kenk

"But no way will you find success in a "den" of 20." ...and it is just not fair to your son. He deserves the best Scouting experience he can have and it is up to you to ensure he gets it. Though it may sound selfish, your first priority should be to provide a great Scouting experience for your son. Providing that experience to other boys is certainly icing on the cake. Of course, if all else fails, the other option is to find another pack. Worse things have happened.

Welcome aboard!! Wow, 20 boys. That is simply too many to do any of them justice. I started Tiger Cubs with 10 boys and have slowly progressed (added some, lost some) to 6 boys. That is a wonderful den size!!! Its no wonder parents don't want to volunteer for anything - they have to deal with 20 boys and another 20+ parents/siblings at any den activity!! My advice is to hold a drawing at the next den meeting - last names out of a hat. The first 9 names (assuming your boy is one of the 20) are in your den. The others will have to identify a den leader and an assistant den leader

I do suggest you use heavy duty foil. On my first try we used regular foil and it burned through. Be careful not to over cook it.

Got It!!! It is at the exact same spot in the 2001 version of the Cub Scout Leader Book... at the top of page 18-4. Thanks so very much.

Thanks Bob ... err, I mean John. I have the prior version of the Cub Scout Leader Book - don't want to invest in the new one considering I have just 4 or 5 months to go before my boys graduate. I'll see if I can find the same phrase in the older version. What was the title of section 18? Ken K.

Thanks for your replies. Your comments match my opinion exactly. What is happening is that I have a Bear den Asst. Den Leader who is entering his son's advancement completion dates on our Pack's on-line system (ScoutTrack.com). I noticed that he entered dates from last year for a number of achievements. He tends to be - how do I say it nicely - easily offended, and not the easiest guy in the world to talk about things with. This person has been easily irritated in the past, and now that he is an Asst Scoutmaster of a local troop as well it has gotten even worse. (think jerk) In

Can anyone point me to an "official" statement that says a boy must do the achievement/elective activities during the respective year? For example, David is a currently in a Bear den and in 3rd grade. One of the Bear requirements is to attend an outdoor event with his family. Last year when David was in second grade he attended a balloon race. Can he use this activity to fullfill the Bear achievement, even though it happened the year before he was a Bear? If not, where does it say that Bear achievements/electives must be completed while the boy is a Bear scout? I looked in the Bear H

You might also consider contacting your local health department for recommendations/suggestions on proper sanitation. You could get 100 people very sick without proper sanitation. At the very least... Make sure your hot dogs are kept hot enough to prevent bacterial growth. Best to keep them above 135 degrees F. If cooler than that, limit cool time to less than two hours. Keep uncooked hot dogs cold - below 41 degrees F - in a cooler with ice ON TOP of the dogs. Cool air from ice travels downward. Cover food to keep contaminates/flies off of it. Keep sick people (c

Very interesting ... I have often thought that teaching is a great - and sometimes subtle - way to gain leadership experience. By this point in his Scouting career I'm sure he has lots of knowledge to teach the younger boys. By the very nature of teaching, those taught look to the instructor as a leader. Has this boy spent time with younger Scouts teaching them some of the Scout through First Class skills? I would have hoped so. Ken K.

If he comes to camp lathered up on Avon Skin-So-Soft, then he might be a Cub Scout. If he'd chooses not to eat the weird looking camping food, then he might be a Cub Scout (Boy Scouts will eat just about anything). If he's doesn't know how to light a match, then he might be a Cub Scout. If a high chance of rain cancels the weekend outing, then he might be a Cub Scout. If the bottom of his shirt almost touches the ground, then he might be a Tiger Cub Scout. :-)

Can you "mask" recommendations for changes as exuberance about information you learned in your recent/upcoming training? I'm picturing you essentially developing your own short training session the covers the stuff you think is not know/done by your troop, present that information to the committee, and then emphasize "this is what we're supposed to be doing" and "most of the the scouters taking the training said this is what their troops are already doing and it really works. The approach is not "this is what you're NOT doing", but "this is what we could be doing". This is kind

Maybe if you post your questions here you could get some answers.

