pack330

Hey everyone! I didn't think that my post would still being read. A lot has happened since May. I did turn down the "council" but the good news is that I know that I will be back someday. We found out that the baby I am caring is a little girl. Her sister is very happy. But when it comes to BSA we still have one more to go thru with. My husband went to summer camp this year for the first time. My husband is not a big fan of Scouts(bad experiences as a Cub Scout) but went because he wanted to spend time with our two older boys. He got that Scouting bug and thinks he wants to start helping out. Maybe a Assistant Scoutmaster, etc. We are finishing up building our new house, President of Rotary Club(term doesn't end until 6/30/07) and having a new baby next month. I told him baby steps so that he doesn't get "burn out" too. I will start back in Cub Scouts 9/2010 if not before. What is finally happening with my husband is what I wanted in the first place. He does a better job of saying "NO" when he needs to and that is a problem for me but I'm a work in progress. I know that I want find a way to keep doing Scouts in some way but haven't found what that place is yet. I am taking a year of as of July 2006 to see where life takes me and my family. Wish us all luck and remember that our Councils aren't the BAD guy but they are the driving force behind all of us. I have to agree with Eamonn:)

I have decided to step down from my current position as Treas. of our local troop. I was the Cubmaster, a trainer for district, and membership chair for our district as well. I also have done things for council as well (daycamp, etc.). I have step down little by little from each job because of all that I am doing with my family. We have four children and one on the way. We home school and are active in our local church. I sent a email to our small council to notify them that I would be leaving Scouts all together. They asked me to stay on at the district level to maintain my "years in Scouting". This council level person has already asked me to help train a new unit in the same email from him that I recievced with a reply from my resignation letter. My job would be to help behind the scenes with membership as a committee member. The district chair told me that he understood how much my time was limited but the council folks are trying to get me to do more than I can. I told everyone that I have been working with that I'm burnt out and just want to be a parent for a while. We currently have two boys in Boy Scouts and two more younger boys coming along. We are going to be in Scouting for a very long time:) I'm afraid to say yes to our council and district because of how it would look to everyone else. I know that they seem to believe that I am a push over when it comes to Scouts. I really need a break but am willing to do things very behind the scenes but I got the feeling that it won't happen the way I would want it to. What should I do?

Beavah, that is what I and the other parents/committee members have been doing. The boys don't feel that they can talk with the SM or the CC. We had one boy who kept getting hit by his patrol leader the(Scoutmaster's son) and he didn't feel comfortable talking with the SM. He talked with the SPL and the boy is still getting hit. We as committee members see a special relationship between the CC and SM. It's like they had a committee meeting before the real committee meeting. I am not sure it I should say something to the CC or not. I'm tired of everyone tiptoeing around our SM because we don't want to lose him. He is a great SM but I'm afraid the boys are going to start leaving the troop.

All of you have posted many interesting questions. I was there for most of the camporee. I ran a activity for the Cub Scouts and did all the check-in and take the money. I have a daughter the same age as the Scoutmaster's as well as having a 20 month old toddler. I stayed until dinnertime and then took off for home. I would have loved to stay at the camporee but didn't because my younger children shouldn't be there. That is my opinion! The Scoutmaster and his wife were too busy to pay attention to their daughter and she spent her time being in the boys way. This isn't the first time this has happened. There were alot of younger siblings running around but with the supervision of their parents. They also stayed in the "family" camping area. I very much believed that the Scoutmaster and his wife's plans for their daughter fell thru and that wasn't their fault. The Scoutmaster's wife could have taken their daughter home at night or slept over in the "family" camping area in my thought. Most of the boys have expressed feelings privately that they are sick of her coming to activities. This month of no one but the boys and the Scoutmasters has just started a week ago. It will be interesting to see how it goes. The CC is going to talk about it at the next committee meeting. The feeling among the boys is that the Scoutmaster's children get special treatment. The reason some of the boys talked with me is because they don't think they can talk with the Scoutmaster or the CC. I don't want to lead them in the wrong direction and I understand how the chain of command works in Boy Scouts. I don't want the job as Scoutmaster because I believe that job needs to be done by a man. Sorry if I upset anyone out there. My opinion, again.

Our troop just got back from our District Spring Camporee. Our troop was hosting the camporee. Our boys did a great job and the weather was great! My problem is that Scoutmaster and his wife had to bring their 11 year-old daughter to the camporee. Their plans for her fell thru. The camporee was held in our small town and they live about 5 minutes away. The Scoutmaster's wife was in charge of the camporee and had to be there for most of the day and evening. The boys were having a hard time with having her in camp. She has spent alot of time with the boys until a few weeks ago including other camping trips. Our committee chairman asked that all parents and the other children not attend meetings for one month. We have had some problems with parents interfering during meetings and siblings running around and being a distraction to the troop. Myself and a few other parents didn't feel it was right that she spend the night. She isn't a little girl anymore. She flirts with many of the boys. Her parents don't seem to see that there is a problem and don't watch her. One parent tried to say something and got her head handed to her. The boys are afraid to say anything because its the Scoutmaster's daughter. I also need to add that we had Cub Scouts and the families sleep 300 feet away in their own area and two parents from the Cub Scout side asked if the Scoutmaster's wife and daughter would be joining them at night to sleep there. Is there someone out there that may know if there is a policy for who can stay in camp and who can't? My sons don't want me to say anything at the next committee meeting because of how it may affect them. HELP!

