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I saw the same thing over at Merit Badge dot org, but I don't think it is canon. I suspect it is just what made sense to the goy who wrote it up. It doesn't make sense for our pack this year because we did recruits three new tigers last spring, and one of them earned this pin, so we will be awarding him a tiger pin, and all my wolves will receive wolf pins (not tiger pins). In this way, it will be possible for them to earn the Webelos pin twice, but that makes sense to me. Webelos is a two-year program. It also means that earning it as a tiger will be very rare, but that makes sense to me, too. Tiger cubs are bit more rare. I had four tigers last year. I have six wolves this year. One of the new wolves earned the summertime award pin. It wouldn't make sense to award him the tiger pin. He was never a tiger. But if another pack wants to do it another way. I personally have no problem with that. The important thing is to get the kids outside!

When I started in Scouting (1994), female leaders in Cub Scouting wore blue and gold uniforms while female leaders in Boy Scouting wore tan and khaki uniforms. Tiger Cubs used to wear orange t shirts, now they wear blue uniforms.

I think it was the council. Something like: if you are going to participate in the candy sale, you still have to participate in the card sale, so we checked out a bunch of cards, and then we checked them back in again a few weeks later. We did very well in candy sales, I think. My son earned all $180 of his camp fee. I was very proud of him.

I just bought a flag for our den at the scout store. I hope to put the national den award on it at the end of the year.

Yes, our pack meeting usually includes a flag ceremony, a song, a skit, an awards presentation and a game. We do not usually have a theme. I really caught the spirit of the outdoors this summer and I suggested that we have our pack meetings outside for September and October while the weather here in the Pacific Northwest is still good. We are planning a game of kickball for the September pack meeting, and we are planning a visit to the pumpkin patch for the October pack meeting. I just don't think we are going to have the opportunity for an awards ceremony at the pumpkin patch, and this mostly worries me because my new scouts will be ready to receive their bobcat badges and we usually do a face painting ceremony for that. The boys really like it. I would hate for them to have to wait until November. I guess I should just bring up these concerns at the next planning meeting.

I wonder if we are doing this wrong in my pack. Sometimes we have a pack activity AND a pack meeting. Sometimes we have a pack activity INSTEAD of a pack meeting. When we have the pack activity instead, I don't really miss the chance to do a flag ceremony, sing a song or perform a skit, but I do miss the chance to pass out awards and advancements. I don't like it when the boys have to wait longer to receive those. What do you do?

I am the wolf den leader and my son is a wolf, but sometimes I want to look up things in the tiger, bear or Webelos handbooks in order to help other scouts, and I don't really have them handy, so that is how I would use these resources.

Our pack was required to participate, which was strange. We checked out a whole bunch of cards, passed them around, and the turned them all back in. We are in a little town on the edge of the district boundary. The cards try to target local merchants, but they had not drilled down far enough to be useful in our community. Personally, I HATE buying coupons, which is how I think of these things. When kids come to my door, I always try to buy what they are selling, but magazine subscriptions and disc out cards are the two things I will not buy. Sorry. We had much more success selling $1 chocolate bars.

No, you are not naive to think that your sons' information is held only by the unit, charter org and council, but you are naive if you think that is different from a copy being made for every volunteer who thinks he needs a copy. I am a den leader, and I don't have a copy of everyone's personal information, but I have been heavily involved in recruiting, and I run the pack website, so I enter the personal information into the parent and scout profiles before I pass it along the committee chairman, and she gives the carbon copy to the pack treasurer. (We really need a secretary.) The pack website is password protected, so it can only be viewed by other members of the pack, and parents can log in and edit their profiles to add or remove any information they wish, but I have seen little evidence of such activity. The thing that is NOT supposed to happen is the selling or sharing of personal information with people outside of scouting, such as Disney or other commercial enterprises that pay for such information as part of their direct marketing schemes.

I would jump at the chance to improve my scout craft. I really think I ought o know how to build a fire. I thought I did know. I took my children camping and learned that I don't know. At camp I kept my eyes open and noticed how the staff (and the dad) built their fires. I think I've got it now. Maybe I'll get the chance to try this weekend I'm camping with the girl scouts.

Pioneering is something else that interests me. I've seen the scouts build some neat things. I could probably teach myself from a book, but I'm at a loss for where to get some poles.

The biggest difference that I see between the girl scouts and the boy scouts is size. Girl scout troops are very small and there is nothing like a pack committee to help you out. There is a service unit but that is more like a district. In my experience a girl scout troop is two leaders and eight girls all in the same grade in school. When one girl dropped out I sort of scrambled around to find a replacement because there is a real danger in having the troop evaporate. My daughter was in three troops her first three years of scouting.

