If you're reading this... We'll have to recruit you as a volunteer!

Behind the scenes, a lot of effort goes into making all the

fun and excitement happen!

Parents run our popcorn drive fundraiser

• Typically starts with attending district kick-off meetings in the Summer

• Coordinate our pack's efforts in the fall

• Collect the orders and submit them in mid October

• Coordinate the distribution of orders to the scouts that placed them (typically

• November).

• [Remember to have the Pack buy a few extra bags of popcorn as a thank-you

for the business storing the pinewood derby track!]

Parents run our Scouting For Food food drive

• Collect (beforehand) and then distribute door hangers to Scouts (at our November

• pack meeting)

• Set up a food collection drop-off on the day of the drive.

• Take the food to the distribution center that day.

Parents arrange our December Science night for our December Pack

meeting

• In September or so, call around for availability and pricing of different potential

• guest entertainers (we try to keep it in the $300's or lower for the range)

• Book the entertainer

• Arrange payment from the Pack treasurer.

Parents arrange and hold our Pinewood Derby on a Saturday in

January (several parents work together on this)

• Starting around September, arrange for a suitable location (a suitable location has

• a hard floor and can accommodate over 30 feet of track length) (try to get it from

• Friday evening through Saturday afternoon. Race is Saturday typically, but it

• takes a long time to set up - usually do it Friday evening)

  • Venues who've offered us to use their facilities for free:

    • West Valley Presbyterian (very generous but seriously popular facility - difficult to squeeze into their schedule and may get dropped late in the cycle if their own groups need their facilities)

    • Sunnyvale Presbyterian (very generous and extremely nice facility largest room we've ever used with one corner as a dais stage) (2017)

    • Cupertino Oddfellows Hall - Nice facilities and they've been very generous. We're currently holding them there (2018-2019)

  • Venues we've paid for in the past

    • Hyde middle school. This was kind of expensive - over $300 for the facility and janitorial

• Buy car kits and hand out to cubs at the November and December pack meetings (get reimbursed from the treasurer)!

• If possible hold a sawdust day to help the Cubs who've never done it before with their cars and wheels (Early January)

• Hold a check-in the weekend before the weekend of the derby (can include tune up) - An additional check-in should be made available (with no tune-up) on an evening the week before the derby for people who know what they're doing and couldn't make it to the weekend check-in.

  • Cars are weighed, measured and checked for all wheels touching a flat surface - no cheating! We follow the official rules. (Winning cars are selected to head to the district race so we follow the same rules)

  • Get the car's owner and car name, take a picture of the car - Collect the cars - (no-one can adjust or alter the cars until after the race)

• Someone goes through the names and photos of the cars and makes a humorous certificate for each one. (Dave has templates for this - note to self to upload to google drive :)

• Enter all the cars and the owners information into the race software on the Pack computer sometime during the week before race day• Call ahead and arrange to have somebody with a big minivan (with the seats removed, really) to pick up the track from where it's stored. It's stored at a private business and it's huge - 3 heavy wooden crates nearly 8 feet long. They forklift it out of there. (Contact the Pack Committee for details)

• Pick it up early the Friday before the race weekend

• Return it early the Monday after the race weekend with our hearty thanks

and the extra popcorn we ordered in October!

• Arrange for food - we provide lunch at the derby

  • Costco is our friend! :)

  • Order about 5 pizza the day before and have somebody pick them up the morning of the derby.

    • Costco pizza is significantly cheaper and it's good, too. It costs us about $50 there vs. $200 at Dominos. Remember to have Costco double the slices to 16 since their pizzas are so big 1/8th is too much for the small cubs; they will do it if you ask.

  • Also get some chips, cookies and drinks while you're there.

Parents arrange and host our Blue and Gold Banquet

• Check for availability of Torvend Hall at Bethel (our normal meeting place) for the Saturday in February.

• We've found it best to have a Blue & Gold luncheon instead of a dinner so

the Lions can attend too! Otherwise, it can get kind of late.

• It has a kitchen so that's good.

• Usually, we have some Scouts from Bethel's T2/400 Troops come by and lead our

cubs in an outdoor activity on the playground.

• The activity is usually just playing around on the playground :)

• Arrange for a representative from the district come and present for Friends of

Scouting.

