mbscoutmom

My understanding is that the CO is only required to provide a place for the pack meeting, not for den meetings. It's not even technically my job as CC to find a place for den meetings. I'm just tired of dealing with facilities problems both as CC and as a den leader.

One question about meeting in a school: are they likely to let us use a classroom, or some other room such as the cafeteria? It's much better to have each den meet in its own room rather than having several dens try to share a larger space. (The noise can be deafening!) I've been thinking about asking a nearby public school if we could meet there, since their pack could not get going this year and several of their students joined our pack. Of course, each den will decide where and when they want to meet--I just want to give them all the possible options.

Scoutnut, we don't have to all meet at the same place and time, but that's what everyone prefers. It also makes it easier for turning in money, forms, passing out info, etc. Especially since we get very poor attendance of leaders at committee meetings. If I didn't touch base with some leaders at den meetings, I would only see them at pack meetings. I've suggested that den leaders talk to the parents in their den and decide whether or not they want to switch to a different night. It might be difficult to switch in the middle of the school year, though, since the boys may have already signe

Michelle, our COR does not actively help us; however, the troop's COR looks out for the pack as well as the troop. That's why it's so frustrating: she met with church leaders and the new ministry leaders and had everything worked out. Still, no one even informed us that the rooms were unusable until I happened to inquire.

I hadn't meant to post that yet. (BTW, how do you edit a post?) I was just coming to my question: where else could we look for a meeting place for our dens? The school rooms are used for CCD classes almost every night. We're going to look into using them on Thursdays, the one night CCD doesn't meet, but some of the parents really like meeting on Tuesdays. Do you think we might be allowed to meet in a public school even though we're chartered by a church? Are there other possible places to meet besides people's homes? (We've never had much luck getting people to volunteer their homes for m

Facilities for our den meetings have been a constant problem ever since I became CC. We previously had been meeting in a building that is also used for CCD. Last year they converted some of the rooms into offices and then told us we'd have to meet somewhere else this year. They gave us the choice of meeting in the Parish Hall or in another building that had previously been used as office space. Since it would be very hard to have 5 den meetings going on in one large open space, we worked out a deal with the troop--they use the Parish Hall for troop meetings and we use the other building for de

Torveaux, we don't have Show and Sell here. I'm sure that must help sell more popcorn. I did ask the committee about buying extra popcorn to sell after Mass, but was told that they'd tried it in the past and hardly sold any. I guess popcorn just can't be our major source of funds. We do have another option--the troop runs a booth at Texas Rangers games in the summer and invites Cub Scout parents to help. The pack gets $40-50 for each person who works the booth. Unfortunately, last summer only 1 Cub Scout parent volunteered. I even warned them that if they didn't, we'd have to start charging du

"We had around 30 boys and they sold enough popcorn that we took in about $4500 in profit." Our 30 boys didn't do that well. We'll have about $1000 profit if we sell the leftover popcorn. We even offered better prizes and money in the scout's account this year. I don't know how else to motivate them. It wasn't that hard for my sons to sell $400 worth. We spent a Sunday afternoon asking people in the neighborhood, called the relatives, and my husband sold some more at work.

"Sorry, mbscoutmom, but either the money is going out elsewhere or you are not taking anything in through a fundraiser. " We're getting some from fundraisers but not enough. That's why we had to start charging dues. I'm trying to find ways to lower the dues by cutting back on expenses. None of the responses to my question have mentioned buying patches for adult leaders, and that's one place I think we can cut back. We also just had a very successful family campout that cost about half what it did last year.

How much does your pack spend on awards and gifts? What kind of limits do you have on them? Ours has been spending an average of $100 per month for around 30 boys. In past years, we've handed out beltloops, pins, and patches for everything under the sun, for the scouts and the leaders, too. At graduation we hand out neckerchiefs, and special gifts for scouts and leaders who are crossing over. I think this is why our dues are so much higher than what many of you report.

We're trying out dues this year for the first time, because our families weren't participating in fund-raisers well enough, and our bank balance was too low to cover operating expenses. Our committee just recently approved a dues policy. We're charging $10 per month Sept.-March, with Dec. dues going to the den and the rest to the pack. Boys won't have to pay dues in April if they bring a cake for the cake bake, or in May if they sell Scout Show tickets. They get $10 in their account for every $100 of popcorn they sell. In addition, the troop allows cub scout parents to work the booth they

I talked to her this morning, and she has agreed to be Membership chair instead of assistant CC. She just wants to help in any way she can, and I think she'll do very well in this position. Thanks for your advice!

Eamonn, I don't see anything about a nominating committee in the Cub Scout Leader Book. It sounds like a nice idea, though. You're right that the CC job description does not include finding pack leaders. The only place I see that in a job description is for the COR--"Help select the right leadership for the unit." But, as I mentioned before, I haven't even met the COR, much less received any help with selecting leaders.

