mbscoutmom

Attending roundtables this year, I was surprised to learn that the sole purpose of Cub Scouts is to feed Boy Scout troops! At first, I was outraged--(So that's why our troop never participates in School Night for Scouting. They expect us to do all the work and hand them Webelos II on a silver platter!) But if that's the way it is, I'll go along with it. I think switching to the tan shirts helps transition Webelos to Boy Scouts--it's less of an expense to join the troop when all you have to do is change a few patches; our troop even gives them the red epaulets and pays their registration fee.

Great news! He returned everything he owed us. We didn't have to involve anyone else. Thanks for all your advice.

A practical time to switch to the tan shirt is when they earn their Webelos badge. Then you can get the oval badge to put on the pocket of the new tan shirt. I left the Tiger, Bobcat, Wolf, and Bear badges on my son's blue shirt, and he keeps it as a souvenir of Cub Scouts. His tan shirt will still fit him as a boy scout.

The first thing to do is to have a talk with the ACM, who seems to be running your pack, and find out what she wants you to do. If she really just wants you to MC the pack meeting, and you start doing other things on your own, there might be conflicts. I hope you have a monthly leaders' meeting, where you, she, and the other leaders can discuss who will do what.

CMs are supposed to do a lot more than many of them do. In our pack, we've had a hard time finding someone who's willing to MC pack meetings as well as plan and run the program. So, our new CM was told that all he needed to do was MC pack meetings. I hope he'll eventually do more, but in the meantime, the ACM is doing the rest of the CM's job. This may be unorthodox, but it seems to work for us.

We've always had the cub scouts post the colors before reciting the pledge. I think the troop does it that way, too. They put the flag in its holder, then salute for the pledge.

As CC, I need to recognize the leaders at the B&G. I've been putting this off because I hate speaking in front of groups, but the B&G is now 5 days away! I'm having a hard time coming up with something to say. Is there a poem about Cub Scout leaders? I think I've seen one somewhere, but can't remember where.

Also, I need to get them a little gift. With finances tight, it'll have to be $2 or less each. Any ideas?

I wouldn't be concerned if it were only a few $. I don't know the exact amount, but it's in the $100s, and it's money we need to re-charter in April

We've been trying to contact a former leader who owes the pack money, but he doesn't answer his phone or return calls. What should we do next? Where should we go for help with this, the district or the CO?

You can have him work on Bobcat, but it can't be awarded to him until he graduates to Wolf, unless he earns his Tiger first. You can see if his parents will work on the Tiger book with him at home. They should be able to complete it in less than 3 months. Then he could be awarded the Tiger and Bobcat at the same time.

We do try to have all our cubs earn their rank by the B&G. I think that's important, because the pack meetings kind of go downhill after that. Everything gets crazy towards the end of the school year, and we don't have as good a turnout at the pack meetings in the Spring. But we never do the AOL and crossover at the B&G.

In our pack, we traditionally reserve the March pack meeting for the AOL and Crossover. We don't give out any other awards, because this is such a special, solemn ceremony for the Web. II. We invite the Order of the Arrow to perform the AOL ceremony, and then the Troop welcomes them as they cross the bridge to become Boy Scouts. I can't imagine trying to combine this with the B&G.

"BTW - Where ever did you get the idea that an Assistant Den Leader was a part time position????"

I think it was mentioned in a class at the University of Scouting. Why would ADL be considered full time? Usually ADLs just show up for den and pack meetings and help out when needed. Sometimes they lead a meeting or two. If an ADL was doing more than that, I would call him or her a DL. In our pack, they usually also serve on the Committee, but that's in addition to their ADL duties.

Lisa'bob, thanks for the long post. I think you must have been where I am before. I have been "shedding" some jobs, since our previous CCs did everything but MC pack meetings. It really pleases me to see the ACMs and DLs working together to put on pack meetings and events. The latest thing I "shed" was the newsletter. My husband was supposed to do it, but he kept putting it off until I had to do most of it at the last minute. This month I just printed a calendar instead. Maybe someone will notice and volunteer?

