Pack News
We Are Rechartered!
We want to give out a big thank you to everyone for getting your fees to us as quickly as you did. We were able to complete our rechartering on time which makes everyone above us happy.
We officially have 45 scouts in our pack now and have earned the Outstanding Unit Award and the Summertime Pack Award for 2007!
New Committee Members
We have had a number of people step up to volunteer to be on our Executive Committee in the past couple of months and these people deserve a big thank you from everyone in the pack.
As previously mentioned, Terry Nani has stepped into the Committee Chairman position and is already making a huge contribution.
The other recent registered additions are Jeannine Huffman as our Community Service Chair, Lora Schoeder as our Publicity Chair and Historian, and Brenda White as our Advancement and Awards Chair.
Sondra and Fred Peppe (the grandparents of Den 1's Kellen and Nico Nani) did a great job for us with the popcorn and they have agreed to be the Fundraising Co-Chairs going forward! This makes 4 hard-working, dedicated volunteers from the Nani/Peppe family - they should be an inspiration to the rest of us!
Additionally, Belinda Burtzos has stepped up as our Blue & Gold Coordinator for this year, Joe Lopez is our Derby Coordinator (and Master Carpenter), Caroline McCollough has agreed to be our Uniform Exchange Coordinator, and Michael Zinniger is now our webmaster.
These people have joined the "old hands" as dedicated and hard-working volunteers that are making a huge difference for our scouts!
As always, though, we are still looking for additional volunteers. As previously mentioned, we are in desperate need of some Den Leaders for the den splits that must occur. Also, we need people to fill the Fundraising Chair, Membership Chair, Pack Trainer, Outing Coordinator, and Assistant Cubmaster positions.
Running a successful pack of this size takes a great deal of work and it is not fair to ask just a few people to do it all. All of the work of these positions needs to be done and if a position is not filled, someone filling another position has to double (or triple, or more) up and do the work. We would like to see a volunteer from each family step up to help out. Most positions don't take a lot of time to do and can pretty much be done at your convenience and however it best fits into your schedule. PLEASE give this serious consideration.
From Cubmaster Dirk:
I want to give all the new volunteers along with the "Old Hands" a HUGE personal THANK YOU ! They have taken a large weight off of my shoulders and their participation will allow us to offer much more in the way of programs and services for our pack. I think you can already see this just in this Gazette with the depth of upcoming events.
Talk to your Den Leader or Cubmaster Dirk if you have any questions.
Presenting Our New Website
If you haven't already, browse over to http://www.pack735.org. This is the address for our pack's new home on the Internet! And then, while you are thinking of it, send a message to the webmaster and thank Mike Zinniger for all the work he has done to make this a reality!
This is going to give us a wonderful vehicle to keep everyone updated with all the latest information on upcoming events. We are also hoping to have photo galleries available. You will be able to download any forms you may need such as permission slips and you will be able to send an email to any of the pack leaders or Committee members from the Contact Info page.
It has lots of other neat features - check it out. If you have any suggestions for content or see anything that should be changed, please contact Mike at webmaster@pack735.org.
We Need Your Photos
As part of her Historian position, Lora is creating a Pack 735 scrapbook and we need your digital photos or scans for it and for the website. Please send any you have to historian@pack735.org and to webmaster@pack735.org.
You can also go to our Costco Photo site at http://costcophotocenter.com/groups/cubscoutpack735 and join our group. Once you have, you can view the photos already there, order prints, or add your own photos.
Pack Budget
Our Committee Chair, Treasurer, and Cubmaster have been working hard to put together a budget for 2008. They hope to present it for approval at the February Committee meeting.
The date of the meeting has not yet been set but will be announced well ahead of time and everyone is welcome to attend.
Monthly Hiking Program
As part of a fitness program we hope to develop, we are going to begin a monthly hiking program where anyone in the pack that is interested will meet at a new site each month for an organized hike. The boys will be able to earn patches for reaching certain distance milestones (10, 15, 50, etc.). We will occasionally have themed hikes where we do something different such as have a treasure hunt, look for natural items, or conduct a clean-up of the trail.
