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Liz

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Posts posted by Liz

  1. Recruiting is hard for us but I'm getting some success on Facebook through local parenting groups. Families are really looking for some kind of connection and our schools are all remote learning until at least December.

  2. 1 hour ago, SSScout said:

    USPostal service letters (remember them?), email,  phone calls/tree,   cell phone texts,  Knock on door leave card in door.....   You try, you "do your best".  

    When you are convinced the horse is dead, you quit beating it.  Schedule a last B&G picnic with magician and catered BBQ, spend the last of the Pack's treasury, transfer the remainder on to the CO,  and move on to ScoutsBSA.    

    My other daughter just signed up for Lion Scouts. I’m afraid I’m in this for the long haul. 
     

    Actually, I like the Pack. It’s just that one den that is non-functional. 

  3. Thank you for suggesting posting in the forums that solved it. 
     

    Literally. I posted in the forum and the problem went away. After months of trying repeatedly, including again just yesterday before I finally started asking about it. 🤷‍♀️

    • Like 1
  4. I double checked my positions and I've got the little keys next to my name.

    I've logged in from my phone, and two different browsers on my laptop to try it, so I don't think it can be a cache issue. I'll try the forums. Thanks. 

    I probably won't encourage parents who aren't den leaders from using Scoutbook unless we have to. 

  5. Yeah, I can't imagine how I could be pushy in an effective way. 

    As a side note, are parents supposed to be able to enter stuff in Scoutbook? I have been unable to update my daughter's rank advancement in Scoutbook since her last Pack change (our old Pack ceased to exist). I was her den leader in the old Pack though, so I thought that was why. 

    I'm the only one in our Pack who has ever logged into Scoutbook. A Scouter friend said the Cubmaster has to give me permission to update rank requirements; although as CC all the Scouts are showing as green dots (full control) for me so I'm not sure what's going on. I don't get an error, it just kicks me back to the main page when I try to see the rank advancement. 

    I have no trouble updating advancement requirements for the members of the Troop where I'm on the committee. 

  6. Well, THIS is interesting.

    I just went to go finish up some odds and ends of training, and My.Scouting recommended the module CS19 Cub Scout Uniforms.

    No mention at all of tan uniforms for 1st year Webelos. Tan is for 5th grade, AOL. 300033493_ScreenShot2020-08-05at3_24_44PM.thumb.png.9c5d13538cdc7f194a78a7010f213d74.png201886507_ScreenShot2020-08-05at3_25_39PM.thumb.png.899103d47c0e366f557a1dbbbb123b03.png

  7. Thank you. That does help some. I'm not too worried about doing things virtually. My issue is getting the other members of her den to participate at all. They've all been entirely MIA since March, along with the den leaders.

    I'll try to poke them into doing something. My fallback position will be to have her participate with the Troop she will be joining. 

    I think I will recommend that the kids who have not yet earned Webelos Rank (all except mine) and aren't close (ditto), just go ahead and move on to the AOL requirements. 

    • Upvote 1
  8. Help me out here. 

    I'm trying to decide what direction to move in right now. We had to join a new Pack this year, and the people are super and they're great with kids, but organization was almost nil. 

    I was pretty much immediately "volunteered" for CC, since the previous CC was nothing more than a signature on a piece of paper, which is totally fine with me, but I'm in a quandry right now. My daughter joined the Pack in January with her Webelos badge already earned and ready to start working on AOL. Most of the other kids in her Den had, at that point, earned between 0-1 pins towards their Webelos ranks. The den leaders are nice but don't seem to have much clue on advancement timelines. After consulting with me, we developed a timeline and a path to get the other kids caught up, with the hope that everyone would have their Webelos badge by June and they could all start working on AOL together. In February / early March, all the kids got their First Responder and a few things knocked out toward an elective, and it seemed like we were on our way. In the meantime, my daughter was in a holding pattern, which is fine; she has some learning challenges and repetition is good for her and she was having fun so I figured it was all good.

    Then of course COVID hit. 

    Our Pack has completely stopped functioning. Our summer camps were canceled. I tried to get some movement toward online meetings and getting families interested in continuing the Scouting Trail, but attendance was very low, and in terms of the other Webelos, non-existent. 

    So we've been just doing stuff at home and plugging along. She's about 3/4 of the way through everything we can do that doesn't require her den to be involved, but I'm not quite sure how to handle Scouting Adventure. 

    So, which way do I go? As CC, do I try to push my authority around and try to push on her den leaders to facilitate? Even if they do get a fire lit under them at all, the other kids have a LOT of catch up to do and I'm not sure they're going to want to spend time working on AOL when they haven't got their Webelos badges yet. Then again, maybe they'd like to just skip ahead and go for AOL. Am I correct in the way I read the requirements that earning Webelos rank is not actually required to earn the AOL anymore? 

