bbender

Ah, and I see what should be in each of the adventures, just to be sure. Statements like "Complete Requirement 1 plus at least two others" to make it clear that doing it all is OK. And not statements like "Complete 1–3 and one from 4–6". Because it is technically possible that a leader or parent might think "No, we can't do more than one from 4-6!" So, the language should add there "at least" and it should work for all. I know that's the way it should work. Frankly, I train leaders on this basic rule of thumb adapted from Bill Smith years ago: "If it's fun for kid

I think that the key flexibility is what you describe, allowing a Den Leader to "pare it down" to shorter/fewer sessions, or to allow a Scout who "misses a day" to still earn the Adventure Loop ... for example, the Backyard Jungle Adventure, now "My Tiger Jungle" has a 3 session activity in the Den Leader Guide. The Adventure has five "requirements": a one foot hike, two birds, plant a tree or something, build a birdhouse, and go for a walk and listen to nature. Old requirement was "do all five". New requirement is "Complete Requirement 1 plus at least two others". So, y

Right on ... and all the more reason to share the planning and "Put All Den Leader Guides Online for Free!"! If, as the Modifications introduction says, "Some Den Leaders are having difficulty fitting all the Adventures required for advancement into their program year", making it easier to share the Adventure plans and get other Parents, helpers, teachers, Boy Scouts, Troop Leaders, etc. to help deliver the Adventures would reduce difficulty. Many hands make light work, right? And goodness, sharing the Adventure / activity leadership is a good thing, especially in Webelos, which gets mor

Ah ... but that protection was already "baked into" the 2015 requirements. Because those requirements stated "If your chartered organization does not permit Cub Scout camping, you may substitute a family campout or a daylong outdoor activity with your den or pack." And note that the "outdoor activity" was not just "run around outside", but "daylong" ... so a more significant (and more fun) activity. Frankly, even for LDS and other Units that might have this restriction, being there at a camp, seeing the activity, all of that made for great good fun, and preparation for being a Campe

Because I’m curious, having helped with past projects involving Den Meeting plans (for the Den & Pack Meeting Resource Guide), and involving the development of these requirements (on the “411 Task Forceâ€), and although I have no role with the National effort here (I’m just a Pack Trainer and Troop Committee Chair and assorted District and Council roles), I downloaded the June 1, 2015 Requirements and these November 30, 2016 versions to see just exactly what the changes really are … and I’ve attached a comparison at our District website, along with the beginning of commentary abo

Hope it wasn't my posts there!! But, yeah, while there's something about the internet that gets people writing nasty things, there's also something about Scouting that has some (not all, just some) saying things, uh, they care about deeply but sounding really nasty. This reminds me of when my (then) 16 year old son, after a summer working camp staff, told me "you know, Scouting's great and all ... but it does attract a few whack jobs". Good news: he's going back for his fifth summer next year.

On that, I do think it is OK to pick and choose ... if a Scout comes along and finishes what he missed (or starts now and finishes) using the less difficult requirements, I think it is perfectly fine to credit them for meeting the new 11/30/16 requirements. Even though the ones who completed the 6/1/15 requirements actually did more. That's why these changes are made ... to keep those Scouts, so that they don't get disheartened and walk away ... because we want them to continue. By coming out with the new 11/30/16 requirements, the BSA is saying it's OK to go that route. I als

And, speaking of that posting of Den Leader Guides at http://www.southfultonscouting.com/node/3163, I find it interesting that the Blog announcement says "some den leaders had difficulty fitting into their program year all of the adventures required for advancement. This resulted in boys not advancing. After a thoughtful and deliberate review, the BSA has released some modifications to address this concern." One way to help deliver adventures and increase advancement is to make the plans for those adventures more available for leaders and parents and others who want to deliver the Cub Scou

I know that one of my projects will be to further annotate the copies of the Den Leader Guides I'd posted on our District Website at http://www.southfultonscouting.com/node/3163, where I'd already inserted commentary about Adventures that could be condensed from three to two meetings (or, better yet, weekend day fun activities), and highlighted elements that were "extra". So now I'll probably insert notes and pages with the updated Requirements, and flag meeting activities that focus on elements that are alternates (e.g., you can do this if you're doing requirement 2(a) and not 2(b), bu

Very very interesting ... need to take a deep dive into this to see what's under the hood. First reaction is on this being sold in the headline as being done to "give den leaders more flexibility". I'm 100% fired up on the concept and actually got into Den activity writing based on the old fast tracks national pilot being too inflexible (do everything exactly as written in exactly the order listed), and not allowing "all Scouting is local" / "use your resources" options (launch commentary is at http://scouter.com/index.php/topic/17626-a-revised-fun-and-flexible-fast-tracks-outline/, th

Thanks for the note, Chris. When I do Cub Scout Leader Training, among the signs at the front of the room are "You Have to Do This!" and "You Can't Do That!", and I refer to them repeatedly because very dedicated and experienced leaders with great intentions will tell you one or other or both, and often ... it's wrong. Safety, sure. In my training focus I pull some ideas that have been around a long time, not just KISMIF (Keep It Simple, Make It Fun), which sometimes get lip service and turns into KICMEH (Keep It Complicated, Make Everything Hard ... oh, that's pronounced "Kick Me

I'm a bit late to the party, but I'll join in ... and offer a radical route to getting more parents engaged. Yeah, I've put together as part of a "sustainable" recruiting program lots of ideas about Recruiting Leaders as a key step in that process (see http://www.southfultonscouting.com/node/3144),I also recognize that there is no "silver bullet" and not even a full magazine of "silver bullet" ideas about how to recruit parents to lead Den Meetings will work even most of the time. Lots of people just fall out and quit. So I've posted this radical idea on a page called "Help! We d

"any chance this "no den camping before Webelos" rule will be changed or abolished under the new program?" === > Well, I can confirm that specific proposals were made at least two times, once when the new Cub Scout Advancement program ("now with more camping!") was being put together, and once in the spring of 2015 as the new program was about to come online. There may have been more. The proposal I saw (which I'm happy to share) basically tracked the existing Pack Overnighter exactly ("Pack Overnighter" to "Pack or Den Overnighter"), with exactly the same requirements (like BALOO).

