kari_cardi

I love Tigers too! They are a blast, so enthusiastic and so sweet. Plus you really get to know the parents. At this time of year, I like to do a couple of things for meeting ideas. First, I talk to the boys about what they would like to do. We look through the book together, pick stuff out, make a list. I also like to work with the parents to bring in any special skills they may have. One of my parents last year was a yoga teacher. She led a class for the whole pack, the boys loved it. And I like to look at working on special awards like Leave No Trace. I think it would be a true

puzzlelady, so you do have other packs in the area to join? Because while I advocated Lone Scout earlier, I was under the impression that you didn't have any other options. Finding a friendly pack that meets on a regular schedule really is the best choice for your son. My district website has a list of packs and when they meet right on the website, perhaps yours does too. And talk to your friendly scoutmaster and other scouters. You might be surprised at what you find. Ours is more of a 9 month pack, btw, and that seems common here. But we would be interested in a 12 month program if ther

>>At one point our Pack had 50% of the youth ADD/ADHD and all sorts of developmental problems. I took some classes at the local childrens hospital to help me understand how they work and think. To be real honest everything I would have done with them would have been not the best solution.

It would be a shame for the boy to miss his AOL because his den would not let him participate as an active member for the six month requirement, and a shame if they won't let him crossover 'early' as compared to the other den members. I can see that going Lone Wolf to fulfill his advancement requirements and using the friendly Troop to meet his social needs could be a good work-around solution. He obviously doesn't need the den to complete his other requirements, he already has them done! I hate to say it, but reading here and some IRL experiences I've had recently make me think that BS

There you go, momto2cubs! If we just tell the adults they CANNOT SLEEP, then we can meet G2SS guidelines without any effort whatsoever! Just kidding, but when I am bunking in a room with 70 of my closest scout friends, I assume I won't be sleeping anyway since that is what experience has taught me.

momof2cubs, you cut out the vest in one piece by placing the right side on the fold of the felt. I have my own pattern that is similar. I can cut out two vests across the width of the felt. I open up the felt as it came from the fabric store. Then I fold the edges back to the center so that they meet, kind of like a staple. This way I have two folded edges to work with. Place the vest pattern on the felt with the right-hand side of the pattern, the long straight edge, is aligned with the fold. Check and make sure that it fits so that there will be two layers of felt all around. Then I

This is an interesting discussion. My son just completed his Architecture MB at a MB event. He completed the requirements over three Saturdays. The first requirement to 'tour the community', shortridge, was met by viewing a slide show of a variety of local buildings with a few non-local examples also thrown in. He did make a drawing of his favorite building. Is this satisfactory? It feels a little hinky, honestly. I'm sure he understands the basic differences in the styles they viewed, but I don't think it compares to actually experiencing the same buildings by standing in front of them

Some of our scouts put them in albums using baseball card pages or special patch pages. Other kids have patch blankets made of fleece. And if you don't want to sew them, you can use fabric glue and glue them instead.

The clearance shirts run pretty true to size in the letter sizes. They are huge in the upper numbered sizes. All the female leaders in my pack ordered together and this is what we found. I agree, the price is sweet. I plan to stitch down the bellows pockets.

Also dying to know about poop tube relays. You've gotten so many good suggestions! I wanted to add that I keep a few things in my tote bag that really help with last minute meeting changes. I always have a deck of UNO cards; a small craft kit, right now it is cardboard airplanes launched with rubber bands; and a stack of stack of index cards with commands to play Akela Says, a game that is based on Simon Says. These items along with the song from elective 6 in the Tiger book have saved me from chaos several times. All of them can expand or shrink to take up as much time as you need t

Brag vests seem to go in and out of fashion in our pack. The older boys in our pack weren't interested, the younger guys love'em. If you have an electric rotary cutter, it makes quick work of cutting out the vests. They sell them for sewing but mine came from Home Depot. And fabric glue works well to attach the patches, it is easier than sewing IMO. I still sew them though.

It isn't an exit for our pack. It is a goal for rank advancement, but we make it clear that boys who don't make it can keep working on their rank right up to May 31. I like to hit rank advancement early (not hard with Tigers, admittedly) so the boys feel pride and we can be extra flexible about den meeting activities.

