ntrantham

We still have a small issue with parents building the cars, but I have almost completely put an end to it.

We allow the use of the "kit cars" sold at hobby lobby, etc.  I would rather see a Tiger open one of the kit cars, assemble it, paint it, put the weight and stickers on themselves then to see a parent build the car for them.  Lions and Tigers using kit cars are fine, by wolf they should be building their own.

How I get parents to stop building the Scout's car?  We host derby workshops, if the Scouts get to see other scouts building their own cars they encourage their parents to let them build their own.  We encourage younger lion through wolf moms and dads to build their own cars and we will even supply them.  I teach parents to build the same car as their Scout.  This way the parent can make the large cuts on the body of the car, then demonstrate to the Scout how to do the finer things like sanding, polishing axles, etc on the parent's own car.  Let the Scout do the same on their car.  The Scout may not want to do everything like getting weight placement 100% correct.  When mom's car is faster then next year the Scout will pay more attention.  This works wonders.  Some of our workshops are on weekends, some are during the normal Den Meetings, this way the Scouts get to see others building their own cars. 

If you are just looking for a website, and a place to host the site, Dreamhost provides free hosting for non-profits.

We currently use a Wordpress site for our Pack's website and Dreamhost hosts it for us for free.

See here:

http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Non-profit_Discount

perdidochas,

It is true that they do not count Council Events towards your two per year limit. And they even list a few of the council events that you can attend. The problem is the cost of those council events:

The Fall Festival \ Haunted Hayrides is $20 per youth, $10 per adult.

Cub-O is $17 per person

Cub Scout Family Adventures is $20 (2 to 5) or $27 (6 to adults)

Webelos Woods is $20 per person.

Cub Scout Resident camp is $170 for youth $90 for adults.

For the whole family to attend one of these Council events the prices are cost prohibitive. As a pack we can go camping for a weekend for $5 per kid $10 per adult, and we usually put a cap on the cost per family no matter how many people they bring.

If the council wants to limit Pack camping to encourage people to attend Council events, they need to make those council events more affordable.

Thanks for the replies.

My intention for planning a campout every quarter is not to try and get everyone camping 4 times a year, but to give people four chances. Most of our cubs are in Soccer or Baseball, or both, so trying to schedule a campout that everyone can go to is next to impossible.

it is good to hear that this is a crazy policy. I will be contacting the council to find out what it will take to change it.

Thanks.

I am new to Scouting, my wife grew up in it, and I had never heard of it growing up. She more or less told me when our first son was born that he would be in Scouting, and I would be a leader. Well, 7 years later, and we are in.

Our Pack is dying, we joined before realizing that. And immediatly after stepping up as Tiger Den Leader last Sept I went through Wood Badge. I am now the Cubmaster.

Trying to create our Pack Schedule for next year and I was suprised to get a ton of pushback from other leaders over wanting to go camping more then twice. I wanted to plan a Pack Campout every quarter so that families who missed one could still go. Other leaders told me this was against Council policy.

My DE said he had never heard of such a restriction and as long as I filled out the Tour Permit and it was approved we would be ok. Other leaders in our Pack don't think so.

Many of the people I talk to in our Council just think that this is the norm everywhere. However, I work with some guys in another council; and they don't have this restriction. I am thinking about rocking the boat and seeing what it would take to get our Council to reconsider and lift the restriction. Are any other Councils out there restricting their Cub Scouts to two Pack camp outs per year? Is this really normal?

BTW, here is a link to Longhorn Council's site that shows the restriction:

http://www.longhorncouncil.org/Program/Weekend-Camping/Family-Camping-Policy.aspx

I just wanted to get some feedback before I started something.