Lisabob

Torveaux I agree. When I was a WDL we had 3 boys get all 20 pins. Those three made a deal with each other as W 1's that they'd help each other "make it" so it was pretty nice to see them work together like that. One of the three was being seriously pushed by parents but I think he'd have done it regardless. The other 4 boys earned anywhere from 8-17 pins and they were perfectly happy with that, weren't ever really interested in aiming for all 20. All 7 crossed over to a troop last February and I've never heard another word about those webelos pins either. But, about a year later, only th

I served as a pack trainer and it was the first time the pack had filled this position. I came in as a leader shortly after a major leadership blow-out regarding proper responses to allegations of child abuse. A primary cause of the problem was a lack of proper leader training so they were "ripe" for having someone step in as pack trainer. Admittedly I used the position as sort of a bully pulpit for convincing leaders to do YPT at a bare minimum. (I just interpreted the Quality Unit requirement to have someone in charge of YPT training as meaning they needed a pack trainer to do this - fai

Just curious, is there a minimum rank or age level required for these patrol campouts, or is it just a common sense guideline? Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

I'm with everyone who says this is not really a "service" project. Beyond that, my understanding was that if a BSA unit wants to raise money for donation to an outside charity then technically they have to get council approval for that too. I ran smack into this myself at a district meeting not too long ago. In a misguided fit of good will I proposed doing a fundraiser where money would be donated to red cross for a certain recent disaster. The council folks pitched a small fit. According to them at least, all charitable fundraising by scout units for organizations other than BSA is

We played jeopardy too. Only problem was that several of the answers for the cub scout questions were wrong. For example one about the beltloops hadn't been updated to include the newer loops, but Wb staff (not recent cub leaders) wouldn't believe that this was the case! Actually we had some fun with this, "awarded" the new beltloops to them as "dangles" for their patrol flag in a little ceremony on the second weekend. Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

Dan, rocker segments are 1/4 inch patches with various designs and no standard requirements to earn them. There are at least a couple hundred different ones. As a DL I used to pick these up as cheap (approx .40 each) instant recognitions of things we had done in the den meetings. Boys usually put them on their red vests in a circle, using some other patch as the center piece. Some councils set requirements for certain segments, but I think that's unusual. Here's a link to the Grand Teton Council page which includes pictures of a few of these patches. http://www.grandtetoncouncil.or

Jerry, No I don't believe that withholding a patch makes the experience more meaningful, or that getting a patch reduces the meaning of the experience. That's not what I meant to suggest. And I agree that giving a patch can motivate some people to attend an event. However, I have seen situations where boys are given 10-15 patches or awards at every pack meeting and half of the patches/awards are for things the boys can't even identify, doesn't remember, or never did - just "bling." This is usually the result of very pushy parents who insist that their boy get every award and patc

I teach the prisoner's dilemma as part of a course on war and conflict so I had a pretty good idea where the Win All You Can game was going. Still, the way the game was presented or maybe the way it was designed, I don't think the point came through very clearly. Then again maybe this was just the way things worked out in our particular WB course, I'm not sure. Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

We have done this beltloop and the webelos aquanaut at a local public pool where lifeguards are provided as part of the user fee. This makes things much, much easier on the pack leadership. Still, I always prefer to have as many parents attend as possible, even if they aren't in the water with the kids - more eyes are better. I know of some packs who also require a parental signature on a permission slip for a boy to go in the deeper water. Sometimes what a young kid says he can do doesn't match his actual ability so it is just an extra safeguard - but not a BSA requirement. Once you ge

Hunt, I'm curious about your statement that units can't be chartered to schools? Does that include PTOs? Around here the majority of cub packs are chartered through public school PTOs although relatively few troops are. Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

treasurermom, thanks for the update. Please don't let the choice of troops be driven too much by where this woman ends up - chances are good they'll end up dropping out anyway. Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

Semper - great advice. dlw - I understand your frustration. Leading change is really difficult. Be careful, though, about assuming that everyone is against you because they haven't immediately bought into the changes you are trying to implement. These things take time. Whenever you seek to change things, you need to prioritize. Reality is, you aren't going to succeed in making a ton of changes quickly so pick a couple of things and be patient. Implementing change requires buy-in on the part of other leaders. It doesn't sound like you have that right now. Especially as s

I hope you have a great time, cold and all! The Webelos program was my favorite time to be a leader - so many possibilities and the boys are old enough to handle a little more of a challenge too. So I'm biased here but I hope you'll decide to stay on because you'll probably end up enjoying it. Is your son a Webelos 1 or W2 now? If W1, it might take the boys in the den a little while to understand that they can have a much bigger voice than before in choosing activities that the den will do (within certain boundaries of course). But, if you haven't already, you could have a den

