Completing the Wolf Trail

Hello Cub Scout Parents!
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On Tuesday, May 11th, our Den Meeting will be a field trip to City Park for instruction in Bike and Road Safety. This will complete the Wolf Trail for most of the boys – provided everyone has done their homework these last few months!
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In order to get everyone's Wolf Book's updated and properly signed off, I would like for all parents to go through your son's book this week, and sign as Akela/parent for every achievement your son has completed. You'll be surprised how much your son has done, at meetings, on field trips, and of course at home with you. Remember that activities the boys participate in at school, in other groups such as 4H, sports teams or church outings, or at home or on vacation with the family also count toward the Cub Scout requirements. Also remember that I have a spreadsheet listing all the achievements each boy has completed at Den meetings, so if you miss any, I will help fill in the gaps in those areas. But only you are the experts on what has been achieved at home, school etc., so please make it formal and sign off!

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Please be sure to bring your son's book with you to the Den Meeting at the park on May 11th. I will collect all of the books at that meeting, and take them home with me, so I can sign off as Den Leader on all achievements for all of the boys. I'll return the completed books to you at the meeting on Tuesday, May 18th. If you can't be at the meeting on the 11th, please get your book to me sometime that week. The easiest way would probably be to drop it by my office. If I am not there when you visit, you can just leave it with the receptionist – she'll get it to me!

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Thank you!

Wolf News – March 2, 2010

With all the noise of construction and excited boys going on around us at the Church on Tuesday, I don't know how much of "the news" reached the families, so I am posting everything here. I don't want anyone to miss out!

The first payment for camp is due now - $35 per scout and $20 per adult. You can pay me, Jim or Krista, or Cheryl Potter at the Library. Any of us is as good as the other – just be sure to catch one of us soon. I work at the Family Services office on 13th St directly behind Hartzler's on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but you can always leave an envelope for me any day with the front desk receptionist. It will reach me! The second camp payment (in the same amounts) is due on April 6th, and the final payment on May 4th. Turn in your Camp Scholarship request ("Campership") with your first payment or ASAP, so we can get those approved early, and chances are good that no one will have a final payment (May 4th) to make. The Campership should cover it. You can print a copy of the campership form at http://www.scribd.com/doc/26866289/Camp-Scholarship-Form

Health forms for camp are due ASAP as well. Health forms for camp are due ASAP. NEW!!! Word from the Council is that everyone who will be attending camp NEEDS A PHYSICAL! This is just the opposite of what I posted on 3/20, and it's brand new news to all of us. This is a brand new policy with the Council, and this is the first we have heard of it. Sorry for the short notice! Print your form now at  http://www.scribd.com/doc/26866214/Bsa-Health-Form?secret_password=1q80h0vyhskydmz9mk21

The dates for SCOUTING FOR FOOD have changed again (this post update 3/20/10)! We are now planning to hold the Scouting for Food food collection on Saturday, April 24th - which is the date of the Lamar Citywide Yard Sale. With all the cars careening around Lamar that day, we wouldn't want boys walking door to door and taking a chance on getting hit. So instead, we are going to set up several collection sites around town, including a big one on the parking lot of the First Christian Church. We'll make signs and wave at cars and let everybody know why we're there. In addition, we plan to incorporate our Pack 207 April fundraiser into the event, and will be selling hot biscuits and gravy at the church parking lot site to all the early bird yard-salers! We'll need lots of boys in uniform, and plenty of parent volunteer help, too, so mark your calendars! Watch this space for more information as it becomes available.

 

Remember, there will not be any regular den meetings on Tuesday, March 9th, due to the boys being on Spring Break from school ("No school, no scouts" is the rule). 

BIRDHOUSES!  On Tuesday, March 2nd, we started our bird houses for requirement 5 of the "Tools for Fixing and Building" achievement on the Wolf Trail, but ran into some problems with the wood splitting and the nails bending (yikes!). We collected everyone's parts and announced that we would complete the project "next week," once Jim and I have had a chance to predrill the holes to simplify things a bit. Well, I only now realized that next Tuesday is the 9th, and we will NOT be having a regular den meeting, as announced above. So be sure to plan to make the meeting on Tuesday, March 16th! We'll finish the birdhouses then for sure! We promise that, with the holes predrilled, there will be no more splitting, and the nails will slide in like silk. No more frustration! And the boys will leave the meeting with a cool finished birdhouse and a real sense of accomplishment at a job well done.

March dues are $2.00, and can be paid any time during the month. I will have envelopes for everyone at the den meeting on the 16th.

Hopefully, everyone completed February's "homework" assignment, working through Achievement 4 in the Wolf book, "Know Your Home and Community." I was surprised myself to discover the requirement in Conor's Wolf book that the chores assigned in the final requirement have to be carried out for a full month to get credit. The book I carry with me for planning the meetings is from 1999, and that month-long requirement wasn't in there then. But hopefully everyone got a good start, with all the other requirements hammered out and the final one in progress. Let me know when your son has completed the full Achievement, and I will add that info to the Wolf Trail spreadsheet we are using to track everyone's progress.

How about Achievement 10, "Family Fun?" That was also assigned for February, because it is very simple. The Achievement lists 5 requirements, but your son only has to do 2 of them to accomplish the full Achievement. The 5 requirements are:

• Make a game and play it with the family
• Go for a walk together in a park, the woods, a zoo, etc.
• Take turns reading aloud as a family
• Decide with Mom or Dad what to watch on TV or listen to on the radio
• Attend a concert or play as a family

Again, only two are required. Note that anyone who has ever agreed as a family on a TV show and gone together to the zoo or for a walk in the park has met all of the requirements for this Achievement. Chances are, we all have this one down pat. Just let me know that your son qualifies, and I will update the spreadsheet to give him credit.

