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It’s 5 AM on Saturday and I’m done preparing for the Klondike, meaning depending on how you define it, this is the earliest or latest I’ve finished.  Latest as I’ve never planned on getting less than 4 hours of sleep and earliest because I never really finished preparing for the previous 2.  Sure I’d have my car packed with stuff but did I have the unit sign-in checklist?  No.  Did I have the detailed station instruction sheet for all 20 stations?  No.  This year I do, so I suppose I’m 24 months late for completing my first Klondike.

A Klondike more so than most events is a thousand tiny things as my checklist for the event is two pages in its short form and six pages in its expanded form but this degree of microtracking is largely an effort to find the ephemera that has made these events so enjoyable to me as a teenager.  I use the term teenager specifically as I couldn’t remember ever enjoying them when I was 12 or younger and since I turned about 22 they’ve been a grind.  The Klondike Derby is a showcase each year of a dozen novel program snippets that units can take back as stations are rotated through by both sleds and time and this was a mechanic that was new to such things that I’m proud to say I have added.  The total corpus of stations is about 60 of which 45 are usable (some have never and should never see the light of day).  I wonder if it’ll last past me.

I can fit the entire Klondike in my Matrix this year where last year I had my dad’s GMC Sierra bed nearly full.  Better packing or different program?  I don’t know but this year I get to bring back sled raising, and for this I am excited.

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Tonight was the last roundtable for which I was the district roundtable co-chair and the theme was communication and I had assembled a pile or resources from camp school and the web on how to talk with teenage boys.  I was about to get to the topic when someone asked “how will the sled race at the Klondike be done?”

Me: Well, I thought it’d be appropriate if the sled race were done with fully packed sleds.
Leader 1: Kids cheat, you’d have to inspect the sleds before and after.
Leader 2: That’s ridiculous.
Me: Yeah.
Leader 2: The inspectors might have a vested interest so we should weigh them.
Me: Woah, what happened to a Scout is trustworthy?  Are there any concerns with racing full sleds?
*silence*
Leader 3: Safety.  Things could fall off and kids could get hurt.
*grumbling*
Me: So, no one has a problem with racing with full sleds assuming we inspect them?
All: Nope.

Scouting: because fun and injury aren’t mutually exclusive.

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There was an executive selection meeting this evening to find out what the volunteers wanted in a new Scout executive.  We went through the normal list and trust kept coming up resulting in a bewildered headshake from the national office rep that was running the meeting.  Someone raised their hand and stated “the executive should stay through meetings they’re attending.  Same thing with ceremonies.”  This solicited a “of course they do” from the national rep that had to be explained later:

Temp Exec: I don’t think you understand.  At the lodge banquet there was a pool to see when the previous guy would leave.
National Rep:  That’s terrible.  I heard there were problems but this is unacceptable.  You never leave the Blue and Gold banquet before the magician performs.

Editor’s Note:  To non-Scouts, Blue and Gold banquets are annual pack events featuring a large meal with all the Cubs’ families, often a distinguished guest, recognition of the kids’ advancement and finally a closing entertainment act.  This entertainment often occurs 2 hours into a 2.5 hour evening.

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The District meeting this evening included an envoy from the Executive Selection Committee who requested we provide information on features we’re looking for in a new executive.  Someone suggested “having an open door policy”.  I found this quaint as I consider it far more important to get an appointment than to be able to barge into someone’s office, but I pressed the point and wanted transparency in that meeting minutes and documents should default to public.  The guests did not agree.

Me: Every set of meeting minutes and agendas should be available on the web page.
Guest: We will be making them available on request.
Me: Why?  Just publish them.
Guest: There are some people who shouldn’t have access to them.
Me: What are we doing that we need to hide?  We are the Boy Scouts of America.  Our victories and failures should be public.  Who are these enemies?
Guest: Some people don’t have our best interests in mind.
Me: If you can’t name a single person, then it’s a canard.  I’m not going to accept “If we release our minutes, the terrorists will have won” as an argument in America’s premier youth values-based program.

A few people clapped or laughed and the guest changed the topic quickly.  As I’m leaving Scouting, I’ve become much more outspoken as to its weaknesses.  When I return, I should quit six months later for a few days and see if I can keep the iconoclasm going.

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Today I started picking up the phone to call Scout people to indicate that after the Playwicki Klondike Derby, I would no longer be able to execute the duties of District Activities Chair.  I dialed the first number with some trepidation but was relieved by the responses.

Bob Ansel, District Commissioner: We’ll identify some people who may be able to step up.  Otherwise, how can I help your venture?
Rob Scafidi, District Executive: That sounds like a great opportunity.
Rowland Smith, District Chair: I wish you the best.
Mike Dash, Roundtable Chair: Sounds neat.

