The Meeting

Savannah & I attended the Scouts Committee Meeting last night.  Lucianna, the new babysitter I recently hired, watched Kyle & Isabella for me.  I decided to take Savannah with me because she had been miserable (due to teething pains) all day.  When Lucianna walked through the front door Savannah burst into tears.  It didn't make sense to leave her behind, knowing that she wasn't feeling well.
She was very good for the first half of the meeting, but then she got super cranky, fussy & whiny during the second half so we left about 15 minutes early.
I enjoyed talking to the two people in charge of the Riverside Pack - Tony & Sam.  I think Sam is technically considered to be the "Cub Master" - the one who kind of oversees all of the dens in the Pack.  Tony handles the finances & seems to have his hand in all aspects of how the Pack is run.  They both seem very organized, which is great.  I spoke to Sam privately for a few minutes before the meeting got started.  His son is homeschooled as well, so right from the get-go we had a lot in common!   He said he was very pleased & excited when I sent my request to become a Den Leader & he doesn't see any reason why that can't happen.  They will be having a meeting in the summer to discuss all of the Dens & will know better then if there will be enough boys to warrant a new Den being opened.  I'm 99% sure there will be.  Ideally they do not want each Den to have more than 4-6 boys in it.  When Tony arrived he pretty much echoed the same things Sam had said.  I also made it clear that if I'm not able to get my own Den we would have to pull Kyle out & register him elsewhere.  The best way I could sum it up was to use the following analogy; the shoe fits, but it's uncomfortable.  It's even more uncomfortable now that I've taken the online training & see how many of the guidelines are being overlooked in the Den he's a part of now.  I mean no disrespect to Sheila, but the boys in her Den really aren't getting the most out of the Cub Scouts Den experience.  Before I even took the training classes I had some thoughts & ideas as to how a Den should be run; the classes pretty much mimicked my very thoughts!!  In my opinion the boys aren't taking it as serious as they should be because the Den is not run as serious as it should be.  Lead by example...
I did not speak about Sheila in specific during the meeting.  I have no want or desire to go "above" her.  To each his own.  I've overheard other parents complaining about how her Den is run, but it's up to them to voice their complaints.  I am only concerned with Kyle.  I want to do what is best for him & keeping him in Sheila's Den is not giving him the opportunity to really see & experience what Scouts is all about.  Unfortunately, I am pretty sure that Sheila is unhappy with my recent actions.  She asked for my help but I think because our views on things are so different she didn't appreciate my opinions on how things could be made better.
Anyways, I am really looking forward to becoming more involved with Scouts.  Besides Sam & Tony there was only one other person at the meeting last night (besides Sheila, but she came in just a few minutes before I was getting ready to leave), Becky - & I let all of them know that I'm willing & able to help wherever needed.  Tony mentioned that Ron (another volunteer who wasn't at the meeting last night) is going to be organizing a car wash fundraiser so when I got home I emailed Ron's wife (I don't have Ron's email myself) to let her know that if he needs some help in organizing it, I'm available.
I just hope Sheila isn't speaking poorly about me to others.  I know she made a couple of indirect comments about me during her Den Meeting last night in which another parent picked up on.  I don't want to feel like I'm being alienated, if that makes sense, just because I voiced my opinions.  There are only a few more den meetings before Scouts break for the summer & then hopefully some changes will come our way.