Here is everyone's March "Homework" assignment:

Achievement 8, "Cooking and eating." We will fulfill the first two requirements, the food pyramid and planning a full day's meals, in a den meeting soon. Requirements C, D and E need to be done at home, though. They are:

• Help fix at least one meal for your family (you decide how much "help" is "help")
• Fix your own breakfast. Wash and put away the dishes
• With a grownup, help plan, prepare and cook an outdoor meal.

Hopefully, March will afford us some awesome spring weather for backyard cookouts. if not, we may have to shoot for Easter – it's always beautiful then! But everyone please try to get these three requirements knocked out in March if at all possible.

Achievement 11, "Duty to God." And while you've got the boy trapped in the kitchen helping prepare that family meal, please slip in a conversation about your son's Duty to God, as you interpret that phrase within your own family. There are only three requirements for this one, and they can all be knocked out in the length of a single conversation:

• Talk with your folks about what they believe is their duty to god
• Give some ideas on how you can practice or demonstrate your religious beliefs
• Find out how you can help your church or religious fellowship.

This last requirement might be accomplished with a quick phone call to your pastor, or by having your son inquire on Sunday morning. If you are not members of a church, feel free to discuss instead some ways your son might help other people in the community, especially those who are less fortunate than ourselves. "Scouting for Food" is one great example of a community activity we participate in purely  to help those in need, and that's definitely fulfilling a "religious duty" in my book. Again, just let me know that you have accomplished this Achievement with your son, and I will update the spreadsheet. Religion is generally a private matter, and I do not need to know anything about the content of your conversation, just your acknowledgement that it took place. Thank you!

A QUICK NOTE ON ACHIEVEMENT 5, "TOOLS FOR FIXING AND BUILDING": The birdhouses we will be completing on the 16th fulfill requirement E of this Achievement. A couple of weeks ago, Ken Davis walked the boys through Requirements A-D – but there were only three boys in attendance at that meeting. So most of the Wolves still need to meet those requirements. If you have already done these at home, let me know, so I can give your son credit. If not, be sure to plan to be at the meeting on March 16th, as Ken will be bringing his tools again to offer a quick "catch-up course."

Thank you all for reading this long, long post! Watch your email for an announcement concerning SCOUTING FOR FOOD, coming up Saturday, march 13th. And remember: 

The first camp payment is due, and

NO MEETING TUESDAY, MARCH 9TH!

Wolf Den News

Congratulations to all of the Pack 207 boys on a great Pinewood Derby race, Saturday January 23rd! Josh (1st Place), Mark (2nd Place) and Gavin (3rd Place) will all get to compete in the District race at the Scout Show on Saturday February 13th at Meadowbrook Mall in Pittsburg.


There will also be Rain Gutter Regatta and Space Derby races at the Scout Show, and these are open to everyone. Rain Gutter Regatta and Space Derby Kits are available at the Scout Shop in Joplin. Regatta kits are $4, Space Derby kits are $5.

Note to parents: There is a $5 entrance fee to get into the Scout Show, and that is both for Scouts and for adults ($5 each). This is being charged by the District, not us. Please get your payment to Krista ASAP - preferably by Thursday, February 4th, if it is at all possible.

If you have not yet seen the full February Pack 207 calendar, click here.

Dues: At our January leaders meeting we decided on a new system for collecting dues that we hope will be more convenient for everybody. Instead of trying to collect 50 cents from every family at every meeting, we will just collect two dollars once a month. At the first meeting of each month, I will give everyone an envelope with their son’s name on it. If you have the two dollars that night, go ahead and put it in the envelope and give it back to me. If you don’t, you can take the envelope home and bring it back the next week.

Completing the Wolf Trail: Our goal is to get as many boys as possible all the way through the Wolf trail by the next Blue & Gold in May. Most of the boys are really a whole lot closer than you might imagine. Jim and I are maintaining a spreadsheet to track everybody’s progress, at least the progress we know about, which is the things we do in meetings. I recently went through the Wolf book page by page and identified a handful of items that we can crack out in meetings between now and May, no problem. There are a number of items, though, that really have to be completed at home, with parents. Items to be completed at home include:

WOLF TRAIL ITEMS TO BE COMPLETED AT HOME

Achievement 4 – Know Your Home and Community - A through E

This all needs to pretty much be done at home with parents.


Achievement 8 - Cooking and Eating – C, D and E

A and B will be incorporated into a Den meeting.


Achievement 9 – Be Safe at Home and on the Street – A and B

C and D, Street/Road and Bike Safety will be discussed in a Den meeting.


Achievement 10 – Family Fun – A through E

Only two of the five offerings are required.

All 5 are super-simple, everyday things we have all probably already done a hundred times with our children. I just need acknowledgment from you to approve the specific activities.


Achievement 11 – Duty to God – A, B and C

All three are best done at home, tailored to the individual family’s faith tradition.


HOMEWORK: Please have Achievement 4 “Know Your Home and Community” completed before the end of February.

Things may seem a bit “uncoordinated” in meetings for a while as we jump from one subject to the next in an effort to catch up on the odd requirements we’ve missed along the way. It should be fun, though. But the sooner we can get the Wolf Trail knocked out, the sooner we can concentrate on fun electives and belt loops. I say let’s git er done and have some fun!

WELCOME KEN! I am pleased to announce that Ken Davis, Zander’s dad, will be donning the tan shirt and joining Pack 207 as an Adult Volunteer Leader. Ken and I will be co-leading the Wolves. Welcome aboard, Ken!

Missouri State Flag: At our February 2nd Den Meeting, we discussed the Missouri State flag, and I promised to post an image so anyone who wants a color copy can print one at home. Here 'tis!
 
 

 
Thanks, All!