Boy Scouts running a traveling Pinewood Derby

[CuriousGeorge]

Has anyone ever heard of a Boy Scout troop running Pinewood Derbies for packs in their districts that don't have a PWD? I have a Webelos II that is crossing over into Boy Scouts and thought this would be a great idea for his troop. I can see several good things coming out of this. 1. Cub Scouts that wouldn't normally get the opportunity to participate in a PWD would get to. 2. The Boys Scouts would get in some community service. 3. It would be great for the troop to get some face time with the scouts before the Blue and Gold banquet and be able to promote their troop. I'm sure there are more pro's and some con's. I'd like to get some opinions before I make any suggestions. Anyway, has anyone ever heard of this and what other pro's and con's can you think of?


PS: First snow day of the year for the kids... no school... kids are thrilled.

[Go Bubba Go]

Sounds like a good idea, but I would have a couple of precautions:

1) You may want to charge a small fee to cover the cost of disposable items (tape, fuel costs, etc.). Even if you are doing this strictly for the service hours, etc. you don't want to end up losing money each time out. Unless your budget can support it and you consider it a fair donation, that is your choice... just keep an eye on the $ and understand the likely impact.

2) You should have a couple adult leaders present and "in charge" to field issues with the parents. The boys should be able, esp. with some practice, to set up and run the event fairly well. They will still need someone to "cover their 6" with respect to any "surprises".

We do have boys from a local Troop help out with our Cub Scout event, largely for the reasons you stated (plus many of the Boy Scouts do participate in our Open Class event). So far we have had good experience with this, so long as we have good oversight by Adult Leaders for the inevitable visit from Mr. Murphy (of Bad Luck fame, not the Pinewood Founder ).

Bubba

[PWD_addict]

Great idea as long as you have a couple of mature Boy Scouts to handle those "issues" that may come up. Or, have at least one competent adult leader. Seems that the issues that have appeared on this board are usually inspection issues. If the Packs can handle inspection of the cars, this would take this huge potential issue out of the equation.

[pack529holycross]

Thinking of it in reverse... what you are considering is making your track and services available to those who wish to "rent" those services. Several people on this forum are experienced in doing such a service, and we are preparing for our first event services opportunity. You will get alot of input from those who have done it before, such as Randy Lisano and others.

Nicholas

[RMoose]

If you have enough interest among the scouts and enough adult help this could be a good service project for them to take on - sounds to me like it would be more fun than picking up trash beside the road

In addition to cub scout pack races, you might want to look into helping out other groups that hold races, like AWANA, RA's, Royal Rangers, etc. (maybe even the Girl Scouts?) since while the car kits and construction may vary the tracks used are basically the same. That would increase the number of potential "customers" for your service. I know our RA chapter went about 3 years without a race because we didn't have a track. If a scout troop had offered us the use of a track and help with the race we would have jumped on that deal!

[dna1990]

There is some talk around our pack too about trying to reach the Girl Scouts. Easy enough to help provide the track and race management..(and not to sound biased, but these are 'their words') the GS leaders we talked to all said they have always thought about PWD but don't have the car building interest and grown-up involvement like the dad's do for PWD.

We are considering some ideas for (parish the thought) pre-cut cars and solid axles cars. Not sure yet.

Anyone had any success with GS Troups being involved?

[gpraceman]

Anyone had any success with GS Troups being involved?

We have several Girl Scout troops as our customers, so some are doing it. Of course, it pales in comparision with Cub Scouts.

What would be cool is a race between a GS troup and a pack. Maybe as a "just for fun" race or one with modest prizes.

I think girls being involved ups the creativity level and challenges the boys to get more creative. In races that I have seen with girls involved, I definitely see more creative designs (from the boys and the girls). Certainly far more non-car designs.

[CuriousGeorge]

How much do you guys think would be fair to charge?
We would set up the track, register everyone, run the software, make the announcements. I don't think inspection would be a very good idea for the boys to do. They could weigh the cars and let someone tied to the event check everything else. The trophies and such would be 'on them'. An adult would definitely have to be present. Scouts shouldn't have to deal with some of the stuff I've read about.

[Stan Pope]

I watched Boy Scout age boys carrying cars about during council races in which the owners were only allowed to be spectators. In the limited time I was able to stomach watching, I saw one Scout lose control of a car while lifting it, resulting is a 3 ft high by 6 ft long arc to a shopping center floor. Later one of the adults dropped one of the cars from about 1 ft to a table top covered by a single layer blanket.

Given this experience I would strongly counsel against the "Scouts for hire" handling the cars. Either the owners should stage and move them or adults from the unit should do the job.

[knavekid]

We had Boy Scouts from our associated troop handling the staging, starting, and car retrieval for our PWD. Early on, I saw the potential for mishaps and instituted a new rule on the fly:

"Each Boy Scout may only carry two cars at a time and only one car in each hand."

This greatly reduced the chance for a car to be damaged during handling.

[Stan Pope]

"Each Boy Scout may only carry two cars at a time and only one car in each hand."

Reduces, yes, but it still leaves them very exposed. In the cases I described, one person with one car was involved in each episode. For the adult, it was carelessness. For the youth it was equipment that the youth got the car "hung up on" that caused the car to fly out of his hand and arc, "tail over tea kettle", back toward the starting line.

[Go Bubba Go]

How much do you guys think would be fair to charge?
We would set up the track, register everyone, run the software, make the announcements. I don't think inspection would be a very good idea for the boys to do. They could weigh the cars and let someone tied to the event check everything else. The trophies and such would be 'on them'. An adult would definitely have to be present. Scouts shouldn't have to deal with some of the stuff I've read about.

This is strictly "gut level", but I would think maybe 3 bucks per racer with a $100 minimum. Maybe more depending on travel costs, inconvenience...

I would definitely not have your Boy Scouts stage and return the cars. Either the racers themselves (my preference) or one of the adults present from the racing organization should perform that task.

With regard to inspections, you might provide the "tech check" tools but have one of the adults from the racing organization perform the actual check-ins.

You've got me thinking that it is probably a VERY good idea to delineate what functions you will provide / perform vs. what functions you will not provide / perform and review it with the racing organization well in advance. Depending on their background, you may be dealing with folks who have almost no clue about the various responsibilities involved in pulling off an enjoyable and well run derby.

Bubba