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I always found it best to recruit an assistant den leader too. Being a den leader is so much easier when you're doing it as a team.

This puts a fine point on why I despise mb universities. The DOs should almost never be pre-requisites; the DOs should happen after the mb counselor has provided his/her expertise to the scout. Then the scout DOES, demonstrating to the mb counselor (or discussing, whatever the req states). If done beforehand the scout doesn't benefit from the adult's expertise and the mb is reduced to a cub scout "do your best" award. IMHO

another really great point..... on the other hand though, a huge part of making it adult friendly is making the boys want to come. No parent wants to drag their kid out of the house to do something that neither really wants to do....

@Hawkwin, I used to be a MB counselor for Programming MB and what you said is not quite what's in the MB book, or at least not how I interpreted it. Here is req 5: Projects. Do the following: a. With your counselor’s approval, choose a sample program. Modify the code or add a function or subroutine to it. Debug and demonstrate the modified program to your counselor. b. With your counselor’s approval, choose a second programming language and development environment, different from those used for requirement 5a and in a different industry from 5a. Then write, debug, and demonstr

Nearly all of the above seem to be a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself. The problem is that it wasn't fun. If the SM is a jerk, it wasn't fun. If the scout sees it as dorky, then it wasn't fun, if they don't like dirt and bugs, then it wasn't fun, not enough camping, it wasn't fun, A bully wasn't making it fun, I am involved in other activities that are more fun, the requirements are not fun, lack of leadership is not fun, summer camp was not fun. I push my son hard in scouts and there are many times I question whether he is still having fun. I know when he says he is

And the irony of the day: One of the hardest tasks in programming is defining the requirements. I'm not a fan of worksheets. It's kind of like the eagle project book. It's training wheels for organizing ones thoughts. let the scouts start struggling with this so they learn. I realize it's hard for teenagers to do this, but it's a skill that is very important.

What to tell our scouts? When teaching citizenship, we often watch Mr Smith Goes to Washington with its positive message of participating and fighting for our principles. But today, if there was a sequel would the message be reversed, Mr. Tillerson Expelled from Washington? Will our scouts become more cynical of government service with the firing of Mr. Tillerson? I hope Mr. Tillerson speaks to American youth this week about government service, particularly under adverse circumstances. Maybe he will come back to the BSA?

I really hate how this happens to new parents and scouts. You think you're being sent to something that -- by squinting very carefully -- will allow a scout to bypass the tedium of very first phrase of a requirement. By sins of omission and commissions, workshops practice this deceit on the inexperienced. I assure you that it enrages our SMs. Because, it's fun getting boys started on the road to success. You need a paradigm shift. And, like most people who need one, you don't believe you need it. When I was a scout, the working assumption was you would attend a merit badge po

We had over 100 scouts (140 one time), so we only awarded rank advancement and specialty awards like religious awards at the pack meetings. If the DL wanted to do something special at the den meetings, I (CM) would try and present their belt loops and beads. But that was rare. Barry

I totally agree. When I was Cub Master, I ALWAYS tried to advocate for the den Leaders. I always looked at them as having the hardest job in the pack. I frequently would try to ask if they needed anything, look for ways to help them, tried really hard to recruit an advancement chair person to take that chore off their backs, and so on. Still I had a few that just skated by doing the absolute minimum, with infrequent meetings, poor attendance, etc... but I was still thankful for them. It was hard...no nearly impossible to recruit help in my pack at the time. We had den leaders but not muc

I do not know why Rex Tillerson did not return phone calls or abruptly ended dialogues with other nations. But I think that if I had been him, I might be hesitant to say anything to diplomats from foreign nations, because I knew there was a high probability that whatever I said, the president I was working for would make a tweet, or an offhand remark at a campaign rally, that completely contradicted what I had just said. I mean, a few months ago, when Tillerson suggested we should talk to the North Koreans, the president publicly undercut and ridiculed him, and said he was wasting his time.

When I was Cubmaster, I had a simple approach that worked pretty well. - When a Cub Scout earned his rank, he got the patch at the next pack meeting. - Blue & Gold banquet had a short celebration of den accomplishments. The den leader would bring the boys up, talk about the year so far, etc. Took a minute or two per den. - The graduation/moving up day involved face painting and awarding neckerchiefs. If you were a participant that year, you get the paint for your current year and the next year. Whether you earned rank was irrelevant. In my mind, Cub Scouts is about celebr

Here is a GBB Boys Life article about it: https://books.google.com/books?id=oB4YsDfcXA4C&pg=PA27&lpg=PA27&dq=green+bar+bill+outdoor+code+bottle+beach Sounds like BSA meant it to be not just for scouts but something that was evangelized to schools and civic groups hence the generic patriotic "American" reference. Sort of like an early Keep America Beautiful campaign.

I would just find a new one and explain your situation to them. If you did what the requirement said, a MBC can not add or remove requirements.

Absolutely not. Living in a large manufacturing area, we get families with parents in engineering, design, and computer programming from all over the word that come and work in the States for a few years before returning to their home country.

My son, dad, and myself were laughing last week as we remember back to the day when we realized that adult experts weren't as expert as we thought they were when we were kids. Even experts have emotions. That’s why when technology was capable, sports went to replays and start/finish electronics. Barry

Be careful what you wish for. If we're British then you all be American, if ya git my drift.

I'm not too concerned about the badge, but the pack has a tradition of doing the face painting type of moving up ceremony, which the boys really look forward to, and all the scripts I've found for that are definitely "you've done all these things to earn your rank" and not "welcome to the next level", and an unpainted face would stand out and not in a good way. But I think I've figured it out. Other than one kid who I think has probably quit, the boys likely to not have time to make rank are all new additions, not kids who just didn't show. They will have all earned their Bobcat rank this

The scouts in our troop tend to stay with our troop from age 11 all the way to age 18, one older scout left us at three years ago, but says he really misses us. He quit because he did not have the time due to sports. We had one scout quit and return after 2 years because he missed us so much and he has to travel 30 miles to come to our meetings. All the older scouts are in sports. We have a bunch of 16 year old scouts with the rank of Life that almost have their Eagle. Our main focus is "playing the game of scouting" and not advancement. Advancement is a byproduct of doing s

I see where scouting can be expensive. Summer camp, camporee, etc. especially in low income communities.

Confusion on some part exists due to the program name and the rank name being the same. Ranks are ranks and requirements need to be met to receive them, it's not a participation patch. Wolf program year is not a guarantee that the Wolf rank will be completed. Likewise, crossing over into the next program year is NOT contingent upon completion of the current program rank. Our Pack does it this way: B&G is an event, not a deadline. I have spent several years dispelling the myth of rank completion by this event. Yet every year there are a few (especially new families that Google st

It confused me as a kid as well. In the 70s we didn't make such a fuss about crossing over. The B&G was for songs and skits (one year we had a magician) and happy birthday to scouting. Awards were secondary. If you got rank then, cool. If not, you still had a couple of months. Then regardless, come fall, "poof" you and your buddies were all working on the next rank. But, in retrospect, it would have been really lame if one of us was "held back" because we didn't accomplish everything our book told us to. Think of this kid-friendly way of summing up the methods of cub scouting: B