I found a answer to my own question and wanted to share it with everyone. In the Cub Scout Leader book in section 20-3 under Den tools & Equipment there is a nice list of sugguested items you might carry in your den box.

Our dens all meet in different locations and times. We were hoping to stop some of the stress of being a new den leader by giving them a head start. That way they can work on coming up with their meeting activity. We currently have our "old" den leader pass down a folder with information about how they ran their year as a Tiger, Bear, etc. leader.

Our pack committee just got done watching a BSA video that showed the committee trainer giving the new den leader a den leader box. It looked like it had paper, cups, glue, etc. in it. Does anyone out there uses these and what do you put in it? I liked the idea that you give a new den leader a plastic tub with supplies to get the started. Any ideas?

I hadn't thought of using the "progress toward rank" beads. We do use the Tiger beads but should we not give out the white bead for family activity if they didn't bring their books? Isn't the book to be apart of their uniform requirements? We aren't saying that we would withhold rank without working with the parent. We all know that there are some parents/Cub Scouts who sign up and don't attend meetings/etc. We also use the charts in our den meetings so the parents and Cub Scouts can keep track of how they are doing. Does anyone bring them to the pack meetings to show them off? Does anyone look at them? We have found that the Webelos are bringing their books more and are starting to focus on what bagdes they want to earn as well as the ones that the den leader is currently working on. She even is using our new website to have them look up stuff in their books and report back to her what they find. I agree with ScoutNut that the book isn't to be used as a school lesson but it is there to help with ideas, lessons, etc. I have found that my girl scout parents hate not having a book to help them help their daughters. Is it all about "training" the parent?

Eamonn, what do you mean by using post it notes? mn_scout, we are trying to start treating the webelos like a boy scout. if they don't bring their book to their den leader then as far as the den leader sees it, they haven't done the work. That is how our Scotmaster works the troop. Can we do the same with Bears, Wolf, etc.? If the den leader doesn't see the book, then at the end of the year, that boy doesn't get his rank. Keeping in mind that we would announce this at the next den meeting. Any more ideas?

I have had two den leaders who have asked me to research how to get the boys to bring their rank books with them to den meetings. The first problem is that the boys forget their Tiger/Wolf/Bear/Webelos books for their den meetings. The den leaders are also having a hard time getting the parents to go through their son's book and sign anything off.(example: electives) The den leaders can't sign books and teach from the books if the boys don't bring their books with them. Some of the excuses are "my mom or dad forget the book" and we have told the den leaders to say that the book isn't the parents job to bring it is their's. With the Webelos, they don't bring their book then they don't get new merit badge pins at the pack meetings. They are now bring their books each meeting. But what do we do with the rest of the dens? We believe that your book is apart of the uniform and so it should be with you at each meeting. We also don't think that the boys should get rewards(ex. pencils, candy, etc.) for bringing the book with them. Any ideas that we can pass along to our den leaders?

So if there are any issues with a problem that the den leaders are having they are to take it to the Committee Chair? My main job is to only run the activities at the pack meeting that the committee chair and committee decides to do each year? Sometimes I feel like the cubmaster and the committee chair seem to be the same. How do we keep the lines clear for each person's job? If this is the case, why does the Cubmaster go to the committee meetings?

Our committee is trying to have den leader meeting each month but as the Cubmaster, I'm not sure of what I'm to be doing with these meetings. Is there information from BSA or others that will guild me on ways to run these meetings? I don't remember learning how to conduct these types of meetings when I was trained. Any ideas?

Hey everybody! The two den leaders(includes leader who couldn't make trainings) who I had that needed to be trained quit being leaders on Sunday. They both said that they didn't have time to give only 50% or less to the pack and didn't think that was fair to the boys. They are keeping their boys in the pack. They both offered to help out on a as needed bases. I was lucky with the fact the both of these leaders where apart of a two person team so I still have my Wolf and Bear main leaders. Just need assistant den leaders now:)

The problem is that we can't get anyone to attend our district roundtables or activities. We live in a small town where no one will leave. Not even to shop. Our stores sell out of everything. It's crazy. We have children/adults who have never left their own state. It's very strange? I think you have a very good point but a lot of people in this area don't like the way roundtables are run in our district. Any excuse not to attend. Sad but true. ScoutNut, I hear you. I'm trying to be good:)