OwntheNight

Unfortunately, It's a necessary evil to have to reimburse the leaders. As much as we'd like to be able to get the supplies they need beforehand to prevent the reimbursement process. It's just not feasible.

In our pack, we have the reimbursement form on our Scouttrack site. We also have a document that explains how to fill out the form. On that form, it specifically states receipts can't be over 30 days old. Our former treasurer was an accountant by trade and created all the reports and set up the Quicken account to keep track of everything. She spent a few weeks with the new treasurer explaining the system and how to keep everything updated.

We do have 5 people authorized to sign checks, and there has to be a double signature on every check. It usually works out 1 of 4 ways:

1: If we can get an invoice for services or goods, treasurer pays direct with a check

2: If deposits or other items are needed for event, etc. CC uses personal credit card and is reimbursed

3: Advancement coordinator goes to Scout store and picks up all advancements

4: Leader purchases items for den/pack meeting and needs to fill out reimbursement form.

I tell all the den leader's to check with me on stuff they might need or use. We have a storage shed with an accumulation of crafts and other things, which former leaders have accumulated over time. The only issue with that, is that only 3 people have the key and code to get into the unit. One of us has to go over and get it for them. But, we also don't want to buy a bunch of stuff and have to keep it stored all the time. At one point, we had stuff spread out around 4 or 5 peoples garages.

It's not a perfect system, but it is the one we have and it works for us. It is relatively painless.

I'm 1 of 18 ASM's in our troop of 120 boys. The expectation our former SM and current SM has put on us is sign up at the beginning of the year for whichever ASM position you choose and that's your position for the year. The next year, you can sign up for the same position or a new one. He really only wants us in the same position for a max of 2 years. The idea being, learning a new position within the troop and preventing burnout. Another expectation, is that an ASM does need to help plan/coordinate at least one of the campouts that the boys have chosen. (signups, travel plans, adult meals, etc.)

While 18 ASM's sounds like a lot, in reality it's about 8-10 that are truly active. The other 6-8 help out when they can on specific campouts. Right now, I fall in that category. I'm one of the TTFC ASM's, the last campout I went on with the troop was Summer Camp. I do show up for TTFC sessions, and help out when I can. As a CM, my SM has told me to focus my efforts on keeping the pack running strong.I do feel bad, for not being able to help out more, especially on campouts. In a way I feel like I'm letting the other ASM's down, and placing more burden on them to be available for the troop.

We are running into a problem with not being able to recruit more ASM's right now. I think we've picked up 1 additional ASM from last years group of new boys. (25 new boys)We've always had the requirement of ASM's need to be Wood Badge trained and be asked to serve the boys as an ASM after serving on the committee first. We've changed the requirement of WB trained, to committing to taking WB within a year of your appointment. We also have to pay for our registration, campouts, etc. we feel like you have to have some financial skins in the game to stay active.

This makes me laugh! When we joined this pack 4 years ago, that is exactly how we ate on Pack campouts. Huge breakfasts, Lavish Dinners. While us parents enjoyed it, the kids could have taken it or left it.

Yes, the cooks (multiples!!!) had to start dinner around 3:00, we had one parent who was our Head Chef, and he loved cooking these great meals. But, it got ridiculous, especially when we would sit down with the budget before a campout and see the numbers being thrown out. All of a sudden, your talking 30-40 dollars for a campout for food, per family.

I admit, I got suckered into that mindset after the old crew finally moved on. I was trying to out do the old regime with creative menus. I just ended up with boys who were sitting and waiting for food and more stuff to clean up afterwards.

This year, we're going back to basics: friday night- BYOD, Saturday Bfast- Pancakes, Bacon, Breakfast Tacos, Sat Lunch- BYOL or community lunch for each den, Sat Dinner- Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, Sunday- Cold bfast

I've done a complete reversal, especially after eating with the troop for two years. I don't want to have to carry all that gear anymore to camp for 2 days. I'd rather teach them a skill or show them how to think outside the box for cooking. I do miss the smoked salmon and steaks for dinner though!

