Time, Effort, Patience

Was hoping to post a picture of us in our new scout shirts as DH and I have taken on the task of leading our son's Cub Scout den this year! This is our 3rd year doing it and it has taken us some time to get up to speed on how it all works. (our first year doing it I had no idea that it was the scout "thing" to sell popcorn and was really taken aback by one of the den leaders yelling at us all to sign up to sell popcorn!) (I do have wonderings about the time and effort to do fundraisers vs paying for things ourselves....but that is another topic and also I need to find out more info/see the #s before I form an opinion on this one! Til then I will go with the flow).

Anyway I just have finally admitted in the process of getting uniform shirts for three of us (Middlest is a new scout) and trying to figure out what patches we need/getting them sewn on and doing our training plus planning for meetings, getting our keys to the scout hut, etc... that this entire effort really does require planning on the scale of starting a small private school!  Plus we are in Germany where we have to wait for orders to get mailed (no shop to run to to buy everything from unless you want to drive a good ways) and everything is run by parent volunteers who are working full time, get deployed, and go TDY. No one is paid and no one is full time. I just think sometimes people forget these things when they are new and wanting to get up to speed. It wouldn't be fair, although it would "make sense" to require some deadlines for having new den leaders and new kids sign up in order to be truly up and running by September. However its not fair and unrealistic because of course you have people moving in and out through the summer, settling in, getting their bearings and THEN thinking about signing their kids up for things like scouting when the new school year starts.

So there have been lots of people falling through the cracks (us included and we were already officially den leaders!) with getting Pack email updates, kids getting their awards and belt loops, and brand new last second families signing up wondering what is going on, who do they need to talk to, pay, how do they get emails, what uniform items do they need, etc.... DH was feeling the pressure from a new parent last night who is in our den and feeling like he SHOULD have the answers. I am thinking but hang on....we are new to this entire pack and we barely know who to talk to and how things work! This parent said something to DH along the lines of "are you asking me or are you telling me?" to which DH was going "ummm.....ack!" LOL.

Anyway it is just one of those things where the leaders are doing their best (cub scout motto!) and also need to not beat themselves up when something falls through the cracks. To top it all off the whole pack is moving from one system to another and there is still a learning curve for this new system and some kids and parents didn't get switched over.

It is just something that needs to be approached with more respect in terms of the time and effort it requires. Take a bunch of very busy, transient people and try to get something along the lines of a part time private school running, is impressive. As long as someone is approaching it like a one-step process to get involved they will always feel it is hopelessly disorganized, however if you approach it like you are signing up your child and also becoming a teacher of a private school when the school year has already started, you might approach it with a little bit more patience and expectation that it will take a little time to get up to speed.

This weekend we have a camp (we will just go for the day) that I think will be a lot of fun. The boys will learn to fish, and the fire department from post will come and do a big fire display (and put it out). We will bring our camping gear even if just for the day, so we have a home base. We stocked up on camping gear while in the states knowing we'd be needing it for events like these. I am looking forward to when we can bring our dog along on these events too! :)

Next year Youngest can start girl scouts! Oh my!!