Pack212Scouter

Flag retirements are also great. Keep in mind two things: age level means that they are usually run by adults...and explaining the reason before hand (yes before!). We had one imigrant boy who was quite upset and wanted to know why we were burning "his" flag. It is also important to have a good burning fire, but not too large. I recommend a small pile of wood saturated with lamp oil. I rewrote a retirement cerimony for our Pack by combining some concepts we liked and aiming it more Cub age boys. You'll notice that most of them are written with wording and concepts way above their level.

The campouts are always fun. My recommendation is to make it a two night event. Typically if you make it just Saturday night about half will show up afer noon, cutting your usuable day in half. It also makes a full day of time that does not involve setting-up break-down for the adults. As for events, successful ones that we have done are a nature hike, orientiering with a prize at the end (usually chocolate or trail mix), bottle rockets (2 litter pump up water rockets, not the real ones which are not allowed for Cubs), some sort of sports activity, fire starting can be demo but we usua

A centerpiece...hmmm...How about a cardboard model of the leaning tower or the coloseum? You could do it yourselves...or find and make something like this... http://www.paperlandmarks.com/colosseum.htm http://www.paperlandmarks.com/pisa-campanile.htm(This message has been edited by Pack212Scouter)

Thanks for all your comments. We will be sure to council any of them interested on what it really involves.

Scoutnut, our Pack has recently begun using a trailer out of necesity. Over the past year, we have begun doing some to all of the meals at our campouts. Also due to the size of our Pack (140-150 boys) a trailer has become a near necesity for these events. We have simply rented one a couple of times with a poor experience. Fortunatly for us however our Troop is fundraising for a new, larger trailer and will be keeping their old for smaller, long-distance high adventure trips. They have offered to let us use their old one whenver we need it as long as the Troop doesn't have a need that week

The few Bears will qualify by birthday...however they also will have just crossed over to Scouts in March 2010, so First Class in time is "highly unlikely", to be generous with the term.(This message has been edited by Pack212Scouter)

Your analysis sounds pretty sounds. I would expect that it would greatly depend on the Scout. We have some Webelos that I could see doing it and loving it...and others that would probably hate it. Out of curiosity...what do Staff do at these?(This message has been edited by Pack212Scouter)

Our Cubmaster and I are getting apps so that our current Webelos can prepare if they want to go. They will all qualify, as well as four of our Bears. We have also both contacted Council about being leaders (We will both be WB and have much other training). Anyway, at our meeting last night one of our ACM's made the statement that from his experience, Jamboree wasn't really worth it. What can really be expected, and how should it be presented to the boys? The great thing about it being this far ahead is the boys have lots of time to fundraise for it.

"technically, the ACMs and DLs do not attend Pack committee meetings...because they are not members of the Committee. The CM attends as their representative, but technically he is not on the committee, either. The CM and CC both report to the COR, equally." I'm sure there are many ways that it is done (probably most incorrectly LOL) but according to the BSA organizational charts, the CM reports to the Pack Committee, who reports to the COR. Also, there is nothing against a CM, ACM, or even DL being on the Pack Committee. Their position is not on the committee structure, but they can cer

Our pack charges a one-time fee at the beginning of the pack year of $60. We offer an early bird to current pack members of $50 from BG until the end of the Pack year. Out of this, we cover recharter, Boys Life, awards (patches, belt loops, pins, etc), some pack supplies, our scholarship fund (for boys in need of help with Scouting costs), and a few other small things. The Popcorn sale is the only fundraiser that we ask the boys to do during the year. Out of that 8% goes to the pack and 25% goes to each Scout's account to pay for Scouting activities. Events such as Camping, overnighters,

I'm sorry to hear abou your difficulties. As has been stated here, as CC, you are within your rights to have a meeting with him and discuss the problems. You can also remove him from the ACM position. I believe only the COR can remove him from the pack. This situation sounds serious and as painful as it is to deal with, you can almost guarantee that it will get worse (with negative impact on the Pack) if it continues. I would suggest starting with a meeting that includes CC, CM, COR, and see if your BSA district representative is available. While this situation may be new for you and

Wow...what a problem to have. We will gladly put a third leader in a den, it's always nice to have a backup leader there in case job/family/illness interfears with one. And I guarantee we can find a chair spot....camping, PWD, B&G. While we don't hurt for leadership, we never have quite the number that we would like. I can't imagine a Pack that does. There must really be an involved bunch of parents there!

