Pony Express District Roundtable19 November 2009Additional Items

Okay, this should be the final follow-up post for this Roundtable session.

Roundtable Newsletters
Below are links to the PDF versions of the last several editions of the "Pony Express District Scouter" Newsletter.

July 2009
August 2009
September 2009
October 2009
November 2009

Leader Awards
We awarded a Name Badge at Roundtable last night. That is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are many more awards that can be earned as Cub Scout Leaders. Below, you will find information on some of the different awards, and then there is a link to a PDF of the award nomination form. The form can be submitted by e-mail to Judi Hansen at jwhsearch(at)aol(dot)com.

Awards

NAME TAG
Do an extra good job in any scouting position or successfully carry out an extra project. This award is limited to 2 or 3 per month, recognition normally given at Roundtable. Send nominations to the advancement committee.

SECOND MILER
Extraordinary volunteer service for 2-5 years in a unit or district position. Submit form to the advancement committee. Recognition given at district awards ceremony.

DISTRICT AWARD of MERIT
5-10 years of extraordinary volunteer service at unit or district level and previously received second miler. Submit form to the advancement committee. Recognition given at district awards ceremony.

SILVER BEAVER
10-15 or more years of volunteer service including some service at district or council level and previously received second miler and district award of merit. Submit form to the advancement committee. Recognition given by the council at annual Silver Beaver ceremony.

KNOTS
Awarded for completing position specific training and tenure awards. Give completed requirement sheet to district advancement committee. Presented at Roundtable.

SCOUT VETERAN
For 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 years of service. Submit application form to advancement committee.

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Self nominations are not acceptable for Name Tags, Second Miler, Award of Merit, and Silver Beaver. Someone else must take the initiative to nominate Scouters for these awards, and nominations should be kept confidential. Chartered Organization Representatives know their people best and should take the lead in submitting nominations to the advancement committee. Nomination forms are available at Roundtable and on the council website, or email Judi Hansen jwhsearch(at)aol(dot)com to receive as email attachment.

# # #

Here is the Award Nomination form.

Pony Express District Roundtable19 November 2009Online Resources

During Roundtable, I mentioned that I would put links to some handy online resources here on my blog. Well, here they are...

"Cub Scout Program Helps" is the publication that is like a 'lesson plan' for the Tiger, Wolf, and Bear Den Leaders, as well as the Cubmaster for Pack Meeting. The official national Scouting website is posting Program Helps one month at a time on a page of the website. The page states "or the entire year's program helps may also be downloaded" and yet both the link to and that full download have been removed from the page for some mysterious reason. I had gotten it while it was made available, and you can get it here.

Many of the Cub Scouting Forms are available from the BSA national site, and they even have many of the forms in Spanish. Here are a few that I will place direct links for...

The "Family Talent Survey Sheet," which, I believe, was discussed in both the Pack Leaders and Webelos Leaders classes.

The "Pack Meeting Planning Sheet" can be used to plan out your Pack Meetings.

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In my 'Cub Scouting 101" breakout session, I mentioned that I would post links to some other helpful resources...

The Cub Scout Leader How-To Book (which explains the Den Doodles) is available online in PDF format.

Cub Scout Academics and Sports is the program where the Cub Scouts can earn Belt Loops and Pins. Pack 327 of Arbutus, Maryland has posted a PDF file of the complete Academics and Sports program guide.

Speaking of Academics and Sports, meritbadge.org has created and posted Workbooks... one for each belt loop/pin that can be downloaded and used to complete the requirements for each belt loop and pin.

The meritbadge.org site has also posted worksheets for each of the Webelos Activity Badges.

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Some other items that you may be interested in...

"Guide to Safe Scouting" is available in two forms: one for online reading (smaller web page 'chapters'), and a PDF version of the printed Guide.

Pack 155 has posted the PDF of the Parent Information Guide.

Pony Express District Roundtable19 November 2009December Theme: Works of Art

"Art Match-Up" Download
We had a fun Gathering Activity where you match up Art works with their Titles and Artists. Here is is a link to that Gathering Activity displays and handouts for your convenience, in a pdf format.