We hope to have our first hike later this month. Details will follow!
Advancement
This is just a quick reminder to keep on top of your advancement requirements.
All the boys that have recently joined Cub Scouts need to first complete their Bobcat requirements and can then begin working on the requirements for their rank.
Achievements are meant to be done with help from the parents or other family members. Some portions of some requirements may be done in the den setting but it is the responsibility of the family to ensure that all requirements are complete by den graduation time. (In 2008, den graduation will be in the June / July timeframe.)
Talk to your Den Leader if you have any questions.
Caroling at Rancho Vista
We had five boys and their dads show up for our service project at the Rancho Vista Senior Community last month.
At the December Pack Fun Fest the boys all made ornaments and decorations that we handed out to the residents. We then had great fun singing carols and getting the residents to join in. The only snag was that we didn't have enough people there to drown out Cubmaster Dirk's wonderful (cough, choke) singing voice!
Because of scheduling conflicts and last minute changes, this was a bad weekend and the low turnout is understandable. But, the boys that attended really came away with a new understanding of folks in a different circumstance than us and, of course, the residents just absolutely love it - it really makes their day and puts huge smiles on their faces.
We have another opportunity for this in February. We are going to go up to the Sivergate residence in Fallbrook - read more about this below. Let's try to get a lot more of our scouts there this time!
Webelos at Wild Animal Park
The Den 10 Webelos are hard at work on their Activity Badges.
As part of the Naturalist Badge, they went as a den this month to the Wild Animal Park increasing the population of the wild animals at the park by 3 while they were there!
Fantastic job, Den 10! We are looking forward to our first Webelos rank presentation and Arrow of Light ceremony in the future!
Den Spilts
We have really gotten to the point where we are going to be forced to split up dens 1 and 4 due to the large number of boys that each den currently has.
According to the BSA, the optimum size for a Cub Scout den is 6 to 8 boys. Den 1 now has 14 active and energetic boys and Den 4 has 12. Den Leader Jeff D. and Den Leader Debbie H. can attest to the wisdom of the BSA policy!
We also need to split dens 2, 5, and 6. This is a bit of a different situation in that all three of these dens together only have 9 boys but they range from Tiger to Bear. We will keep dens 2 and 5 together but really need to split the den 6 Tigers into their own den.
We realize that all of these dens are a very tight-knit group of boys. With dens 1 and 4, we have tried to delay this as long as possible to keep the boys together but we cannot do so any longer. It is simply too difficult (if not impossible) to provide a successful Bear or, especially, Webelos program with groups this size. And remember, Den 1 will be Bears and Den 4, Webelos in just a few short months.
For the den 1 and 4 splits, we will do our best to keep best friends together and will ask for input from the scouts and parents but, ultimately, some may not be entirely happy with the split.
We must all remember that, while the dens may be split, we are still one pack and will still all be doing fun activities together. We will also try to have some combined den functions once in a while.
So, we need your support, patience, and understanding throughout this process but, most importantly, we need some additional volunteers from these dens to be Leaders and Assistant Leaders.
The time is upon us. These splits must happen! If we don't have any volunteers step up to be leaders, we will be forced to evaluate alternatives and find other ways to reduce the size of the dens.
Thank you in advance for your help and cooperation in this.
Veterans Day at Rancho Vista
We were asked last month at the last minute to help the Rancho Vista Senior Community honor their Veterans.
Responding with typical Pack 735 enthusiasm, the boys all made thank you cards for them at the October Fun Fest (which was actually during the first week of November due to the fires).
Even with the short notice, we had 12 boys, representing just about every den, show up with their families on Veteran’s Day the following Sunday to pass out the cards and sing patriotic songs for the residents.
We got a lot of great feedback from Rancho Vista and they definitely want us back for the Caroling in December!
Fallbrook Christmas Parade
Braving the elements, we had a huge turnout for the Christmas Parade in Fallbrook. 25 scouts showed up to take part and show our community what a great bunch of boys Pack 735 has! The Webelos den did a great job as our honor guard and led our procession. The rest of the boys took turns helping with our pack flag. We received many cheers and quite a bit of applause as we passed by the crowds.
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