• For lunch:

• Again with the pizzas. Costco is still the best and cheapest.

• We have dens organize everything else. Something like:

• AOLers - desert

• Webelos - vegies

• Bears - honey (just kidding) fruit

• Wolves - drinks

• Tigers and Lions - just show up

Additional Event Information

Cub Scout Family Camping

• This is held by the district at Camp Chesebrough on Memorial day weekend and

Labor day weekend

• We usually go to the Labor Day weekend event.

• Register as soon as the registration opens since it fills up quickly. This is typically June.

• Send out a reminder to the pack as soon as you discover the registration is open!

Pack 411 Family Camping

• This is a new event we've started.

• We tried in March (2018) but were thwarted by extremely bad weather (40mph winds, rain, hail and lightning!)

• Success in April (2019)

• Stayed at West Deer Pen at Mt. Madonna county park

• The county parks give a whopping 50% discount for chartered youth groups (such as us) - these have proven to be our best bet due to low cost and running water as well as flushing toilet availability. Cub scouts can be the first camping experience for many families so we want it to go well!

• Contact the park and have them contact the district office - they all know what to do for insurance and proof of youth-groupiness!

• Since we encourage entire families to go, space can be limiting for the 40 person campsites. (2019) we had in the 40's go - WDP holds 50.

• Annnd... more hot dogs. Smores, too.

• Someone needs to have official BALOO training and they need to be present at the event.

• Camp registrations open up 6 months before so they fill up fast then

• We've just learned youth groups can register up to a year in advance at the County Parks! So, for April register before October!

Arrow of Light/Bridging

• The den leader gets stuck with all the equipment (since the CC and Cubmaster's house is full of all the rest of the pack equipment!)

• A big flaming arrow

• 5 gallon propane tank

• Box of stuff that has cans for water, alcohol, candle, lighters, etc.

• The wooden bridge.

• We'll assemble everything for the March meeting

• Set-up bridge Inside

• Set-up flaming arrow OUTSIDE

• Arrange a couple weeks ahead of time to have representatives of the Troops the

scouts are bridging to to come and accept them in our ceremony

• A couple den meetings prior, start assembling your arrows. We use the standard

AOL arrow kits.

• In addition to the kit, tie a cotton ball onto the point of the arrow.

• The cub will dip that in the alcohol and light it on fire with the candle

• Then they'll use their burning arrow to light part of the big flaming arrow display

• and then extinguish their cotton ball flame in the can of water.

Summertime Award

• We have to have at least one Summertime activity per month in the summer to earn the summertime award for the pack

• (each scout has to go to one activity per month (3 activities) to earn their summertime patch

• The three activities are

• (June) Joint day where we do the clean up and either the Space Derby or Raingutter Regatta (alternating years)

• (July) Week long Cub day summer camp.

• (August) Back to school recruitment picnic

Creek Clean Up

• We have an official agreement with the Santa Clara Water District that the section of Calabazas creek running alongside Creekside park is our responsibility for cleaning twice a year.

• In reality, so many other groups now clean this section we just do it once a year in June for the first of our Summertime Award outings.

Back to school recruitment picnic

• Try to have it within the first weekend of school or so- before everyone gets busy with everything else.

• (2019) - We did a joint event with Troops 2/400.

• Have the district advertise it in peachjar. (The district would like 3 weeks notice before your event)

• We have it at Rainbow park but we're too cheap to rent the large group picnic area.

• Instead, we get there early and grab the tables and benches at the playground area in the opposite corner of the park.

• (2019) We also brought the pack's paper rocket launcher.

• (2019) The scouts from T400 helped the cubs and new cub recruits assemble the paper rockets and use the air-launcher.

• We bring a small grill (Weber smokey joe) or two and use those to grill hot dogs since there's no grills in that area.

• We do a lot of hot dogs since they're pre-cooked and simple and fast. They come in beef, chicken and vegetarian varieties, too.

• Beef is most popular, followed by vegetarian. Chicken devotees are vocal, but not numerous. ;)

• NOBODY LIKES TURKEY

• Always good to have a district rep there - be sure to invite them (let your unit commissioner know). Frequently they have some kind of giveaway (2018- books, 2019 - scarves) for families that sign up at your event