The mom is going to be the best resource. Have a friendly conversation with her about her son and what works, what to expect, etc... You're good at asking alot of questions to get to the root of things

As far as the other parents go, sometimes it's none of their business. If the parent of this child wants to make the information public, she will. The best thing you can do is learn what you can, and treat him the same way you treat the other boys, with dignity and respect. If you hear rumblings of gossip, rise above it and be the true example of the leader they see. "He's a great kid, and we're glad to have him in our pack" and leave it at that. Make a special point of saying Hi to this boy all the time, and spending time with him and his mom. If the other parents see that, they might be less likely to start talking about the boy, knowing that the CM is not turning a blind eye or is trying to help out. Whatever they want to think.

It might also be a good time to pull out a CM minute about diversity and accepting people for who they are.

As a DL last year for our wolves, I encouraged our den to make a flag. My ADL had some fake wolf fur which he sewed to some canvas. (Canvas on one side, fur on other side) We made numbers and letters from foam and attached them to the flag. We also had every boy do a handprint on foam cutouts and put them on the flag. We always sent the flag home with a different boy every week, and told them to add to the flag something every week. If we got a patch from an activity, we put it on the flag. Kind of a year long story about what they did. We were the only den who had a flag all year.

When I took over as CM this year, I encouraged all dens to create a flag. For my new Tiger and wolf dens, I got them some canvas from a fabric store, some PVC pipe from the Home Improvement center, and the oversized rank emblems from the Scout store. Everything else, is up to them. It's their flag, they can do with it what they want. From what I've seen so far, 'dem boys like to paint!!!

I also encourage all the dens to come up with den cheers and yells, it seems like we had seperate units for the longest time, instead of dens within the pack. I'm trying to change that culture to create a more unified Pack.

Yea, it is cool when you know you've made an impact on their lives somehow. I still run into some of the boys from my first Pack. They still bring up stuff that happened at Pack meetings, or certain campouts 4 or 5 years ago. We can still laugh about it now, or give each other some good natured ribbing about it.

I moved across town this summer, so I don't get to see the boys as much as I used to. Even when I lived on that side of town, I would see them at the grocery store, out at dinner, the mall, or wherever. They would still stop and say hi, even when they were around their non-scouting friends. When their friends would ask who that was, they would always say "That was one of my Cub Scout leaders."

Those moments are the best paychecks I can ask for!

Basement,

No It's not their first BOR, but it is their first in front of District members, not the normal committee members they've had to deal with from the Troop. I really think the boys' confidence (or arrogance) will get them through their EBOR. However, there are some boys that don't have that natural confidence for whatever reason. That's why I said it might help them relax a bit. It's not a board of inquisition, but should be a board of celebration with a purpose.

I find myself in this position.

I am CM for Pack 1, our CO has a Troop also.

I'm an ASM for Troop 2, which has a different CO.

When Scoutson was deciding what Troop he wanted to join, it literally came down to Troop 1 and Troop 2. The differences between the 2 were so minimal, that my son had a hard time deciding where to go. He finally decided on Troop 2 after a lot of back and forth. I actually felt more pressure to join Troop 2, because of the friendships I developed with our WDL and the ASM's of the troop.

When I go back to being a WDL, after my term as CM expires, I have to be very careful to not show favoritism towards Troop 2, even though my loyalty does lie with them. Having that loyalty does force me to make sure I give all of our WEB's the opportunity to visit many troops, so that the Scout can make his own choice. I don't want to be accused of unfair treatment and favoritism for the benefit of the Troop. Our WEB II DL's did this last year, since they knew they were going with Troop 2. They actually talked down about Troop 1, and dissuaded boys from visiting Troop 1. I found this out from parents after the boys crossed over, when I took over as CM in February.

Was there ever a conversation with you, the AWDL, the CM, and COR about his expanded duties with Pack 2? Maybe a scope of terms could have been addressed with him about that role. Was he asked to help in the setup of that pack from somebody? Did he feel like he wanted to have a bigger role in Scouting, and this pack gave him that opportunity? I know this is Devils' Advocate stuff, but..Did your pack offer those same opportunities to him? Does he have a son still in Pack 1, and maybe didn't want to move him to another pack, because of the friendships he's developed in your Pack? These are probably questions that won't get answered now because of him being removed from your Pack.