I hope things will improve, parents will come to their senses and start helping more, and that you'll change your mind. But if they don't, please don't just quit out of the blue on them or stop showing up like someone else mentioned. You don't deserve to be treated poorly by your pack but at the very least they deserve a little advance notice from you. The positive side to staying on in a situation like this one (and I've been there myself, though as a DL and committee member, not CM) is that you'll often get a small core of dedicated parents who are really neat people to work w

Ah that's just sad, I didn't realize that. I guess one way to check that would be to have den/pack work days where they have to have the standard issue kit to work on (we did this anyway but more to help boys/parents who lacked tools or know-how, not to prevent cheating). Still someone would get around it and it might be a mess to enforce. Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

Our pack and district derbies state quite explicitly that the only cars we will allow to race are ones that the boy/parent make together using the kit we provide (ie, the block of wood, wheels, axles, etc.). We specifically rule out the use of pre-cut bodies, polished axles & wheels, etc.. The only exception is that sometimes the wheels will include a nub on them that prevents them from turning properly and that may be removed. As far as I'm aware packs can set their own derby rules, though if your boys might be racing in your district/council race too, it would be smart to consid

Yes I'd agree, that's a major reason for higher dues. We've run into this in the past too. After making some changes we went from spending as much as $130/month to spending between $50-$70/month, for a pack of about 35 boys. Typically Sept/Oct (new scouts haven't earned a lot yet) and April/May (after our B&G and pinewood are done) are less expensive. The problems we faced with giving out a zillion patches were three-fold. 1. Boys seemed to develop an entitlement attitude to "getting" something at every pack meeting, regardless of whether they'd earned anything. Also they

Whether he stays or goes, I would think a discussion with the boy about mis-using religion to get out of something he just doesn't feel like doing may be in order here too. Lisa'bob A good old bobwhite too!

In another thread there's a discussion of whether or not parents of webelos II should be expected to pay the full dues when the pack recharters. I thought it might be worth taking a separate look at what packs charge for dues in general, and what those dues cover. I've been in a pack that went back and forth about dues. Some years they were only about $25 (not incl. boys life), others they were as high as $60 (still not incl. boys life). This year they're $45, including boys life. For this year, given that $10 goes to national and $12 to boys life, this leaves the pack with $33/boy.

treasurermom, I feel for you and understand the difficulty you face. Be careful against making assumptions about what others can/can't afford though. It may be the case that this family wouldn't miss another $75 but then again, maybe not. They may have circumstances you aren't aware of. Even if they can afford it though, $75 is $75 and they're within their right to ask. Are there any people with boys in the Webelos II program on your committee? If so, how did they feel about this? If not, I wonder if they'd still vote against pro-rating if they had to pay $75 for 3 months of pack

That's great! Congrats!

I'd look at that next town's troops more closely. Sounds like you may have an SM in your town's troop who isn't accustomed to having original thoughts (shudder). By the way, nothing states you have to attend events in your council or district. If you are within driving distance of another district or council, contact them and see what kind of Boy Scout and/or Webelos events they've got coming up between now and your B&G. If something sounds interesting, ask if it would be ok to attend, even just to watch. If you aren't told NO in resounding terms, also ask them to maybe hook you up wi

Many packs pro-rate their dues for boys who join mid-way through the year and for graduating Webelos IIs. For this particular parent, I guess your level of flexibility depends on the following: 1. If you agree to some sort of reduction for him, how many other current W II boys will you need to do the same for, and specifically, how would that impact your pack's budget? 2. Do you want to have a disgruntled family leaving the pack? Depending on your recruiting situation it might be better long term to try to accomodate this person's request if it can be done in a reasonable manner.

Anarchist, please stop sending me any more nasty messages to my private email account. Whatever you have to say should be said on the public board or not at all. And let's keep things on topic please. This is the last time I will respond to you on this topic because I didn't join this board to engage in personal argument with you or anyone else. However, let me point out that a) of course I have things to learn about boy scouts - that's why I sought out this forum and have been asking a bunch of questions about what other troops do. As I've clearly stated several times, 4 of my

Just out of curiousity, would people include attending summer camp as a provisional scout toward the "active" requirement (or for the "participate in x-number of troop/patrol activities" for tenderfoot/2nd/1st Class)? While there one is a member of a provo troop, it just isn't one's home troop. My son did that last summer because he couldn't attend camp with his own troop. It hasn't been a problem in terms of how his troop interprets this and anyway he has, by pretty much any reasonable definition, fulfilled the activity requirements, but I'm interested to hear what others think. Provo cam