jazzjeff

Sorry, that was my iPad typing and it did not keep my paragraphs. I know that is a pain in the butt read..

Thank you for the suggestions! It is sometimes really good to get an objective point of view for things like this. We are having a leaders meeting tonight and I am going to run these ideas by everyone in anticipation of needing some support. As much as this scout and his family are disruptive I would never be able to to remove them from the den. I couldn't imagine how hurt the scout would be, I think that disappointment would be long lasting, so although it would make things MUCH better I don't think it's an option I could actually go through with. I have had other parents mention that to me as a possibility so, in the case that others do start quitting I would be forced to revisit this option I think. I am going to have a sit down with them and review the expectations for this year, including the new sign offs for webelos that need den leader approval and this is non negotiable. I am implementing a new code of conduct too, and will be sending scouts home after a verbal warning, and a time out fail to correct the behaviors. I do reward for good behavior too so I an not all doom and gloom though! She has had the audacity to complain that he never gets a good behavior award. I sometimes catch myself wondering how on earth some people actually got to be parents..that was not very scout like of me but I'm only human. I will keep you updated, thank you again for such a great resource!

I am looking for some advice on dealing with a difficult family. This scout has never participated in any service projects (scouting for food, caroling etc). He is very difficult in the den meetings due to disrespectful behaviors, whining, refusing to participate in activities etc.. Unfortunately, one of the issues is that the family record most of their activities being done in the home. An example of this is a scout whose parent has marked him having earned every single elective, belt loop/pin, specialty badges from last year. I was a den leader and spent countless hours having to audit his advancement reports, and I ended up being the bad guy because I refused to award him the nova awards, the leave no trace award and several others that had a share with the den requirement that weren't met. This year, as a web 1, she has marked the majority of the activity badges as complete..And it's only November!! I am beyond frustrated with this woman, and I feel so bad for my little scout because she has him believing he has earned all of these when that isn't true! Ugh, so here we go again this year..any suggestions on how to handle this? Thank you for any advice you may have.

Thank you so much for all of your replies and suggestions, they have been very helpful and I am going to use some of them immediately! I am planning out the remaining meetings for the year and mandating that the parents sign up and run some of them. Our next meeting is Thursday so I will be rolling this idea out then, in person and not in an email or on the phone! Forget the snacks! We have a drinking fountaina so I am not gonna worry about it. We have 6 boys in the den and I had been thinking of recruitment ideas for next year and am going to use the suggestions you gave and start before the end of this school year. As frustrating as this year has been I still have that drive to make it a fun and successful den. I may message those who had some ideas laterbecause I will be suggesting them to the pack later. As far as the leadership goes, I guess it is time for me to stop sitting back and just rock the boat so to speak. I did not know about the first 2 leader meetings, the third was held when the packs and leaders did an overnight out of town. So only the leaders who were able to attend that overnight were included, I could not go because of work. I have only been able to make one because the meeting is held on a day and time that I am always at work, so I am going to ask that we move this time so I can be involved. I had an issue this morning with them, the scouting for food drive collection was this morning and the only kids that showed up from my den were my twins so we had to collect from our entire territory of 192 homes. (32 homes per scout) Saw the ACM at the meeting time and he just said to do the best you can and left. I was under the impression that the territories for pick up would be evenly assigned to all the scouts that showed, but that did not happen. I have to say I am really angry at that and plan on telling them what a poor example of teamwork he just displayed. On a brighter note, my kids had a BLAST collecting all those bags so it really worked out for them and the neighbors were great so there is a definite positive from this. As far as asking about how my den is doing with achievements and awards, no one has asked..I keep track and get my own awards for the scouts. I don't think there is an advancement coordinator in the pack. I am also going to use the denner idea with flags for my scouts because my current ceremony is total chaos lol, love the idea that they can take the flag home and keep it safe. I am going to have a more serious meeting Thursday and rollout the new ideas and get parents to sign up, I am going to the next leaders meeting with a notebook full of suggestions and maybe I will get somewhere with this. I will check back on Thursday and let you know. Thank you again to all that replied- you have no idea how helpful you have been and just given me a bit of knowledge to use to make some positive changes. Lisa

Hi everyone! I am new to the site and I thought I posted this already but I don't see it anywhere yet, so here it goes again! I am a new Tiger Den Leader this year, and have never had any experience with scouting at all so this is entirely new to me. I have twin boys who are in the den and they love it, so I am happy they are intrested in scouting and everthing it has to offer them. I am not sure if all the packs are like this, but my training has consisted of whatever is online, and the giant leaders manual, and the Tiger handbook and then I have been on my own. I don't seem to have alot of support from either the parents or other leadership in the pack. I have had to organize and run every den meeting, go see it, track achievements (I fianlly found the tiger trax spreadsheet in December. I was under the impression that the tiger year was a cooperation among all the parents. I have asked for help running den meetings from parents and get no reply. I sent out a snack rotation sheet that is ignored. We did our scouting for food this weekend and each scout had to drop bags off to an assigned route..well 2 of my scouts did not participate and it left me and my twins to deliver the 2 that didn't participate. The assistant CM came to my first den meeting and then I have had no help since, except when they were looking for donations to the council. I guess I am overwhelmed, constantly worrying if I am doing the right things and hoping the boys enjoy it. I am frustrated by a lack of support from parents and other leaders and am close to quitting. I was never invited to the first or second leaders meeting, then the third was out of town on a pack trip and not one of them attempted to pull me in the loop or keep me up to date so I feel very isolated and on my own so to speak. I am not sure how to pull myself out of this, and I have to keep reminding myself that this is about the kids and not the grownups. Grrr (my best tiger growl haha) Any suggestions how to handle this? I am at my wits end and it is only my first year. Thank you!