On "has this been tested to make sure that the objectives can be completed in a typical 1 hour Den Meeting?", no, not exactly in this exact form to my knowledge, except that these draw from the Tiger and Wolf Den Leader Guides themselves which we believe have been tested. Of course, YMMV (your mileage may vary) and All Scouting is Local, and so one Den's timing for an activity or element might be pretty short and others could run longer ... and, uh, kids and stuff, knuckle-headery, yeah, that can affect adventure timing. I did try to toss "extra" elements of the source den meetings

Late to the party on this, but in terms of "mixed den" ideas, I put together ideas for how to do a mix of dens, and put together a "Tiger/Wolf" plan to cover the required Adventures. See http://www.southfultonscouting.com/node/3164 for that plan

Now, now ... there was an update on all of this late last week ... here's the "Press Release" FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Irving, Texas April 1, 2016 As recently announced on the Scouting.org website (at http://www.scouting.org/ >> Boy Scouts of America >> Fun Things Boy Scouts Do >> Wow That Does Look Fun >> Scouting Safely >> WDBPD (What Did Baden Powell Do) >> MDTFTR (Multi-Discipline Task Force Tertiary Review) >> Health and Safety Alerts >> Position on Knockerballâ„¢, BubbleBall, Battle Ballâ„¢, Zorbing, and Similar Orb Activities), the n

I think there's no right answer ... all Scouting is Local. Keeping the old gang together might work ... if the new gang has decent leader resources. Doing a new mix of new and old might be better, depending on the kids and parents. When I had 8 Tigers turn into 16 Wolves in 2005, we actually did a full mix, in order to (1) split up some friends who, uh, probably needed some "separate from each other time", and (2) split up the leader resources so that there would be a good mix of leaders and assistants, and the "new" leader would have a bit more "assistant" help. We've had ot

Some ideas on delivery of the new program are posted here: http://www.southfultonscouting.com/node/3163 Given the greater "outdoor" emphasis and "hands on" approach, and the continued (and increasing) challenge of finding den leaders, a good bit of the commentary is to lure parents to see how they can work together to deliver the program in an easier and fun way ... since some potential volunteers fear the time investment. There's lots of fun ways through the program that don't require classroom work ...

All factors apply (friends, neighborhood, day to meet), and the concept of "doing things together" when that makes sense or is fun (field trips, feats of skill day, special guests) -- or at least sharing notes between dens about how and when you're doing things -- are all great ideas. One other element that may or may not need some Cubmaster / Committee Chair guidance is whether the split den is starting out with a relatively equal amount of strong leadership . . . sometimes there needs to be a bit of encouragement to ensure that you don't split into one den with all of the uber-volunte

On the question of “does anyone know why the LDS was not included on the survey results? Did they voluntarily decide to sit out, and are they (as some are saying) waiting to vote with their feet if the - what do we call it?â€Â, this is a great big mystery. I believe I read over the weekend (while camping in the forests, field and streams) that LDS leadership told their Chartered Orgs not to respond to the poll, that they would take care of it at the highest level. And that until there was a concrete resolution, there would be no official comment from the top of the LDS abou

... Part Two ... Citizenship Issues: This policy involves a choice relating to citizenship. To follow the vision of the BSA, we may consider how best to “prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, participating citizen and leaderâ€. While the BSA has the constitutional right of association and, under Dale, may be allowed to exclude members or leaders with a homosexual orientation, the existence of a “constitutional†right does not make an association “right†in all meanings of that word. Or make it wrong. It may be a matter of difference of opinion, including

First, what a great organization and tradition and set of ideals we have here in the Boy Scouts of America that cause so many to care so much to do the right thing to help the youth of America so much. Yes, each of us may disagree about what the right thing is – and there is much disagreement, and will be, and for some time. But I believe that even those on the opposite poles on this issue are united by the same Vision and Mission and Aims and Oath and Law. Second, I think that what unites us, and will unite us, and will keep the BSA at the forefront of youth development programs are

As noted in the other thread, I think that a Church CO that would exclude gay leaders is already doing it throughout their programs, and can deal with any flack coming from that choice. To expand on that, and the concept of protests and picketing and press post-decision (if the change arrives next week), I suspect that the story really won't make the paper. It's a "dog bites man" story, re-written as "no gay leaders in the [pick your church] that has no gay priests". Not news. And if written by a journalist, they'd ask: "help me out here: why didn't you pick a church and troop in

The plight of the little existing Church CO and whether the BSA will defend them keeps popping up on other boards too. I dont see much problem here. To echo and supplement a point made by OGE and others, a Chartered Organization applying its own principles or beliefs in denying membership or leadership would be applying principles or beliefs they already apply in other parts of Chartered Organization operation. Given this, one would assume that they are firmly convicted enough in that to hold fast to their principles and beliefs. For example, plenty of churches allow no gay priests

First time / long time (First time poster on "this part" of the Forum / Long Time Reader) Terry: First, huge thanks for these Forums. So many of the ideas that have helped so many of the leaders who help so many of the kids who will help so many in the world for so many years to come . . . have come from those who gather round this internet campfire, this forum that you have fostered. And so many of the ideas that I and others have carried forward have, I am sure, come from so many of our fellow leaders who may well differ on the issue of moment -- the membership policy -