As our Little Scout Troop passed its first anniversary, we had a bit of a shake-up in the organization. The original Troop Leader decided to step down, leaving the Scouts to decide to either continue the troop someone or quit. I was the only remaining leadership, being the Social Media Coordinator. At the next scheduled meeting, I and some of the most active members of the troop decided we would continue meeting as Little Scouts Troop 346. And we decided on a few changes to make.
We now have a leadership team of six people - two leaders, a badge master, an activity director, someone assisting both the badge master and the activity director, and me; I'm going to keep being the social media coordinator. One of the first things we did was all get on a Slack group so we could communicate - and boy do we; almost every day. That way everything could be all coordinated.
Then we started looking at the badges and patches. A big complaint was that it seemed too complicated and too much work to earn a lot of them. So we came up with some simpler formats for the awards. Patches are now PDS - Plan It, Do It, Share It. They should be pretty simple one-afternoon or one-evening efforts. And Badges are now SCOUT - Self, Create, Outreach, Understanding, Teach. These take a little more work, but maybe not so much as before, when we had ten different steps to put together. And sometimes the steps were a little weird to try to fit into the ten categories.
Once we simplified the awards, we started converting the old awards to the new formats. That means that all my posts earlier than this will be in the old 'legacy' format, and my new ones will be in the new formats. But anything earned on one of the legacy forms stays; Scouts earning those things anew will use the new format, and it'll be just a little easier for them. Like I earned the legacy Leatherworking Badge that I designed; I don't have to earn it again. But someone else that earns it will use the converted Leathercrafting Badge sheet, and they'll have a few less steps to do.
The only place that needed special exception, really, is the Friendship Braiding Badge. See, at their first meeting, all Scouts get to make a Friendship Bracelet. Before, that covered a couple of steps into earning a badge. And nobody except for me had ever completed it. So we changed the Friendship Braiding to a PDS patch, and now everyone earns that as their first patch at their first meeting! But what about all the work I'd done on the old one? I converted that into a different badge, and called it the Paracord Bracelet Badge. So now I'm the only one that's earned that one, instead.
We reorganized the meetings a little, too. We now have someone working the front desk and checking people in. And we have some meet-and-greet time before we have the orientation slideshow. Oh, and I totally redid the slideshow so it takes like 20 minutes instead of an hour, and is a lot more fun! That was a lot of fun work to make it look good and be less boring. And I found a ton of Red Panda images to scatter all over the place for it.
So I'm in charge of keeping up all the FetLife stuff - the troop profile and the discussion group. That means keeping up links to all the badge & patch worksheets, too. Which means keeping up with the troop's Google Drive and all that information. Unfortunately, in the transition, we got locked out of the old Google Drive, so I had to create everything up from what I could salvage. I'm also the goto for our Slack group for troop leaders.
It's a lot of work, but it's almost all online, and I really enjoy doing all the background stuff without having to get up and talk in front of people and stuff. The only thing I do 'live' is be in charge of a box of goodies that goes to every meeting for Scouts to get prizes out of.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
COMPLETE - Fall Friends Patch
Fall Friends Patch
Designed by: Paul & Tiffy
Order Info: Advantage S-0531
Associated Costs: $2 for patch, craft supplies
Go look at the pinecone felt squirrels at https://liagriffith.com/pinecone-felt-squirrel (be sure to look at the other pinecone animals, too). As a group (or in a journal), discuss how squirrels spend their fall preparing for winter.
- Squirrels prepare for winter by eating a lot to build up fat reserves and caching food to eat during the winter, when they will stay in their den a lot. They bury the food in shallow holes, and hope they can find it when they get hungry!
Do It
Gather materials to make a new little friend - a pinecone, scissors, felt, a penny, and hot glue. What else do you think you might want to use? Googly eyes, a marker? Cut out your felt pieces according to the pattern and glue them all together according to the instructions. Adjust the pattern to make your squirrel (or other critter) special!
- With Tiffy and Sage, we got all the materials together and designed and cut out templates for the other Scouts to use. I made a squirrel with an acorn using our patterns, and it turned out pretty well!
Share It
Show everyone your new critter. Pick an animal you like and tell us something about how that animal prepares for the coming winter during the fall.
What are your plans this fall? Tell about the fall activities you’ve already done or plan to do. Include your Halloween and Thanksgiving activities, too!
- Coyotes are our favorite animal. In the fall, they grow a thicker coat of fur that will help them keep warm. They also eat a lot in the fall to bulk up for winter, focusing on insects and small mammals instead of berries and fruit. When it gets too cold for small prey, they'll start hunting larger prey, like deer. Fall is when younger coyotes may leave the rout (or pack) to search for a mate or territory.
- Our fall activities have also been preparing for winter, kind of. We're going to be in a production of A Christmas Carol in December, so we've been in rehearsal mode since early October. We did make it to a few Halloween parties and a haunted house, though!
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