More Museum Info
Chris has provided this additional information about Museums in December:
"There are 4 museums on campus that Cub Scouts might be interested in visiting, but only one that focuses on art. For the month of December, the one to see is the Museum of Art. They currently have an exhibit that shows modern "self-portraits" - some from students as well as adults, and with a very modern approach, including technology. One can go online and pull down a zip-file of images to see some of what is exhibited. For information, go to moa.byu.edu. The hours are Mon-Fri 10:00am to 6:00pm, Sat 12:00-5:00. Thursdays they stay open until 9:00pm. They offer tours - I think that would be the best option, since the displays will be more interesting to Cub Scouts if they are accompanied by someone explaining them. To schedule a tour over the phone, call (801) 422-1140. Tours must be scheduled AT LEAST A WEEK IN ADVANCE. Average tour length is between 30 and 45 minutes. For grades K-6, 1 chaperon is needed for every 6 students.

"Best part - admission is free of charge."

Plus, I have uploaded the flyer about the museums, plays and concerts that are available in the area in December. Get it here.

Pony Express District Roundtable20 November 2008December Theme: Holiday Lights

Door Hanger Template
During our 'Good News Minute' I had mentioned the success we had experience in implementing the Door Hanger reminders.
The template I had created is available here; it is a Word document.

Scouting Online2008 UNPC PowWowClass Helps

This post is for those Cub Scout Leaders attending my class at the 2008 Utah National Parks Council "Grand Howl" PowWow. Here, you will find all the information we talked about in class, plus more. This post is an updated version of my post made a year ago entitled "The Creative Web."

You can view and print the handout (in PDF form), from here. All the websites that we discussed in class are listed below as links, so you can just click on them instead of having to type in all those addresses.

Enjoy!

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“Scouting Online”

Do you need something different and can’t get ideas to flow? This is the place for you. Here you’ll learn how to get some of those great ideas you’re always hearing about with just a click of your mouse.

Great Resources

Let’s dive right into some great resources. These are the places where you will find a lot of Cub Scout-oriented material quickly and easily.

http://www.scouting.org - BSA National Site

http://www.usscouts.org – Large collection of Scouting resource materials

http://www.usscouts.org/usscouts/bbugle.asp - Baloo’s Bugle Monthly Theme Newsletter

http://www.utahscouts.org – Utah National Parks Council Scouting Information

http://www.scouter.com - Your Guide to Scout Out the Net

http://www.boyscouttrail.com/cub-scouts - Cub Resources

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/home.html - Virtual Cub Leader's Handbook

http://www.geocities.com/~pack215/aol-cere.html - Arrow of Light Ceremonies

http://www.napwb.com - National Archive of PowWow Books

http://www.cubmaster.org - Resources for Cubmasters and other Cub Leaders

http://www.wtsmith.com/rt.html - Bill Smith's Unofficial Cub Scout Roundtable

http://cubmasterchris.com - "An Hour a Week?" Podcast

http://scouting.org/CubScouts/Cubcast.aspx - The Official Cubcast Podcast

http://www.madsenco.com/scouting.shtml - Rank Trackers


http://trax.boy-scouts.net - More Rank Trackers

http://www.scouting.org/CubScouts/Leaders/CubScoutHelps.aspx – ‘Hidden’ Program Helps pages

http://www.goodturnforamerica.org/ – ‘Good Turn for America’ Official Website for recording your Den and Pack Service Project Hours

http://www.scoutstuff.org// – Official "Scout Shop" onine for purchasing various scout-related items

Online Advancement

You probably are familiar with the online Cub Scout advancement system. To access the online advancement, you must use Microsoft Internet Explorer and go to https://scoutnet.scouting.org/iadv/UI/home/default.aspx

But, did you know that you can save time by using one of the many Pack Advancement Software tools to simply ‘upload’ your advancement info instead of having to re-enter it into the online advancement program? You may want to check it out if you have or are considering a purchase of one of those Pack software programs.

