How to Order

Our 3 Main Goals:

1. Collecting - We're searching for a copy
of every Pow Wow book, from every Boy
Scout council, from every year.

2. Digitizing - Every page from every
book is scanned into a computer. This
permanently preserves the book for other
Scouters.

3. Distributing - The collective knowledge
and experience in these Pow Wow books
is vast. Every Cub Scout Leader can
improve his/her program by using the
ideas presented in these books. We offer
the CD-ROM volumes for sale, or for free
if you loan us a Pow Wow Book we don't
already own.

About myself:

My name is Kevin Dobbins, the
manager of the NAPWB.

As a youth: I went through the entire
Scouting program:
Cub Scouts ('73-'75)
Webelos ('75-'76)
Arrow of Light ('76)
Boy Scouts ('76-'83)
Philmont ('79)
Order of the Arrow ('80 - Shawnee
       Lodge #51)
Eagle Scout ('82).

As an adult:
Den Leader ('00-'03)
Den Leader Award ('03)
Assistant Cubmaster ('00-'03)
Day Camp Staff ('01-Various Years)
Cubmaster - Pack 547 ('03-Current)
Cubmaster Award ('05)
Woodbadge (C4103 - First Class Foxes)
District Cub Scout Training Staff
   ('05-Current)
District Cub Scout Roundtable Staff
Troop Committee Member - Troop 467
Troop Committee Chairman - Troop 547
District Boy Scout Training Staff

Pow Wow Presenter ("Scrounging:
Trash to Treasures" '03 - Current)
Pow Wow Book Chairman ('04 & '05)

I live in Hillsboro, Missouri, a small town
about an hour South of St. Louis. I am
in the River Trails District of the Greater
St. Louis Area Council.

What We Do:

We actively work with Scout Leaders
across the country who loan us books
from their collections. We scan the
books, and return them. Once we get
about 30 scanned books, a new volume in
the series is created.

But time is running out. Some of the
earliest Pow Wow Books (from the '70s)
are beginning to disintegrate. The oldest
were copied using mimeograph machines,
and the ink is fading quickly. Many books
have a print run of no more than 100,
making it more difficult each passing year
to track down a copy.

We use a Xerox Documate 252 as our
scanner, and Adobe Acrobat 4.0 as the
scanning software. We scan at 300 dpi,
Black and White, with the Brightness
setting adjusted to get the best scan
possible.

Why Collect Pow Wow Books?

When my oldest son started Tiger Cubs
(Fall '00), I found myself back in the
Scouting program as his Tiger Cub den
leader. I had a very difficult time
figuring out what to do. In March 2001, I
found out about the "Program Helps"
book. I made a promise to help as
many Cub Scout Leaders as possible,
with as many resources as I could
gather. That Fall, I attended my first
Pow Wow, and saw my first Pow Wow
Book. I was impressed at the amount of
resources in this one book, and began
searching them out.

Pow Wow Books represent the
collective knowledge and experience of
thousands of Cub Scout Leaders who
have "been there, done that". I have
found ceremonies, skits, songs, cheers,
crafts, games, etc. for every occasion
for my Scouts within these books. Even
the older books (pre-'90s) are valuable.
I've "recycled" many ideas from the
1970's, and brought them back to the
present. Some of the material may be
dated, but it is easier to update, than to
create from scratch.

By The Numbers:

Number of Books: 720
Paper Books: 229
Digitized Books: 491
Digitized Pages: 160,000

Oldest Book: 1939 (Wawasee #7)
West Suburban Council
Most Remote: 1972
Far East Council - Okinawa, Japan
Most Books from one year: 34 (1998)
Most Pages: 1520
Occoneechee Council - 2004
Fewest Pages: 37
Gulf Coast Council - 1974

Number of Councils: 198
Most from one Council: 27 (Tied)
Heart of America Council, Kansas City, MO
Indian Nations Council, Tulsa, OK
Number of States: 45
Number of Countries: 2

What are the plans for the future?

1) Get the word out about the NAPWB.
Get Cub Scout leaders to share their
books. Increase the size of the
NAPWB, and provide more resources to
more Cub Scout leaders.

2) The scope of the archive is
expanding. I am collecting Program
Helps, Roundtable Planning Guides,
and various older Cub Scouting books.
These are being scanned into the
archive, although I haven't decided how
to present them.

3) I am currently working on
theme-based and content-based
CD-ROM volumes, as well as a clip art
volume. I will soon have CDs based on
specific monthly themes, and specific
content areas (such as skits, crafts,
songs, Tigers, Webelos, etc.).