Good Morning!

We've got an absolutely perfect day breaking here in New England. The kind of mild, sunny day that will be just right for baseball!

I've done a lot of things throughout my scouting career, but today we're finally heading for an event that I have been intentionally saving for years. This afternoon, I'll be standing on the lush grass of McCoy Stadium taking in a youth clinic and autograph session...later on we'll be parading the Pack Flag out onto the field, then we get to stay overnight camped on the outfield grass! (I'll be making an attempt to live-blog the day on FB.)

Setting up for the trip was a thing of beauty; my assistant Cubmaster sent one email, and everyone responded brilliantly to make sure our tailgating happens without a hitch at about noon. Your cubmaster merely needs to arrive at the appointed place and time, and everything should happen automatically.


Not to toot my own horn here, but isn't that the hallmark of good leadership? Some months ago now, we decided to go, and the task of getting dates and cost information was delegated. Then making those reservations went through the camping chairman. Handling all the money fell to the treasurer, and now setting up the tailgating was out of my hands, too. After starting the process, my only role in this was to sit back and make sure the right people were doing the right thing at the right time. The only thing I did regarding the trip was to fill out the application for the BSA 'tour permit' so our unit insurance would cover us for the trip.

I can't help but think about how our volunteer organization runs so smoothly whenever I look far to the Southwest and see alleged 'leaders' that are paid to do nothing else. The budget debate has thrown that into some clarity. While the government is so vast and monolithic, it will continue on on inertia alone for quite some time when folks aren't paying attention, I have to wonder what else isn't getting done these last few weeks while everyone has focused on one issue.

I had similar things happen in the pack, and it's primarily come down to a cult of personality. A few years ago now, our committee meetings were rife with infighting, fingerpointing, and a whole host of other unhelpful things. But you know what? While we were busy having our circular firing squad, the program suffered, fundraising was terrible, and our membership was plummeting. Three years ago, we were deep in the red, the pack had a mere 19 boys, and most of our events were either planned almost as an afterthought, or I did it all myself with the help of one or two trusted lieutenants.

But then something changed...our troublemaker resigned, but in doing so there was significant damage to the pack in that she took an entire den of scouts with her. That September, we recruited hard and got in a whole boatload of new leaders that shared the same purpose. Nobody was there for power, or influence, or even badges...we only wanted to see the program succeed and have interesting and relevant events for our scouts.

While I hope the budget impasse can be resolved, I'm certain the brinkmanship is much too valuable to the Republicans, and we'll go right to the edge before calmer heads prevail. But what then? It's not going to be easy to get back to work, and the focus is only going to be on the handful of necessary items to keep things going.

That's not Liberal...it's not even Conservative at this point. I'm thinking that our esteemed Houses of Congress are now purely Reactionary, with all that infers.