I'm sure we can find a new advancement chair, but the ADL job is really a tough one for my den. We've tried and tried, but none of the other moms and dads will sign up as an assistant. A couple of them stay at meetings with their sons, and help out whenever they're needed, so I'm not entirely on my own. Next year, since his WebII den will have crossed over, my husband will take over as leader; I'll just need to plan the meetings for him--something I like to do anyway.

Neither of the two ACMs can become CM. One doesn't really want to do it anymore because his son is now in Boy Scouts. The other is a DL who has no assistant, so he shouldn't even be ACM.

I don't want to try to find a replacement for CC right now. It's hard enough finding a new CM. Besides, it would be too hard on the pack to have both positions filled by new people at the same time. I plan on being CC at least 1 more year. Next year, I'll look for an assistant to work with me and take it over the following year. But before I teach the job to someone else, I need to make sure I know what I should be doing!

My biggest concern is that when you have a couple each doing an important job in the pack, and they both quit, then you have two vacancies at once.

Our CM had to drop out for reasons beyond his control. His son also dropped out because of problems at school, and so the mom, who was ADL, stopped coming to den meetings. She was also Advancement Chair. I am CC, and also DL. This mom, the ADL, was supposed to take turns with me running the den meetings. So, when she and the CM dropped out, I had no CM, no ADL, and no Advancement Chair. CC and DL was too much--now I'm CC, DL (with no assistant) and Advancement Chair! (We do have two ACMs who help with the CM duties.)

We're working on recruiting new leaders, but I'm wary of creating the same kind of situation we had before. Should I insist on one job-one person? How about one full-time job per family? (CC, CM, ACM, and DL are full-time; ADL and others are part-time.)

Does it ever work to have a couple both active as scout leaders at the same time? My husband and I think it makes it much harder on us that both of us are leaders, especially since both of us do more than we should. We just lost two leaders who had been very active and then dropped out, and this has really hurt the pack. Now a new couple has volunteered to take on a lot of responsibilities, and I'm wondering if I (as CC) should discourage them. Also wondering HOW to discourage them from taking on too many responsibilities without making them think I don't want their help.

Is there a newer edition of the Bear book than 2003?

I think it's great to have former leaders stay with the pack. One leader has been with us for two years since her youngest son crossed over. She has been a great help to me this year in my first year as CC. With her and two others who have stayed on an extra year, there's a little bit of "we've always done it that way", but also a lot of "this is what has always worked best". And when I get crazy ideas, they can tell me, "we tried that and it didn't work".

Keeping leaders maintains continuity from year to year, and helps us run events more smoothly. This year we had to run the Pinewood Derby without the mom who had done it for several years. No one knew how to run the software, and the results of the races didn't get saved! We had to quickly race every car again once to award the trophys. Fortunately, most of the families are new to scouting, and didn't know this isn't the way it's usually done.

I've been hinting to our Web II leaders that I'd love it if they would stay on with us. One said he probably will. He's the one who always buys supplies for the campouts, and knows exactly where to shop and how much to buy.

Ours is $50, and boys get a t-shirt and patch. We use a council camp, and bring our own lunch. Some den leaders have to buy their t-shirt. (Each den gets 2 free.) I'm not one of the organizers, so I don't know where all the money goes, but I assume it pays for the crafts and other supplies, and some of the guest speakers. They have a trading post that is very popular with the kids, but I don't know how much they make off that.

My sons have been to day camp every year, and it never got boring. For two years, they go as Cubs, and then two years as Webelos, who go to a completely separate area for most of their activities. The leaders repeat some activities every other year, but the same boys don't do the same things twice.

Clydesdale, a boy returning for the 3rd year at our day camp would not be doing the same old things again. In the two years of Webelos they earn their Aquanaut, Readyman, Artist, Traveler, Geologist, Craftsman, Forester, and Naturalist activity badges. We always encourage our Webelos to attend day camp to earn these badges.

Our district is very lucky to have a location for day camp that has great facilities, and we have wonderful volunteers who run it every year.