The second biggest difference I see is drama. I have attended troop meetings with my daughter during which it seems to me that everyone is having a great time only to be told in the car on the way home that everyone was mean and she doesn't want to do scouting anymore.

With cubs the drama is all external and easy to see. In my sons den it usually takes the form of a sword fight.

http://www.scoutlander.com/publicsite/unithome.aspx?UID=15832

http://www.scoutlander.com/publicsite/unithome.aspx?UID=15832

Oh, this year I'm also going to try to earn the National Den Award. I think that's the perfect kind of recognition for adults: a list of requirements that let us know we are doing our jobs right. The Journey to Excellence award is like that, too. It takes the whole committee doing their jobs right, but everyone gets a patch for their shirt!

I prefer Cub Scouting (and Girl Scouting and taekwondo) to soccer, basketball and little league because I get to play, too. I don't want to be my children's cheerleader. I want to be their playmate. Granted, this probably has a lot to do with my midlife crisis, but I'm certain that there are more destructive ways for me to get through it. I'm happy earning square knots instead of ranks.

I would like to learn the material associated with the Cub Scout Sports and Academics Program well enough to teach it. Geology is on the top of my list right now. I don't know anything about it, but I think I should. I don't need to wear the belt loops and pins though. It might be fun to collect them though. I could set a higher standard for myself: if I complete all ten items (boys choose five) then I can buy myself the pin and stick on a bulletin board in my office. Are those items restricted at the scout store?

I would also like to learn the material associated with some of the merit badges well enough to teach them. I was thinking about signing up to serve as a counselor for the geocaching merit badge. I like geocaching, but when I read the requirements I realized I didn't even understand one of them. It had something to do with different grid patterns aside from longitude and latitude. I read up on it a little bit, but I still don't understand it well enough to explain it to someone else. It hunk it would be alright for merit badge counselors to wear the merit badges that they were qualified to council on, but I don't think here isn't a rigorous process in becoming a merit badge counselor.

A scout is clean. I have noticed that I am developing a zero tolerance for litter as I participate in more and more scouting activities.

"The Connecticut Rivers Council isnt the only Boy Scout group that appears to be ignoring the national BSA mandate.

"Out in Minnesota, some conservative Roman Catholic leaders were stunned when their local scouting council recently declared it would continue its policy of admitting openly homosexual individuals. Scouting officials in New York City and Boston say they have routinely sidestepped the BSAs national anti-gay standard.

"David Knapp, a gay scouting activist whos been lobbying for years to change the BSAs discriminatory policy, says the majority of councils in New England have not enforced the policy.

I didn't do any craft projects last year with my tiger cubs. We made some posters though. At day camp the scouts made some catapults and crossbows. The crossbows were a little complicated for them, but catapults turned out great, and the boys got to use a hammer. They loved that. Of course they also loved that the catapult was a weapon (of sorts). They shot marshmallows for distance.

I agree. Cub Scouting can provide boys with brothers and father-figures that they might not have at home. We don't have any male den leaders in our pack either, but I've heard of packs where all the den leaders are men. I guess the moms in that pack don't get home from work early enough. We might get a male den leader this year. He does contract work, so his schedule is flexible, and he just loves spending time outdoors with his own boys. One problem that the "modern" family creates for our pack is that we have a few boys who are home with mom during the week but they are out-of-town with dad on the weekends, so they can make it to den meetings and pack meetings, but they miss out on many of our outings. This doesn't have to be a problem. If dad is stuck for something to do with the kids this weekend, he could take them to the scout outing

Instead of setting up an event to invite people to, I'm trying to be at the events that parents are already planning to attend, like Meet-the-teacher night. I got permission from the principal to set up a table, and I plan to pass out pamphlets with contact information.

As a parent, I think I'm going to transition my son from blue to tan when he actually earns the Webelos badge.

"Recently, this leader proactively contacted BSA leadership and disclosed he did not meet Scouting's membership standards. Based on his notification, council leadership met with him and he made the decision to resign as a volunteer leader. As a voluntary, private organization the BSA sets policies that are best for Scouting but does not proactively inquire about the sexual orientation of employees, volunteers, or members."

Admittedly, Bourke said he did write the Boy Scouts a few months ago and came out as a gay man. He did not want to resign but changed his mind when his pastor at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church was told by the Boy Scouts they may lose their Scouting charter.

The first gay president of the United States was elected in 1856.

We do our in June.

No, this is a Canadian Shoulder Crest. It isn't available on scoutstuff. I couldn't find it on the Canadian version of scoutstuff either.