Programming
Cub Scout Camping: When do we schedule it?
When to schedule summer camp?
Simply put . . . now. Reservations are open now.
Outdoor activities are absolutely crucial to building a scout’s passion for scouting and for retaining the family.
Few families stay with scouting without a determined and repeated contact with camping and outdoor activities.
For a Cub Scout Pack leader, recruiting families to participate in Camp Belzer Cub Scout Day Camp or Camp Kikthawenund Webelos Overnight Adventure Camp means a quick measure of the likelihood of the boy’s participation in scouting 24 months later. A scout may miss the following summer camp and still remain with the pack. But he is less likely to attend the following year and then is more likely to drop out.
For Cubs who have done Camp Belzer, a great option is to try Adventure Camp. It is open for Wolf, Bear, and Webelos. It takes fewer days but has more overnights. This is much more amenable to a busy family’s schedule.
Many packs offer both camps. It takes a few more adults, but has great success.
Busy families plan months ahead. To persuade them to do summer camp, you need to make the sales pitch now. Lock the time in.
Send emails. Put it on your Facebook feed. Talk about it at a meeting. Bring the District’s Camping Committee members in to promote camping. Then, and most importantly, make a phone tree to individually call families and ask them to attend. If you do not make the ask to each family, their participation will be less likely.
If you have families who have tough questions, ask the District Camping Committee for advice or ask them to call the family. Contact Camping Chair Rick Aker for more information. (If that email does not work, let me know.)
We are here to help your Cub Scout Pack have a wonderful year in retention.
Solicitation of Donations for Recognition
For Thursday, March 9, 2017’s Recognition Dinner, we are looking for donations of scout paraphenalia for the auction.
If you have a donation, contact Con Sullivan.
Wabash Valley District Cub and Webelos Leader Training
Council through our Wabash Valley District will host at Camp Wildwood in Terre Haute a Cub Scout Leader Training on April 8, 2017, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, for more information contact the Terre Haute Service Center 812-232-9496.
Later in the month, they will host Outdoor Webelos Leader Skills Training (which is similar to IOLS but specific to Webelos Leaders) April 22-23, 2017 at Camp Wildwood from 9 am (Sat) – 12 pm (Sun) – For more information contact the Terre Haute Service Center 1-812-232-9497. You will likely need to plan to stay overnight. OWLS is very important in the new Webelos advancement program. The increased emphasis on outdoor skills and working as a “patrol” require a Webelos Den Leader have more knowledge than the old advancement requirements. Get ready for the 2017-18 Webelos Den Program by getting trained now.
Sagamore Council Offers BALOO in Lebanon on April 1
No joke, BALOO (Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation) will be offered by our neighboring council to the north, Sagamore right outside our back door.
It will be West Lebanon on April 1, 2017. See their website for more information.
This training is required of at least one Cub Leader attending a Pack camp out. Prepare your new leaders for the Fall of 2017’s campouts by getting them trained now.
2017 Wabash Valley BALOO Training Day
This event will help meet the requirement that every pack have at least 1 adult trained for an outdoor activity. This will only help Pack Leaders, not Boy Scout leaders. This training will last 1 day and help cover a variety of subjects to help your Cubs have a fun and safe outdoor experience. All leaders may take the course, not just Cubmasters. The event will move to the West Lebnaon “Scout Woods” for lunch and outdoor activities. less
Location: West Lebanon Library Cost: Individuals registered by March 10th at 5pm will be able to attend for free. Registrations after 5pm will cost $10, up until March 28th at 5pm. No walk in registrations will be accepted. Reservation by: Individual Participant For: Adult Participant Registration: 1/8/2017 Midnight – 3/28/2017 6:00 PM Event Contact: [dead link]
NEEDED: Range Officer Training in Preparation for Spring Camporee
For our Spring Camporee, we need range safety officers. The more RSO’s we have, the more we can use the ranges for more scouts.
Dan Beard Council in Cincinnati is offering the US Archery Level 1 Instructor Course on March 25, 2017. This is at Cubworld, part of the Camp Friedlander campus just within the eastern outskirts of Greater Cincinnati.
They are offering BB and Archery Rangemaster training on April 1, 2017 at the same Cubworld.
They are offering the NRA Instructor Training and another version with Pistols on the weekend of March 17-19, 2017. Familiarity with firearms safety is a pre-requisite. See the website for more information. The basic instructor training is only $35.00. This is at Camp Friedlander (see notes above).
Please help us by sending a member of your troop to the training in preparation for our great Spring Camporee!