Oak Tree summarized it up very well. Our pack runs about 150 boys. 19-20 dens It has advantages and disadvantages, but it works well for us. I'll just make a quick summary list for you. These are but a few off the top of my head. Advantages - A much larger fundraising pool for equipment purchases, etc. - The pride of walking into a district or council event and being unmistakably there (I know, pride is a sin...but I'll admit it's still fun). - The ability to help out smaller Packs, District and Council with things such as PWD, etc. (We are donating our old PWD track & equipm

DenZero, You mention difficulty getting people in a very small Pack to commit to summer activities. Another option for you might be to find one or two other small packs close to you (Your DE can help with this). Then work planning summer activities together. Each pack could take a summer month and plan an activity, then you could participate together, increasing attendance.

I am both a Wolf Den Leader and Assistant Cubmaster. Our pack has Den meetings every Monday (1 hour for Tigers and Wolves, 90 minutes for Bears and Webelos, although Bears sometimes cut short at 60). One Monday per month, Den meetings are replaced by the 90 minute Pack Meeting which consists of songs, skits, announcements, and awards. We have learned that the key to Pack meetings with 150 Cubs is to keep things fun and moving. During the summer when school is out we try to plan two activities a month. This usually is enough to keep everyone interested...give everyone something to do...not

Gold Winger, you seem to like to look at the world in a positive sense, that is great, unfortunatly much of the reality of the world is different. And being responsible for young boys means that we have to put their welfare...all of their welfare first. "I always judge people by their behavior NOW. Allowing him to go camping with the Pack and interact with regular people may have been good for him and helped him realize that there were benefits to staying out of jail." Maybe, maybe not...however Scouting is for the boys, not to help influence mom's current boyfriend. "His prese

Let us know how things work out...and your new name! It's leaders like you that mke the Scout program quality. Don't be scared, but I can see you stepping up to more leadership positions in the future

Welcome to Scouting! Your experience will soon turn into a positive one like most of ours. Den size is a flexible number. The BSA recommendation of 6-8 boys is optimum and works best. Smaller groups tend to lose the group feel and put the entire program burden on the leaders. Larger Dens can be difficult to manage, as you have experienced. Our Pack only has larger dens if they are needed and with experienced leaders who have proven themselves. In addition to being an assistant Cubmaster, I lead a den of 10 Wolves. My den is pretty well behaved, but they like, listen and respect me.

.(This message has been edited by Pack212Scouter)

LOL...if only it were that simple. You wouldn''t believe what we have to go through sometimes. Having a CO of that size is just like having a Pack our size. It has both advantages and disadvantages. Like I said, we have never had to turn boys away before, so I''d say our Pack is about the right size for the situation. I''m looking forward to when the construction project is completed so that we have a better picture of where we are facility wise.

If there had been a way, we would have made room, unfortunatly we do not have the physical facilities available to us to expand. We are limited to one block of rooms, one night a week. We had 4 new Webelos join this year, and had to turn this and the one before him away due to size limits. We actually wound up merging one of our Wolf dens into the others when we lost the use of two rooms. I think that this is the first year that we''ve had to turn anyone away, but it is a construction year. Like I said it was not a choice that we liked or one that had to do with the parent''s attitude. A

A) This webelo already has a Pack, his parent wanted to transfer. B) Our Den sizes are stretched to their limit. At what point would you say it has to stop? 15? 20 boys per den? We have X number of rooms to use during a specific 2-hour time period on Monday nights. Now in another year this would have been less of an issue, but we have lost the use of 3 rooms this year, two of them two weeks into the meeting year. C) We did offer to help this parent find a Pack that suited his needs. The parent was not interested, stating that they "knew everyone at the Scout Service Center." Now

I simply refer to the Webelos dens as patrols, since they are kinda in between...selecting Patrol names, flags, etc. I stand corrected on my terminology. As for the size, the only Dens we have that large are the Webelos and it includes a Den Chief. The rest of our dens run from 8-10 in size. Larger than we''d like, but we were forced to go with slightly larger ones this year due to temporary facility issues. We only have rooms for 18 Dens over a 2 hour span. It should loosen up next year. We are quite litterally, a full Pack.

Wow...our Cubmaster just had a parent call him at home (not sure where he got the number since it''s unlisted and all Pack calls go to his cell) and wanted to transfer his son from another Pack to ours since our Webelo program is bigger and more active. Unfortunatly we had to inform him that our Patrols were full (already running 13 in a patrol). We''re reluctant to break these Patrols up now because they have been together for years and have been working on things together for this year since early summer. We added a couple at roundup until we were uncomfortable increasing the size any mor

I can''t remember the exact numbers, but after Council get''s their cut, around 50% of whats left goes into their account and can be used to pay for dues, camping fees, etc. We also allow families to transfer funds for payment between their children. We keep our Pack roster in an Excel spreadsheet and basically have columns for thier ballance and for each event that needs to be paid.