Save the Date - December Pack Meeting

It's hard to believe but it's time to start thinking about CHRISTMAS already! But hey when there are...

...we've gotta do what we've gotta do!

As usual we have a fantastic evening planned for all our Pack families. This year, we are having a Christmas Potluck Pack Meeting

Oh yes, FOOD glorious FOOD!  NO rushing to try to feed the family before the Pack Meeting. Our Arrow of Light Den will be preparing main course entrees and we are asking families to sign up to bring sides, drinks and desserts.  The Sign Up Genius will be out soon.

What can you do to help? Well, I'm so glad you asked!

1. WATCH for the Sign Up Genius that will come through Scoutbook.
2. Be sure to RSVP on Scoutbook so we know how many to expect.
3. SAVE THE DATE on your calendar!  
4. SHOP for the food drive benefiting Christ Haven for Children's food pantry.  Be watching for that list from your den leaders.  
5. We will also be doing a SOCK IT TO ME "snowball" war!  So, bring a package of NEW solid white adult socks.
6. Like a good Scout, BE PREPARED for a holly, jolly, merry good time!
7. Find and wear your most festive hat!  (Parents, Scouts and siblings!!)

Disclaimer -- PLEASE DO NOT BRING ANYTHING WITH NUTS PLEASE!  SAVE GRANDMA's FRUITCAKE FOR YOUR FAMILY AT HOME... FOR A MULTITUDE OF REASONS. 

The pack will have plates, paper goods and, of course, all the entertainment.

So, save the date for the our Pack Meeting Christmas Potluck Tuesday, December 12.

• We will pass out popcorn sales winner prizes
• We will have some silly string wars
• We will have a PINATA!
• Wear your most festive hats

One thing we DO have a GREAT NEED for is for YOUR PHOTOS!!!! If you can e-mail, provide them via flash drive, share them in the cloud, e-mail them one by one. We would love to have your best snapshots to play during our slide show and it's always better when we get enough submissions to make complete den... so think of field trips, pack meetings, camping.... rockets, anything! Send me your pictures! Thanks so much!

Pack Meeting Tonight!

Don't forgot tonight is the December Pack meeting Christmas party!  We can't wait to see you!

Tonight there will be a pizza party.  

Don't forget:

• if your name starts with A-L, please bring something to drink to share
• if your name starts with M-Z, please bring a dessert to share with everyone
• bring one package of BRAND NEW WHITE SOCKS per child that attends. (It's for a game, and then they will be donated to community storehouse.)

We will be distributing boxes for the Cubanapolis race held at January's Pack meeting. Instructions will be sent under separate cover.

Oh, and don't forget your seasonal hat!

If you're planning on attending CUB-O, please bring your completed registration form to turn in.  Those can be found HERE.

If you have not turned in your new health forms for the 2017 year, NOW is the time to do that as well.  We only need sections A & B.

Lastly, if you haven't made your recharter payment, please bring your checkbook and/or credit card. This is the last time to make arrangements for payment before we have to remove names from our recharter list to submit to National. Thanks for your help!

The pack will have pizza, plates, paper goods and, of course, all the entertainment.

Save the Date -- Christmas Pizza Party Pack Meeting in December

It's hard to believe but it's time to start thinking about CHRISTMAS already!  But hey when there are...

...we've gotta do what we've gotta do!

As usual we have a fantastic evening planned for all our families.  We are having a Christmas Pack Pizza Party!  

Oh yes, we said pizza!  You heard that right!  There will be pizza for everyone!  NO rushing to try to eat before the Pack Meeting.  There will be food and drinks and dessert right there!

What can you do to help?  Well, I'm so glad you asked!

We are asking that families with last names that start with A-L to please bring bring a 2 liter or gallon of something to drink to share with everyone.  

If your last name starts with M-Z to please bring a dessert to share with everyone. 

The pack will have pizza, plates, paper goods and, of course, all the entertainment.

So, save the date for the our Pack Meeting Tuesday, December 13.

• We will pass out popcorn sales winner prizes
• We will pass out boxes for the January's Pack Meeting called the "Cubanopolis"

One thing we DO have a GREAT NEED For is for YOUR PHOTOS!!!! If you can e-mail, provide them via flash drive, share them in the cloud, e-mail them one by one.  We would love to have your best snapshots to play during our slide show and it's always better when we get enough submissions to make complete den... so think of field trips, pack meetings, camping.... rockets, anything!  Send me your pictures!  Thanks so much!