We do have leaders signed up for all the positions listed in the Cub Scout Leader Book. However, three of them are assigned to one person. At the last leader meeting, I asked for volunteers to help with those jobs; instead I got a volunteer to help with mine. So should I just let her follow me around for the next year and a half until my son crosses over and she becomes CC? I hear repeatedly that the Unit Commissioner and the COR are supposed to help recruit leaders, but what can they do that we're not already doing? We make announcements at pack meetings, write about it in the newslette

A Tiger mom has volunteered to be assistant CC, and I'm trying to figure out what jobs to give her to do. At the same time, I want to get our pack leadership organized better. Presently, I'm doing some things that other pack leaders should be doing, so I don't want to perpetuate that situation by giving my assistant jobs that actually should be done by someone else. Do you think these jobs would be appropriate for an assistant CC? Signing up new scouts when they show up at a den or pack meeting, getting the cubmaster's signature, and turning in the application and money to the council.

I was trying to start a separate den for homeschooled Tigers in my pack this year, but it didn't work out--they chose a different pack because of the meeting time. What I told the parents who were thinking about joining this homeschooler's den is that they would have their own separate den meetings and activities, but would join the rest of the pack for pack meetings and events. I think this one of the areas where your pack needs to improve. ALL the leaders need to get together and plan activities for the whole pack. They should not be having separate pack meetings and activities that include

I would count it. They didn't have to decorate the bird feeders, so I would consider making it and decorating it two different things. When I plan den meetings, I try to help the boys earn as many achievements and awards as they can. Last night, for instance, we made trail mix, took a short hike, using the buddy system, to a park where we read information about the history of our city, and put our trash in the trash can. This one den meeting counted towards 2 achievements, 1 elective, and the Leave No Trace Award.

Take over as CC for one small pack. Make sure the CO changes the meeting place on you several times, and leaves you with numerous problems to deal with re facilities. Have yourself promoted from ADL to DL when you miss a committee meeting. Add 2 new good-sized dens with numerous leaders, all willing and eager, but needing guidance. Add new boys to every den, including yours. Deplete the bank account until you have to charge everyone dues. Lose the Cubmaster, which doesn't change things much because you were doing his job anyway. Make sure you don't do drop any of the balls you're juggling beca

The Cub Scout Leader book that I am referring to (c2001) states that "If the Cubmaster is unable to serve, [the Pack Committee Chair will] assume active direction of the pack until a successor is recruited and registered." I paraphrased this as "directs pack in the absence of the Cubmaster." It's not clear on what it means by "active direction", but I would think that means planning and executing the program. Are there guidelines I don't know about that state that the ACM is to do this instead of the CC? It does say that the ACM is to fill in for the CM when necessary, but I thought that meant

I've been studying the job descriptions in the Cub Scout Leader Book, and have concluded that a lot of the confusion we see between Cubmaster's and Committee Chair's roles has to do with those descriptions. I read them several times and still wasn't clear on how the CM and CC jobs differ. It's not really helpful to just say the CM=program and CC=administration, because the CM attends the committee meetings and all are involved in both program planning and administration. I think it's more accurate to say that the CM is in charge of the den leaders and boys, and the CC is in charge of the "behi

We're in a sticky situation, because we didn't charge dues last year and now we do. There are many families who have their kids in sports and miss some meetings and events, but they make an effort to keep up with their achievements at home, make it to everything they can, and, most importantly, communicate with leaders about what they're doing. Although I wish they'd try harder to schedule sports on different nights, these families are not the ones I'm concerned about. They'll pay their dues and earn their rank. The ones I'm concerned about are several that are like the one I descri

We haven't charged dues before, either for the pack or den, so that's why I'm asking. The pack used to make enough from popcorn sales and donations, but our balance is too low now to keep that up. We won't have the money from popcorn sales for several months, so the dues we collect now are needed to pay pack expenses. Michelle, these scouts aren't quitting. They're still registered with our pack, but not going to meetings. If you stopped watching cable but didn't cancel it, you'd still have to pay for it, wouldn't you? I'm just wondering what other packs do in this type of situation. Ins

We're off to a good start this year, with lots of new recruits. However, two of our scouts have not returned to meetings. After numerous attempts to contact their dad, we found out they still want to be in scouts, but aren't coming right now because football practice is on the same night. This man had signed up to be an assistant leader, but didn't even show up for the training that the pack paid for! When they come back after football season's over, and after popcorn sales is over too, do they owe dues for the months they've missed?

It's hard to know what's best. Our pack has not had very much luck keeping boys who join as Webelos II. But I don't like to tell any boy that he can't join. My husband is the Webelos II leader. We got a new boy in Web II, and the plan is that he will cross over with the den. We told his dad that in order to get his Webelos and Arrow of Light, he'd need to get some activity pins done at home. Even if he doesn't earn anything, though, he can still cross over to Boy Scouts with the others. I don't see any reason to hold him back.

We expected to do better than last year, when we got 1 Tiger and a couple of Webelos II who didn't last. But we didn't expect what we have gained at School Night and in the two weeks since: 8 Tigers, 2 Wolves, 3 Bears, 3 Webelos I, and 2 Webelos II. Some of these came over from another pack that folded, a few transferred from other packs they weren't happy with, some of them go to our church and read our notice in the bulletin, and the rest go to the parish school. We had 17 active scouts before, lost one who transferred to another pack, and gained 18, so we more than doubled our pack size.