Newsletter - 2001 - December

InsaneScouter News

We would like to appoligize for a mis-print in our last newsletter. InsaneScouter is a monthly newsletter not a bi-monthly newsletter.

Thank you for subscribing to the InsaneScouters monthly newsletter. We hope you and your family had a safe Halloween and are looking forward to the coming winter holidays. It is our intention to provide you with information and resources to help you run your units program. Please reply to this newsletter if you have any suggestions on how we can better help you.

InsaneScouter wishes to take a moment to announce the re-design of our home page. Please feel free to check out our updates.

 

Boys Life Themes

 

 

Fun Activity - "Capture The Fort"

Divide players into two sides: Attackers and Defenders.

Defenders form a circle, holding hands and facing outward, with their captain in the center.

Attackers surround the fort at about eight or ten paces distant. They try to kick a soccer ball into the fort; it may go through the legs of the defenders or over their heads. If it goes over their heads, the captain may catch it and throw it out. But if it touches the ground inside the circle, the fort is captured and the players change sides.

Fundrasing - "Seed Money"

We all know the old saying, "It takes money to make money". This fundraiser is a direct take off on that idea, and requires the participants to use their own ideas and initiative.

The group holding this fundraiser gives each member $10 in "seed money", with this challenge. Use your own talents and resourcefulness, and make this money grow!

After a set period of time, the members then return the "seed money" and any profits they have made and a celebration is held.

Here are the specifics:

1. Find your Seed Money.

If your group doesnt have enough money in its treasury, you will have to raise the money. Try having another type of fundraiser that doesnt require up front funds (i.e. a candy bar sale). Or, ask for a loan (i.e. from a local business) or a donation (i.e. from your church membership). New $10 bills will make the best impression when handing them out. Make sure to keep track of who participates in the program, the idea is not to give money away.

2. Distribute the Seed Money.

Call a meeting of your group. Give each member his $10 bill in an envelope with your group name, brief instructions, and return date printed on the front of the envelope.

Some groups have their members sign a pledge. This gives ownership to the fundraiser. (e.g. I promise to take this $10 and do my best to make it grow.) This can also serve as a receipt for the money. Some groups make participation in this fundraiser voluntary. Let everyone know that its OK if they fail as long as they tried. Just be sure they understand that bare minimum, you must have the $10 back.

At the same time give each member a handout with detailed instructions. This is the time to explain the program, how it differs from your usual fundraising programs, and how the "seed money" fundraiser presents an opportunity for them to do fun and exciting things to raise money. Explain that their fundraising can include almost anything (it must be legal of course). Encourage them to use their imagination!

Instructions should include:

-What you want them to do (e.g. Please take this money and do something creative and resourceful with it to make it grow).

- Due Date (When you want the money back). 30 to 90 days works the best, depending on how often your group meets.

- Examples and ideas of things to do to grow the money (good examples are - buy paper and ink and make greeting cards in your home, buy soap and wax and have a car wash, buy baking supplies and have a bake sale, buy gas and oil and mow yards, and buy a newspaper ad and have a garage sale with donated items). You can encourage a brain storming session for ideas at this time.

3. Give Updates

Throughout the money growing period, give an update at every meeting. Share reports of early successes and remind members of the time remaining. Share with the group any other money raising ideas the leadership has come up with.

4. Harvest Time

Call another meeting of your group and gather the envelopes. You can let your members turn in their envelopes early, but dont announce results until the harvest meeting. Have your bookkeeper do a quick tally of the money and announce the results. This is celebration time, so do it up right. Dont be afraid to allocate some of the profits as a reward for the members. Have a pizza party! This will give your members a positive feeling and help with next years "seed money" fundraiser.

5. Clean Up

Encourage your procrastinators to return their money. Remind them of the commitment they signed at the start of the fundraiser. As a last result, let them know that its OK if they didnt earn any money, but you must have the $10 back!

This is the time to return the "seed money" capital if you borrowed it.

Keep records of the different types of activities your members used to make money. Add these to your instruction sheet suggestions next year.

6. Next Year

Like most fundraising events, the "seed money" fundraiser will grow better each year. If you encourage everyone to have a fun and exciting time with their fundraiser, they will look forward to next years event.

Data supplied by Fundrasier.org newsletter

InsaneScouter Website Update

I would like to applogize for any problems you may have encountred while vistiting our site. We have been busy redesigning and adding content, some of which did not go they way we intended when it went live.

If you have any ideas of new content or areas we should expand into we would love for you to email them to us. We are also in the search for new content. If you have any information you think would be benficial to those who visit InsaneScouter such as pow books, hand outs, training aids, program ideas, fun projects, games, and so much more please reply to this newletter.

Would you or anyone you know be interested in helping us maintain and impove InsaneScouter? If so please let us know as there is plenty to do from single tasks that may take an hour on up.

lastly I would like to encourage you all to take a look at the new Webelos section that we brought on-line a few weeks ago. We added many new pages, and try to design its look to better match the rest of the site.

InsaneScouter Momment - "The Sunday Run"

Last Sunday as I was finishing my run through Tree Tops Park with my running buddy, I saw a neighbor standing in her garage doorway about to get her newspaper. Unfortunately the years had not been kind to her. She was walking with a walker and one eye was closed. Over the years I had seen her taking care of her house and she had always appeared quite friendly, but in her present condition she could no longer see me from where I ran along the road. Without thinking, I picked up the Sunday paper and quickly brought it to her. God bless you, she said, as I handed her the paper. I was astonished by the sincerity of those words as I realized that it would have taken her quite some time to walk to the paper and pick it up in her condition. As I caught up with Steve, my running buddy, I commented that I had fulfilled my scouting good turn for the day and it wasn t even 8 a.m. He jokingly replied, Now you can be a jerk the rest of the day.

At first I laughed but the more I thought about what had transpired, the more I thought about what the meaning of what scout spirit really is. Scout spirit doesn t mean how many little old ladies you help across the street or pick up the Sunday paper for. It does not mean how many meetings or campouts you attend or how many merit badges you obtain. Scout spirit means that we live by the Scout Oath and Law twenty-four hours a day and uphold the pledge we make as scouts to hold ourselves up to a higher standard, or as the Hebrew National people say, We hold ourselves up to a higher authority. So don t just wait for the obvious situation such as the little old lady and the newspaper to exercise your scout spirit, but create your own situations to live the scouting life and practice scout spirit twenty-four hours a day,seven days a week. By doing so we all answer to a higher authority.

-- Thanks to Marc Grey, SM Troop 317, Davie, Florida

 

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