Networking in Scouting

Hoping today’s posting finds my readers surviving the most hostile shopping day of the year.

I have never been one to want to be in line at a store for some so called great deal at 4am but hey everyone gets their adrenalin rush somewhere. So congrats on your great deals and let us dive into today’s scouting lesson.

Today I was reminded of an awesome lesson about getting to know those in your regional BSA council. This may seems like something that makes no sense but if you plan on spending anytime as a parent of a scout, den leader or Cub Master then like in any business (think of scouting as a business) networking is so important. Each pack or troop can act like a small branch office and the best way for those branches to touch base with the main office or your local council is to show up to the council roundtable meetings. These are usually evenings once a month that may take up an hour to an hour and a half of your evening. This gives you a chance to meet other leaders, your council executives and other great resources in your area.

I started going to our council roundtable meetings because the person that was going from our pack no longer wanted to do it. In almost 2 years of roundtable meetings I have made some really great allies and even more friends. I have been able to share hours of scouting research with new leaders and also get information too.

I can say thanks to my connections at roundtable for my pack’s quickest Pinewood Derby thanks to another pack that had a more sophisticated track and the derby software. I have been able to call in favors and become quite respected by really awesome helpful people. Along with this I have a great running dialogue with the our council’s program director and I have had a hand in making sure that winter camping programs continue. I recently came across the group ticket info for the Broadway production of The Lion King. I passed this along to him in hopes that we get an opportunity to go and I do not have to organize it.

The lesson of today is do not be shy. Allow yourself to make friends, exchange phone numbers and learn how to network if you do not already. Scout packs and troops cannot live as islands but branch out and network as it only helps you out in the long run.

Enjoy your weekend and happy scouting till next time. 

Happy Thanksgiving and welcome to the first post of the Scout Mom blog.

 In this blog you can look forward to reading about my adventures as a scouting mom, the joys of being a mom to a extra special child, the uphill battle that is working my psychology degree and the adventures of being a cleaning/ professional organizer.

Today will be on about the lesson of do not try to do it all yourself. As a master Google user and someone with no issue asking people and businesses if they would like to help out with scouts.
There are resources out there that normally do not get tapped in a community because no one has bothered to ask. A great example of this is asking your local city council member to come talk to your den. Most cities have their city council members are reachable by email. Send one out to all of them; the odds are you will find at least one that will respond. We found one that did and surprisingly she does not have children but was fantastic with the boys and their never-ending questions. 
To add to this the boys were invited to city hall or a tour and to open the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance. This was a great experience for the boys.
If you have not already gotten into helping out at your local food banks take your scouts there. They are usually in need of volunteers and appreciate the help. In Detroit our major food bank is Gleaners, which has programs specifically for the Cub Scout age group. The plus to places like this it that they are free outings.
For the Tigers and Wolves we recently did the Feats of Skill Achievement (Achievement 1). Due to facility issues where we hold our meetings we were not able to use the gym for this as a group. I came across the Tumblebus. I sent the owner the list of what needed to be covered for this Achievement. The boys had a blast and I was able to sit back and have an easy den meeting with very little work. The whole thing is a bus turned into a gym.

So the lesson is that it costs nothing to send an email or make a phone call and ask if you can get help with your scout programs.  Good luck and Happy Scouting!