This page was created as part of Akela Joe’s Woodbadge Ticket (03-49-23) to help other units with marketing resources and ideas.
Here is a poster-board that was created to be printable on a large plastic board by any print shop, then cut out the face section and have a Scout hold it up, or put it on a stand for the Scout to stand behind for fun photos at your Pinewood Derby.
Summertime Tri-Fold – This 2-sided tri-fold pamphlet contains all the pack-specific and council activities and dates that scouts need to earn up to THREE exciting awards!
- Summertime Activity Pin – To encourage scouts to be active when school is out for the summer, by doing one activity per month in June, July, and August. (NOTE: Requirements have changed in 2024, adjust accordingly for the new Adventure Loop instead of Pin)
- Cub Scout Outdoor Activity Award – To encourage Cub Scouts to become active in the outdoors; may be earned as a Tiger Cub, Wolf, Bear, and Webelos Scout. (NOTE: This may have been retired in 2024, adjust accordingly)
- Recruiter Strip – To recognize youth members who recruit a friend into Scouting. A QR code is included on the tri-fold to encourage Scouts to share it with their friends’ parents.
Scouting Flyer – This flyer is designed to be printed two-to-a sheet of 8.5×11 cardstock and handed out at events, left on rec-center bulleting boards, or for Scouts to give to their friends.
The front has some info and fun stock images (from the BSA Brand Center – login required, but free to sign up). The back has a pack-specific meeting, contact info, and the QR code to apply.
Scouting Flyer 2 – This flyer is designed to be printed full-page for use on bulletin boards and contains fun stock images of scouting along with eye-catching graphics, some pack-specific contact info, and the QR code to apply.
Business Cards – Front-and-back business cards (for Avery 8371 Business Card stock) I was going to make it more of a template, but I felt it was better to leave it as-is for you to adjust accordingly so you can see the finished product.
Pinewood Derby – I obtained a retired laptop as a donation for Pinewood Derby.
Pack 787 already owned the “Grand Prix Race Manager” but it is the 2018 version, so I had the pack purchase the upgrade to v23. While the normal purchase price is $75, the upgrade price if you have a version from the last five years, they only charge $25. There are numerous bug fixes and feature enhancements that I wanted to make sure we could make use of.
Pack 787 also already owns a Micro Wizard Aluminum Track and what is probably the previous version of our Q1 Timer.
I added a USB webcam to take photos of racers that are displayed on the audience screen during the race when it is their turn to be up.
Setup:
Laptop: Acer Aspire R16 (touchscreen/convertible)
External screen: 24” display
Track: Micro Wizard 48’ 4-lane track (we only use 40’ of track)
Timer: Micro Wizard Q1 (or previous version, without the time display)
External camera: Logitech USB camera
Photo booth:
Portable clothing rack (to hold the posterboard)
24”x36” printed California Driver License posterboard with the face cut out.
Bonus Giveaway:
Due to an Amazon delivery problem failing to deliver the participant medals I ordered, I had to think quickly and come up with something fun for every racer to go home with. I have a MAGiCARD Enduro 3e ID card printer, so I used the same template from the photo booth template in Canva and made a custom printed “Pinewood Derby Driver License” for every racer, right there on the spot, everyone loved them!
While I don’t expect any other unit would have this available, it was an excellent thing for Pack 787.
Running the Race:
I highly suggest exporting your pack roster from Scoutbook before race-day and importing all the scouts into the Grand Prix Race Manager software, this makes checking them in SO much easier. If you have a lot of scouts in each den, you can group them by den so they race against their denmates, however, if you have fewer than 15 scouts total I would suggest just racing them all in one unit. There is also an option to exclude racers from the final results, while still allowing them to race in the main event, this is useful for siblings!
As you check-in each racer, ensure that their car meets regulations, take their photo (if desired), then have a Pit Crew (adult leader) place the car on a table where it won’t be messed with any further. Scouts should not have access to their cars once they are checked in aside from running them back from the finish line to the start line for future heats.
The race software will create the race schedule based on the number of racers and the number of lanes. The default is to have every car run in each lane once, this helps fix possible problems with lanes being “slow” or “fast”.
Once the first series is completed, we take a break and serve lunch.
If desired, you can have the race software generate a final series, advancing the top racers from the first series. In our case, we started with ten, but since two of them were siblings, their scores were dropped and they did not advance. The final heat was between the 8 scouts, which means it took less time (we only had to run 8 heats for each scout to run each lane once again).
Final results are scored based on points, lowest to highest, and ties are determined by the software automatically based on average overall speed.
Unit Documentation – Highly suggested that units take advantage of the many free resources out there. Some are free to everyone (Google account with gMail, Google Drive, etc), some are available as free to non-profit organizations (Dreamhost, Canva, Slack, to name a few). Save documentation in a shared drive with a singular login (which can be shared with other parents, leaders, and volunteers as-needed with access easily removed as they move on to other units.
Save things like Unit Artwork – (t-shirt designs, flyers, advertising ideas, etc), as well as preferred vendors (Class-B or other t-shirt vendors). Banking information should probably not be saved in such a public space, but should be passed from one treasurer to the next. The treasurer should keep a unit box with physical copies of important documents.
Social Credentials – It is probably best to keep Social Media credentials on a need-to-know basis, and rotate them when enough new people have rotated through. You can set up Google Drive such that certain folders are kept only to the Pack gMail login, where you can keep credentials and other more sensitive items. It is sometimes useful to have exports of rosters with parent contact information from previous years. While other folders, such as photo archives and marketing materials can be accessible to a wider leadership audience.