mdlscouting

For the Pack qualifying for the Summertime Pack Award, I would count it for whichever month needs an event.

As for the boys qualifying for the National Summertime Pack Award Pin We ask that boys attend 3 Summer Events period, whether they be in June, July and August, any 3.

The Cubmaster immediately before me was a one-woman show. She was effectively Cubmaster + Every position on the Committee. She ran every camping trip, she organized everything, and as expected, she got burned out.

Since I became Cubmaster, I have recruited a number of Committee Members, and delegated a large number of the roles, but not everything. My biggest concern is the Committee Chair, and I'm trying to figure out how to split this role up from the Cubmaster Role. (As head of my Church's Scouting Ministry Committee, I'm also effectively COR, but that's a whole different discussion.)

There is a huge amount of overlap between the Cubmaster role and the Committee Chair Role, I'm trying to figure out how to split it out.

***Stuff that is Unique to the Committee Chair, and not shared by the Cubmaster***

■Supervise pack committee operation by

1.Calling and presiding at pack leaders' meetings.

2.Assigning duties to committee members.

3.Planning for pack charter review, roundup, and reregistration.

4.Approving bills before payment by the pack treasurer.

■Conduct the annual pack program planning conference and pack leaders' meetings.

■Maintain adequate pack records and take care of pack property.

■If the Cubmaster is unable to serve, assume active direction of the pack until a successor is recruited and registered.

■Appoint a committee member or other registered adult to be responsible for Youth Protection training.

***Stuff that is Shared by the Committee Chair and the Cubmaster***

■Maintain a close relationship with the chartered organization representative, keeping this key person informed of the needs of the pack that must be brought to the attention of the organization or the district.

■Report to the chartered organization to cultivate harmonious relations.

■Confer with the Cubmaster on policy matters relating to Cub Scouting and the chartered organization.

■Ask the committee to assist with recommendations for Cubmaster, assistant Cubmasters, Tiger Cub den leaders, Cub Scout den leaders, and Webelos den leaders, as needed.

■Recognize the need for more dens, and see that new dens are formed as needed.

■Work with the chartered organization representative to provide adequate and safe facilities for pack meetings.

■Cooperate with the Cubmaster on council-approved money-earning projects so the pack can earn money for materials and equipment.

■Manage finances through adequate financial records.

■Develop and maintain strong pack-troop relationships, sharing with the troop committee the need for graduations into the troop.

■Work closely with the unit commissioner and other pack and troop leaders in bringing about a smooth transition of Webelos Scouts into the troop.

■Help bring families together at joint activities for Webelos dens (or packs) and Boy Scout troops.

■Provide a training program for adult family members.

***Stuff that is so generic that it applies to all Cub Scout Leaders***

■Complete pack committee Fast Start Training and Basic Leader Training for the position.

■Support the policies of the BSA.

If I'm looking to recruit a Committee Chair, how does this division of responsibilities sound? Basically, I'd tell them "These 5 items are what I want a Committee Chair to do", but I may ask them to work with me on the rest of the list.

(Yes, I know that in the by the book scenario, the Chartered Org handles this sort of thing... But I don't have the luxury of relying on that to happen, because I'm effectively wearing the COR hat as well.)

I agree that National folks should be more in touch with the boots on the ground, but I don't think that a 2 week stint at Summer camp is the best way to do it.

For starters, Summer camp is not a representative sample of the way most scouting occurs for boys 51 weeks a year.

Second, Unless you are including Cub Day Camp, You are ignoring about 2/3 of the registered scouts, and their leaders.

Number 6 hits very close to home.

In my paying Job, I'm a Software QA Analyst. I would have people drawn and quartered for the quality of the Internal IT systems and Customer/Volunteer facing websites that the BSA has.

The ground up G2SS rewrite would be awesome.

The one major thing that I would add to your list is that I would immediately focus on working toward a co-ed program at all levels, that Local units could choose to implement.