Hmmm, I just had an idea that is based upon the notion that one of the secrets of PWD is the axle polishing & alignment. What if we give the boys just the block of wood ahead of time and let them carve it and paint it as they wish ... ... and then the day of (or night before) the derby they have to come together for wheel assembly. They would be given a stock set of wheels and axles and have to install them on site. We could even paint the ends of the axles some color ahead of time so we can tell if "custom" axles are brought in. We already have a weighing & adding we

My guess is that none of this is new to those who are involved in Cub Scouting. Come Derby day the cars that have been built by the sons of pack leaders are much faster than those built by the sons of non-leaders. As a matter of fact, for the last several years three of the five dens had the den leader's sons win first place for their age-class. In general it seems that the same boys win year after year. I have no problems with parents helping the boys build their cars. That is completely natural, and I would assume that help would decrease proportionally as the boys get older and more ca

I can't tell you much more about the DGS program, but I was in charge of sewing those darn petals on my daughter's vest. Get out your geometry books and protractors because getting the angles right is a nightmare. Since you only get a one or a few petals at a time, you need to place them so that in the end all will fit and it will look reasonable. Whoever came up with that idea clearly didn't have to sew the petals on themselves. There are 10 petals, which means they need to be sewn on axes that are 36 degree angles with each other. Picture a wheel with 10 spokes. The anlge between adjace

Greying Beaver, Maybe its just late enough that my brain isn't working well, but can you clarify your troop's approach to renewing the patrol method, why that made inactive parents upset, and how that affected their boys' leadership? I guess I'm not understanding. Thanks, Ken K.

So much for my math... That's a 36 year old cheap knife.

"bait knives" Are those the ones so cheap that you fasten a treble hook to one end, tie the line onto the other, cast it out to see if any fish will bite? ;-) I'll have to admit that my most cherished knife is a cheap give-away advertizing knife that my Dad gave me as my first knife. It is a little yellow two-blade that has inscribed on the side "Phillips 66 Good Neighbor - 1969". Yup, a 26-year old cheap knife that simply will not take an edge ... that I wouldn't trade for anything.

I am with you all the way my friend. I am seeing "flavors" of Scouting based upon the whim of a adult leaders. I'm also bothered that many troops are so heavily influenced by one person. It is quite common around here for troops to be referred to as "Jerry Thompson's Troop". Huh? I know that my Cub Scout Pack isn't associated with any one individual, and that is a good thing. Our Pack is the accumulated effort of the committee and parents, and we follow the program as it was designed. Especially lately another thing that I've noticed is adult leaders simply not living up to the Sco

Thanks so much for the replies!! I'm a bit bummed since there are a limited number of troops in the area and each that I've seen so far has its oddities and issues. I'm actually more bothered by the big tent method of camping that the virtual patrol issue - though I understand the problem there too. At least I am a bit wiser and can ask smarter questions. Thanks for the tip on the Patrol Leader handbook. I love reading those books anyway. I'm going to hijack this thread slightly because an odd question came to mind: Focusing on commonly used Eureka Timberline tents, which size

I'm currently a Webelos Den Leader for boys who will be moving into Boy Scouts this coming February, so we have been going to a few activities with local troops, planning more activities for this fall, and talking with boys who are the troops. During those activities/discussions I'm seeing/hearing two things that bother me, and I'm wondering if these are more common than I thought: #1: The troops are medium-sized with maybe 20-50 boys, but because of other competing activities, only a relatively small number of boys go on any particular camping trip. For any given weekend these boys

I'll echo what others have said about cheap knives. I'm not so worried about it falling apart. My concern is that really cheap steel blades may simply never sharpen. The poor boys will spent unreasonable effort trying to sharpen them but it just won't happen. Right now the best deals I can come up with on folding knives are the Opinels (a French knife - not high on the "cool" factor though) for about $10-$12, and the more modern Ka-Bar/Dozier Folding knives for about $20 (There are several models: Spear, Hunter, Clip Point). Do a search for "Dozier" on http://www.kabar.com . My plan is to

I'm a Webelos II den leader. My advice would be to have the boy work toward his Webelos Badge this year and not focus on the Arrow of Light. of course he'll have to work on the Citizen & Fitness activity badges on his own (or with the den leader's guidance) since the other boys earned them last year, but that is doable. I would certainly have him graduate to Boy Scouts along with his den. To not do so could bring enough embarassment or hard feelings that Scouting could lose him.

Welcome to Scouting and this forum!! Typically, Webelos I boys are in 4th grade and work toward the Webelos badge of rank. Webelos II boys are in 5th grade and work toward the Arrow of Light badge of rank. Let me clarify that any boy who meets the age/grade requirements can join a BOY Scout troop. They don't have to have been in Cub Scouts, nor do they have to have earned any type of Cub Scout rank. All the requirements are listed in the Webelos Handbook. Webelos Badge: Though I won't cover the details here, basically they need to learn about the Webelos badge & uniform

That's funny. Scout, did you watch the same show last night? As I recall Newt was on the Hannity & Colmes show on Fox News.