Christmas Party Plans

It's hard to believe but it's time to start thinking about CHRISTMAS already!  But hey...

So we've gotta do what we've gotta do!


As usual we have a fantastic evening planned for all our families.  We are having a Christmas Pack Pizza Party!  

Oh yes, we said pizza!  You heard that right!  There will be pizza for everyone!  NO rushing to try to eat before the Pack Meeting.  There will be food and drinks and dessert right there!

We are asking that families with last names that start with A-L to please bring bring a 2 liter of something or a gallon of something to share with everyone.  

If your last name starts with M-Z to please bring a dessert to share with everyone. 

The pack will have pizza, plates, paper goods and, of course, all the entertainment.

So, save the date for the our December Pack Meeting.  Tuesday, December 8.

• We will pass out popcorn sales winner prizes
• We will pass out boxes for the January Cubanopolis
• We will collect any outstanding funds for recharter, popcorn or t-shirt orders
• T-shirt orders will be due at December's Pack meeting.  Thank you for your patience on this.

One thing we DO have a GREAT NEED For is for YOUR PHOTOS!!!! If you can e-mail, provide them via flash drive, share them in the cloud, e-mail them one by one.  We would love to have your best snapshots to play during our slide show and it's always better when we get enough submissions to make complete den... so think of field trips, pack meetings, camping.... rockets, anything!  Send me your pictures!  Thanks so much!

  

End of Year Wrap-Up

Thanks to everyone for joining us at the Pack 1910 Christmas Party!  We had a great time and it was a fun event to round out our scouting year.  If you captured any photos worth sharing, please e-mail them to April so that she can include them in our slide show that will be played at the Blue & Gold Banquet in February!

  

If you were at the Christmas Party but forgot to pick up your box for the January Cubanopolis, please be sure to make contact with April and pick that up ASAP!  We want everyone to have enough time to work on their cars!

There will be a separate blog entry for our Cubanopolis which will have information to answer all your questions on who, where, when, what, why and how!  Stay tuned for all the information on January's race!

Speaking of RACES.... don't forget all of the fun we have in store for the new year at the annual Pinewood Derby held in March!  Cars will be distributed at the January Pack meeting so you definitely don't want to miss that!  And, speaking of the Pinewood Derby, we need a couple of volunteers to help coordinate the event.  If you're interested, please let us know.  Without your help -- it can't happen!

All members should have submitted their registration dues for the new year by now AND paid ALL popcorn balances.  If you haven't, please take care of that IMMEDIATELY.  We need to close out the 2014 books.  If you haven't done so, you will likely need to resubmit an application because your scout's name will have been removed from the membership roster audit (called "Recharter") which is being turned in today.  These are the dues that pay for the boy's awards, books, pins, patches and more.  New Scouts that paid their $100 when they joined are covered through December 2015 (until the next recharter) so we are not talking to you.  This is just for transfers or current members.  Thank you to everyone who has taken care of this already!  Lots to remember this time of year and lots of deadlines so thank you for making my job easier.

Also, we HAVE to mention Cub-O.  Cub-O is January 3 and information regarding that was distributed at the December Pack Meeting.  Another blog entry dedicated to Cub-O will be published today.  If you can't wait, you may download your registration form here and turn it into APRIL no later than Monday, December 29.

Lastly, we want to wish you and yours a VERY Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!  We know that children are involved in a lot of activities and there is always something demanding our time and attention... so we thank YOU for the gift of your involvement... for the gift of time with your sons.  Our Pack 1910 boys are very special gifts to all of us so thank YOU for the gift of their membership in the Boy Scouts of America.  We are all leaders because we believe in all that Scouts has to offer young men... and thank you for believing in us to help lead them.

You asked for it...

... and we're going to deliver it!

We had our den leaders poll the boys to find out what THEY wanted from THEIR Cub Scout experience!  And you know what? We are going to make it happen!

Some of the top requests repeatedly heard from boys at different age groups/ different dens were:

• Pizza party
• horseback riding
• fishing
• climbing walls

Guess what?  They're ALL part of the bigger plan we have in store for this year or the upcoming summers.  Pizza party? Check!  The end of summer is a back to school pizza party/rain gutter regatta! 

They want horseback riding?  That is on the rotation of summer events for next year.  

They want to go fishing!  We are working right now on incorporating one of the Trout-O-Rees held at Camp Tahuaya into our annual calendar!  They want climbing walls!  Well, guess what?  Those are going to be after the kingsnake show in August!  How's THAT for meeting the call!  