    Or do I just throw in the towel and, once she's done with the other requirements, get her involved in the Troop and let her do things like "Practice the patrol method" with them? Technically it says "with your den" in the book, but as the Cub Scout standard is "Do your best," this may just be the best we can do. 

    You should have seen her trying to teach her little sister who is newly registered as a Lion Scout how to tie a bowline today. The requirement says "teach a Scout who is not a Webelos Scout" how to tie the knot; it doesn't say the learner has to become proficient. 🤣

  9. At the Pack we were in recently, our usual face painting ceremony involved the Cubmaster reading from a script and describing the face painting, and the parent did the actual painting of the face. This could easily be adapted having the Cubmaster standing further away. 
     

    just a thought. My daughter is due to earn her AOL shortly so this has been in my mind and I’m definitely interested in all ideas. 

  10. On 7/9/2020 at 11:13 AM, 5thGenTexan said:

    My son will a Webelos this year, he is 9.  He can't swim.  I am leaning way towards him not even crossing over when Cub Scouts is finished.  I dont ever see him being able to even pass the 2nd class requirements.

    My older kids were in Cub Scouts with a boy who was absolutely phobic of water. He was also an over-achiever who determined he was going to get every single Webelos pin that was offered. This was back before they had the over-achiever badge for Webelos. ;) He just did it because he was determined. 

    He got them all done except Aquanaut and then had to face his fear vs. his drive to get ALL THE PINS. 

    The entire Webelos den rallied around him. All the den leaders and parents, all the kids, and the den chief rented out a local indoor pool so it was just us. All the kids earned their Aquanaut that day and the kids were all coaching their friend through every step and cheering him on. 

    I have never seen a more beautiful reason for a kid to be in Scouting in my life. My older kids are still good friends with that boy and attended his wedding a year or two ago. 

    I would encourage your son to face his fears and do it. If he has a disability, the requirement can be modified for him. Swimming is an important skill and it's important that he do his best to learn. Private swimming lessons would probably be super helpful. 

  11. This is my first foray into Lions. I registered my daughter with the pack and picked up her Lion guidebook at the Scout Office. 
     

    My question is about the activities and outings. I notice for each adventure there is a short list of “requirements.”  Am I correct in assuming that with language consistency, only the things listed under “requirements” are actually required, and the rest of the activities and outings are mere suggestions?

    Good suggestions, by the way. But some might be pretty challenging to adapt to a post-COVID world. I’ve been asked if I’m willing to serve as Lion den leader this year, so if we can figure out what to do about my current position as CC (I can do both personally but I’m not sure that is allowed) then I’m going to do my best to follow as much of the activity guide as I can but for some things I might just swap out something else entirely in order to make it easier for the Cubs to do things on their own and then meet virtually to tell each other what they did. If the only things I can’t compromise on are the “requirements” then this becomes much easier. 

  12. 1 hour ago, Troop75Eagle said:

     

      It should come as no surprise to anyone that patriotism, military and law enforcement with civic pride and service are integral to the US scouting tradition.,

     

    It also shouldn't be a huge surprise that "patriotism and civic pride and service" don't have to equate with "military and law enforcement." 

    Civic pride and duty are main reasons that I have my kids in Scouting. It teaches them to work together to make their community a better place.

    Killing brown people at home and abroad is NOT a reason I have my kids in Scouting. 

    • Upvote 3
    • Downvote 3
  13. We have the National Camp-In streaming to the TV today. I've noticed everyone wearing a necker is using the friendship knot. They also had a brief tutorial for how to tie the friendship knot in your neckerchief. 

    I don't have an opinion on this. It's just interesting to see. 

  14. On 3/17/2020 at 5:51 AM, Pale Horse said:

    Not bad advice, but still more effort than it's worth. Can anybody seriously tell me if they can tell the difference between an activity shirt purchased from Class B, one made up by the local screen printing shop, or one that is made at home on the Cricut?  Absolutely nobody has ever gone around checking tags and receipts to ensure our shirts were made by an "approved" vendor.

     

    Class B is just a 3rd party vendor. Nothing they produce is official. I suspect they hold licenses to use BSA logos that your local vendor might not have, but I don't have any inside knowledge on that part. 

    Other than the possibility that Class B might have permission to use certain trademarked images which may not be as readily available to you for home-embroidery, there is no difference. An activity shirt is an activity shirt. Other than general "appropriate clothing" guidelines, there are no rules governing your unit's chosen activity uniform, if they even have one at all. 