Curious said "I would advise against showing them a copy of the charter agreement. They might realize that they own the unit, including its checkbook. An open and frank conversation would probably be better. And if you really don't think that is viable, then an conversation amongst yourselves about whether you really want a new partner. You could also consider self-chartering, but I would think that would pretty much guarantee that you would be paying a facility fee." This. The charter org is asking you to pay them with their own money. I'd tread carefully. Are the boys in your pa

Those activity shirts or whatever they were called were tan. I could see someone picking up a bunch when they were clearanced for $3 and using them as uniform shirts with the green pants that were also clearanced. Not official uniforms, of course.

We pull together the Tiger Cub den in a manner similar to what drmbear describes. The den starts out with an experienced leader organizing the parents and helping them implement the Tiger program. Communication with the new parents is easy, they learn about scouting from someone who knows the score and can answer questions right away. Each parent has several opportunities to run meetings. By February, it is simple to identify and recruit a den leader and asst den leader, as well as identify other potential volunteers. Then the experienced leader bows out but stays a resource for the new l

I think that another reason parents pursue lawsuits is the cost of health care and the declining coverage provided by health insurance. I know that I would sue in a heart beat if that is what I needed to do to get the money my child needed for medical treatment. My husband and I went through a similar scenario a few years ago for one of my sons. As it turned out, he didn't need the extended treatment originally thought. The family that would have been a target of any lawsuits lucked out in another way. Thanks to the large deductible we carry in order to have affordable coverage, our h

"I dunno. This is a huge grey area in my opinion. Where does personal responsibility end and others liability begin? I keep thinking about the lady who went to McDonald's drive-thru and ordered coffee. She put the cup of coffee between her legs and drove away and the coffee slipped all over her lap and she suffered some nasty burns. She sued McDonald's and won! Why?" She won because McDonald's was serving their coffee at a temperature of 185 degrees, a temperature that produces 3rd degree burns almost instantly, is higher than other restaurants commonly serve their coffee, and was known b

That is what I plan to do, pick up re-usable plates and cups on clearance after Christmas, they should be cheap enough. We have a full church kitchen where we hold pack meetings, it shouldn't be a big deal. And I can bring napkins home to wash. I need to work on flatware, though, right now we have a lifetime supply of plastic forks, knives and spoons.

I would love to make our pack camp outs and pack meetings more green. It is one of my goals for this year. Hopefully pointing out that buying disposables for our pack for the year is more expensive than investing in a set of reusable plates, water bottles or cups and cloth napkins will be convincing.

Last year we spent about $100/boy for what is essentially a 9 month program. To calculate this, we divided the amount spent by the number of boys in the pack. We pay for re-charter, Boy's Life, handbooks, all advancements and activity patches, AOL plaques, supplies and Blue and Gold. We subsidize the cost of a family camp outing and certain pack-wide activities. We do not provide uniforms except in special circumstances, day camp or overnight camp fees, or other discretionary spending. I would like to cover leader registration and training fees, simply because I do most of the leader

I don't see a problem. I think it should be up to the girl and her parents whether she continues in Venturing. Shaming or shunning her should have no place here. As far as safety for the unborn baby, I think requesting updated medical forms to reflect the change in her medical status would be appropriate.

I think ideas like this often work into a good pack meeting activity as well.

I don't think the idea is a bad one at all. I'm not a fan of calling it the Bobcat den, though, since there is no official den for the Bobcat rank and boys are assigned to dens by grade/age, not earned rank. I'd probably call it Cub Scout Orientation or something like that. For requirement #8, in our pack we assign the requirement and assume that the parents do it with the boys. Some will, some won't, we know that. But IMO how and when to discuss sexual and other abuse with children is a parental decision, and BSA recognizes that by making it a family requirement. I agree that

'Being an Eagle scout myself, I know that the eagle project is comparable and usually larger than the Girl scout project--depending on scout, troop & council.' I am glad you qualified this, because it isn't my experience at all. I am familiar with the scope, responsibility and leadership skills involved for projects by 3 Boy Scouts (2 different troops) and 3 Girl Scouts (also 2 different troops), and the GSUSA projects IMHO were stronger projects.

I'm a fan of doing AOL in advance of crossover, and let the boys who have earned the highest award in Cub Scouting wear the award as Cub Scouts. It should be more than just the final check box to move to Boy Scouts, IMO. Regarding summer camps, our troop didn't care when boys crossed over in the spring before summer camp and my son's den ran late. It did make a difference to the boys and their parents. My son, among others, was quite nervous about committing to camp before he had a chance to get to know the boys and leaders that he would be camping with for a week. Several scouts did