All said without a whiff of reservation or concern as to how my departure may inconvenience them.  Scouting tries to teach helpfulness, friendliness, courtesy, and kindness; teaching that appears to be much easier when the qualities already exist in the person teaching.  Thank you, Playwicki District.

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Troop 5 was having a pancake breakfast this morning and I was very impressed with how well laid out the church dining hall was.  Scouts in full uniform were collecting fees and tickets and yet more were pushing around carts offering drink refills and busing tables.  The older Scouts were around the fee table up front and were having an interesting conversation.

Scout 1: We could just shun them.
Scout 2: Nah, that wouldn’t change anything.
Scout 3: How about we recruit their friends?
Scout 2: Maybe.
Me: *interjecting* What are you guys talking about?
Scout 1: A guy left our troop to start his own and took a bunch of kids with him.  We’re planning on ways to get them back.
Me: That’s good of you.  What’s the best idea so far?
Scout 3: I think throwing burlap sacks over their heads during a meeting and dragging them back is a keeper.
Me: So abduction?
Scout 2: Yeah, pretty well.
Me: Carry on.

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I knew today was going to be a long day with a 12-16 hour work day followed by a Scout function.  The evening meeting was a Council Meeting that was somehow changed to a Council Executive Board Meeting without anyone having been told and apparently the press was going to be there.  The reporter stuck out like a sore thumb as she was the only one to not know the Scout Oath or Law and about two hours in she left of boredom.  The reason we thought we were there wasn’t discussed and I felt like a lot of my time had been wasted.  I don’t get angry much, but this was one of those cases and while walking out I kicked the door open.  I’m pretty sure I had sent the impulse to my hand to open it, but that wasn’t fast enough so my foot entered service.

Within 24 hours, a good number of people called me to ask why I was mad and to explain what happened and why.  I’m glad I now know and am left with the lesson that I need to have temper tantrums more often.

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As my special addition to tonight’s roundtable I built a soda can stove that looked something like this:

Courtesy of... some other web page

You put fuel in the bottom, a little in the top, and light the top.  This heat vaporizes the stuff inside and you get a neat and surprisingly functional burner.  I did the same and tested one a few times and it worked quite well, but I built another as mine was made of Budweiser cans and I didn’t want to bring that to a Scouting event.  The new one was slightly taller which was apparently enough to get it to not light when I did the demo.  I manipulated the can and found a hole had formed from which fuel was leaking which immediately ignited in the pie plate I was doing the demo.  Luckily, this generated enough heat to get the vaporizing going and the stove was ablaze.  I like the idea of being able to kick a stove or otherwise cause a fuel spill to get it to work.

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I’ve been the Playwicki program chair for about 3 years and I’m slowly tiring of it.  It’s been a while since I had a genuine sense of satisfaction after an event rather than “it’s done”.  I mentioned this to a few people and the response seemed to have been “say thank you to Terry more”.

I was very happy to see that all the cardboard from the weekend fit into my car, and even if we didn’t find the right dumpster it was at least deposited at a “Sunoco on Street Road” which was our only direction.  The field was cleared and the kids were gone by 11:00 AM and I felt very tired.  Not a “nap will fix me” tired but a long brooding fatigue that comes from the weight of something providing support, in the way a marble column may tumble if the roof above is moved.  I had a template for what to do next time, but I’d rather not be the one to implement it.

And this too shall pass.

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I learned something quickly about Boy Scout events that involve camping; everything runs 30 minutes late, because of the troops.  At Webelos events if I’m 15 minutes late to start kids will explode, but I could schedule four hours for a lunch break and it still wouldn’t be enough time.  The opening training was a run-through of how EDGE works, the Scout training method so amazing there are almost no formal publications that list it and whose details are faint.  I taught the EDGE song which involves marching around yelling “Explain Demonstrate Guide Enable” dozens of times and at some points includes arm motions.  This nearly killed me as my song lacks a break between verses and I still had a heck of a cough but I think the kids got the point.  The rest of the morning went well and the activities I cooked up were also well received.

Camp Cherokee provided wonderful facilities which included an evacuation area, a zip line, a rock wall, and more importantly, cell reception.  Schedule changes were transmitted via text message as were dinner invites which proved handy as I could compare my options without offending (cheese steaks won out but I should have gone for the pot roast).

The afternoon consisted of just open activities which I felt was risky but was rewarded with this:

20101016-4776-FallCamporee

This is Norman Rockwell caliber shit.  Kids doing a flag ceremony in uniform with a setup they created as the sunsets.  I didn’t even think this actually happened except in Boys’ Life magazine or in some Panglossian simulacrum of Scouting.  I’m glad it exsists.

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