jc2008

Doesn't your troop have a treasurer who can explain the budget or what the troop pays for vs what the kids fundraise/parents pay for? Finances should not be a secret

We have large vinyl banners that can withstand the weather and all that jazz with the grommets in all 4 corners. We ordered ours from BuildaSign.com and it was very nice quality. They often have coupons that make their 3x6 foot banners under $20 shipped. We also have a smaller 1.5x4ft banner from Shindigz.com they also have regular coupons that come out to make their banners inexpensive. Both banners are of very good quality and have been out in the elements at our events/camp outs for the past year.

If the kids get a belt loop/pin/whatever with each adventure and they have to complete 7 adventures or whatever that is, its not too bad of an expense. Right now our kids are earning 1-2 belt loops every 1-3 months. We do the combined program and all work together on awards so we can control how many the kids get at every awards ceremony budget-wise. If the kids want to do more than we do at pack meetings then teh parents can pay for those extra ones.

We are doing $35 this year for new cub scouts and $25 for old ones. The extra $10 is for the Class B Tshirt they all need since we are big into being uniformed. The other $25 is the council/national fees. Most of the old ones will probably be buying a new tshirt anyways as everyone gets bigger every year. Boys life would be $12 more. Kids earn everything else by how much fundraising we do. And we have a group of parents who love to fundraise. If they don't fundraise they are welcome to pay out of pocket for events etc. You need to sit down and figure out WHAT your pack needs money f

Agree with ScoutNut as well. We say NOTHING, we just stand there with our signs up until everyone quiets down. And our signs go up when its parent noise just as much as kid noise going on. So without saying anything, but just stopping the program and standing quietly with signs up, the parents get "called" out and usually start to behave. Also our signs up doesn't alwasy come from the person up front talking. If you are sitting next to some loud people in the audience, you will see signs up coming from that area first and it spreads around the room from there. Sometimes our Cubm

My son is a Bear (going to Webelos 1) this year and we will just do what we need to do to get his Den the Arrow of Light in 2015 under the new program. Its not that hard to do, just embrace the program and get it done. Scouting is more about the journey and community for us, not about what bling and awards they earn along the way and if we have to blaze a new trail to get my son's final award, well that is exciting, not awful. Someone has to do it!

According to this article, they are staying, just getting revamped. http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/05/21/looping-you-in-on-the-cub-scout-2015-updates/

Recruitment event in the fall Pinewood in the Spring District Pinewood and we are trying to expand our horizons to council pinewood next year If you fundraise all $1500 is not such a great big deal to spend. Our pack sold around 10k worth of camp cards (50% to pack, 50% to council) and we got about $3k in donations at the show and sell locations (100% to the pack). Paid for all the kids to go to cub scout summer camp, paid for the start of our program next year, paying for the kids to go rock climbing, skating, bowling, picnic and a bunch of other things and still have plenty of

We are also buying a new track this summer. We are a first year pack and we borrowed a track from a pack across town for our derby this year. We also run the district derby so we used that same track for that. But we did really well with our camp card fundraiser so now we have enough money to buy a pack track and we decided on the 4 lane 42ft Best Track + a microwizard timer. Its going to run just under $1500 for the entire setup. We plan to use the track 3-4 times a year including the fall which is why we are getting it this summer. If you do not need your track until the spring ti

Graduation from one rank to the next rank. We don't have any Webelos 2s so we dont have a cross over this year. Our graduation is a celebration of the Tiger become a wolf, a wolf becoming a bear, a bear becoming a webelos and a webelos 1 moving over to arrow of light webelos 2 path. Its not a party for us, its a ceremony. Its done alongside the awards and the few rank ceremonies for the kids who missed the last awards (where they actually get their rank patches). We only do awards every 3 months so each ceremony has to have something special for the boys. So its like another awards p

For Rank advancement we did the jar with the food coloring on the lids and the kids shook the jar to see if they "did everything they were suppose to to earn rank" and all their clear water turned colors. I was looking for something interesting like that to use for graduation. Anyone have any fun or cool things they do for graduation that they could share? TIA!