Other Creative Resources

There are lots of other websites where you can get some creative help. Here are just a few suggestions…

http://www.scoutresources.org.uk/SR/experimental/stunts/index.html - UK Scouting Source Cub Scout Skits

http://www.macscouter.com/Skits - MacScouter Big Book of Skits

http://www.e-scoutcraft.com/ - Exciting Scout Craft

http://www.scoutingweb.com/scoutingweb/Program/CraftsGeneral1.htm – Scouting Web Crafts

http://www.familyfun.com – Family Fun magazine (lots of crafts and recipes)

http://www.kaboose.com – more great craft and treat ideas (formerly kidsdomain.com)

http://www.funandgames.org - featuring fun and, um, games for children and youth

http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/icebreak.html - Icebreakers and Warmup Games

http://www.theteachersguide.com/Recyclinglessonplans.htm – The Teacher’s Guide: Recycling lessons and activities

http://www.hightechscience.org/activities.htm – Fun Science activities and links

Using Search Engines

Most of us have used them before, but many of us do not quite know how to best use search engines. Ideally, you want to come up with a minimum of three key words. Why three? Because it helps you to refine what you are looking for and eliminate what you don’t want to find.

As an example, let’s say you were looking for information about butterflies. If you were to search on one key word of “butterfly,” you would not only find web pages with information about those colorful flying insects… but you could also possibly get pages with information about butterfly bandages, butterfly-print handbags, and the butterfly stroke for swimming.

Now, if we add another key word... let’s say we are interested in the Monarch butterfly, specifically. Then, when we search on the key words: “Monarch butterfly,” we eliminate the websites selling butterfly bandages and web pages about the butterfly stroke for swimmers. But we still may come across pages selling Monarch butterfly printed handbags or artwork.

So let’s add one more key word. Now what we are really interested in is the habitat of the Monarch butterfly – where can they be found? SO we search on our three key words: “Monarch butterfly habitat.” We have eliminated what we don’t want, and zero in on what we really do want. The resulting pages should all deal with the habitat of the Monarch butterfly. Of course there will be some results that are just news stories about a Monarch butterfly habitat, or sites that ask for help to protect a Monarch butterfly habitat; but you should also find information about the habitat, itself.

Now, if I was looking for websites where I could purchase some butterfly bandages, I might use the keywords, “purchase butterfly bandage.” …Or if I wanted to find out how to do the butterfly swimming stroke, I might search using the keywords, “butterfly stroke swimming.”

What keywords can you come up with? Give it a try!

Getting More out of your Searches

There is a great article called Search Engine Math by Danny Sullivan. It is a way of getting more from your searches. You can find the article over at SearchEngineWatch.com, at this address: http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=2156021.

Popular Sites for Searching

There are several Search Engines and Directories out there. Here is a list of some of the most popular ones.

Alta Vista - www.altavista.com

Ask - www.ask.com

Ask Kids - www.askkids.com

Dogpile - www.dogpile.com

Excite - www.excite.com

Google - www.google.com

Lycos - www.lycos.com

WebCrawler - www.webcrawler.com

Yahoo! - www.yahoo.com

Yahoo! Kids - kids.yahoo.com

Your Suggestions

I encourage you to add a comment with any websites that you find to be helpful to your position in Cub Scouts.

Thanks!

Pony Express District Roundtable18 September 2008October Theme: Adventures in Books

'Book about Me' Gathering Activity

The Gathering Activity for tonight's Roundtable was creating a "Book about Me." The instructions and a template for use for your cubs can be found here as a PDF file.

There is one difference between the template here and the one you used at Roundtable: instead of a page for "My Cub Scout Pack and Position," the page is for "My Favorite Movies."

Other Helps

Baloo's Bugle (PDF version) for this month's theme is now available.

This month's Program Helps has not yet been been posted online. :(

KISMIF.org (Keep It Simple, Make It Fun) is another Cub Scout-related blog with links to lots of helpful information, including this month.

The September 2008 Scouting Magazine online edition is now available, as well.

Pony Express District Roundtable Cubmaster Class July 17, 2008 August Theme: S'more Summer Fun

Resources to help you plan Pack Meeting

• This month's section from Program Helps
• Access to this month's issue of Baloo's Bugle
• July Cubcast from the National Council

Cubmaster Helps: Family and Parent Involvement

• The official BSA Family Talent Survey Sheet
• Information about the BSA Family Activity Book that can be purchased at the Council Office store.