Mom2Scouts06

If a pack holds a Move Up ceremony in May because that is when our school year is officially over(year round school) when can the boys start working on the next rank? Some say June 1st, some say when the school year is over, some say when the pack advances them to the next rank.

What is the correct answer?

No the opinion in the other thread was that teaching Merit Badges at TROOP meetings was not a good idea. However, offering a class on a Saturday I see nothing wrong with. Our coucil holds Merit Badge Days on Saturdays for scouts a couple of times a year and they can pick one Merit badge to work on. Some are completed that day and some are not. This is done on the Scouts own time and they can choose which Merit Badge to work on. Same for Merit Badges at Summer Camp...they are chosen by the Scout and worked on at their own time.

As far as uniforms go you also haven't taken into account the new families that may be joining you. Why on earth would they buy a blue uniform for their son to only wear it a couple months then tell them they need to now get a tan one?

In our pack we tell all of our new Webelos parents to go ahead and buy the tan uniform shirt. Any returning Scout is welcome to wear his blue uniform as long as it still fits. If he needs to buy a new shirt because he has outgrown his old one then they are told to go ahead and buy the tan shirt. One of our Webelos who is on the smaller side had the blue shirt until Arrow of Light because he never outgrew it! Most of our Webelos were given the tan shirt with all their badges on it as a Christmas gift during their first Webelos year anyway!

About Saturday meetings to subsitute a Monday meeting they are a good idea in theory but how many of the boys have a younger brother in Scouting? If a few of them do then the parents and the boy are going to have show up at a Monday meeting anyway and he will have nothing to do. If none of your boys have a sibling in the pack then the Sat thing may work...I dont know about a 2-3 hr meeting one Sat every month. That could start a burn out real quick.

We also did not wait to do Patrol names, yells or flags. They voted before they were officially Webelos at their last meeting as Bears. They went to Webelos Resident Camp their first year as a Patrol with their flag and yell in place as well as special T-shirts that said Webelos Dragon Patrol and our pack number. That made them more gung ho and excited about the Webelos Program because it was such an immediate change from the same old Cubs program they had been doing since Tigers!

Get Webelos Leader trained ASAP, take IOLS (or webelos outdoor if your coucil offers it), and get BALOO trained!

I will clarify what I said about Troop meetings being total chaos! To us unseasoned new crossover parents it LOOKED like chaos but only because we didn't know what was going on. The SPL had it together...my husband was very impressed with how well he got the boys working together, doing elections, etc. I am very excited to see the boys in action at future meetings. All I know is that the Scouts in our sons new troop were very welcoming to all the Webelos and were sincerely glad to have them on board...from the very first campout they went on to the moment they crossed over!

To the one who said Scout Meetings should look like total chaos he is right! I went to my very first Troop meeting last night as a parent and leader(committee). They did our Webelos crossover first thing and then went right work at their meeting. It was very strange not having to jump in and reign in the chaos lol! And it was strange being out of the loop as to what was going on(it was election night). I can say that seeing my sons face as he came over to us AFTER the meeting was over with a big old smile on his face made the months of decision making on which troop to join seem worth it! He is at the troop that HE chose not the one Mom and Dad chose (even though secretly it is the troop we wanted!)

Please visit lots of troops as I said before and let you son have a big voice in the decision making.

Our den which crossed over the Troop last night picked their patrol emblem before the end of the school year before they became first year Webelos so they could go to Summer Camp with their patrol yell and flag. And I don't know if it was correct but the WDL did wear the patrol patch.

Eagle92 that is what I was thinking. Currently it is pinned to the banner attached to his AOL arrow showcasing all of his cub scout awards. There I think it will stay...

Are the parents in Troop B registered MB counselors?

Anyway, TwoCubDad said it best about why Merit Badges in troop meetings are bad. I will agree that I would be looking somewhere other than Troop B.

Troop A does not seem to have enough meetings. Once a month is just not enough. Is that their regular schedule?

I would be trying to find Troop C, D,and E to visit! You should visits as many different troops as possible to find the best fit for your son and in the end ultimately let him decide.

So this post got me thinking about my sons religious medal he earned. I was under the impression that once he was awarded the knot that he could not wear the medal. Can he wear the medal also? In what instances should he wear the medal if at all? Obviously he would not need to wear it to Troop Meetings and such. This is the Cub Scout Religious Medal.

Thanks!

I was under the impression that the books were changing? Not sure on that hopefully someone else can answer this better than me!

