Yeah... you heard me right... a pie in the eye. OK. The story goes like this. Hubby is the cubmaster of the cub scout pack that our sons belong to. I am the Advancements and Awards Chairperson. Have any of you ever worked with your husband? Let's just say... we are both volunteers, we both do things our own way and we hardly ever agree which way that should be. We do have some very active parents in our Pack and some great volunteers but when it comes to attending administrative meetings.... well that's a whole other ball game. So it had come to our attention from the Pack Committee Chair on a Tuesday that the last day to attend Popcorn training (yes I know how stupid that sounds) was on Thursday and there was no way that any parent volunteer could be acquired in one day and made to attend a training meeting. So, as all mature, responsible adults do when faced with this situation... Hubby and I played rock, paper, scissors to see which one of the two of us would have to attend on behalf of the kids.
I LOST!
On a Thursday, on top of all my other work, I headed to a council meeting to attend a (what I assumed was) short sales presentation at 7:00pm on how to organize popcorn sales for the Pack. At 9pm... yes 2 hours later... I realized that what I was actually attending was a rather lengthy video presentation on how to improve the sales skills of your scouts to sell more stuff. They had an adorable boy on the screen who had sold $76,000 of popcorn by himself and was a super achiever (which none of our children will ever be). I was trapped. There was no way to extricate myself from the situation with my humor and dignity intact. I sat and took copius notes.
On the way home, after finding a bathroom ('cause I went there with a gallon cup of Starbucks iced coffee), I played the sales pitches over in my head many times. It was totally unfair that I had to sit through all that. After all, that was definately Hubby's job and he wanted the kids to be Eagle Scouts just like him. An interesting sales tactic emerged in my head (suggested of course by the wonderful Trail's End sales rep). His statement was this..."The BEST motivation that works for kids... the thing they want the most... the thing that gets them out there selling and making their goals... pie in the face. They all want to pie the cubmaster in the face". That's right. That's what he said.
I forgot all the rest. I had my sales strategy all mapped out by the time my car pulled into the driveway. My husband was on the sofa watching tv (looking all smug) when I came in. He asked, "How was it?", behind a Cheshire grin. I told him that I had the whole popcorn plan mapped out and I would share it with him. Any kid in the pack that sells 6 units of popcorn gets to pie you in the face. You should have seen how fast his jaw dropped. That'll teach you Mr. Smug.
So each boy was given his sales flyer and a quest.
I LOST!
On a Thursday, on top of all my other work, I headed to a council meeting to attend a (what I assumed was) short sales presentation at 7:00pm on how to organize popcorn sales for the Pack. At 9pm... yes 2 hours later... I realized that what I was actually attending was a rather lengthy video presentation on how to improve the sales skills of your scouts to sell more stuff. They had an adorable boy on the screen who had sold $76,000 of popcorn by himself and was a super achiever (which none of our children will ever be). I was trapped. There was no way to extricate myself from the situation with my humor and dignity intact. I sat and took copius notes.
On the way home, after finding a bathroom ('cause I went there with a gallon cup of Starbucks iced coffee), I played the sales pitches over in my head many times. It was totally unfair that I had to sit through all that. After all, that was definately Hubby's job and he wanted the kids to be Eagle Scouts just like him. An interesting sales tactic emerged in my head (suggested of course by the wonderful Trail's End sales rep). His statement was this..."The BEST motivation that works for kids... the thing they want the most... the thing that gets them out there selling and making their goals... pie in the face. They all want to pie the cubmaster in the face". That's right. That's what he said.
I forgot all the rest. I had my sales strategy all mapped out by the time my car pulled into the driveway. My husband was on the sofa watching tv (looking all smug) when I came in. He asked, "How was it?", behind a Cheshire grin. I told him that I had the whole popcorn plan mapped out and I would share it with him. Any kid in the pack that sells 6 units of popcorn gets to pie you in the face. You should have seen how fast his jaw dropped. That'll teach you Mr. Smug.
So each boy was given his sales flyer and a quest.
1 unit = patch, 6 units = pie in the face.
You should have seen their adorable little faces. They were ready. We have 27 boys in our pack (not a big one at all). After all the sales were tabulated, 17 boys got to pie him in the face. Wednesday night was our big Pack Meeting. Here is a photo of Little Brat (he's the one reading the instructions out loud for the flag ceremony) participating in the opening ceremonies.
I have to admit that Hubby had other things planned as well. He stalled as long as he could until the boys started chanting PIE... PIE. One of our wonderful parents brought brownies and homemade whipped cream for all the boys and then they lined up to commence the tossing. After every one else had gone I made sure that I got him one more time in the hair and everything. Here is hubby after they were through. He smelled like "cream" all the way home. REALLY!
I have to admit that Hubby had other things planned as well. He stalled as long as he could until the boys started chanting PIE... PIE. One of our wonderful parents brought brownies and homemade whipped cream for all the boys and then they lined up to commence the tossing. After every one else had gone I made sure that I got him one more time in the hair and everything. Here is hubby after they were through. He smelled like "cream" all the way home. REALLY!
All the boys had a great time (after all it's all about them anyway) and Hubby wasn't harmed by any side-armed paper plates. In the end I WON! That rock, paper, scissors game was just the battle. I think I WON THE WAR. We are still laughing about it. And we are pretty proud of ourselves that the kids had so much fun! Enjoy!
2 comments:
I saw your comment on Kim's blog and thought I'd pop over and give you this link!
http://thewinfieldcollection.com/display.aspx?id=1108&catid=34
They have great wood cutout patterns and this one is for toy soldiers. Of course you may already know about them! It was fun to visit your blog in any case :-)
What a crack up! Yes, you indeed won the popcorn wars! LOL!
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