Scoutmaster Specific Training in March
On March 18, 2017,Wabash Valley District will offer Scoutmaster Specific Training at Terre Haute’s Camp Wildwood, from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm, for more information contact the Terre Haute Service Center 812-232-9496.
This training is required to recharter as a scoutmaster or assistant scoutmaster in the Fall of 2017.
Wilderness First Aid at Camp Maumee
Hoosier Trails Council (our neighbor to the south and council surrounding Ransburg) is offering Wilderness First Aid Training at Camp Maumee (just a few minutes past Ransburg and just short of the Deem Wilderness fire tower).
This is required training for one or two persons on any high adventure trek. I highly recommend it for scouts, since they may be the ones needing to assist the adult leader(s) on the trek.
Summer Camp Swim Testing at Pike
Don’t forget to touch base with Brian Crow, District Programming Chair and ASM at Troop 343, if your troop or crew is interested in doing the swim test at Pike High School
on Monday, April 17, 2017 at 7:30 pm.
Cub Scout Camping: Why do we do it?
Why should Cub Scouts camp frequently?
Simply put, true scouting is in the “outing.”
Since about the 1972 revisions of the Cub Scout program, I am led to believe, Cub Scouting had de-emphasized outings, specifically camping. This was part of a larger misadventure to make “scouting more relevant to the modern era” by making scouting more urban.
In Boy Scouts, this led to an immediate membership collapse and a re-introduction of outdoor programming a mere five years later.
Cub Scouts didn’t revise as quickly. Their revision re-introducing outings came only in the last 24 months.
Yet, when we give Boy Talks at the elementary schools each fall, the most successful speakers are the ones who emphasize the outdoor programming. They bring backpacks or tents and talk about simple outings. They talk about campfires and marsh mellows.
I have written before about my time as Cubmaster. We would hold three pack camp outings each year: October, May, and Summer Camp at Belzer.
More than any other activity, the boys would ask me, “When is our next campout?” An answer longer than “next month” was met with universal disappointment.
Yes, we camp with Cub Scouts because they find it fun.
But there is so much more. It is part of their personal growth as I have written about before. They adapt over time. It is part of their lessons in figuring out how they fit in the larger world.
The Cub Scout needs to learn at his own speed through new stresses as part of a larger community.
We camp because the basic of society and community are all present. The comforts of home are removed. He learns about himself without realizing lessons are being taught. He just sees fun.
We camp because it builds character, faster than any other method. That fulfills our mission as scouters.
Magic of 5% Improvement
At the recent Unit Key 3 Conference, I spoke about the need to work with your Unit Commissioner and your Unit Key 3 (i.e., Chartered Org. Rep., Chair, and Unit Leader) to do a Unit Service Plan.
A Unit Service Plan is a six-month “business plan” for your unit. It examines your annual planning & budgeting, your programming (like camping and meetings), your leadership succession plan, your adult leader training status, and your recruitment and retention status.
If your unit is not examining these departments on a regular basis, it is easy to allow one part or another to slide. The worst case scenario is you ignore the slide until the slide is a death-spiral do you stop and try to fix it.
The goal of doing regular Unit Service Plans is to prevent this scenario from occurring.
If your Unit Key 3 meets with your Unit Commissioner in the next 90 days, we would help you define ways to succeed in a predictable and healthy manner.
One trick is building your unit is to set goals of 5% across the board improvement. Five percent does not sound like much. But it is.
If your unit has 30 boys and it grows 5%, it means that you have replaced boys who have aged out or dropped out, keeping your retention at 100%, then adding an additional 2 boys (it is hard to have 1.5 boys, so I rounded up).
In programming it means moving from 10 monthly events to 11 events (rounding again). If you have 20 events, you move to 21. More opportunities for more scouting leads to more opportunities to find the one event that sparks the passion of one more scout. With the spark ignited, he is easier to retain, even when his parents are offering different extracurricular activities.
A five percent increase in fundraising, for example by adding camp cards to your existing practices, means that you have more money to use in programming that one more event mentioned above.
A five percent increase in trained adults means one more volunteer to staff events.
A five percent increase in advancement means you are less likely to lose scouts because they are progressing and are actively engaged in the program.
Now has your unit improved by 5%? I would argue not. You have add more financing, more capacity for adult leadership, more boys, more events. You are a much healthier unit.
When your next recruitment cycle hits, you will likely gain more than just 2 boys, because you have that much better of a program to pitch.
Schedule to sit down with your Unit Commissioner and see where you can plan a 5% improvement plan. Your Unit Commissioner’s job is to help you find the resources to make your plan work. You will be amazed at how quickly your unit will grow in a short period of time.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
You must be logged in to post a comment.