Well I said yes! Now the race is on to get all of my paperwork turned in before the course starts in two weeks!!!

I feel like I am behind the game because I already missed Orientation but at least my husband can fill me in!

That is the question. I was contacted last night by the person in charge of Wood Badge for our Council specifically requesting that I take this course. They had a couple of last minute drop outs and my name was on the list of a few people to fill in. My only issue is that my husband is also attending the course the same time and leaving the kids for two whole weekends. We have already had someone jump in and offer to keep our children for us. I am just worried about affecting the Wood Badge experience for both of us if we take it at the same time. Should I wait or should i go ahead and jump on board?

well maybe I will be more relieved when second son crosses over in 2 more years LOL! We still have to attend both meetings. Hubby is WDL and ASM at Troop. I am pack committee chair and Troop Secretary...

My oldest son becomes a Boy Scout.

I am mixed between feeling sad that he is growing up so fast and happy that he is on his way to becoming what he wants most..>Eagle!

How did you all feel when your kids made that leap between Cubs and Boy Scouts?

On our pack campouts we like to eat well...we have found that if we eat good everyone wants to attend the next campout! If you eat bad then well they don't LOL!

Sat breakfast is Sausage and Egg Burritos..everyone loves them and they are cheap and quick!

Sat Lunch is Sandwiches, Chips and a snack like Little Debbies or something. We have a bakery outlet here that will donate things to our pack if asked!

Sat Dinner we have had everything from beef stew, spaghetti, Boston Butts on the grill, burgers. The most talked about meal was the Boston Butts on the grill chopped up and served as BBQ with NC BBQ sauce which everyone in GA went Nuts over!!

Sun Breakfast is Pancakes and Sausage and if we have eggs leftover we will scramble them too.

We charge $5-6 per person for food and we feed about 100. My husband and the ACM are the kings of cooking cheap for alot of people.

Badge Magic is all good until you need to remove something...then it leaves a big old ugly stain making the uniform unusable to pass along to someone else! Especially if the badges have been there for a couple of years!!

We do dinner, followed by a skit/presentation/songs, then Pinewood Derby Awards/Rank Awards, followed very last by our Cake Auction which gets everyone pumped up again!

Raised $1000 this year on dessert auction!

We just started using this site and it is free like she says! I am very pleased with her fast response time to emails and fast response to getting my ideas implemented into the site!

Ditto what ScoutNut said!

We have Arrow of Light and Crossover to Troop seperate. We do not do it Blue and Gold either. Our Arrow of Light ceremony is a seperate ceremony in and of itself to solely recognize the Webelos for their achievement.

I am not a fan of combining AOL with Blue and Gold, or other pack meeting awards. I think they worked hard for their award so the ceremony should be their night!

I believe that Cub Scouts 2010 is doing away with themes and program helps anyway. But someone can feel free to correct me if I am wrong?

Thank you ScoutNut for your links! Yeah we are trying to save some of the belt loops for when he starts the Webelos program just so it doesn't feel repetitive to him to earn them again.

Can't wait to check out everything you posted!

Thanks ScoutNut for the awesome suggestions. I should clarify and say he hasn't done "everything" in the entire book. I originally said he had pretty much done all the electives. He has some he hasn't finished but doesn't really want to...the ones he hasn't finished aren't things that he is interested in at all and some we can't do in our area like skiing (in GA can you imagine!)I didn't want you to misunderstand and think I mislead you! He has done Outdoor Activity and Leave No Trace. I am not very familiar with the 2010 ribbons> what are they?

If he did nothing else the rest of the year I think he would end up with about 10 Arrow Points. I don't want to seem as if it is just about him earning as much stuff as possible, we just want to keep him busy and having fun so he doesn't get bored! He is VERY active and never slows down so we just want him to enjoy himself every step of the way.

Of course I think he is just in competition with his brother to earn more stuff than he did LOL!

I asked the question more for my own son than anything. He has pretty much done all the electives for Arrow Points and will be earning his Bear Badge at Blue and Gold. That is what we get for having him attend Day Camp and Resident Camp I suppose (even though he begged to!)

I don't see it as a time to take a Cub Nap that is for sure. The Bear Den has lots of fun things coming up as Bridging Webelos like Spring Camp O Ree with Troop, Webelos Camp O Ree, Trip to Yorktown, End of year campout...then on to Webelos Resident Camp!

My younger son is just ready to start work on Webelos stuff now that big brother is about to join Troop...he is ready for the cool stuff(his words) LOL!

Our school year ends in May so thanks!