Howdy Scout Nation! How's everyone been? Time for me to get rolling on 2012's version of 100 days of Scouting. First let me say Happy 102nd Birthday to Scouting. I'm happy to have grown up with Scouting and proud to be part of its future.

Today we start work on my Bear's derby car. He's pretty excited. He's been asking about it for a week and I believe we finally can carve out some time to get at it today.

We had our committee meeting before district roundtable this week. Dragon patrol den leader (Web2) stuck around for roundtable. We discussed W2S transition along with lots of other fun topics. During our committee meeting, we welcomed our new webmaster on board. After reviewing many designs on the web over the last few months, we settled on a design and we are taking suggestions from pack leadership on what functions they want on the site.

If you'd like to take a look at the design we decided to borrow, take a look here: www.pack185fishers.us.

I hope everything is well in your corner of Scout Nation!

Yours in Scouting,

Den Leader Matt

Wow, it's been since June that I've posted. So much for the weekly/monthly goal. :) Sorry for my absence, if you've missed me.

Things have gotten busy in my corner of Scout Nation. I've become the Cubmaster for my Pack and business has picked up, allowing me less time to blog. I guess that means I need to schedule that time.

I'm a little excited, tonight is our November Pack meeting. The weather is gonna be clear, but cold (between 43 and 32) for our first outdoor meeting during a school year. We do plenty of outdoor, offsite stuff during the summer, but this is a first for us. I'm beginning ot 2nd guess doing it in November. I think we may need to move everything back a month for the 2012-2013 year. We'll be awarding our newest scouts with their Bobcat badge and two boys from my den have hustled along and earned their Bear badge already! These boys have attended the summer meetings I held and worked on their own to earn their badge. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that these two boys are most likely going to push each other to Eagle. One can only hope. ;)

Well, here's to being a little more regular in my posts. Also, I've been more active on Google+. If you're a leader in scouting and you're not on there, get there. Look me up and let's start discussing what's going on in our respective corners of Scout Nation. There's a support group for us leaders like no other I've found. A free flow of ideas that is refreshing in the world of online Scouting forums.

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

Well.

Yup.

Okay, I did not exactly finish this marathon strong. I could say it was the onset of late spring in Indiana. I could say it was new assignments at work that monopolized time that I had previously used to gather my thoughts. Or any one of a number of other excuses. But in the end they are just that. Excuses.

Going forward on this blog, I'm going to post when I see fit, with a goal of weekly, but at least monthly. I'll try to stick to Scouting, but who knows what will end up here. Because, after all, Scouters are people too. People that are living their lives. And Lord knows, all SORTS of things happen in peoples lives.

A quick wrapup - The last 10 days of my 100 days of Scouting brought our first meeting as a Bear den. AND it was our first with our Den Chief in attendance. Since it was such a nice day, we went outside for the entire meeting and did items in achievement 16. All of the paired up games. My boys are like most Bears. Pretty active, with a competitive streak. There was indian leg wrestling, push out, pull out, relay races and the den favorite, steal the bacon. Those boys LOVE steal the bacon. A great time was had by all.  I made some annoucements about the upcoming pack campout and asked who was going to make it to Cub Day Camp.

This weeks meeting we were all about knots. The boys all have their own set of 2' lengths of red and white cord to practice knots. We tied square, bowline, two half hitches, taut line hitch and the sheet bend.  The boys each got a copy of the forty knots card. I hope they start to learn them. I believe I'll be doing relay races at the next meeting and they'll have to tie a knot before handing off to the next person. We'll see how that goes.

I've been working with a fellow Scouter on orgainizing our pack campout at the end of June. I am getting pretty excited about this. I sent the email and flyer to the Pack mailing list. I've heard back from one family who will camp and one family that is coming out for the day. In the coming days I'll send a follow up email before the deadline.

Day Camp Pack Shirts were ordered and I've been notified they are done. I notified the CC that they were ready for pickup and she should take her checkbook.

My work here is done. I'll not be jumping on the 100 days strong wagon at this point. I may share some successes with you in these pages when it comes to fitness.  I hope you are all having a fantastic start to summer break and I look forward to meeting you on the trail in the great outdoors.

Yours IN Scouting,

Den Leader Matt

Hi again folks! As always, thanks for taking the time to read and follow along. I've got 11 days left in my 100 Days of Scouting.  Along with folks I've met in this journey, I am beginning to reconsider how I need to approach this next year. I have to admit it has burnt me out a bit. I need to focus more on days that I'm actually doing something Scouting related. Maybe I need to spread out my Scouting a little more evenly through the week. With our Pack year just about at a close since we held our pack picnic and our last Tuesday meeting, there just hasn't been a lot of Scouting going on in our house.

