Melgamatic

> I'm just wondering why he was touching the boys? I touch our cubs all the time. I shake their hands, pat them on the back, russle their hair, guide their hands with mine when learning how to use a pocketknife, bandage their wounds, etc. Can you be an effective CM without touching the boys? -melgamatic

One of the issues with Cub Scouting leadership is that we only get the best leaders for 5 years at the most. Just as they become effective leaders who understand the program, learn how to handle difficult parents and adults, learn how to make pack meetings exciting, they "bridge over" and leave the pack. We could use more creepy guys who stay in Cub Scouting after their sons have moved on.

I would award it! We actually did award it! Just confirming that it was the right thing to do. Wasn't planning on taking them back, yelling at anyone, etc. Just confirming that we did the right thing. Thanks to everyone for the help. -Melg

Several well-educated, trained and apparently literate adults in our pack are having a friendly debate about whether or not the Tiger Cub "immediate recognition" paw print thing can be awarded before the Bobcat badge. The TC handbook seems to hint that it can, and the requirements for getting the big plastic paw appear to be a subset of those for Bobcat, thus implying you can earn it first. However, there are several people also remembering that they've been told many times "no awards before Bobcat." Anyone have solid information? Thanks, Melgamatic

Thanks for all the input. Many of your suggestions are very useful. I have had additional discussions with Council's popcorn guy, our popcorn colonel (kernel?), and our CM, other ACM's, CC, new CC, treasurer, etc. The money thing isn't the important part. The mom gave us a separate form with just ouir $200 on it, and $200 of money to pay for it. The other $1200 is on some other forms that will go wherever, I guess with the money (the only trick is that I suspect many of the checks will be made out to our Pack; not sure how Council will arrange to deposit them but that's not my pro

After 2.5 years as an ACM, and now transitioning into a CM role, I face my first truly nasty parent situation. I could use your advice. We are a pack of around 50 cubs. We are just finishing our popcorn sale. We set a target goal of $200 per cub, but that's just a request. Many cubs surpassed it, a few hit it, lots missed it, no big deal. One cub and his mother (co-den leader of his Bear den) sold $1400, which is very nice. We had our pack schedule planning meeting in September and planned our 2008-2009 schedule, which includes the Pinewood Derby in January and the B&G i

Our pack pays for all awards but not for camping trips. District-organized family campout or facility-based campout (like the one you are discussing, we also have them at a zoo, a baseball stadium and at a science museum). We do offer scholarships to pack-sponsored events (like official district family camouts) for those cubs who cannot afford to attend, but not to the facility-based campouts.

I'm considering redesigning our pack's website using Apple iWeb, but publishing to our own ISP (you can publish from iWeb to Apple's MobileMe servers, or to your own ISP). Does anyone else do that, and could you share your URL if you do? Thanks, Melgamatic

We had two people fail to attend the second weekend, which might constitute "failing" the course.

I think the answer is highly district or council dependent. For our council in NJ, the answer would be "yes." We do require tour permits for camporees. It seems a little silly, since we are doing tons of other paperwork for the exact same trip with the same people, but that's what they want. On the good side, it takes me around 3 minutes to fill in the form, sign it (if I am a trip leader), email it to a committee member, get it back from them and send it off to the council, and then I usually get the approved permit back within 4-6 hours! -Melgamatic

The only requirement that is beyond "say and tell what it means" is the Cub Scout Promise. That one you have to "learn and say" which I guess means memorize, although if that's what it means I wish it said that.

I don't know any of the people involved, and although I've read probably all the posts on the boards it wasn't immediately clear to me who was the topic of discussion until their names were mentioned in this thread. Although I am a newcomer to this board, I have been actively involved with message boards for more than 30 years, from starting some of the earliest modem-bank BBS systems through running large Yahoo groups, internet forums, etc. I once ran a very large auto racing organization until the unpleasantness from the forums and email lists dragged me down and I had to quit to make

I brought my shirt in, but the guy behind the counter didn't seem to be very concerned (he was very busy setting up a lot of new Tiger Cubs with their new uniforms) and just let me buy what was necessary. Thanks for the help. -Melgamatic PS: I'm sure it's not just me, but seeing parents buying their Tiger Cubs their first Cub Scout uniform makes me very happy.