When our pack was imploding from within last year, basically the CC and the Asst Tiger DL not being able to work together. The one thing that keeps coming up from those incidents, was a lack of communication between all parties involved. So many things, could have been handled differently if we were able to effectively communicate with each other, instead of hearsay and innuendo.

Sorry, but....You need to be Yoda and Jean Luc Picard in this!

"do or do not, there is no try"

"Make it So"

It's funny that she was telling you what your job entailed, when she took over. She should be reminded what her job entails when it comes to the program side of things. ("Make it So!")

FOR THE BOYS (not shouting, just emphasis) should be the focus for everybody involved with a Pack, not just a catchy phrase that sounds good.

I do like having the Cubmaster prerogative card in my pocket, just hope I never have to pull it out, I don't mind showing it every now and then!

Or, I guess there's always the "I can do what you do. Can you do what I do?" I might be a little snarky today.

You are the voice for those boys, make sure their voice is heard.

I think Calico brings an interesting perspective to this.

An EBOR, should be about the boy and his journey through Scouting. The only people in uniform should be the Eagle candidate and his SM to present him to the board. The message being sent to the candidate, whether real or perceived is, "We know more than you about this".

Maybe, not having every Scouter in uniform gives the candidate the opportunity to relax just a bit, so the board can see the person this Scout has become.

As an employee of a defense contractor, our plant gets tours from military brass frequently. When I talk to a Major or LTC wearing his or her dress uniform with full fruit salad, it's a little intimidating, when they wear their BDU's without all the pomp and circumstance, it's a little easier to talk to them. I still give them the respect they have earned, just not as distracted by all the shiny objects.

Now, think about a 14-16 yr old boy, seeing all the knots on their board members uniforms?

Also, what message is being sent to the candidate if the Scouter is poorly uniformed, you know the kind, when the Uniform Police need to be brought in to have a word with them. First impressions happen on both sides of the table.

Good Luck, and have a great time. This is your experience, enjoy it and learn from it.

Nope, you don't get off that easy!

You opened Pandora's Box, now let's see whats in it

So what happened this time?

Thanks everybody for the great responses. I will be bringing these up with my CC.

After rereading my own writing, I realized I came off pretty harsh against this other pack. That is not the case, I have no problems with this other pack. My issue is with the scheduling procedure used by the church. Everything is scheduled through the secretary's office, and we either got double booked or somebody wasn't notified of the scheduling arrangements. I just don't know right now, we are still working through these to find out all the information available.

Our COR has said, he's going to get copies of all the schedules and start going through them instead of keeping the status quo. Apparently, the schedules from last year were just transcribed to the new calender, without regard to the new schedule requests that were put in, back in July, when we gave the secretary our entire year's schedule, and the other pack put their requests in July or August as well.

The church has always asked us for the year schedule in advance, just due to the amount of groups and activities this church supports on a weekly basis. So Lesson learned. After we turn in the schedule, we need to get confirmation from the secretary and COR that our dates were filled and either contact the CC of the other pack, either through our COR or CC to make sure no dates were double booked.

Nike- No, the church does not post rm assignments. We usually bring a white board and easel to den meetings and put them downstairs in the entry way we use. We have asked for a spot to put announcements and or display stuff, like in a permanent shadow box that can be opened up. They have not responded to that request yet. The building is still relatively new, so they don't want to add a bunch of stuff to the walls in the main building yet. It's OK for upstairs in the Youth wing.

JayK- Shortridge is right about this. This other pack is chartered by "Friends of Pack xxx", which usually means it's a group of parents who don't have an IH to report too, needless to say, no actual building available. Because leaders of that pack attend the church, they asked the church if they could use rooms for meetings. The church, being good stewards, said yes.

