FOCUS

Cub Scouting Roundtable Planning Guide

Welcome to Cub Rock! The boys can learn about prehistoric times by using natural materials to create table settings, toys, clothing, school supplies, vehicles, etc. These ideas would be great for use in a skit and boys can share these skits at a prehistoric pack meeting. What a good month to explore geology and learn about the dinosaurs. By the end of the month, all the boys will be looking at rocks in a different way. With cooperation and team building in mind, this might be a good month for a prehistoric scavenger hunt. What fossils can you find?

CORE VALUES

Cub Scouting Roundtable Planning Guide

Some of the purposes of Cub Scouting developed through this month’s theme are:

• Personal Achievement, learning new fact and skills in geology, paleontology and archeology.

• Fun and Adventure, Lets take a ride on the magic Cubmobile and explore the wondrous chain of events that lead to earth as we know it now.

• Preparation for Boy Scouts, All things in nature have a lifecycle.  Cub Scouts, living the promise, are preparing themselves for Boy Scouts and are learning life skills that will help them be better, if not exceptional, citizens in the service of others.

• The core value highlighted this month is: Resourcefulness, We have exceptional resources all around and within us to give us the best possible outcome.

Can you think of others??? Hint – look in your Cub Scout Program Helps.  It lists different ones!! All the items on both lists are applicable!!  You could probably list all twelve if you thought about it!!

COMMISSIONER’S CORNER

The Cub Scout Program Helps for 2004-2005 is out!!!  Get your copy now and start planning your Pack’s Annual Program Planning Conference!!! Get yourself ready for a great year and if you haven’t used or read the new books yet – do it before the boys are upon you.  There are some interesting changes – for example in the Wolf Book, they must participate in an outdoor flag ceremony – be sure to do this on your pack’s fall overnighter or arrange with a school.  There are summaries and comparisons of all the changes on www.usscouts.org - don’t get caught short!!

Dinosaurs – a great theme.  What boy doesn’t love thinking about dinosaurs.  And it is in the spring, too!!  Wow, get them out doing fossil hunts, exploring for rocks (Those newly graduated Tigers need a collection for their Wolf badge – have them start a rock collection this month.  They can carry it in their pants’ pockets until they get too many J J )  Go out to a museum and see the skeletons.  Go to Philmont and see the World’s only certified certifies T-Rex footprint (Oops, I guess the opportunity to do this is really limited.  Sorry.)  Have a prehistoric campfire for your pack meeting.  Maybe use “lightning” to ignite your fire.  Get everybody dressed in costume.  Build a volcano for the campfire and set it off.  Maybe have a volcano competition.  If you google for how to build a model volcano on the web you will get lots of hits!!

There are changes coming to the Cub Program again.  My District Director has told me that the following become official on the listed dates.  Check with your Commissioners and Execs –

• May 15, 2004 - Packs are only required to have one (1) den leader on the roster, not one each for Tigers, Cubs, and Webelos.  It is still recommended that each age group have its own leader, but packs with only 1 or 2 boys in a given age group will not be forced to send them elsewhere for lack of a den leader.

• May 15, 2004 - Having a registered "pack trainer" will fulfill one of the two required "MC" positions in a pack.

• Aug. 1, 2004 - The Tiger Cub uniform becomes the Cub Scout blue shirt uniform with Tiger insignia upon it.

• Fall, 2004 - A welcome new Den Leader kit will be available with 3 months of Program Helps, Fast Start DVD, and other literature to hand them as soon as they accept the job and to help in recruiting them.

I am especially anxious to see the Den Leader Kit.  We have had one in our pack for a few years.  And it has been a great help. CD

This is my thirteenth Baloo. I am having so much fun I did not even realize last month my first anniversary since starting to help with this publication.  It is an awesome responsibility.  I am never sure what to publish and what to cut.  Where the politically correct line is this month.  What I can put out for boys to do and what I loved to do as a youth that is now ‘too dangerous.” And every month there is so much.  I can never understand leaders who say they have nothing to do, they certainly don’t read the available resources – Program Helps, RT Guide, Baloo, …  I hope I have kept your interest and provided material you can use.  I know sometimes I was later than I should be and I am sorry but this was a hectic year – Wood Badge staff, trip to Philmont Training Center, planning a Philmont trek, Pow Wow Chair, Roundtable Commissioner, Cubmaster (again), FOS presenter and training team.  Plus my engineering job, church council and work with Thrivent Financial for Lutherans.  I hope this issue is on the web in time for those first week Roundtables.  I, also, want to thank many of my regular contributors and all those who sent me Pow Wow Book CDs.  Especially those with Word files which saves me from printing and scanning .pdf’s.  I love my OCR scanner!!!!  Here’s to another great year. CD

'Dinosaur' means 'Terrible Lizard.' Wrong?!

Kathy, Hiawatha Council

Does the word 'dinosaur' means 'Terrible Lizard?'                               No, the word dinosaur comes from the ancient Greek words deinos (fearfully great, as in awe-inspiring) and sauros (a lizard). The name was invented in 1842 by Richard Owen, who knew they were NOT lizards, but thought that they may have been derived from them. Owen used the term deinos as a superlative, not as an adjective. Unfortunately, many authors never read the original publication by Owen and so used the word deinos as an adjective. This resulted in the WRONG translation as "terrible" lizard.

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