DYB-Mike

Greetings ManyHats, Several months back our Pack was asked to run a concession stand at a local Touch-A-Truck event. We had good luck running small snack bars before at scout-related events, primarily selling candy and water (sometimes hot dogs), but this would be our first big public attempt. The organizer anticipated attendance at 400 but she herself was inexperienced at the fine points of these events. The bottom line was that we planned for 400 and I dont think we saw half that. We ended up with a lot of stock left over that we had to eat literally, as we were selling fresh p

Greetings All! My wife and I just sent our newly minted scout (cub crossover) to his first summer camp two weeks ago. He had slept away at friends (overnight) and his Nans (several days) so he was not inexperienced at sleeping away from the nest. I am in complete agreement with those of you that support the concept of using this time away at camp to allow our sons to learn to stand on their own two feet. Its a good thing for both parent and child: son learns to be responsible and fend for himself while parent isnt faced with the temptation to correct or help out. Wednesday wa

Greetings All! Rythos, your post hits home with me. Ive been Assistant Cubmaster (trained, registered position) for over a year. My oldest son has crossed over but this fall I will be my youngest sons Tiger Den Leader (already trained, the informal position?) while retaining the ACM position. My ACM predecessor was also a den leader but Im not sure if he juggled both at the Tiger level. Our Pack is small, about 39 boys currently, with a small core of active, position-holding leaders. I enjoy the ACM position, helping to lead Pack meetings and assisting with the planning and

Hi folks, Clearly we can use, and should be grateful for, large monetary donations, or any kind of donation for that matter, be it land, buildings, equipment and so forth. As it has been pointed out, maybe its the only way a busy person can show their support of scouting or their appreciation for what scouting may have done for them in the past. That being said, I have to agree with BadenP that to give an award that is normally earned through active service or completing certain goals (Wood Badge) doesnt seem right. I wouldnt go as far as saying that the person is buying scouti

Well, I kinda fell into it when my oldest son joined a pack to be with his friends. I started attending pack meetings and events with him, realized I was having as much fun as he was, and decided to sign on and became Assistant Cubmaster. Now my oldest has crossed over to Boy Scouts and Im starting the process over with my youngest son, who will be a Tiger. This time I plan to lead my sons den as well. Fortuitously, Cub Scouts came at a time in my life when I was looking for something meaningful to do aside from work and household duties. I had wanted to be a teacher way back wh

Folks, It seems to me that were taking about two different things here. If someone is asked a direct question, like did you spit from the top of the lighthouse, there is no diplomatic answer to that, just yes or no. To answer contrary to the truth in this instance is a lie, period, and should be addressed accordingly. To give a diplomatic answer to the question do you like my dress is, in my humble opinion, not lying. A scout is courteous and kind. If one can couch an answer to that question in such a way as, for example, well, I really like that other dress you have better,

Gold Winger, I think that telling little white lies is better expressed as being tactful or diplomatic, something Im always trying to hammer home to my kids. Sometimes family and friends see through some of my less than enthusiastic tactful responses but my retort to them is that when I do heap on the praise or compliments at least they know Im being sincere. I do agree that there appears to be no real lying here, just a some hesitation (because of embarrassment at being called on it perhaps) in admission of guilt since the guilt was ultimately admitted on the spot. The spitting fro

Hi Folks! Novice_Cubmaster wrote, ask any awards person what's the greatest invention of all time - they'll tell you it's the ziplock bag. SctDad wrote, I have heard about the ziplock method. But I have also heard that there is some things to be said about the baggie presentation. Our Pack generally uses the ziplock bag to distribute awards, but I remember reading somewhere a while back comments disparaging the plastic baggie and a handshake distribution of awards. Now I suppose if a really neat ceremony were involved that would go a long way to offset the mundane ziplock bag,

Bob, Interesting take. My initial reaction to this was to propose giving the ceremony a mystical flavor and suggest another leader act as a shaman and do the reaching into the pot for all the cubs. Instead I ran with the parents. Having a leader do it is probably a better approach unless all the Adult Partners understand the risk (however minimal) and are willing to do it. YIS Mike

Hi Folks, Neat ceremony, but I do agree that presenting it as a final test of their commitment could possibly backfire with those boys that might be afraid to reach into the pot. Eagledad, it may seem like withholding adventure, but in the analogy you put forth the fearful boy can always choose to hand the stick to Dad or Mom to hold. Here, hes being told that he MUST reach into the pot to prove his commitment. Id go with the parent reaching in. The Cubmaster could say something like Your Adult Partners have helped you all on your quest to earn the Tiger Cub rank. Now they wi

Greetings All! I picked up a vintage Cub Scout shirt, circa 1956 (the year I was born, hence my interest) based on a dated badge. This boy had his Wolf, Bear, Lion, and Webelos rank. He also had three gold and nine silver arrow points. All of this, plus Denner and several other patches (on the sleeves) make for a pretty striking display. If youre out there Cub Scout from Den 11, Pack 76, Kansas City, MO Im impressed! YIS Mike

Our Webelos II boys adopted an emblem this past cub year. To my knowledge this was the first time our Pack did this. We had two small Webelos II dens that merged (six boys total in the end). The boys voted on their emblem and became the Dragon Patrol. They made a Patrol flag that they used in some ceremonies and at the Klondike Derby. Once they adopted the emblem the boys liked to refer to themselves as the Dragon Patrol but officially they are (until the May 17th cross over) still a den. YIS Mike

