jens3sons

eagle-pete, Most of the times that I have seen two dens combine, it has been the same rank of boys joining together. What I would caution against with two different ranks meeting together at the same time is for the boys who are Wolves this year, to make sure you have a game plan for them next year when they are Bears so that you are not presenting "old material" to them and lose even more interest. Sounds like you would make an excellent Asst. Cub master to me! You can assist the cub master where he is failing...even helping to plan those pack meetings! Our current cub master did

Eamonn, 12 looks like nothing right now to my twin boys'' den!!! Every year (they are Bear scouts this year) we think "oh some will drop out" and every year, those (bless their little hearts) boys recruit a few more scouts! This year it looks like their den is up to 16 boys! We as leaders didn''t even try to recruit more boys for the 3rd grade, but the boys are having such a great time, they just keep telling more and more of their friends about scouting! To hopefully prevent some of the responses on this one, yes we realize we have enough boys for 2 very full dens, we have tried over

Our pack makes our own, a mom who sews makes enough for all the new boys who have joined. She also sews the round patch on the back of the vest for the segments to go around them. We use segments instead of totems. We gave up on the totems. Those beads fall all over the place, and we figure the boys remember better what activities they did much better given a little "picture" vs. a bead. The boys put their popcorn patches on their and their pinewood derby patches. Any sporting events that they attend through the council also goes on their vest and any camping such as camporall or any of

JeffD, My pack is the one that gives away the boom box. Let me clarify please. First off, the boom box costs the pack approximately $25-$30 dollars...a little different than the cost of a play station or a bike. Second, the boom box is NOT awarded to the top seller, it is raffled off. For every $25.00 the scout sells, he gets 1 raffle ticket. It is stated to the boys that the more they sell, (obviously) the more chances they have to win. In my experience with all of this, it has never been awarded to the absolute top seller in the pack, but usually to the kid who has sold btw. $200-

Hi Kurt, Just so you know, I am in the same council as you are. We usually use the theme from the Program Helps to work with for our Blue & Gold..it keeps each year special and unique for the boys who are earning their Arrow of Light that night. We budget approx. $300.00 for the entertainment. Last year''s theme was Aloha Cub Scouts! We had Hawaiian dancers come and show the kids some dances, and even had the kids do some of them...the big kick was when they brought some of the leaders up and tied skirts (cut up, plastic table clothes) and they had to do the more difficult dance (

I fully agree with you. Nothing ticks me off more, than seeing all the separate pens, flashlights, sweatshirts etc. that are orange. They are Cub Scouts, working on Tiger rank, not Tiger Scouts working to be Cub Scouts! Not to mention how I can NOT stand those beads! As a pack we finally got rid of buying the instant recognition kits and just get them segments instead (the boys like competing with each other to get more segments on their vests). My personal opinion is that at least the segment has a visual reminder of what they did to get it anyways! Sorry for my little rant, but I think

JeffD, It is a little more work for our popcorn kernel, but we also do a raffle of a boom box (in the past we look for a cheap one, about $25.00-$30.00, that looks cool). The boys still earn their prizes that are given by Trail''s End, but for every $25.00 that they sell they get another "ticket" in the hat. The more they sell, the more chances they have to win the boom box. There was talk of changing out the raffle prize this year, and the committee shot it down, as the boys so want that boom box! We have the boom box bought prior to the September pack meeting and we show it to the b

WDWNUT, I have a son who was just diagnosed with ADHD this summer. I thought I would try and explain what it is like to have ADHD the way my son''s therapist described it to me. It is like walking (through life) as quickly as you can, only able to see 3 feet ahead of you...oh, and you have blinders on, so you are only able to see right in front of your feet and are unable to see the "big" picture. With all this in mind and some family history we have made an informed decision to put our son on natural supplements formulated for ADHD (a lot of amino acids)and my son sees a behavior

There are a lot of comments on here, so I will try to stick to new ones! 1. As for how warm the pants are in the winter time: I think the warmth of the pants will depend on if you associate warmth with weight. If you need heaviness to "feel" warm, then you are going to freeze. However, the pants will dry dry extremely fast, which would be good for being in the snow/rain/sleet etc. I believe if you got a good "roomy" fit pair you could end up putting a pair of fleece pants underneath them or long underwear to feel warmer. 2. I am an employee of a local council shop, and we have

If your pack participates in the brag vests and segments, there is a segment for denners. Jens3sons

Two Sirius, You have already been given some great advice, so I won't echo it all over again, however, I will mention 2 things that I didn't see mentioned. 1. Don't forget to retain your receipts for your uniform etc. You may claim them on your taxes. 2. Most importantly, please look at this not as something scary, you can always find answers through someone, whether on here, or through the already established pack leadership, and if they can't find it, they should know who to ask, but look at all of this as great scheduled time with your son! I only have sons, and I love th

Split them up! Let me repeat that....Split them up! My twins are currently in a den of 14 boys...it is caotic!!!Plus I We have had numerous injuries from them running around etc. Typically when their den formed last year it would've been into two dens, however our pack strongly believes in the two-deep leadership, and we were not able to get a fourth leader, so we had to keep them one den. The other aspect of this, which I think is a really good one, is that the den leaders really don't get the chance to know the boys the way that they should. The den leaders become the "teachers"

Remember...The Cub Master is responsible to the boys. It is up to him to make sure the boys are advancing in rank, and in doing that sets the direction of the pack. It is up to the CC to help the CM carry out his ideas and suggestions. Another thing to remember, is that everyone on the committee will have great ideas from time to time (a broken clock is right 2x's a day) and he/she might be able to come up with great ideas. Even though your pack may be strong in numbers, it is easy to get caught in the trap of "this is the way we have always done it", and he might have some great n

Our pack uses the program helps to help us plan our Pack Meetings...as far as using them for den meetings, I can't say any of our dens do that. We use the den meetings to focus on the boys earning their achievements, but we use our pack meetings for fun and celebrating what the boys have achieved. We don't always use the monthly theme ideas in order, we may "switch" them up a bit to accomidate other agendas, or what works best for us to get outdoors or the usage of the school etc, but I must admit, I am very happy to get my new copy of the helps each year!

