We Own Adventure

Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Archives for December 2020

Week 3 of the Cub Scout Fall Funstravaganza – Community

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Even as we practice social distancing and head into a different holiday season than we are used to – Community is still an important part of Scouting.

Connecting with your Den or Pack over Zoom or following safety guidelines for small groups is a great way to keep on Scouting. Service projects in your local area can help to show your neighbors and friends that Scouting is still going strong!

Here are some adventure guides for the Community based adventures for all the ranks:
Lions – Animal Kingdom: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/hNFtswn5X25WEw8c3h5P8npN
Tigers – Team Tiger: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/z1z9nTbCAo3ALmLKeb3BXACt
Wolves – Council Fire: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/nruKyYS2gSLJUQc2FhA6CgfM
Bears – Paws for Action: https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/zz4Df8VaHb6xDrxwDgiDQCiJ
Webelos – First Responder:
https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/TtHWmBW1QvyVNhw37YFhwrDk
Arrow of Lights – Building a Better World:
https://public.3.basecamp.com/p/TtHWmBW1QvyVNhw37YFhwrDk

Free Winter Leadership Seminar presented by NYLT Staff

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Sharpen your leadership skills this winter
Because our full NYLT Winter course has been postponed, youth staff will deliver two online seminars. These free 50-minute zoom webinars are not substitutes for NYLT but will help Scouts explore topics relevant to their development as leaders.

Winter Seminar #1: Grow Your Enthusiasm… and Retain Your Scouts!
Learn how to harness your Enthusiasm to keep your fellow Scouts engaged and involved. We will also share new tips and tricks to take advantage of the latest updates in zoom.

NYLT Staff will offer this live 50-minute webinar on
Monday, January 18th @ 5pm

 

Winter Seminar #2:

NYLT Staff will offer this live 50-minute webinar on
Tuesday, January 26th @ 5pm

  • Registration opening soon

University of Scouting Cub Welcome

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Welcome from the College of Cub Scouting. We’d like to explain a little bit about the nature and perspective of Cub College courses, because they are a little different than the supplemental training classes you might have taken at other training venues. Most such classes are presented from a mechanical perspective, in that its focus is to give you the immediate “how-to” practical knowledge necessary for running meaningful, successful, fun and exciting den and pack meetings and outings, while making the best and most efficient use of your time, talents, and energies.

The University of Scouting Cub College differs in that it has not a mechanical, but a philosophical perspective. To appreciate this philosophical perspective, think of the Cub College as akin to an experienced hiker taking periodic compass bearings in the woods. He might have all of the right gear in his pack, he might have acquired all of the knowledge needed to hike and camp in the woods, his walking techniques might be optimized to conserve energy, but none of that really matters if he is walking in the wrong direction.

In Cub College classes, we offer insight into the direction of your “travels” through the Cub Scout program. What are you as a Den Leader, a Cubmaster, or a Committee Member, trying to achieve in the Scouts in your charge? How can you understand your growing Scouts as they advance in rank, so you can meet their needs? How have others tailored their Cub programs to meet Scouting’s overall goals and objectives? How do you know when your program is succeeding, or when you need to adjust to make the Cub Scouting experience better and more meaningful? Answers to these questions – and many more – can be found here in the Cub College!

To view the full guide please visit https://bit.ly/uos2020

Scoutmaster’s Minute: Be A Reflector

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One of the easiest ways to share light with others is a reflector. We use reflectors in a larger variety of safety items, from bike reflectors to reflectors around the lights of cars, to the reflective material used in clothing to make a person more visible to others. Reflectors are passive light systems; they do not necessarily generate their own light, but they enhance the light from other sources. They take the light we emit and they share it back to us, often even brighter.

Sometimes , especially when things seem dark or dreary, we can be reflectors as well. We can recognize the energy, the effort, that someone else is making and to give that energy back to them, even brighter. To say “I see you and I appreciate you”, especially when someone is feeling less than appreciated or alone, or sad.

You might be familiar with the Sanskrit word Namaste’, which is sometimes translated to “The divine light in me bows to the divine light in you.” The practice of Namaste’ is meant to impart that every being has a divine energy; we are all children of the light.