I only know one Cub Leader that stayed in a Den after his son moved up. He's about to start his third den of Tigers next School Year. He's an Eagle Scout, and also my Assistant CM.

Now, if I can just get him to teach the parents to take over gradually during the school year, instead of carrying them on his back the whole way.

I'm a CM, and I have a son with some behavioral issues, including Asperger's and ADHD. He behaves better when I'm not around, which is part of the reason I'm CM instead of DL.

I have done my best to arm the Den Leaders (All of them, not just my son's) with information they need to know on how to address any issues that arise, and also have encouraged them to never hesitate to call him out, and treat him just like their own son when it comes to making him mind the rules. I might be in another room and not catch it personally, but I'm all in favor if it getting caught by someone. There have been more than a few times where I ended up in my son's Den Meeting dragging him out to the truck, taking him home to mom, and then driving back to help close up the church.

How long until your sons are out of the Pack? You said a few years, but that's a wide range. If your youngest is a Webelos Scout, that's one thing.. If he's a wolf, that's entirely different.

I think it's important that you make sure all your kids have a way to participate in scouting, but you can't run a pack and a troop singlehandedly.(This message has been edited by wahooker)

Incompetent people are picked for a role, based on popularity, causing the whole system to suffer?

Heck, sounds like Washington DC to me.

But I think the answer is to make sure the boys understand clearly how much of their fun over the next 6 months depends on who they elect. And then you as SM can't clean up after a bad SPL. It may take a bad term or two for them, but that's the only way I can think of to make them take it seriously.

What we had to do was go to a strict policy of The Deadline is the Deadline. If you haven't signed up for an event and paid for it on time, too bad, we will see you next time around.

I saw one troop where they had Yellow Neckerchiefs with black trim, and matching nametags. It looked very sharp. Not sure if your troop uses neckerchiefs, but matching them to the neckerchief is one option.

Not all troops have OA members. Especially if it's a relatively new troop, I would not be surprised if there are few first class scouts, and likely zero OA members. I know our own troop is in that condition now, with about 4 years since it was chartered.

I have heard of some packs that have someone create Red Patch Vests for all kids in the pack. I've seen plans for that in several places, and I was considering doing it in our pack, as a way for boys to display all their cool patches.

Does Anyone have a suggestion on how much to budget per vest for something like that?

As CM, I have a very close relationship with our troop's SM, but Until we have some older boys bored of being Patrol Leaders, etc, I don't see us getting any Den Chiefs Soon.

However, we have been able many times to request one or two boys come over and teach First Aid, Outdoor Skills, etc. on a one or two week basis. This thursday, 4 boys from the troop are coming to help out at our end of year pack meeting. (Running Games, Doing some outdoor desserts, and a song or skit) This is mainly because I want the cubs to think "Wow, these Boy scouts are awesome, I want to be just like them!)

I don't see any possibility of getting a boy to commit to being at the pack instead of the troop for 6 months. (We meet at the same time, in 2 different buildings)

Pack Parents Handbook

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kG6DOAqsq05_57lg0B2NMhYojeRpq0FFJOBDGl_-k5k/edit?authkey=CICY6dkJ&authkey=CICY6dkJ

Webelos Parents Handbook (More of an addendum to the first one... Might need to combine those at some point)

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ioGDZ9w7V4eBOknbkAzQQRDhvHLSf6_SbwR2SchGR0o/edit

I copy/pasted most of it from other sources, feel free to do the same.

I'd probably be at the principal's office and/or school board getting that coach fired.

One thing that might help, is to sit down and have a parents meeting with the den, explaining how Webelos is different than the previous 3 years, and explain to the boys as well that they will be responsible for much more.

Tell the parents that each family will be responsible for leading at least one activity badge. If they do not pick at that parent meeting, tell them you will assign them one. (That doesn't mean they have to personally teach it, they can get someone else to come in to teach it... But YOU don't have to do 20 Merit Badges personally.

