arichardson71

As a Cubmaster I recommend to my Den Leaders that we are not a baby sitting service, we are a family oriented activity that requires more than just dropping off a boy for an hour a week. Some Den Leaders take my advice some don't, the ones that don't usually come to me frustrated about little johnny not listening or little timmy disturbing the boy beside him.

Tundra Hawk I would express the Family involvement to all of you parents and strongly request that one of the parents be with the boy at every meeting. Let them know that once they get into Boy Scouts that is when they can start dropping off and coming back. If you are starting a new pack (hopefully I remember correctly) then it should not be much of a problem to implement this requirement.

Best of Luck on this issue!

YIS

Andy

Greg, I know how you feel, trust me I do, but don't get dishearted. As a Cubmaster for our pack I am still in a learning phase and I am considering this year as the trail and error, or practice year. What I learn this year about what to do and what not to do will help me for the following year.

As a pack with only 30 boys we had about 1/3 participation for SFF this year, even though I promoted, promoted and promoted this event with everything from flyers, calls and the back pack system at school. Just realize that some people will not show when there is "work" involved but will be 1st in line when it is time to have fun. My suggestion, by learning myself, lets make this a fun experience for the boys that show up!

Even though only 10 boys showed to collect the food on Saturday our pack came in 2nd place of all the packs in the district with the number of pounds we collected for SFF. (our district doesn't count items, only poundage) I am going to do something special for the boys that participated just to show my appreciation.

I feel like if you get the boys fired up enough about doing something they will drag the parents along. Work on the boys, not the parents!!!

Just some trial and error advice for next year.

YIS

Andy(This message has been edited by arichardson71)

sfg.... just curious, are you in the Flint River Council?

That is close to what we are doing this year. This will be my first year as program director for our Day Camp, and I am looking for ideas as well.

YIS

Andy

Proud Eagle,

you are correct, there are several camps in the reservation; Camp Stahlman, Camp Parnell, Camp Craig, Gaylord CubWorld, and the Percy Dempsey Camporee site. Word has it that Camp Stahlman is the best, we stayed in Camp Craig and it was just fine.

Trader John,

I used to be in the Middle Tennessee Council and have been to Boxwell a couple of times. My oldest boy has been there more often.

I have to say that it would be well worth the 561 mile trip. They have a new pool facility, a large lake for fishing and swimming, hiking trails, deer galore and paved roads to most locations in the camp. The tents are your typical platform canvas style tents and the food is excellent.

Man, thinking about it make me wish the council I am in now had as good of a camp. I am hoping to get our troop here to do summer camp there one year.

YIS

Andy

Not sure how you want to approach this in your situation.

I am Cubmaster and I have a family that has a total of 6 kids (thru marriage) 3 of the boys are in the pack, these parents with both working barely have enough to pay the bills much less by uniforms for thier boys. I talked to my District Executive about some help with this family, either National or Council has a program to help families that just simply cannot afford to by the uniforms. The council donated a shirt, hat and council patch to each of the boys, we as a pack furnished them with the pack number and neckerchief.

Because some people are very proud I oked this with the parents before following thru with it. They were very thankful and the boys just love to show off thier uniform.

If you do not feel comfortable talking with your Cubmaster give the DE a call, I am sure he/she can lend some assistance.

YIS

Andy

SP,

Wow!!!!! That sounds awesome, I think we may have to use something like that when our boys cross over. Kudos to who thought that one up!!

Andy

I want to thank everyone for your responses to my plea, I think by actually talking about something is the beginning of a healing process.

Eamonn, I believe that I am a nice guy, too. After reading a few other topics here I have found the root of the problem. Sometimes I am so nice of a guy that I will do something myself rather than asking another to burden their life with the task. This has actually been an eye opening experience.

I have called the CC and asked her to call a special meeting of the Committee this week. With this meeting I am going to get back to what I do best, I am just going to be the Cubmaster so I can concentrate on giving these boys the program they deserve. I have done some recruiting for the Pack Committee and should have several new members show up on Thursday, this should allow me to give up all of my committee duties.

I will let everyone know how everything goes.

Thank you so much

YIS

Andy

Semper,

After reading it I am not sure who it is either!!

Actually, the "Acting" CC is the Webelos 2 Den Leader, she does a good job but she will be leaving in the Spring.

I will start reading some of the other threads, thank you.

BTW, They all know that I need some help, they just won's step up to the plate. They are too "busy", sometimes that makes me sick, if you could see my schedule I would be classified as a busy man.

This may be a little twist to what you are used to hereing. I have been a scouter now for a couple of years and had recently moved to the area that I currently live. After I moved here I transfered my cub scout boy to a Pack here. The first pack meeting I went to it was all but dead, after some prompting from the CC, who was running the meeting, I questioned her as to why things were running the way they were. It turns out that the Pack had died a few years prior and was resurrected a year ago and the start of the school year. They started off ok but like usual, they got to butting heads on how each one of them thought it should be run. So the CM stepped down to become a DL, the Treasurer, 2 DL and some other committee members had a falling out and quit before the end of the year.

