The short story: Wednesday is shaping up to be a very difficult day at our house.  I get home around 5pm.  Chloe needs to leave about then to get to her 5:15pm dance class.  Benjamin needs to be picked up at 5:30pm from the middle school.  We have enough time to get home and clean up a little before Gabriel has to go to his 7pm cub scout meeting.  And last night I also had a 7pm cub scout committee meeting.  Whew!

My solution is to make Wednesdays our official pizza night.  I still think we should wait until Chloe and Liz get back from Dance class around 6:15pm to have dinner.  We’ll see how it works out.  I don’t want us to turn in to a family with everyone going in so many different directions that we never see each other.

I am the offical “Fundraising Chairman” for cub scout pack 615.  For the most part this means I store the popcorn or candy in my basement until we can get it out the door.  But it IS an offically sanctioned post on the committee so I attend their meetings.  It gives me a chance to influence the direction of the pack.  Its usually ok.

We should have had an end-of-August meeting but everyone else forgot about it.  This is still irks me, so I mentioned at the meeting that if people had shown up like they were supposed to we would have had more choices in what product to sell - what fundraiser to use.  The national scouting organization sells popcorn every fall and they make a big push to get all their units to participate.  Because we didn’t have any plans in place I couldn’t move forward on the whole popcorn thing.  I can admit that in the real world it doesn’t matter much because selling popcorn was very unpopular in my unit.  People found it very difficult to sell popcorn.  But they found it much easier to sell candy.  So we’re going to sell candy.

In the past we’ve also used prizes to help motivate the kids to sell product (candy/popcorn).  Traditionally there was a first, second and third place prize.  They were pretty good prizes and had a fairly high threshhold of sales before you could win them.  For example, a scout might have to sell 12 cases of candy to win an X-Box.  That’s a pretty good prize, right?  And that’s a lot of candy.

Last spring the scouts didn’t sell much candy at all.  I suspect parents bought the candy just to get out of their fund-raising obligations.  Which is fine.  But it works better for the pack if the kids are really dying to sell more candy so they can win that prize.  So we’ve lowered the threshhold and the quality of the prizes.  For example, sell 4 cases of candy and the scout gets an official cub scout pocketknife.

Our hope is that more kids will sell a little more candy rather than having one kid sell 12 cases.  We have about 90 kids in our pack, so if we can get just a little bit of enthusiasm about it then I think we can clean up and not worry about fund raising for the rest of the year.

Our group finally has a budget so we know how much money we need to raise.  This was no small feat!  Its the first time in recent memory that the pack has been able to do that.  I don’t want to spend all our time raising money - that’s really not the point of scouting.  Its a necessary evil.  The scouts come up with all manner of justifications for how it builds character to sell stuff and to support the pack - and I buy in to that to a certain extent.  But in the end, its still just a means for the scouts to support their mission of teaching boys to be complete men.  What does that mean?  This:

TRUSTWORTHY

A Scout tells the truth. He keeps his promises. Honesty is part of his code of conduct. People can depend on him.

LOYAL

A Scout is true to his family, Scout leaders, friends, school, and nation.

HELPFUL

A Scout is concerned about other people. He does things willingly for others without pay or reward.

FRIENDLY

A Scout is a friend to all. He is a brother to other Scouts. He seeks to understand others. He respects those with ideas and customs other than his own.

COURTEOUS

A Scout is polite to everyone regardless of age or position. He knows good manners make it easier for people to get along together.

KIND

A Scout understands there is strength in being gentle. He treats others as he wants to be treated. He does not hurt or kill harmless things without reason.

OBEDIENT

A Scout follows the rules of his family, school, and troop. He obeys the laws of his community and country. If he thinks these rules and laws are unfair, he tries to have them changed in an orderly manner rather than disobey them.

CHEERFUL

A Scout looks for the bright side of things. He cheerfully does tasks that come his way. He tries to make others happy.

THRIFTY

A Scout works to pay his way and to help others. He saves for unforeseen needs. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.

BRAVE

A Scout can face danger even if he is afraid. He has the courage to stand for what he thinks is right even if others laugh at or threaten him.

CLEAN

A Scout keeps his body and mind fit and clean. He goes around with those who believe in living by these same ideals. He helps keep his home and community clean.

REVERENT

A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others.

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