We're not stopping there, however!  Our new Scout year is going to be packed full of fun!  

Not only are we starting a PACK 1910 HIKING CLUB with scheduled hikes EVERY SINGLE MONTH!  But, for the boys that attend -- they're going to get really cool things like patches and hiking sticks and medallions for reaching certain milestones!  

Oh wait...there's more!  We typically have operated on a NASA/USS Lexington rotation for "big trips" but we're going to mix that up as well so that there is no repetition for those who will be in the program from Tigers.  We are going to start a NASA/Fossil Rim/NASA/USS Lexington rotation!  Since this year is the NASA rotation, we will make plans for Fossil Rim next year! Oh yeah!  That's right...an AWESOME program is in store for Fossil Rim!

Your den meetings will continue to be fun and productive... but our Pack meetings?  Yeah, we're kicking them up a notch (or ten)!  Our Pack meetings are going to have a THEME and ... well, they're going to ROCK!  There's simply no other way to put it!  A couple of things we DO want to make sure EVERYONE is aware of is that we will be checking attendance at these events for two purposes 1) if you miss, we want to know because a lot of the activities that we are working into our Pack meetings may cover rank and/or electives and most importantly 2) we want to send you a card and tell you that we missed you and hope to see you soon!  You see, these are going to be awesome Pack meetings that you just will NOT want to miss!!!  Here's a little idea of what is in store:

September - Our first official Pack meeting of the new scouting year.  Welcome back.  Walk right into a uniform inspection.  Each den will have all of their inspection totals averaged.  Highest average picks the first skit sack and so on and so forth.  There will be a title on the outside of the bag but no other contents of the bag will be revealed.  You have to choose based on name alone.  (Yeah, you know how your mother told you not to judge a book by its cover.... you're gonna be doing it!).  After that we will have awards -- (well, if you can CATCH them!)  Then, they will be given a kit and will have one month to work their genius on it to bring back to the October Pack Meeting to show it off!  This is just going to be the first leg on our journey upwards to bigger and better!

October - We are going to have a Halloween Party!  Not just ANY Halloween party but a COSTUME party!  EVERYONE should come in costume!   We are going to have games and relays and races and a costume parade.  Scary good time!

November - We are fortunate in that our Pack meeting falls on Veteran's Day.  Not only are we going to have a campfire at Bear Creek Park like last time.  But we are also going to have a very memorable flag retirement ceremony where our Webelos will be able to be a large portion of that.  We have also reached out to the VFW to be present as well.  It should be VERY special!

December - We are going to have a Christmas pizza party with games and treats... 

January - This Pack meeting is going to set the bar for how the rest of the year must resonate with the boys.,  You see.... we are hosting a CUBANOPOPLIS!!!!! It's a neat word but really, what the heck is that thing we can't pronounce?  It's a car race!  In December we are going to give each scout a box to take home with him.  He will have a month to turn that box into a car!  It can be ANYTHING  It can be a Lightning McQueen or it could be Herbie (I know someone has to know Herbie the love bug still and prove I'm not THAT old!)  I'm farily certain we will have SpongeBob Squarepansts here.  So... more information will be provided later but just know it's going to be  a blast!

February - This Pack Meeting is going to feature the "Minute To Win It" challenges.  They'll have to try them one by one.  And we can't forget that Blue & Gold will be later this month.  

March - The March Pack Meeting Theme is CSI - Cub Scout Investigations.  We will need our super sleuths to get through a laser grid and solve crime to make sure we know what to do to find the missing awards!!!

April - And we are saving the best for last.  You see, this month's Pack meeting is likely the end-all-be-all of Pack meetings.  Our theme?  LEGOS!!

May - We will have our bridging picnic at the H-center again.  Maybe we will have a den competition Dutch Oven Cookoff for best dessert! 

So as you can see... we are going to have TONS OF FUN!!!!

Oh and I completely forgot to mention... the REALLY COOL PATCHES we are going to start instituting into our program!  Attend a Pack event -- you get a patch.  Not just ANY patch, however, it's a segment patch.  Your initial patch will be about a 3" circle and then as you attend events, you'll receive segments that look like this (shown right)  and then by combining those around the provided base patch, your cub scout career is there for everyone to see!  It just grows over your cub scout's career into this (below).

So, as you can tell... we have a LOT in store for you this year!  I hope you stay along for the ride!