'Fish-We didn't find out about the 3rd monday pack meeting until monday night, when I was talking to the CM, that's when the light started going on, and it started making sense about every body being there. But also having an email from the church secretary telling us we had the gym reserved and could actually go in early to start setting up, just added another monkey wrench to the situation.This really was a product of the calender itself. Next week is a school holiday, and the following week is Halloween. We don't meet on School holidays and wanted the boys to have Halloween to themselves. Must be those planets lining up causing all the issues! ;P

Once again, thanks for the great insight and help.

SP,

Monday can and does present challenges as well. In my other post about Sharing space with another unit, this was actually a product of the calender. Next monday is a school holiday, and the following is Halloween. We don't meet on school holiday nights, and we didn't want the boys to miss some ToT time on Halloween. Also, our CO's room schedule is jam packed every night of the week. It's hard for us to schedule committee and leader meetings at times. What we lose in the Monday's, we try and add an extra event or two in the month that are purely voluntary. But we always give the dens the option to make it a den activity, even if only 1 or 2 show up. Usually, these are things going on in the community or special events that everybody can go to. As I told my Tiger leader the other night, this city is our playground. We can always find activities for the boys to do! Just got to know where to look.

Our Pack meets on Monday nights. This was like this from way back when, so It's stuck. Monday seems to work for us, with the exception of some soccer and football coaches wanting to practice on Monday Night. But we only have to deal with that thru the middle of November.Tuesdays are usually athletic practice days, Wednesday is church/youth activities. Thursday would probably be a good day except when RT comes up. And Friday, well Friday is just Friday. That usually means date night for me at least. Gotta keep Mrs. OTN happy after being gone the other 4 nights of the week.

District RT is the 2nd Thursday of the month.

Our Troop actually meets on Sunday afternoon. When the Troop was formed, Sunday was the only day all of the boys could actually get together, due to band,athletics and other extracurricular activities.

A Little History:

Our pack is chartered by a church in the area, this church allows a "Friends of Pack xxx" to use the gym, and meeting rooms for den and pack meetings.

Last night, I arrived at the church for our Pack meeting, pulled up to the gym side to start unloading the car and noticed cars that didn't belong to members of our pack. I realize that this other pack is setting up for their pack meeting. I am on the phone with my CC, "We do have the gym reserved tonight, right?" She says, "Yep, got the email from the church secretary" So I make the walk into the gym, introduce myself to the CM, and explain the awkward situation to her. Now, in their defense, their pack meets on the 3rd Monday of the month for pack meetings. Our pack meets on the last Monday for pack meetings. We did schedule the gym, back in July, for this night though.

So, my CC and ACM arrive, and we step outside to talk. 2 options, Be jerks and force them to move or take the high ground and find another area for our boys. We chose the latter, moved to the front of the church and had a great carnival and cake auction. Boys didn't care where our meeting was, we adapted,improvised, and overcame.

COR came by our meeting later on to check on us, and our CC gave him a mild tongue lashing about this. He said he would check on the scheduling snafu. Apparently, the way the scheduling works, The Troop has priority over the gym and youth loft for scheduling. Everybody else gets dibs on it when they request it, kind of first come, first served.

I bring all this up, because this is the 2nd major event we've had scheduling snafu's with this other pack. The first being our join scouting night. We had 2 large rooms scheduled to use, and this other pack was given a room literally across the hall for a meeting on the same night and time. We actually lost a couple of boys, that wanted to join our pack, to this other pack because of the confusion it caused with new parents and boys seeing a sea of tan and blue shirts all around. We broached this with the COR at that time, and were told in no uncertain terms to just deal with it. We've also been told that we should be glad the boys are in Scouting, no matter what unit they're with.We've also had a couple of minor instances, where this other pack tends to use the doors on the side of church where our pack meets, instead of the doors on the side of the building they use. Once again, mild confusion especially on the nights that pack meets off property, and I have some of their boys show up in our den meetings.

I understand as a christian and as a scouter to be helpful to others, and I'm glad this church wants to help out a pack, but at what point should there be some loyalty to the unit that the church actually charters? We have a great relationship with our CO, they are very supportive of our pack, but this is just one of those things we don't see eye to eye on. It is like a pebble in a boot, small ,but annoying.

