to figure out how much of something you need to purchase.

After I got everything loaded into my truck I decided to just run it up to the camp dining hall and put it away in the refrigerator and freezer there. That way I wouldn't have to try to find room for it in my home freezer. I called the camp ranger on the phone to see if he was there, but he didn't answer. I headed back to the office and waited for him to call me back. He finally called back, so I went ahead and took everything up to camp. After I got it unloaded I headed home to get ready for my High Adventure meeting.

I headed over to the church around 6:30 pm to get everything ready and to wait for everyone to show up for our 7:00 pm meeting. We're going to the Boundary Waters in June for a 10 day High Adventure trip and tonight was our initial information meeting where we handed out info and talked about the trip. So far, we have 3 adults and 4 Scouts going. Our crew size is limited to 9 people total. I hope we can get 2 more Scouts signed up to go with us. If not then we will open it up to other Troops in the area to see if we can fill up our crew. The meeting went really well and everyone asked a lot of really good questions. I can hardly wait to go on this trip. I've never been to the Boundary Waters before. I hear it's just gorgeous up there.

Well, that was my fun day of Scouting today. Have a great day, and remember to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 22, Data entry

Like most every day, I spent the majority of the day working. It wasn't until after work that I had the opportunity to do anything related to Scouting.

After I came home from work I sat down at the computer and started entering the new Scouts into Troopmaster. Data entry is not my most fun activity! It's hard to believe that 3 years ago when I restarted the Troop I had 5 Scouts. As of today I have 19 Scouts. I'm pretty happy with the growth. Some days it feels like really slow growth, but I guess it's better to have slow steady growth than to have a big sudden increase that I can't manage.

I spent some time getting things ready for our High Adventure trip meeting that we're having tomorrow night. I'll be handing out info and answering questions about our Boundary Waters canoe trip.

I also sent out reminder emails about the District Awards Dinner that's happening on Thursday night.

Friday night and all day Saturday is Merit Badge University at Carmel High School. Hopefully the Scouts will have a chance to earn a few Merit Badges.

Well, that's just about all to report on this 22nd day of my 100 Days of Scouting. Have a great day and be sure to keep your Scouting fun!

100 Days of Scouting: Day 21, Troop meeting

Today was a great Scouting day.

For the last week our District Executive has been on me to get the hard copy of our Annual Charter agreement filed at the Scout Office, so this morning I drove to the church and had Pastor John sign it. I wasn't nearly as worried about getting it done early as everyone else was. I knew I would have it in before the end of the day today, but for some reason our DE was freaking out about it. He started emailing me last week trying to get me to bring it in. After I got it signed I took it down to the Scout Office and wrote the check. I also turned in the applications for our new crossovers. With the new Scouts that just joined the Troop it brings us up to a total of 19 Scouts in the Troop. We're certainly not the biggest Troop in the area, but considering we only had 5 Scouts in the Troop when I re-started it 3 years ago, I'm pretty happy with the growth.

After I got back from the Scout Office I spent some time on the computer answering Scouting email. There were a lot of questions about the Scout Sunday service that we are doing this coming Sunday. We were supposed to have our Scout Sunday service on Sunday, February 6th, but we had 3 inches of ice on the parking lot and had to cancel church that day. Our rescheduled Scout Sunday service is this Sunday, March 6th.

Tonight was our weekly Troop meeting. We spent the evening practicing for the church service that we're doing this weekend. I hope the Scouts do a good job with the service. We are pretty much running the whole service. The only part we're not doing is the actual sermon itself, which Pastor John is doing. I know they'll do a good job with it.

That's just about all the Scouting I did today. Have a great day, and remember to keep your Scouting fun!