I've thumbed through my son's Bear book a couple of times and asked him to do the same in looking at what we can do on our upcoming camping trip that would get some things completed in his book. I'm fairly certain that he and I can knock out his fishing belt loop over Memorial Day Weekend. We may even take a stab at the pin.

Over the last 10 days, I've had a little contact with my co-host for our first Pack campout in June. We are going to talk next week and get our plans together so I can start 'advertising' to our Pack.

I can't promise I'll post every day for these last 11 with the long weekend and nothing Scouting specific going on for these three days. But I will finish strong and post through the last seven days. My best to all of you.

Keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

Friday was spent repairing the top on my Jeep while watching my neighbors kids so they could go to dinner. It takes a village to raise a child. It truly does. My neighbors know I'll snatch up their kids if they're misbehaving and that they can do the same with mine. An old neighbor stopped by with his Jeep to say hi and hang out for a few while his son visited old friends from the neighborhood.

Saturday was spent attending a very cool program put on by the DNR. It's called Go FishIN crew captain training. We learned how to pass along fishing to kids and after completing the class, we are able to borrow fishing tackle from the state for education. How cool is that?  The purpose of the program is to create fishermen. I learned how to fish from my mom and my brother (also taught by mom.) What the DNR is finding is that kids aren't getting taught to fish by dads and uncles and grandpas as much as they were in the past. Enter the Go FishIN program. Can't wait to borrow some equipment and help the kids get their fishing belt loop and pin and get them excited about fishing!

My daughter had a sleepover for her birthday, so I was up until 2:30 in the morning making sure there wasn't anything too goofy going on. They are a good group of friends, so it's not normally an issue, but you just never know. They had a great time. I got up early and made a pancake breakfast for the girls.

Sunday was the Pack picnic. And boy, was it wet! While I stayed up late the night before, I blew up 100 water balloons and tied 2' of yarn to each one. The game our den was responsible for was where you tie a blown up balloon to your ankle. On the starter's word, you try to pop everyone else's balloon without letting yours get popped. We played that twice. Another den did the Grand Prize Game (wink to those of you from the WGN viewing area.) Then another den did the egg relay. Good food and good times. The boys who were there had fun despite the rain. I got to get the word out a little about camping at the end of June. We were able to collect t-shirt orders. All-in-all, a good day.

Monday was spent getting ready for Tuesday's meeting. Getting things together for my Wolves to complete elective 23b. This is the last piece for them to earn the Cub Scout Outdoor Activity Award. I think lots of boys get close and just never know about it. My boys are earning it this year. and some are going to get it for the previous year as well.

Tuesday was a great meeting. We did some work on Leave No Trace pledge and we played Hangman with the items in the Six Essentials for Going Outside. (First Aid Kit, Filled Water Bottle, Trail Food, Flashlight, Sunscreen, Whistle.) The boys learned a little and had a good time. Now it's time to get to planning for the fall. We'll work on some Bear Electives over the summer and hit it hard this fall.

Keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

2nd Thursday night is district round table night. Even though I believe we have a pretty healthy roundtable and attendance, I'd like to see more Scouters able to take advantage of the knowledge and fellowship gained there. Tonight's roundtable was combined for Boy Scout and Cub Scout leaders.We had a presentation on bullying awareness and its prevention. Very informative. I sat with my friend Clay who is the Cub round table leader (chair?) and we shared some comments during the presentation and after the meeting, he invited our pack to camp together with them at the end of June. I think we're going to take advantage of it since we were going to have a fishing derby and that apparently has fallen through. As far as I know, I think this will be the first Pack camping trip for our unit. I am not aware of any previous camping trips. It's the week before we go to day camp, but I think we'll get a turn out from a few families. It sounds like the other Pack normally gets about 4 families that stay overnight. That's why he asked us, to take advantage of the economy of numbers and for fellowship.

So, what are you doing with other Packs? Do you have any combined events? Do you camp with nearby units? Do you hold Pack olympics? Do you or your district hold a belt loop university? What about a conservation award or Leave No Trace awareness day? Many of what I have mentioned would be more easily carried out with two or more packs.

OH! How could I forget this point? I have a Den Chief!!! Finally,after 2 years of asking, visiting area troops, promising I would help boys earn the Den Chief award, it finally happened. A friend who Cubmasters (did I just make up the usage of a word?) a nearby unit notified me they have a boy who wants to be a Den Chief but they don't have an immediate way to use him. I said yes so fast, I almost choked on my drink! As of last night, this young man will join us at our meetings and be a huge help. Get a Den Chief if you don't have one. If you have one, help him earn the Den Chief award. It looks good on an Eagle application. And I believe it's the only badge of office that allows you to earn an award for doing it. (Unless you consider being a Baden-Powell patrol - but that's a group, not just you).

Keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

Emailed back and forth with the DE to set up lunch with him in June. I've said it before and I'll say it again, get to know your DE and foster a postive relationship. It's only gonna make your Scouting life easier. (It may be fuller, because you'll probably get asked to volunteer more, but in general, it will be easier.)

More Scouting emails with families ordering camp tee shirts. Others asking for help with the June meeting, a fishing derby that will now need to be at a neighborhood park rather than the Scout Education Center.

Communication. Find what works for you and work it the best you can. The best complement you can get from a parent is, "Boy, you sure do send out a lot of info!" Congratulations, you're doing yoru job right! You've got to push that info out and into their hands. What works for you? What methods have you found work best for your organization?

Keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

My apologies again. I just haven't had much to say. Just some emails about the day camp tee shirt sale and reminder about out upcoming pack picnic. As my ScoutNation friend has pointed out, there are just so many times you can run through your laundry list of day to day activities that we all do in our Scouting business. @Scoutbot retweeted one of my older posts. One of the good ones that I'm really proud to have written. Compared to most of this drivel, it really shines. THAT is what I would like to do more of with this blog. And going forward after the 100 days are up, That is what I will do. Put some real thought into what I am writing and move to more of a weekly or bi-weekly set of observations. Those of you who have come to know me through this blog know there will be the occassional rant. That goes without saying. It's just part of who I am.

Friday was a great day to hang out with friends as was Saturday after my son's track practice. Sunday found us having lunch for mother's day with my wife's grandma. She is a sweet lady. She accepted me right into the family and from the start, called me her grandson, even sending me birthday cards with the words grandson on the front. She's not much longer for this world and it was nice to have a meal with her and our family and spend a little time with her before we can't any longer. I never knew any of my grandmas, so to have someone make the effort to welcome me into the family and make me feel a part of it from the beginning, has always made me feel good. We also found on Sunday that a dear friend and neighbor was having some medical trouble that has lasted into the week and appears will keep him in the hospital through the end of this week. It's fantastic to see what a great set of neighbors we have as there has been an outpouring of offers to watch/ferry/feed children to where ever they need to go and generally pitch in and help. I may not live in the biggest, newest house, but my home is among other homes that watch out for each other.  That's the kind of thing everyone wants when they're looking for a house and no one knows they are or are not getting until it's too late. After a couple surgeries, my buddy seems to be doing well, but only time will tell.

Monday and Tuesday we days spent trying to find more info about using our Scout Education Center for our June outing. This will not be happening as they have goose deterrent measures in place. So now the job begins to find a new spot. I think we'll just use one of the ponds in our neighborhood. Tee-shirt emails continue to and fro.

My friends, keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

Wednesday was fairly uneventful, Scouting-wise, except for a phone call to one of my Den Mom's asking if she could pick up tee shirt samples. Oh, and I wrote out some notes for arrangements at our Scouting Education Center for the June meeting.

First Thursday of the month brings us to the Pack Leadership meeting (aka committee meeting) 4 leaders in attendance, including me. It was a BEEEEYOOOOOTIFUL evening. Since we've been having so much rain in our area, there were lots of activities that were ON that had been postponed (sports, mowing. Oh and did I mention sports?) Additionally, the Pack meeting for April has been cancelled, which made everything as far as assignements pass forward to the May picnic. Not a lot was missed by those not in attendance and it was a quick meeting (coulda been 1/2 hour without the fellowship) We nailed down some details on the Pack day camp tee shirts and my leadership of the June meeting. We're going to earn the fishing belt loop and do a fishing tournament to satisfy one of the fishing pin requirements. Now, how I just hafta learn how to run a fishing tournament.

Keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,

Den Leader Matt

Tuesday meeting night rolls around again. 5/12 boys in attendance. Baseball has reared it's head. I'm not bitter. Boys (and I'm one) love baseball. Or spring football. So, not that big of a deal. This may be a defining year. We'll see how recruitment goes this summer and fall. I need to get on a camping schedule with the pack or at least the den. I believe this will be a determining factor in the retention of boys going forward. It would appear that in our pack, third grade seems to be a big drop out year. Families tend to make the decision to stay or go at this age. For those of you facing this same dilemma, don't forget to reinforce with the parent who may be about to shell out big dough for their son to play travel ball that boy scouts offer many of the same benefits of sports with more emphasis on values and life skills.
Meeting night went well, but you can tell it's spring. it was hard to keep the boys in their seats while writing their questions for the sailors on board the USS Carl Vinson. We played some games and had a good time.

Keep putting the outing in Scouting!

YIS,
Den Leader Matt