I'm sorry if I sound like a whiny brat, who's not getting his way, but Thanks for letting me vent.

So, how do you deal with other units in your location, or how should we address this? My CC is meeting with the COR on Thursday for other business, but will probably bring this back up again.

Our CO is one of those churches that has classroom style rooms available to our pack. We also meet every Monday Night at the same time to give the boys consistency in something. Knowing that at 7:00 every Monday night in the same room as always does reinforce that consistency.

Do our DL's have to use the rooms, Nope. They can plan their own den meeting for wherever they want. I actually encourage them to think of other places to meet, especially when it's warm out and the boys are going stir crazy from being indoors. The only thing I ask is they let me know where they're going to be, and when they're going to be there. Inevitably, a parent will walk in and look for the den meeting, and then ask me about it. I can then direct them to the meeting location when they're off campus.

Scoutmaster prerogative. Moose has some great points. While anybody can be a MBC for any Merit Badge. Sometimes the SM can be the gatekeeper to the MBC list and provide direction to the boy to pick out a MBC. " Hey, Johnny Scout, so you want to start your Citizenship in the Nation MB, did you realize our CC, MR. X is a senior partner in his law firm and would be glad to help you out with that?"

Do you want the MBC who slept in a national hotel chain, teaching aviation MB, or do you want the pilot who's logged countless hours in the air, teaching it?

In our neck of the woods, we have a lot of small businesses that cater to all different types of activities for kids (IE, Lego Camp, rocket camp, etc) There is one that caters to the Cooking MB and even offers a class on it at a cost. Our SM would not sign off on that, because he wants the boys to learn how to cook on camp outs, because it's practical experience, not a one time class.

Ultimately, the SM is responsible for providing the best program the boys choose.

At our District Cuboree last weekend, The staff does show a movie on saturday night after the campfire program. Granted, it is in the Cub World activity center. But it's also something to settle the boys down a little bit before lights out. Totally optional for the boys to attend. In the past, they showed "Follow me Boys!" that got old, so this year they went with "UP". Turn out was higher than before, partly the movie, partly because of burn bans, you couldn't have fires in your camp site.

I think it can be good once in a while, but not all the time. Our troop shows movies at Winter Camp in the evening (This is the one campout we do allow the boys to bring their electronics)

I have seen other troops and packs set up sheets across trees for movies on regular campouts, kind of disturbing to see. For me, that's just more gear to haul. I do have to admit, I'm starting to loathe Cub camping with all the stuff that gets brought. Might have to start setting the example, by just packing my back pack with all my stuff to show everybody, you don't need a truck load of gear to go camping.

When we get our new group of boys at our recruiting night, the first thing I teach all the new Cubs is the "Signs up" sign. I let them yell as loud as they can and then pull the signs up out. I do this a few times, encouraging the boys to get louder and louder between each sign's up. By the time I'm done, all the boys know it's time to be quiet when the Wolf ears come out. I've never had a problem with the boys at den or pack meetings settling down quickly. Parents, on the other hand, still haven't figured it out. That's OK, when parents are still talking during Sign's Up, I can get those boys pretty loud in no time, parents then have to take their conversation else where. HEHE, I do love being Cubmaster!

'Fish

Thought you could get by with a Tommy TuTone reference without anybody noticing? (Jenny, I got your number.....)

I still like to tell my boys about having to actually going to the library and going over to the reference section and the large stack of books called encyclopedia's to get information for the last year. Or, at the book fair every year, the book I looked forward to getting before anybody was The Guinness Book of World Records. Not this whole internet thing, where information is a click away on your phone. I even tell them that TV was never on 24hrs a day. If I was hearing the Star spangled banner, I knew I was up way too late, or I was being woke up by the long beeeeep after the SSB. Go into the living room, turn the TV off, wake Dad up and tell him to go to bed.