For us, as Scouts, it is a perfect example of the twelfth point of our Scout Law: A Scout is Reverent. We can show our reverence by understanding and respecting the divine in everyone, and by being a reflector to help them see their own light when things get rough.

Namaste’ Scouts.

Weekly Pow Wow Webinars Week 4

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Join us for week four of NCAC’s Pow Wow Webinar series on Monday, December 14 at 7:30 pm. Find out why BSA’s Newest program, STEM Scouts, is Social Distancing Friendly!

STEM Scouts is open to girls and boys who are in grades 3-8. With fun activity kits delivered to your house for easy meeting planning! Scouts tinker, explore and get creative doing hands-on activities in weekly meeting. They try new things as they learn about the world around them.

STEM Labs are open now and welcoming all youth! Learn about and be part of NCAC’s newest and most fun program today!

Link to register for the event: https://ncacbsa-org.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIlde6hpjwjGdO2JUZ0J0Ss6t17DaxCMSlf

NCAC Cub Scout Leader Pow Wow is a supplemental, action-packed training event for adult Cub Scout Leaders and all other adults interested in learning more about the Boy Scouts’ Cub Scout program. In the Pow Wow Webinars you will learn new ideas and concepts that will enhance your ability to deliver and support a fun-filled, exciting program to Cub Scouts.

These 45 to 60 minute Webinars will include relevant topics for every Cub Scout position and are designed to help you make their Cub Scout programs more fun for the Cub Scouts … and for the leaders too!!!

New Theatre, New Props

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I absolutely love theatre, and I actively partake in it. So when I learned there was a new high school opening up a theater program in my area, and with a director, I had worked with in the past, I felt that fate had called me to help them out and get them started by building something for them. I felt that making them some set items would help them so they had something to begin working with when they went back to in-person learning.

After contacting the director, I got a solid plan of what was needed and what he thought would be some useful objects to build for them. In the end, we decided on four advertisement sandwich boards, four set-piece black boxes, and one industrial prop table. I set a date to go and purchase all the wood I needed for the project. Then with the help of my neighbor and his woodshop, we were able to sort, measure, and cut all the wood into the pieces we needed so that the next day when the Scouts came to my house we could just set everything up and put it together.

The tricky part of my project was mostly getting all the wood cut, measured, and sorted because everything had to be exact or else it would not work. When putting the boxes together, we discovered that the measurements for one piece were an eighth of an inch longer than it should be, so that meant that every piece based on those measurements was now an eighth of an inch longer. It was frustrating to spend so much time making sure that it was all perfect just to have something not right. Still, one of the Scouts who came to help happened to be the technical director at my school’s theatre company, so I knew he had tools in his car. Luckily he had a saw that we were able to use and fix the problem.

After the build day, we moved on to painting everything matte black with two coats on each box, board, and table. A little while later, the director and I set up a date for us to meet at the school to transfer all the materials from my house to the theatre room, and at that point, we were finished.

My favorite part of the project was planning the workdays. Two days for building, and two days for painting; however, we had more Scouts show up than I thought on the first build day, and we were able to knock out everything with hours to spare. I was able to take the extra day to go over everything and make sure it all looked fine and then spend some time cleaning up and prepping for the paint day.

Once the first paint day hit, we had many younger Scouts eager to help show up, so the painting went extremely fast. That day it was super hot and sunny outside, which helped with the drying of the paint, which allowed us to put on the second coats very quickly. This also allowed us to finish early on the painting day as well, which meant we did not need the second painting day that was planned. I was glad I had the extra days built in just in case, however; not needing them was a huge relief and a favorite part of my project.

I have never been the type of person to start and lead a project and then sit back and let everyone else do the work, so it was difficult to sit back and only be used as a resource when help was needed, and not one of the people working on the project as well. But all in all, my biggest lesson learned was that sometimes letting go and letting things happen is a good thing. It’s still my project that I planned and started, and if they needed me, they would ask; it was a whole new take on being a leader, and I think that learning experience was a really powerful one for me.