pchadbo

A Cub perspective:

Parents going along? Sure get trained, register and be prepared to ignore your son except at campfires. All of the leaders agreed this year to "trade sons" for normal discipline. We were there I was "in charge of" our Cubmaster's sone " (a challenge at time) he watched my son, the web leader watched the Bear leaders' son etc. It worked well we had a great time with our sons and were not "the bad guys" all week and we are looking forward to going back. Is it July 1 yet??????

On another note, Camp Carpenter Cub World, Manchester NH has NO documented cases of homesickness in the last year. NOw the cases of Revecitis have been increasing lately.

"Point is, it's not the number of ASMs that's your problem. It's the quality of ASM's"

I would agree, although I am in the Pack our sister troop seem sto have the opposite issue, 25-30 boys and 13 ASMs plust the Scoutmaster. I have been to their meetings (totally Boy run) and to some of their outings (again, totally Boy run). I asked about the number and I was told basically it is to ensure the most flexability for the boys and to allow each to participate at a level they were comfortable with. I was at the Troop meeting Tuesday to thank my Den Chief for stepping up to help and beg for some more (I love Den Chiefs!!) and the adults were divying up the sections of T-2-1 and coordinating who would be helping with each part and making sure the BOys had opportunities to get what they needed.

I have a really good problem, for the first time in institutional memory, our Cub Scout Pack has a Den Chief from our brother Troop. Tonight is the first Pack meeting he will be attending and I want to make him feel welcome, say thank you, and maybe entertain everyone at the same time. Looking for something quick and easy beyond "hey welcome, here's your Den chief Cord, now go have fun and teach 'em something"

I am planning on "presenting" the Den Chief cord to him again in front of his Troop too (maybe someone will think that blue and gold cord looks cool and will want one for themselves )

Amen

Hey Basement,

just gonna defend Moosetracker a little here, I have been through one of her IOLS trainings, and there was a segment of almost 2 hours on map/compass and orienteering including a short orienteering course. Was it the best I've ever seen, nope that was 20 years ago in hunter safety, but was it adequate for the leader who had shown up and admitted to never using a compass before to lead her patrol through the course, yup. Besides, the guy that got lost was from out of state and out of Council. May be wise to question the IOLS class he did take but I'm pretty sure it wasn't the one 2 to 2 1/2 hours from his Troops home.

http://www.unionleader.com/article/20111107/NEWS07/711079957#comments

This is less than 2 miles from Hidden Valley/Camp Bell all part of the Griswold Scout Reservation. Their maps are very good. . .

'Free time is usually a chance for boys to create their own low quality fun --- usually fighting of one kind or another."

I am sorry that this is where your boys are at, left to their own devices the boys in our Pack ususally wind up playing some version of tag/keepaway/cops & robbers. Now do disagreements happen? Yes. Are they the exception not the rule? Yes. Boys can still be boys with imagination if allowed.

sounds like my experience the first day of Cub Scout camp this year. I was on the cell phone trying to get everything arranged AFTER I had taken my swim test. . .

Yeah, I may not be the most objective person as I sit at work in my Scout uniform pants at work as I will not have time between work and travel to change for the pack meeting tonight. . .yeah I think the uniform is important at Scout functions but ESPECIALLY an EBoR.

ScoutMythBuster,

Not to sound snarky or like a wise guy, but you have asked a very open ended question on an internet forum. I am sure we could come up with thousands of "what if" scenarios, however none may address your specific concern.

Generally, if there is consensus between the leadership (especially the Chartered Org Rep) then someone could be asked to step down but the specifics, or at least not that wide a field of fire, would help answer your question better.

As a Pack CC I have some cool ones I picked up on e-bay and rotate them through when around the boys, and none for roundtables etc, except for our Camp meetings, I have a necker for Camp Carpenter (our Cub Camp) that is approx 25 years old that I wear to those.

Boy I hope this doesn't catch on: our state Jamboree was last weekend sponsored by our district but actually held in another. Two of our pack's big trips each year (sponsored by the council) are to locations in other councils, and Cub camping for the state is in another District.