After the CC(who was also the now treasurer and Bear DL) found out my previous experience with scouting she asked me to be the CM. With some hesitation with what I just heard I decided to accept the position because ultimately it came down to providing a fun and stable pack program for the boys.

When I took this on I made a commitment to stick it out through thick and thin. So far so good as far as the program goes, everyone included the parents are learning and having fun. We have only lost a couple of boys due to moving and one because of what I am getting ready to say.

Come to find out why most of the problems in the past occured was because of the then Bear Leader (this is the same person as the CC when I joined). Not that I have any problem with this, this person is a very head strong, independant woman that was the most experienced at the time (her son was in it the year prior)in scouting and she had a warped idea of how everything should be run. Fortunatly (Lord forgive me) for all of us, her son at a camping trip yelled out that it was not his idea to be in the scouts that it was all her idea and he wanted to quit, this of course imbarrased her to no end. I made it available for her to step down from her positions and leave gracefully as much as possible.

So anyway, sorry to make this a long post, now I am also the treasurer and take care of most of the committee responsibilities, my Webelos 2 leader is current filling in the CC position but at the end of this year she will be leaving with her boy. Now what I have is a bunch of gun shy parents that really do not want to get involved with the Pack Committee, especially as the CC because of what has happened in the past.

My question to you, knowing now my situation, is how do I/we try to get the pack committee running like a true committee with what has happened. It is not really getting unbearable to me yet, but I can see it coming because I am also an ASM with a troop with my older boy and I also sit on the district activities committee. My main goal in this is to get this pack running as well as any other pack and feel good about it when I leave in a couple of year with my younger boy. What these boys and future boys deserve is a well run program that has full (or at least majority) backing of a well run committee.

Once again, I am very sorry for the long post

YIS

Andy(This message has been edited by arichardson71)(This message has been edited by arichardson71)

You were ABSOLUTELY right for what you did! We try to teach these boys to say no to drugs and alchohol and this type of display would send a wrong message to the boys.

In another pack where I was an ADL we were on a pack/family campout and the DL that I was assistant to was going thru tough times with his job. We were all sitting by the campfire when all of a sudden we saw him (he should have known better) and his wife crack open a couple of bottles right there. We immediately and discreetly took them to the side and asked them to take the bottles and any others from the property and return or if they had a problem with that then take them and not return. Of course they understood, but what got me was this was a "trained" leader and he should have known better than to even bring them, much less open one in front of everyone.

So in short, according to BSA there will be no alchohol at a scout function. PERIOD

I have not seen anything in "Boy Scout" Literature but I have read somewhere in "Cub Scout" literature that double dipping was not allowed. This was given in the case of the requirment being similiar from say an Achievement and a Sports or Academic pin or belt loop.

I am with most others here, if the boy has truely done the requirement for the MB then he should have no problem (even if he has to refresh himself) with retesting for the rank requirement. I am a ASM for NSP in our Troop and I require the boys to do what is required of them, they always feel better about themselves after they have PROVED that they can do it as opposed to learning that they can skate by if they do not have to prove it.

Sometimes as a Cubmaster I will test (so to speak) the boys getting Bobcat or another rank just to see if they did the requirements. This is for my benefit just to see if the Parents or Den Leaders are "pencil whipping" the achievements. If they "fail" I don't withhold the badge from the scout, but I do start talking with the DL to verify that they are checking the boys properly.

So in a nut shell, if we are truely teaching these boys to be good citizens and future leaders of this country we should hold them to the standards of BSA and require them to do the requirements for both the Rank and MB's.

Sometimes I wished I had some of the childhood experiences that some of you talk about in scouting. That may have been my main drive to getting my boys involved with scouts, I probably like camping more than they do at this point in time. But as I have progressed from a Boy Scout Dad thru being a Den Leader to currently serving as a Cubmaster, an Assistant Scoutmaster and Activities Chair for our district my love for scouting is so much more.

I can handle the unruley boys and the sometime disgruntled parents, along with the anticks of the council, most often resulting in a headache. But the things that I can not handle (in a good way) is a tiger cub running up and giving me a big hug before he leaves a meeting, or watch a new boy scout cook his first "eatable" meal or as one person said before is watching the Down Syndrome boy that has never been away from his bed one night, tell his parents on parents day that he doesn't want to go home. These are the moments that really make this an enjoyable and reward experience that I plan on continuing after my boys are grown and gone.

So to rate this I would have to say a 10 and I hope that is continues to be such.

Andy

ML,

May be late to get into this topic, but I am very curious to see how everything turned out. Did you continue to go to this Pack or did you find another one?

I am just real curious to see if this pack has survived 2 months now!

My name is Andy Richardson, I have been in scouting now for a couple of years and just have found this valuable resource. Just to let you know a little bit about myself I am a Cubmaster, an Assistant Scoutmaster and I am the "Webelos to Scout Transition" Chair for our district. In just what few threads that I have read so far has helped me on some issues that I have had. I want to thank you for your time in the past/present/future. I am still new at this but please feel free to ask me any questions, I may not know the answer but when I do, I am happy to help in any way.