    The unit my older kids were involved in never did have an activity uniform. Any Scouting related shirt at all was considered an appropriate activity uniform. So the kids would go to camp and buy previous years' camp t-shirts at a huge discount, just a few bucks a piece, and that was their "uniform" when not wearing a Class A. Nobody ever tried to coordinate everyone wearing the same shirt at once. Does it say Boy Scouts on it somewhere? It counts. A Scout is Thrifty. 

  15. 5 hours ago, MikeS72 said:

    That pair is actually slightly different, but it might have the same cut. Those have the pockets off to the sides, whearas the pair she likes so much has the pockets right on the front of the thighs. 

    I bought the ones she has now on eBay, just bought another pair in a size up, and am watching a couple more size 12s. :) 

    • Upvote 1
  16. Thanks! I'll pay shipping if you have them in youth 12 or 14. LOL! 

    They fit her PERFECTLY. Most girls her age don't have that hourglass shape that she was born with. Everything is either too snug in the hips, causing it to ride down and show crack, or too loose in the waist, causing the same problem, and 90% of girls pants are low-rise, making it even worse. These ones fit her comfortably and are very flattering. She just looks so sharp in her uniform!!

    -Elizabeth

  17. My daughter has a pair of vintage BSA uniform pants like these ones. They are a youth size 12. They fit her better than literally any other pants she has ever owned. She has always been a bit curvy in the hips (even as a toddler) even though she is slim everywhere else, and getting pants that keep her booty covered has always been difficult. 

    I'm looking at the new girls' pants with the roll up cuffs, and I think she'd really like those but I wonder how they would fit. She likes these pants and I'm getting her an extra pair on eBay so she doesn't need to save them for uniform wear. Does anybody who is familiar with the fit on these pants know how it compares to the same size in the girls' capris that are available now? What about other available styles of pants (current or retired)? 

    Our scout shop is of course shut down so I can't take her down to try them on. She has outgrown all her long pants during the shutdown except these, and she's a little hard to fit so I'm kind of stuck. Can't take her shopping as all the shops are closed, and can't easily order pants online unless I know ahead of time how the fit will be. 

    I wish I could find the same style in cub scout blue. They'd go with more of her regular clothes. 

     318577-MM14959.jpg

  18. 11 hours ago, elitts said:

    "Zoombombing" is also a potential issue, but it's not one that having adults monitoring the conversation will actually prevent. 

    Zoombombing is a good enough reason for me. An adult monitoring can't prevent it, but they can immediately deal with it. 

    I "sat in" on our kids' troop meeting this week. I put myself on mute and turned up the audio where I could hear it and had dinner with my family while casually listening to the girls discuss cooking requirements for rank. It wasn't a big deal. There were a couple other adults there too, and I wasn't the one in charge of hosting, so I wasn't the one watching for hackers. 

    A little adult oversight doesn't hurt anything, and has the potential to help a lot if "something" happens. 

    • Thanks 1
  19. That is super helpful, Barry, thanks. 

    My daughter is in 4th grade. Her Pack only has 1 Webelos Scout ready to cross over soon, but for the 4th graders there are several; including two other girls aside from my daughter. I'm really hoping our place in the Pack will really help. This fall my youngest daughter joins the pack too, so we'll have an in with this one Pack for years to come. The Webelos den leaders are looking to me for guidance already because they are both very green and I have been a den leader for a while now (although I'm not currently in that role in the new Pack). 

    I think getting the girls to go sign up as den chiefs will really help. Some of them have already expressed an interest in this. I know with my son, he ended up following his Den Chief pretty much everywhere he went - to his Troop, the OA, whatever - for the rest of his Scouting years. 

  20. On 2/18/2020 at 6:49 PM, fred8033 said:

    "Youth run" is often in the eye of the beholder.  The simple fact is the other troop is marketing better or people have a perception that the other troop offers better options and experiences.  The issue is changing perceptions or building better relationships.  

    IMHO, the troop shopping choice when "FINISHING" cub scouting is one of the most destructive things in scouting.  It should be a continuum with each year having more and more experiences and more growth.  No need to emphasize a big choice.  No need to pit unit against unit.  It's one of the reason we have mega-troops while many other troops are starving. 

    Perhaps one of the best things that could happen in scouting is treating the units as one unit under a charter org and not separate units.

     

    Well, I happen to know the leadership of the other Troop as we had the experience of being in a Pack with them earlier and determining then that there was zero chance I ever wanted my child to be in a Troop that had those leaders. I was willing to stick it out for the Cub Scout years until they ran off our Cubmaster and, actually, all the other kids in the Pack except their own child. We jumped ship when everyone else did. Which is also a main reason why we have two Troops in our city instead of just the one. 

