2.33 Gallons = 1 US Peck

Phil Peck's Weblog (Scouter, Outdoorsman, Father, and Husband)

May 12, 2011
by philpeck
0 comments

Day 94 – 100 Days Of Scouting

Thursday is Troop Meeting night. I’ve been looking forward to this meeting as it’s the PLC’s second month on their own and they’re really stepping up the plate. This month’s theme is sports and they’ve picked some slightly different sports to teach and play at each meeting. A Scout is physically fit, right?

I couldn’t have been prouder of my Scouts tonight. They had arranged to have another Scout from another Troop come and teach them ultimate. Turns out he was home sick today and my son and another Scout found out at school that he wouldn’t be able to make it. No worries, they worked with it. A few last minute phone calls to other Troop members and they had plan B in action. Best part was that it was unprompted as I was still at work, clueless as to what was happening, and as an added benefit I heard that my SPL wasn’t stressed at the problem at all. The planning is paying off.

The Troop meeting went great. They learned and played two sports and everyone got tested on their Tenderfoot fitness requirements, even the older Scouts. Shortly after the Scouts circled up after opening flags to talk about the meeting and upcoming events a stranger walked into the building. He was a Scout that had stopped coming last October as Scouts just wasn’t fitting his cool boy image. He’s lived a rough life and Scouting did him well while he attended and it was great to see him back. His Mom said he wanted to come tonight and he seemed genuinely happy to be there, so I don’t think anyone forced the issue.

We held our PLC thorns and roses session after everything was wrapped up and I asked the PLC what they thought of the night. They were proud of what they had done and enjoyed the evening. Normally I have at least one thing that I see durning the meeting that I’ll offer advise on, but I told them this night that I had nothing other than to thank them for a job well done.

Six months ago when I took over as Scoutmaster I had a tough time believing that what I was doing to encourage a Scout lead troop would ever work, but as I learned at Wood Badge you have to stick with the program and trust that it will work, even in the absence of anything measurement that it is. Tonight I had that measurement. I’m proud of my Scouts and feel I’ve served them well. Many more happy trails.

YIS

Phil

 

May 11, 2011
by philpeck
0 comments

Day 93 – 100 Days Of Scouting

Quiet day on the Scouting front. Listened to a couple of podcasts, but that was about it.

Had a nice evening around the campfire at home however. What a perfect spring day we had. We’re just breaking in the fire pit for the summer season. We’ll get a lot of use out of it this summer.

That’s it.

YIS

Phil

May 10, 2011
by philpeck
1 Comment

Day 92 – 100 Days Of Scouting

The second Tuesday of every month is always special and jam packed with Scouting. It’s Roundtable night! This month was a bit different for me as I didn’t have much to present. I was asked a couple months back by a local Venture Crew Advisor if it would be OK for him to give a presentation on Venturing. There’s no way I could say no to that!

He brought in a couple of his Venturers (I learned that they’re not called Venture Scouts as I originally thought) to teach some leadership activities to the adults. It’s great to see young men and women learning valuable life skills and passing them on to others. He gave a presentation on the awards system, how the Crew is structured, and answered a lot of questions. You could tell people were interested as the questions kept coming. Really good stuff.

We followed up with some awards that were not able to be presented at the District Dinner, a presentation by my wife on our current state of affairs for Merit Badge Counselors and their Youth Protection Training, handed out a survey to gauge interest in holding a Merit Badge University next year (good response to that), and finished up with a survey about Roundtable and what people want to see for next year. All of this while the attendees dined on cheesecake.

Overall, a good meeting. We had a few less attend than usual, but the weather was nice and I think they found other things to do. We did get one new attendee and it looks like he had a good time.

We closed out the meeting with a promise that I had to keep. Last month I made a plea to my fellow Scouters to attend Wood Badge this year. I made them a deal that if I got two Scouters to sign up they would be able to throw a cream pie in my face. We signed up two! Well, one of the Scouters didn’t make it last night, but one did, and boy was he excited to take me up on my offer.

So, to close out day 92 I sang the Gilwell song as a future Wood Badger made his way closer to Gilwell himself. Check out the video link below and ask yourself “What would you do to send someone to Wood Badge?”

(Video)

YIS

Phil

May 9, 2011
by philpeck
0 comments

Day 91 – 100 Days Of Scouting

Took the day off from my normal job to do some work on a consulting gig I have coming up next week. Spent the day in front of my laptop at the kitchen table trying to focus on my work instead of the beautiful day we were having outside. I don’t know how some of you work from home every day. I don’t think I would be able to do it. Your brain gets so tied up with things in your personal life when you’re at home that it’s very distracting to your work. I commend you that make that happen.

On the Scouting front my wife and I spent the evening preparing for Roundtable for Tuesday night. A much lighter prep time this month as I have another Scouter coming in to discuss Venturing and he’s taking over half the meeting. The rest is some awards and “informational statements,” so not much to prep. My wife is leading the charge on a merit badge university and adult leader training weekend that she wants to hold next year. I helped her put together a survey to hand out to all of the local Scouters and Scouts to get feedback on what we should offer. I’m excited to see her take charge of something like this. She’s always had a hand in helping out with events, but has been reluctant to lead something up like this. I know she can do it and I have all of the confidence in the world in her that she’ll make it great for the Scouts. Now I need to convince her to be a Troop Guide next year at Wood Badge. ;)