I did mine in the form of a document, feel free to copy from that as much as needed.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ioGDZ9w7V4eBOknbkAzQQRDhvHLSf6_SbwR2SchGR0o/edit

There are only 4 Activity Badges that you must do to get your boys to Arrow of Light, and 3 others on which they have a lot of choices.

My suggestion for you: Go ahead and plan on doing Fitness and Citizen this fall, after Cub Roundups are finished. (Sept - Oct - Nov Timeframe)

After you have completed those two, schedule some parents to do their selected activity badges.

Find a good Scoutmaster to work with early. If your pack has a good relationship with a troop, work with them, if not, it might take some digging. Don't put that off until late in their second webelos year, let them meet some of the boy scouts and get involved as early as possible.

There is a lot of parent involvement, by design. A large part of the Tiger program involves letting each parent-tiger team lead one or more den meetings.

This gives each boy a chance to be in the spotlight, and also lets the Den Leader see which parents really enjoy getting involved. These are your assistant DLs, your Committee members, and other miscellaneous volunteers. If you let them sit back and not be involved, it's hard to identify the good candidates for leadership.

I was never fortunate enough to be a scout, but in Woodbadge, we had the following:

One of us would yell out the first line, and the rest of us responded

Leader: BEAR PATROL!

Rest of us: BEAR PATROL!

Leader: NUMBER ONE IN THE TROOP!

Rest of us: NUMBER TWO IN THE WOODS!

In Cub Scouts, there are only two real roles for adult volunteers. Den Leaders, everyone else, who are there primarily to assist Den Leaders.

I'm a CM myself, and administratively I probably do more than any one of the Den leaders. But, 3/4 of the scouting the boys see is from their individual Den Leader. To the cub scouts, their Den Leader Is the most important adult in the pack, and has a lot more to do with providing a quality program to that boy than I do.

My biggest role as CM is to make sure the Den Leaders are ready, equipped, and have what they need to deliver a quality scouting program to the kids in their den.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ioGDZ9w7V4eBOknbkAzQQRDhvHLSf6_SbwR2SchGR0o/edit

The above link goes to our pack's newly created guide for Webelos Parents. I swiped a large chunk of it from other sources, sliced, dice, and reformatted to get what I thought we needed.

(BSA does stand for Borrow, Steal and Adapt, right?)

Tokala wrote: Our Camp Director purchased it and uses and claims that the unit leaders like it better than using DoubleKnot.

==============================

To be fair, I think most unit leaders would like a sharp pointy stick in the eye more than using doubleknot.

My current thinking is that we will have the first week of each month set aside for Pack Activities (Might be a traditional pack Meeting, might be Pinewood Derby, Might be a Beltloop Night...

The other 3-4 weeks of the month, we will have those set aside for Den meetings.

We are considering saying no Den Meetings the thursdays before Camping Trips, but that is not 100% definate.

Popcorn Kernel

Committee Chair - Never seen one except on paper in the pack. (Troop has one, the pack's former CM, when her sons moved up)

Treasurer

I'd give my right arm to have one of those three filled in our pack right now. My wife is doing Treasurer, and I'm effectively doing CC, CM and COR.

I have no idea who will do Popcorn Kernel, but I'm at the point where I will soon say "Ok parents, get out your checkbooks and write us a check for dues, we aren't selling Popcorn next year"

I tried being very ambitious this year, and did 2 trips in the fall, 1 webelos trip in the winter, and 3 trips in the spring.

I will probably do 2 in the fall, 2 in the spring next year, with a Webelos one somewhere in there also. (Also, Webelos Resident Camp, and Sneakin Weekend as Council Events.)

Typically, the chaplain is either the clergy, or someone appointed/approved by them, for a troop where the chartered org is a religious organization.

http://ascoutisreverent.blogspot.com/ is my Blog, where I discuss Faith and Scouting related topics. Feel free to drop by for ideas. I don't claim to be an expert, but someone still learning about it.