     

    On 2/18/2020 at 6:49 PM, Eagledad said:

    I think your problem is the Webelos parents, not their daughters. We had several parents that didn’t care for our more chaotic appearance, but their son Insisted our troop was the one they wanted. Are these girls at least visiting your troop?

    Barry

    They have visited our Troop. They appeared to have a really fun time. Our girls enthusiastically welcomed them, played games with them, and involved them in their activities. But the parents later tell us they picked the other Troop. No idea why, really. The other Troop has more experienced Scouts in that the older girls have been in Girl Scouts together since they were little. They are all working on their GSA and BSA requirements together. So I have no doubt that their kids are proceeding in their "Trail to Eagle" faster than ours are. If an Eagle Factory is what you want out of a Troop, yes, the other Troop is probably a better fit. Maybe that really is what these Webelos girls are looking for. 

    23 hours ago, MattR said:

    An idea for a great service project: help a girls den, or two, run fun meetings. Make them all den chiefs of a AOL den and invite them to scout events.

    Point is create a relationship between the den and the troop. Whenever we do that we get lots of recruits. When we stop, things dry up. If it's appearance that counts then there's no relationship.

    We are really working on that. :) But there aren't a lot of Webelos / AOL girls in our city to pull from. 

    12 hours ago, Beccachap said:

     I'm cautious with a response here because I've heard this same argument from a small troop that's a mess. Youth lead does not mean all planning happens the week or two before you want to go somewhere. Although I know many adults live this way (our society is largely composed of families living paycheck to paycheck), it's a reactive, painful existence that no one will gravitate towards. 

    Leaders need to instill an expectation that it is paramount to pre plan months and sometimes years in advance, depending on the goal. Once the lesson is learned and a calendar is established, long term planning doesn't seem so daunting. I'd even argue that it's much easier. 

    Now I'm clearly projecting on your situation here. The fact that you've come to the forums, that you've stood up a girl's troop when that's a difficult chore, that you've retained girls, and are fresh out of the gates making it youth lead are all indicators that you are doing everything right. 

    So I recommend some reflection. Are they not joining after visiting, or are they not visiting? If the former, perhaps you could reevaluate the problem with the youth and brainstorm recruitment strategies for improvement. How welcoming was your troop? Did you host special activities for their visit(s)? Did your scouts explain the importance of youth lead leadership and how it could benefit new members? 

    If they didn't visit, brainstorm how to find local girl Webelos and how to reach out to them through invitations to every Campout, hike, service project, etc. Teach your scouts that they should court them, starting now, for next year's crop. 

    Our girls have a plan that goes through this Fall, and the next yearly planning meeting scheduled for June. We are actually not doing too badly in terms of recruiting NEW Scouts. We started with 3 girls signing on with the charter in July and we are up to 9. But the only Webelos girls we've been able to attract are either our own children or the younger relatives of other girls in our Troop. I think what's going on is that our girls look, and are, still new to Scouting for the most part. The other Troop is linked to a long-established Boy Troop, and as I mentioned earlier, the older girls in the Troop are experienced Girl Scouts who have been together for years. We can't really pretend to be something we're not. The question is how to convey to the families that what we have to offer is worthwhile even if it isn't as flashy as theirs. 

     

    10 hours ago, qwazse said:

    Like my Pakistani buddy tells me, "You Americans won't believe anything unless it's on a piece of paper."

    So, that youth-run troop needs to put something into the hands of those Webelos. So, that might mean:

    • A calendar. Ideally, it would be one with the dates of the entire year printed on one side AND scheduled activity days and meetings circled or stamped, then the names of the activities, hand written, by the scouts on the other side.
    • A follow-up card hand-written by a scout mailed to each prospect who visited the troop. It doesn't have to say much: "Thanks for visiting. I hope you had a good time. Please join us on our next campout."
    • A picture post-card of everyone at the last event. (One of your scouts should know how to produce this.)

    But, @Liz, if you're talking from the perspective of a cub parent to other parents, you don't have much control. Either those girls in the troop are friendly, looking up your Webelos at school and on the bus, and taking a sincere interest in them, or they aren't.  If they aren't, "polish" will win the day -- especially with most modern American females. Just look at the covers on the magazine racks and tell me it ain't so.

    I love this idea. You are right. We should put together a written calendar to give to all visitors to the Troop so they can see what's coming up. I also love the hand-written card idea for visitors. 

    Our Webelos aren't going to be in the same schools with our Scouts, or riding the same buses. They come from all over town and Middle School here starts in 6th grade. 

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