I just don't even understand how anyone can even define a Scout Account. I mean we set money aside for use by the boys based on their fundraiser participation and success. That money is not "theirs" to keep, but if they need something we will buy it for them or reimburse them if they buy it out of their own pocket. I mean instead of calling it a Scout Account (which is what we do call it because of ease of explanation) I could just say that I am the treasurer and if you need to pay for something ask me and I will decide if the pack will pay or not (basing it on those fundraiser numbers an

Somewhere you have to give back to your council and popcorn is really the easiest way to do it. if you do "other" fundraising, yes you seem to make more or as much money as you would with popcorn, but that is usually because you are keeping 100% of the profit, rather than splitting it with council. If you don't do any of the council fundraisers your unit is basically freeloading off council at that point since the registration money you pay a year goes primarily to national for registration. I would prefer to do camp cards over popcorn, and indeed our group does both. The way we motivate

Make sure to check if there are any Cub Scout day camps you can attend this summer as your son will be a Tiger on June 1st.

How does our Council still give us camp cards to sell if no Scout Accounts? The boys are suppose to use the money earned to pay for camp and other scout things. That is basically an account depending on how much the troop lets the boys keep for their own personal stuff..

They can put a button loop on a patch or get that plastic patch hanger/holder thing from the scout shop.If your pack does a look of fun patches, you can get one of these for each boy : http://www.scoutstuff.org/round-emblem-holder.html and they can pick which fun patch they want to wear on their uniform and wear it in that plastic sleeve on their button.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. If for some reason it DOES fold, you seem perfectly capable of starting a new troop (Im sure your DE would love to help you :). Then the parents/boys would enter the troop by your rules, which makes expectations a lot easier to demand.

RE: ISA & 2014 As for what fundraiser counts for how much into a scouts ISA, that is totally up to your troop/pack. The ISA is a privilege, not a right, and troops/packs could discontinue them at any time. Tracking multiple fundraisers a year for ISA might just be too much for the treasurer, or they maybe give a lot back to your boys for their ISA in popcorn that they need 100% of the other fundraisers to help run the Pack/Troop. Whatever the reason, it is something that the committee should know and be able to communicate to parents. RE: Participation. Again, this is up to y

This seems more like a bully issue instead of a harassment issue. We try to encourage our kids to let us know about bullying so that tragedy doesn't strike like you see in the news. Here your son is telling you and the SM etc that there is a bully problem going on and nothing is being done about it. That can make a kid feel even more powerless than not telling anyone it was happening. If none of the adults in this troop can fix this bully issue you need to leave ASAP. Your child's mental health and self esteem is not worth trying to stay with any Boy Scout Program. And you said your son f

Our kids love getting things at the Awards ceremonies. But we don't necessarily need belt loops. Heck, I go to town on the Fun Patch Section at the Scout shop.. We went to the nature reserve and went on a hike? bam hiking patch.. We helped clean up our charter org? Bam service patch etcetc. They can be worn on a brag jacket or if they make a blanket or something. They are like half the price of a belt loop too or less lol. The kids just like feeling like their are receiving things. I am sure they will replace belt loops with something, I hope its some type of patches as the kids like the

The reason like others have mentioned, is because the Blue and Gold is a special celebration with a lot of hoop-la attached. So it makes it a special time for a special rank advancement award. Not just a normal everyday Pack Meeting that you have every other month of the year. If you are aiming for the Blue and Gold to be a rank advancement ceremony, it is in your favor to have it as late as possible in the year, perhaps even moving it to March as a belated celebration.

My popcorn spreadsheet got a lot more advanced this year, it tracks everything lol.

I guess the thing that bothers me the most is that you said "Its never buttoned and they ignore me when I ask for them to button." A child not listening to an adult would never merit a "prize" from me for doing what they were asked to do in the first place. The "prize" would be for the kids who were already doing what they should be doing and trying to do it well, going above and beyond. Fair enough if they just aren't showing up in uniform, but if they are sitting there wearing it in a manner you deem sloppy, they need to fix that. I think I would rather have our kids show up out of

Thats great! My son actually saw something in the 4.5k prize list that he wanted. I said, do you know how much popcorn you will be selling to get that? And he looked at me all serious and stuff and said: I can go door to door until I get that much Mommy, I can do it. Last year he did just over 1,000 mainly from show and sells and around $200 from going around his dad's office. We never went door to door in our neighborhood.

I can't believe the only store is Lowes! I know our lowes only allows boy or girl scouts to fundraise there, no one else. Time for door to door show and sells if you really only have ONE place that lets you sell in front..