Greetings! Our Council directed our unit to use our Chartered Organizations tax exemption number when we applied for a grant. We did have to discuss the matter with our Chartered Organization but they quickly acquiesced. My understanding is that a Pack or Troop is owned by the Chartered Organization. The Chartered Organization charters (contracts) with the BSA to run a scouting program and use the BSA name, forms, and so forth. Consequently, the Chartered Organizations exemption ID should be used by the Pack or Troop. This seems to makes sense given the power the Chartered Or

Gold Winger, Youre right about the chess board but I am aware of instances where parents have had to step in when their kids fixation with ball games and player stats was taking precedence over schoolwork and grades. I too have gotten attitude from my boys when I pulled the plug on their video games for whatever reason. My response is a mixture of a flat-out get over it and an attempt at explaining the reasons behind my actions. I know some think attempting to rationalize with a child is a waste of time (as it can be with any pig-headed adult) but personally Ive always felt to wasn

Greetings, Our second year webelos have attended a camporee as guests of the Troop they will be crossing over to. The Den meetings are now held at the same time and location as the Troop meetings. After Den business, which lately has consisted of cross over preparation as mentioned in my earlier post, they are invited to participate in the Troop game at the meetings end and in the Troops closing ceremony. They have also participated in a few of the Troops meeting activities. A Troop-Pack Liaison (a member of the troop leadership) has been assigned to help in the transition and answer

I had a feeling somebody would call me on that. What I am saying is that the film Reefer Madness is viewed today as a humorous bit of Americana rather than the educational, cautionary film it was intended to be due to its hysteric, distorted presentation of facts. Im not advocating marijuana use, just using the film as an analogy as to how I view the video game addiction letter. Its been years since I viewed Reefer Madness but I believe one of the scenes has a guy smoke a joint and is instantly transformed into an ax murderer. YIS Mike

Greetings! This year we formed our six second-year webelos into a patrol. We allowed the boys to select their emblem the Dragon. We got them dragon and position badges and they elected their patrol leader and the other positions. The positions were rotated a couple of times. The boys helped make a patrol flag that they attached to their Klondike Derby sled. Beyond that, I dont think there was much boy leading practiced, although the boys were made aware that they would be responsible for the planning and most of the execution of their activities as Boy Scouts. Their den leader

Greetings, I had intended to respond to this thread earlier but since many have already stated opinions similar to mine I didnt post earlier. I, for one, would not read it to my scouts. As I read it myself I got the impression I was reading a verbal version of Reefer Madness. It was purely black and white If you think you play too much get rid of the games. No discussion of moderation and self-discipline, essential parts of good character. The suggestion of cutting yourself off from the games for a month and advising that if you find yourself thinking of the games during that t

But in order to answer the question how can I effectively meet the needs of my community wouldnt one need to ascertain what those needs were and whether you were meeting those needs? The recommend and why question would seem to me as a way to gauge existing satisfaction (the program as is is meeting needs and expectations) and, from the no responses, what needs were not being met and other suggestions for improvement. I also would venture to say that a cable company does not offer a uniform experience. My company (Comcast) offers various levels of programming packages, Pay Per View, cha

Hi Eamonn, I think the cable question itself would work. I assume it is meant to be asked to consumers and probably would follow with if so why? or if not why not?. So you would ask scouts and parents: would you recommend Scouting to your friends and neighbors and why or why not? I suppose you could ask leaders and professional scouters but theres a built-in bias there; however, given some of the discussion Ive seen in my short time here it wouldnt surprise me to see some why not comments. The question is so general that I think you cover all the bases. An articulate re

Greetings All! I gotta go with Gold Winger on this. I went to the Guide to Safe Scouting and found thebigguys reference to the prohibition on den camping and noted that everything that followed was in the context of what Im calling for want of a better term stereotypical camping: outdoors, in tents, hiking, bad water, and so on. Nothing here seemed to apply to sitting in the Chartered Organization rec room playing games and watching scary movies until all hours. Im willing to bet that a rec room sleepover was not in the minds of those who drafted the prohibition and that part of

Greetings Pack468_Troop659! Great idea, I may borrow that one as well! The others are right, of course, that the boys should have a say into what goes on the coat-of-arms. Have a brainstorming session with them and Im sure some good ideas will come out. In addition to the other great suggestions some other things you could suggest to the boys are: You mentioned your state flag. How about something more local? Do you have a famous personage, building, or monument from/in your city or town? How about your Chartered Organization; does it have a notable building (maybe wher

Thats interesting. I entered my profile back when I joined in early January and Ive experienced no problem with it. Now if I had better luck with adding my unit to All Scout Units on the Web. Ive submitted my data twice over the last three months and it still hasnt appeared. YIS Mike

Greetings sssdigger, Reading your email kinda reminds me of my own situation. Im the Assistant Cubmaster of our Pack and my oldest son, a Webelos II, will be crossing over in May and my youngest son will be coming in as a Tiger at the same time. Havent done the den leader thing yet but Im planning to do it for my Tiger and hopefully take him all the way through to Webelos. Theres a lot of great stuff here so read and enjoy! Good luck with your awesome pack! May all our Packs (and Troops) be awesome! YIS Mike

Im an Assistant Director of Accounting and Financial Reporting / CFO of an extra large public housing authority. The part to the left of the / is what I really am. CFO is a title I can legitimately use but, without getting into the details, its more ceremonial than substance, like Queen Elizabeth except she makes a lot more than I do. But I cant complain it pays the bills. Ive been in this line of work for about 20 years now. In school I wanted to be an archaeologist or a history teacher. Teaching cubs is a nice substitution. YIS Mike