Thursday, June 25, 2009

Spring (er… Summer?) Cleaning

It occurred to me after our last pack meeting that I have a LOT of Scouting related clutter.

Like most of the leaders I know on the Cub Scout level, I save everything.  One never knows when a bunch of empty oatmeal containers will be needed as tribal drums or empty Tic-Tac containers will be called upon to house bugs for examination before their ultimate release, or egg cartons will be fashioned into an array of adorable sea creatures.  Screws?  I got screws - in every shape, size, and color.  Hammers?  Well, I have to keep at least enough on hand for a den of boys, right?  Even if I’m not a den leader anymore, the rest of the den leaders in our pack know they can rely on me when it comes to random project and craft supplies.

Supplies that end up quickly becoming… clutter.

Add to this my countless stacks of paperwork, flyers, dittos, old programs and invitations, and a host of other stuff I’ve kept over the years to use as examples for the next committee head for this activity or that banquet and stacks of extra applications and med forms and all of the paperwork for new scouts and their parents as well as new leaders and uhhhh…. yeah.  THAT paperwork used to be considerably more under control when the pack had a secretary, but as that position is currently vacant, I have been called upon to fill those shoes as well as those of the Committee Chairman.

Looking around after the last pack meeting, I decided - finally - that I had to do something about all this mess.  Some of what I had wasn’t useful anymore, and some of what I had couldn’t be used simply because I couldn’t find it.  Paperwork was outdated, old Adult applications needed to be tossed, dried up makers needed to be replaced, things just needed to be put back into some kind of order again.

I have started with decorations, ceremony items (our Cubmaster is a bit shy so I do a lot of the advancement and opening ceremonies), craft and project supplies, and the “prize bin”.  Those items are all relatively easy for me to organize.  They’re all tangible.  They all have a specific purpose and could easily go into bins and buckets, zip lock baggies and giant totes.  Within a single day I had that stuff tamed and put away.  Now, when we decide to have a Scout Bucks auction, I’m on it.  One tote, clearly and carefully labeled, gets pulled out and plopped into my car for transport.  Easy peasy.  If a den leader calls and wants to know if I have popcicle sticks, I have a large tote - carefully labeled and inventoried.  I can look at the top of the bin and know instantly how much of what I’ve got.

Now, the paperwork issue… not so easy.  I’ve been working on it for days now with only minimal progress.  How much do I keep?  How much do I toss?  Some of the older training materials and resources (Pack Trainer being one of the exciting hats I wear!) needed to be tossed.  I have better, newer, more pertinent materials, now, so the old stuff went straight to the recycle bin.  But what about that 20 page printout from some random website I’ll never be able to find again (complete with instructions, material lists - and where to get the materials - as well as diagrams and photos!) on ideas for carnival games for our annual district carnival?  Does it go into the file cabinet?  The traveling file box?  A notebook?  Just because I found it useful, will someone else?

It makes me sadly longing for the days when one could bookmark a freebie website knowing it was a freebie website and would be around forever.  That false sense of security is one most of us will never embrace again, knowing some of our favorite Scouting related websites have moved, been deleted, gotten lost when “freebie” hosts decided to go pay or close down.  I’m thankful I DID print out so many pages from websites since so many of them are now gone.  Still, now that I have this great information, what exactly do I do with it to make it more accessible to me - and theoretically and hopefully - to others?

What about paperwork on individual scouts?  How long do I want to hold on to it?  Medical forms get renewed and replaced each year, but what about advancement records? Should I hold on to those after a Scout has left?  Should those linger after a Scout has crossed over?

Honestly, digging through this mountain of papers reminds me of the happy days of being “just” a den leader.  I could handle the craft buckets and half a dozen or so copies of medical forms.  I miss those days.  I miss having a pack secretary.  I miss someone else being responsible for some of this stuff.  I suspect this is going to be good for me in the long run, though, and I suspect somewhere, deep down, this is good for my soul, too.

Or penance for any evil deeds I may have done in my life.  Hee.

At least I know what I’m asking Santa for Christmas…

Dear Santa,
I have been very pretty good this year.  Could I please have my own personal secretary?  I will always usually sometimes share with the pack.  I will even retract postpone my request for my own personal cabana boy to fan me and feed me grapes if you are willing to meet me halfway and send me a secretary for Christmas.

Sound good so far?

What do you do to tame your paperwork beasts?

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