I come from a pack where pack meetings were tremendous snooze fests, and have been completely turned around! We have assigned each den a responsibility to perform each and EVERY pack meeting. Song, Skit, Flags, Activity, etc. We try and break up advancements/awards between each one. Usually after the den has done their "duty" for the evening is a good time to hand out their awards (less "up and down" from their seats)and the other dens don't get as bored. I also have to say our pack owes a HUGE "thank you" to our Asst. CubMaster. He has been known to show up as "Woody the cowboy" for

Ok, as promised, I am getting back to you all regarding the Tiger Cub program. Tuesday when I was at work, we received the new Tiger Cub Spiral Bound book, and it did reflect the new program, with the Bobcat patch being earned first. Page 14 clearly states that the Bobcat rank will be earned first. As far as any other changes that are concerned, the only other I could see was the dropped Tiger Cub Motto. As far as the new books being available for purchase, all I can tell you is that the changes are minor enough that the old books can still be used. A lot of the stores (especially the

Cubbymaster, I will bring up one more point, that I haven't seen anyone one else suggest. At FOS (Friends of Scouting) time, instead of our COR donating something to the campaign, he just signs the card, and then asks us if there is something the PACK is in need of. They usually spend between $100-$200 a year on our pack. The COR feels our PACK is where his (and his organization) heart is...not the entire scouting council, and would rather donate directly to us than to the council. Every year when I need the FOS card signed, I remind him that the campaign is for the entire council, an

ScoutNut, to answer your question...I don't know yet. There is a rumor that there would be no more motto, since the Tigers would be learning The Cub Scout Motto first, it would seem a bit silly to then learn the Tiger one. I am still waiting to hear back from the other lady as to what exactly the changes will be. As soon as I do hear something (which again will be from National) I will post here once again. I only work part time, and today will be my first day this week, and with it being Holy Week, the shop is closed Friday and Saturday. As soon as I get a list of the changes I will pos

As a committee chairperson first, I had heard of "rumors" of the Tiger program changing, but was not letting it hold water until I saw it for myself. As a newer employee in a scout shop, when the new program helps arrived, I immediately picked one up to look at the new monthly themes. While reading through September's, I saw the change and began asking around about it. My manager had been at a meeting on Friday and asked further on my behalf. Later friday afternoon we received a fax at the shop stating that the program was changing. The woman who sent the fax said she would talk to Nation

One of the key arguments for switching to the tan uniform shirt, that I don't believe has been emphasized well enough, is the problem that arose with Tiger Rank becoming an actual Rank. The reason most are switching to the tan is so that they do not need to take their Tiger Rank patch off of the uniform, and replace it with the Webelos Rank. The boys who are earning their AOL this year, were the first boys to have earned the Tiger Rank as a Rank. National had to come up with a solution for this situation. Going to the tan shirt at the time of earning the Webelos Rank is a great time to swi

There is a patch called a 50 mile patch. You would log your miles until you reached 50 miles and then he would have earned that patch. After another 50 miles, he would receive the 100 mile patch, etc, etc. Check in your local scout shop as well, becuase in our area, three other programs are offered. One is called the Red Caboose Trail, which I believe you need to hike 10 miles of it, and units often break it up, by camping overnight at the one forest preserve that is on the trail. The other is called "Great Adventures", and the boys visit different forest preserves and complete differ

Every year (the first weekend in May) our school does a "Beautification Day". We spend about 4 hours from 8am-12pm cleaning up the school grounds of trash and weeding the flower beds. New flowers are planted in the containers, and new mulch is put down. Most of the plants have been donated for the flower beds, as extras that people have had. Some things have been added as a memorial to different teachers and the one principal who have passed away. It is a great "support your school" activity, and one that the cub scouts and brownies, and girl scouts have always participated in. If your s

BelieveinScouts, One of the best suggestions I can give you is this...sign up for you or your spouse to attend a Webelos Overnight Camp with your son...in our Council it is called "Webelos Adventure Camp". My son attended last summer when he was transitioning from Bear to Webelos. It sooooooo took the pressure off all of us especially the leaders! Four other boys attended as well, and they walked away with 4 badges completed and well on the way to finnishing up another 2!!! They received the Webelos rank by November this year! My son now has 9 of the 20 badges offered. He is signed

I guess our pack right now has had a major shift in leadership. When I first started the pack was primarily "woman run", now, other than myself as committee chair, there is only two moms who are den leaders, but have male co-leaders. While siblings have never been turned down for participating (especially if it meant that the boy could not come) I try to remind the parents that Pack Meeting nights are for the family, but that den meetings should try to be JUST the boys and their leaders (or on the tiger level, the boy and parent) to allow some "male bonding". I tell the fathers in my pack a

I think if one looks at whether or not there is a son involved in the pack as a requirement for being a leader in the pack, there is a great potential for lost leadership! How many troops have Eagle scouts, who do not have children yet, who serve as leaders?! Think of what these troops would lose out on if the boys did not stay involved! Although I had heard (through training) of men and women taking leadership roles who have no children (or some relative that they were leader for ie. grandson or nephew) I never met anyone who wanted to be a leader without children until Friday night at