WHAT SKEPTIC SAID!!

and how did they get anywhere when if they were lucky they had 1 car per family and Dad took that to work. I have even heard tell of Scouts back then who had to walk with their pack to the hikes and campouts.

Then they got there and back again, they had to find information in these things with thin wooden pages that you had to turn and searching meant looking at each of these "pages" to locate what you were looking for.

Oh the humanity!!!

force my husband to march into the next council planning meeting for Advancement with the new workbook in hand, and that little paragraph highlighted

Yep He'd love that, I can see his face now. . . Can you let me know when that is so I can watch. . .

With Popcorn, our pack keeps track of the boys' sales and they get 35% of the pack's 35% so if we sell 10,000 in popcorn, the pack gets 3500 and the boys get 1225 of that 3500 in thier scout accounts for camping, and other scout related expenses.

Cryptozoography -- an off shoot of the Bounty hunting MB -- the first Troop to bring in Bigfoot (sasquatch, swamp ape, Abominable snowman, Yeti etc) will be awarded a MB as well as a $1000 reward from National.

Additional awards for Loch Ness Monster, Champ in Lake Champlain, and the other famous "legends"

Good Searching (almost said "hunting" but this is for Boy Scouts not Venturers. . .)

I would try to go all adventure and suck up to national (cuz I think it is going to be soooo cool) and would go with a Bechtel adventure theme. . .climbing, rafting, high adventure with some downtime for woodcarving. . .

Congrats and good luck, I am officially jealous!

Our UC is about what I expect at that level, he comes to 3-4 Pack meetings a year, shows up for some commitee meetings, checks in to make sure things are going well and is a "friend" to the pack if we need help but mostly is around making sure we aren't killing each other and aren't about to implode the pack (not that either is a danger but. . .)

Oh yeah he always shows up at summer camp on Pack Out night for good food cooked in the campsite. . .and Blue and Gold for food. . .and the Halloween party for food. . .HMMMMMM. . .

Old farmer's adage, when you go to feed the cows, and only one shows up you still feed it. Run the program for two Tigers as you would for 5 but just give them a little less "program" and more personalized attention. And Keep recruiting. Good Luck!

Unit Commissioner is a district position and would be silver shoulder loops and the Unit Commissioner patch would be placed in the same spot as the den leader patch. The shoulder loops are interchangable by simply unbuttoning the epaulets and swapping them out, the position patch I have seen people use velcro to swap them out. In answer to your question about whetjher oen supercedes the other, the answer is yes, whichever position you are currently functioning in. As a den leader you should be uniformed in your Den Leader uniform with your unit numbers. As Unit Commissioner your uniform should reflect that position as District registered without unit numbers.

I ain't a-feared, and besides it has been on here before. I am fairly new to scouting having spent one year as a Tiger partner, one year as ACM and currently beginning my sentence as Committee chair. I hail from the great state of New Hampshire and the entire state makes up the fabulous Daniel Webster Council.

Ann,

I can sympathize as we are only able to get in on open house nights into our school, so this year I as the new CC (don't ask why I am running recruitment other than SOMEONE has to) I am using it to sign up the ones who are ready now and invite the others to a sperate Joining night at the CO. I have me DE on board now if I can just get the other leaders to help. . .I'll let you know

A little clarification: are we talking about the annual membership fee or are we talking about activity fees, uniforms, or what?

In our pack we charge a $15 registration fee to cover Boys Life, recharter, advancement and pack expenses for PWD and some of the smaller events. Any other activities we share the cost in advance and the Scouts register and pay for those events either through monies rased through fundraisng or Mom & Dad write a check. The rergistration fee may be waived in some cases if we have a true financial hardship but most people (in our area) can come up with the $15.

As I have said before on this board in other discussions, we do this at our blue & gold and tie it in to the theme of the B & G. This year was our summer camp theme of Scouting the High Seas. Lots of boats and pirates! Lots of fun for the boys and we kill two birds with one stone and auction the cakes and the proceeds go to Friends of Scouting. FOS coordinator happy, boys had fun, cake to eat, win-win