Each day, we start with a flag ceremony. Then the dens split up to go to different activities, which are divided into Cubs and Webelos. The Cubs go to these activities:

Exploring--they bring in snakes, spiders, rescue dogs, a man who takes them on a nature hike, and other interesting guests.

Arts & Crafts

Activities--mostly sports. These are done inside a large covered gym.

Archery

BBs

Nature--they learn about animals, weather, etc.

Swimming & Trading Post

I have only spent a couple of days with a Webelos den. They do swimming, trading post and exploring with the Cubs, and work on activity badges the rest of the time. I think they can earn 3-4 activity badges at day camp, which is a big help to our Webelos leaders.

I asked my husband, and here's his response:

We don't use that brand, but in general, we really like our aluminum track. It is very fast, and you really need something on the end to gently stop the cars. I don't know the brand of track we have, but our timer is the Lane Brain, and it works very well. The nat'l museum also uses a Lane Brain on their aluminum track.

Yes, it is unfortunate how things work out. The new year starts with everyone eager to help, but as it gets closer to Christmas, people drop out or do less. I don't know what to do about it. Especially when you're dealing with people new to scouting--they really don't know what they're getting into. Then there are big changes like having babies or buying a house--you just can't predict who'll still be doing their job by December.

I started out as CC and DL, and was doing a lot of the CM's job as well. I knew I couldn't handle all of this, but the CM was supposed to take on more of his own responsibilities, and the ADL was supposed to share the den meetings with me 50-50. Also, two moms promised to help me with den meetings. Since Nov. 1, however, I've been doing the den meetings all by myself, and the ACM, who's also a DL with no assistant, is running the pack meetings.

The committee knows we need more help. At the last meeting, we formed a search committee for a new ACM, or two--one to run pack meetings and one to plan the program. I hate to leave them without a CC as well, but this is getting to the point where I have to make a change for my own and my family's well-being.

I e-mailed the pack leaders today to let them know that I have to give up either the CC or the DL job, if not both, and I'll let them know by Jan. 1.

If you were cubmaster in my pack, you'd skip the resignation letter and just stop showing up for anything. You'd leave the CC (me) to handle everything by herself until I'm ready to write my own resignation letter--which I did this morning in an email to our commissioner. She, the commissioner, walked out on our leaders' meeting on Wednesday because she thought I was being critical of her. I don't need that on top of all the other garbage I've been dealing with. She's apologized now and wants me to stay, but I don't think I can take it anymore. I never was any good at running things.

Why does it surprise you that a DE would send someone to a different pack if the one they joined first no longer had a den for them to be in? I know we got at least one that way. Others heard about us from different sources.

We do have a cubmaster who isn't a den leader, but, since he's not a leader, he doesn't come to den meetings, and of course he's busy at pack meetings. The membership chair is a Tiger partner, and they don't meet every week. Plus, she's busy with her son during den meetings.

I like the idea of getting their info and having someone contact them later. I think we've been afraid if we didn't sign them up immediately, we'd lose them. Actually, some kids who sign up that way only show up once or twice and then drop out, so I don't think we're gaining anything by being too hasty.

We're having a problem this year that we've never had before--new boys showing up at den meetings or pack meetings with no warning. I keep thinking that it will stop, but just last night at the pack meeting, two new boys showed up.

I think the DE is sending them to us from other packs that aren't doing well. The problem is that nobody has time to sit down with them and go over the application and pack policy because we're busy running meetings.

I need to discuss this problem at tonight's leaders' meeting, but I have no solution to suggest. We do have a membership chair, but she's not always there when these kids show up.

Jens3sons, how do you get den leaders to show up at committee meetings? I've begged and pleaded with them, but still one den is not being represented at committee meetings.

seed, good luck finding committee members who aren't den leaders. I'm still working on that. I'm both CC and Bear leader, and I can tell you it's very, very hard to do both well. I do think it would be okay for someone to be both assistant den leader and committee member, as long as they have only a minor role in running the den.