> Cars are a great example. If you have a car payment from the time > your 25 through out the rest of your life you will spend over > 5 million on car payments. Interesting concept, but not correct even with an order of magnitude. If you have car payments from age 25 to 75, that's 50 years. That is 600 months. If you bought nice cars, and paid $500 a month, that would be $300,000 over the 50 years. If we increased the cost of the car by 3% every year (which is much faster than the actual growth in the price of cars), we'd be paying $2128 a month 50 years from no

I have an Arrow of Light knot on my Cubmaster uniform. I think it's a great thing to have, because it directly relates to the cubs working on their AOLs, and gives me a nice connection with them. As I do more and more multi-day events, I need another uniform shirt or two. I'd like to have AOL knots on each of them. What's the method for getting them? The scout shops keep them under lock and key, and I'm not sure what evidence I can give them to get another (perhaps the current knot on my shirt)? My first AOL knot was acquired by a former advancement chairwoman, and it was very

The diversity ticket item is a real stumbling block for me. Coming up with something that wasn't completely minimal was very hard. Our Pack has very rich people through very poor people. We have white, black, asian, hispanic, indian, and various mixes thereof. We have probably nearly every major religion practiced in the east and the west, and some that aren't major. We have a large number of very ADHD kids, two with CP, and many with other medical problems. So, coming up with a "diversity" item which would address any kind of traditional definition of diversity that we didn't

Oh, and we re-used the magician theme late last year (a Boy Scout who was a magician did a very nice job for us; it was part of a service project for him). Actually, that was pretty amazing. This Boy Scout had two adults (CM and an ACM) tie him to a folding chair as tight as we wanted, using a very long rope, and he managed to escape within a minute or so. The Cub Scouts seemed to really enjoy his whole presentation; the fact that the magician was only a few years older perhaps made it seem more exciting. -Dave

I actually suggested this, but we have a lot of second-year Webelos, and there was a strong tendency to not repeat what they had seen. So, I need a 5th program.... Thanks, Dave

Each year our pack spends some money to provide a splashy and fun first pack meeting of the school year. In recent years we've had a wolf guy (raises and rehabilitates wolves, brings one in, etc), a snake guy, a reptile guy, a great science/fun presentation (chemicals, animals, etc), a magician, etc. While that goes on (and keeps the kids completely occupied for 45min to an hour, the CM takes the new parents into the next room and we give them an introduction to the pack. We use a powerpoint presentation that gives a quick summary of the entire program and our pack, and then handout cop

A fellow patrol member of mine at Wood Badge is an "illustrated man." His entire body is covered with tattoos, including much of his face, neck, etc. He was never a biker or into drugs, he just decided as a small child that was what he wanted to be, and as soon as he was allowed he started. It was daunting at first, and it was hard not to stare. He turns out to be the sweetest guy ever. He was a Cubmaster for a pack, is now a Scoutmaster for a troop, and is starting a crew. They are all with his own Catholic Church. He is always doing something for someone, painting the rectory, run

We bought a 6-lane aluminum track from BestTrack, along with the digital lane timer. Very nice. You need a large storage area. We did a lot of research before buying, but are very happy with the purchase. The digital lane timer is neat. Goes into a laptop running the scoring software, and that is hooked to a LCD projector (borrowed from a parent's business). The Cubs love seeing their results up on the big screen immediately after the race, and people across the large gym can see each race's results without crowding. -Dave

Just a quick followup. We had a great time in London. We ended up doing two things not on the list... I tend to chat with the London taxi drivers a lot, and one of them suggested that we take a boat trip from Westminster pier (just a 5 minute walk from our hotel) down to Greenwich and then down to the Thames barrier. That was a great (and relatively inexpensive) trip. Lunched in Greenwich, etc. It was a little cool and windy, but we all had windbreakers and sat out on the deck for most of the trip. The second unplanned trip was to the HMS Belfast, a WWII battle cruiser which ser

I attended Woodbadge NE-II-168 around a year after I re-entered scouting, 30 years after I left it. I never made it past First Class, but found myself as a Cubmaster only a few weeks after my son joined as a Tiger Cub. I had attended all the required (plus some additional) training, but was really short on many of the basics of scouting in general. My first few hours at Woodbadge were a little of a culture shock. It was clear that 95+% of the other attendees had a much deeper background, and I had no idea what was going on some large amount of time. However, I took to it like a fish t

Beaver! NE-II-168. Four out of five done on my ticket. I am really regretting my fifth item. It was the required "diversity" ticket item, and I had a heck of a time coming up with it. I had another 20 good items I could have used, but none really had that "diversity" aspect. My stumbling point was that our Pack is already pretty diverse in any common sense of the phrase (race, religion, economics, etc.) I came up with something about writing a "den meetings idea" booklet that would give local den leaders ideas about den meeting activities, trips, etc, which encouraged diversity

Ah, but a 1913 edition is not an "Original Edition" it is a "First Edition", and the price difference between the two is very great. I've paid as little as $41 for a 1913 edition softback copy (BSHB-01-07SB) on ebay (this past March), and as much as $450 for a hard cover edition of any earlier printing. But, for Original Editions, I think it's hard to pay less than $800 or $900 for an acceptable (all pages still attached) book, and probably $500+ for a copy with significant problems (pages missing, pages unattached, covers completely disconnected, etc). I think one of the nice