Sorry, Not old enough to remember punch cards and tape, our school was the first to have Apple II' s (Thank You Steve Jobs, RIP) if you were real lucky, you got to use the color monitor to work on your graphics program and then save all your work on the big 5 " floppy. The irony is, my oldest uses an IMac in school in 7th grade. It wasn't until high school that I could get into the programming class to learn DOS. EXE

I do remember sitting in my bed with my transistor radio listening to the AM side, and being able to catch WGN faintly (from Kansas City) or Cardinal's baseball in St.Louis. Of course, there was always Wolfman Jack or Dr.Dimento to listen to on the weekends!!! Or even Kasey Kasem's long distance dedication on American Top 40 on Sunday mornings.

Basement,

Got a little carried away with that, No they don't do WB or Powderhorn, but they will promote the heck out of it so you know it's available if you want it.

I almost feel bad for saying my district does everything in it's power to help us.

Yes, they provide the basic necessities for a district, training, outdoor activities, popcorn, camp cards, scout store, etc... But it's how they do it.

Training- They make available all the training at least twice a year, spring and fall, including Wood Badge. The only training that is not done twice a year is Powderhorn and NYLT.

You want Rifle and Shotgun certification, they make it happen. Wilderness First Aid, they support it and get the word out to everybody.

Outdoor Activities- Always promoting and setting up outdoor activities. 2 Webelos Outdoor weekends, Camporee, Cuboree, Winter Camp, Summer Camp, Day Camp, Parent and Pal weekend, the list goes on. There is usually something going on constantly, so much so that I don't have time to publish everything to the pack.

Popcorn- They provide the kickoff meetings, they procure the storage facility for Pick up. My DE was out there during Show and Sell loading boxes in Trucks for people on a hot Saturday morning.

Like I said, It's not just what they do, it's how they do it. The units are truly treated like customers, in a good way.

I am on a first name basis with my DE,DD, and others in the district. I've literally emailed my DE with something, and 5 min after hitting the send button, I was getting a phone call from him asking what I needed from him, and what could he do to help.

Council works these guys to the bone, to make sure the unit's are taken care of. Both my DE, and DD worked Day camp all week from sun up to sun down, my DE then went to summer camp all summer. The district let our DD off from camp duty, due to being newly married, so he could hold the district fort down. Next year, he's not so lucky

When our Pack was spiraling out of control last year and about to implode, the first call I received after agreeing to be CM, was my DE offering his and his staff's help in any way possible. He followed through on everything I asked. I was usually talking to him 2-3 times a week for a couple months, before things settled down. For me personally, it was reassuring I could call him anytime and bug him about small things.

Next year, will be interesting, because Council is breaking up our super district into 4 smaller districts, so then we'll have to train a whole new set of professionals on how things should be done.

While I've never staffed WB, (hope to be asked for next summer) I know quite a few people who are in the circle and have either just staffed their first or second course. The typical setup is that first years are encouraged to be a TG. Part of the reasoning, is that a first year will still have the enthusiasm for WB, and there is still a relative freshness for them coming back so quickly after being awarded their beads. Obviously, a lot depends on the CD, and what he/she feels is the strength of the individual. If they're not real out going, TG might not be the best position for them, but if they're very organized, QM or AQM would be a good fit.

Our council encourages all of our CD's to use first or second year staffers as much as possible. We run 4 WB courses per year, what I see, is that each camp that hosts WB tends to have it's own circle of staff that goes through the different senior positions, with new staff rounding out the TG and AQM positions. Once you get in that circle, you tend to follow those senior leaders through their staff career, until it's your time as CD. By then, you have a circle of trust with staffers you've developed relationships with, and then the circle starts over.

There are always going to be staffers who like to do one job only and don't want to move to other positions. My TG absolutely loved being a TG, but that's all she wants to do when she staffs. It certainly worked out for me, she was well prepared, and understood the material backward and forward. I could pick her brain for insight into some of those "AHA" moments.

Duct tape, can be used for quite a few objects. Wallet, hat, etc...

http://duckbrand.com/Duck%20Tape%20Club/ducktivities.aspx