Fehler

So, you're saying the new regulations will create jobs?  Excellent! 

Yes, employers need to decide if a task that takes 60 hours to complete should be done by one full-time, full-benefit employee making extra overtime who will be there for life, or by 2-3 no-benefit part-time employees working 20-30 hours each, who will jump at a full-time job when one comes by, requiring a rehire and retrain.  Or maybe they can automate administrative assistants, or offshore camp directors to Bangladesh.

Good for the DE's and other administrative positions.  Pay them, or reduce their duties to get their hours under 40.  Duties eliminated can include harping me about Journey to Excellence and Friends of Scouting.

Are camp staff treated as employees, or contract workers, considering the limited camping season?  Contract work is still exempt from overtime, as far as I know.

But that's a competition.  Its not that everyone in your class received a 1st place ribbon except you.  Are you suggesting we only award one Wolf Badge per den?

If it was a responsibility, you could be compelled to do it, like jury duty.

Bear used to be the easiest, with a mix-and-match, choose 12 of 24 achievements.  I miss that.  The new program has too many required adventures, I'd rather cut it down to two-three required, and 4-5 elective adventures.  Or slot them, with a "Blue Group" for Citizen/Duty to God/Family options, "Red Group" for Scoutcraft/Handicraft, and "Green Group" for Camping/Hiking/Physical Fitness, and require at one from each slot, to a total of seven.  Miss something, and we continue on with a different Adventure that will fulfill the slot requirement and not repeat things for the rest of the den, and not make a boy do "homework" to catch up.

I'd also like to have 2-3 elective adventures that were Tiger/Wolf and/or Wolf/Bear, meaning they could be earned as electives at either level.  This'd help Packs that only have 1-2 boys at a grade level, and want to merge Den Meetings occasionally.  We have 11 Bears, 3 Wolves, and 7 Tigers, with no permanent Wolf Den Leader we've had the Wolves "visit" with one of the other two dens at different times this year.

Didn't realize following the wording of the requirement was a torque.

We've had to increase meeting frequency with the new program.  Previous years our Tiger Scouts only had one scheduled Den Meeting, now they have two a month like the older Dens (and AOL Dens meet weekly with our Troop). 

Pack Meetings were divided out at the start of the year, so the Dens who had to do stuff at Pack Meetings knew what month they had to hold their carnival, etc.

Pack weekend events got to be more scattered.  In the past, we could do a whole Pack outing at the Coin Show, or a hike, or a game of Ultimate Frisbee, and every boy who participated got a Belt Loop (instant recognition).  Now each level has different requirements for their awards, we are doing less as a large group.

I like the Leader Books, that I can mix the pages to reflect what I'm doing, but I can't spend three meetings on a Wolf Scout Adventure (we only get two Den Meetings and a Pack Meeting a month).  Thankfully the meeting plans are squish-able on the excess games.

This past year, our AOL Den finished using the old pins.  This year, I'm hoping to have a few more AOL/Webelos group events where the two dens can either earn elective pins together, or the AOL group can mentor the Webelos Den on an Adventure they did last year.

I just disagree that we need to be sticklers for the Tiger/Wolf/Bear ranks.  For Webelos and into Boy Scouts, yes, raise your expectations.  But we're not coddling boys who don't do everything as asked. 

When boys are at the meetings, participating, doing their best, but happen to miss a meeting (and don't give me the "unreliable parent" speech, its bunk), or the meeting/event that was to cover a requirement gets canceled due to Den Leader emergency or other contingency, I don't feel a need to not recognize the boys for their great work the rest of the year. 

And since, unlike Boy Scouts, the Tigers and Wolves and Bears don't have until their 18th birthday to get their act together and earn their award, we need to draw a line, and that line is June 1st.

We still teach character, in stages, as the boys develop.  But that's not going to happen if they decide they hate scouts and don't come back next year.  Leadership, Patrol Method, and "Boy Led" are NOT Cub Scout concepts.  They grow into these things.

There is not and shouldn't be "homework" for Cub Scouts.  If you make it homework, boys will think it's school, and they're gone.

Prayers to them and to you.

A chapter on the differences between the Cub Scout Program and the Boy Scout Program.

Sounds like fun.  Hard to imagine only 8 out of 34 managed to complete it.

Because nothing teaches character and honesty in a six year old like not giving him a patch because he joined in November instead of October.

Fine. I'll never convince a bunch of graybeard drill sergeants that there are fundamental differences between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. Then back to the original topic, what to give the boys? Nothing. Anything you give them is an undeserved participant ribbon, and shame on you for even making the suggestion that these boys deserve such a hallow gesture.

Cub. Scouts.

Do Your Best.

Why is this so hard to understand? This is a separate program from Boy Scouts.

They attempted the Tiger Badge.  Why is it such a big deal?

I expect them to have fun, and to come back next year proud of their achievements and ready for bigger challenges. 

Do.  Your.  Best.

You've noticed, hopefully, that I'm limiting my arguments to the Cub Scout level, right?  Tigers?  Wolves?  Bears?  Why are you holding 2nd graders to the same expectations as middle schoolers?  When all this should be fun, not a hard-nosed drill.

Keep it Simple, Make It Fun, Do Your Best.

And the membership numbers continue to drop.  But at least the ones who stay can recite big words in 1st grade and manage perfect attendance.

This is Cub Scouts.  Do Your Best.

Really?  1st and 2nd graders know they didn't do it?  Have you ever asked a Cub Scout what they did to earn one of the badges on their shirt or loops on their belt? 

You think counseling and pencil pushing is the answer?  Once these boys hit Boy Scouts, and have seven years to grow, mature, and develop to earn each rank and requirement, they can take ownership of the process.  But half of the boys in my Den can't read their handbook yet. 

They tried to earn the Wolf Badge.  Good enough.

What lesson does it teach for boys who attended and participated all year not to receive recognition due to the failings of the adults?  Make them cry at the year end ceremony, that'll help the membership numbers for next year.

Do Your Best. 

Its just Cub Scouts.  Do Your Best.

It's "Do Your Best", not pound paperwork for every little achievement.  Award the ranks if the boys did their best to complete them, and move on to the next year.  Its not Eagle, for gosh sakes.

I'm even fine if they break with the tradition of awarding the Silver Buffalo to the current President of the United States (he'd be the only one other than JFK not to receive it), so long as it means the Silver Buffalo would never hang around the neck of Donald Trump.

The only thing I want to see out of this meeting is a revocation of Dennis Hastert's Silver Buffalo.

This country was founded on slavery.  We changed.  Inefficient and inherently unfair economic models need to be discarded.

Bad fundraising year this year, so I'm looking to cut some costs.  Raingutter Regatta kits have gone from $3 to $6 (catamaran style), so that looks like something I'm cutting.  I've seen "Recycle Regattas", which is the same idea except for using a water bottle or something else that fits in the raingutter.

But I'm thinking bigger.

We live near the Minnehaha Creek in Minneapolis, with a bunch of walking bridges over the creek.  I want to get boys to build boats out of milk jugs or 2-liter bottles, drop them into the creek from a bridge (2-3 at a time), and have an adult leader recover them downstream.

So, any thoughts?  Anyone tried this before?  Safety issues?

Sounds like we need to remove private messages, rather then I+P.  I+P is ignoreable, private messages not so much.