Phibbles

We do an unstructured version every year too. More like a snowball fight than ancient castle wars. The kids just love to throw things at each other! ;-) We do different rounds: Wolves/Bears vs Tigers/Webelos; all scouts versus adults; Jan-Jun birthdays vs Jul-Dec birthdays; etc... Just a fun 10-15 minutes of silliness.

Ironically, my son's soccer team is 10 scouts and 2 non-scouts. I figure by the end of the soccer season, it will be all scouts. ;-)

Here in my neck of the woods, we have a store that just does video game playing. Our CC spoke with the owner and she arranged for free classes so our scouts could come into her shop, review the belt loop requirements, and then play a new (age appropriate) game on her fancy set-ups. It was a great event. If anyone is in North Jersey, they should look them up. www.powerplaygaming.net I love the idea of doing some Mario Kart during the PWD too! I might steal that idea for our Pack. We are always trying to figure out a way to keep scouts not racing occupied.

We have a site on SMDscouts.com. Been using them for over a year now, and it works really well. Cost is very low and the site template is easy for us to update. You don't get much design control of the site, but we don't care since we just use the site to communicate meeting and outing information to the pack. We also started to use it for event RSVPs, which has been very good. My committee also likes that we had the option to password lock the entire site. Nobody can see any information without entering the login information first. This privacy was important for some folks.

We never had snacks at a pack meeting. When we are done, we want the kids to leave not hang around longer. I do like to award my den with lolipops when they have been exceptionally well behaved at den meeting. But that they take home. A little dum dum makes them so happy.

We had a group game meeting last night. My favorite game was the Flip A Deck Relay. It really challenged the kids to talk to each other about what cards they had seen and what order to try flipping cards in. http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/game/flip_a_deck_relay-1985.asp

I hope you all remembered to add a "revenge of the Sixth" follow-up to the 4th joke.

Don't worry about it! I can tell you from experience, there is a whole different level of joy that comes from watching your mom or dad be the scout leader. Your son understands and appreciates the time you are giving to him and his peers. He is proud to have a wondeful parent that cares so much, they take time out of their busy lives to make the scouting experience more special. Just keep it up, and don't fret if your son ain't complaining...

Has anybody ever been to a camp-in at a local museum? Do they follow these rules and separate the youth/adults and boys/girls too? I haven't done one yet, but I can't imagine the museum going to all this trouble. I can understand the root cause to have these rules, but I really think they take it a little too far. If we are all sleeping in one big room, do we really need tarps to separate us all? As long as everyone is in their own sleeping bag, what could go wrong? Wouldn't it be better to just setup a private changing corner? IDK - I hate when BSA makes things that once se

Our pack is doing okay... Signed up 6 Tigers in May, 4 Wolves this month, and 2 new bears. No new Webelos scouts. We'll be lucky to break even when you count the scouts that left us.

I wouldn't call it a raffle either, but if you were worried that it was you could work around it. Instead of putting money in the buckets use beads. One color adds points, one color takes away point. Where do the beads come from? Well the troop sells them of course. That's the fundraiser. You sell beads. If people choose, they can use the beads in the game. And since the game has no prize, it shouldn't be a gambling concern. That's the long way around the bush...ya know.

Liz - I hope you still plan to respond to the letter from council. Don't waste time pointing out all the errors they made, but instead educate them on where they fell short on providing the minimum service you deserved. You could be doing lots of future scouts a favor by putting up a small fight for the cause.

I can see where the OP is coming from, but I generally do disagree with the statement. One of the things I love best about being a scout, was some of the time I spent with my father. Not as his son, but as his scout. He was very good at keeping distance and letting all of the scouts do their part in camp. I can't think of one time, that I felt like he was hovering over me. I think the problem is not parents in general, but a parent in specific. One of the SM's most important roles is to teach parents how to take part in the program, without compromising their son's experience. I

I like the new plans so far, but have also noticed they need quite a bit of juggling to fit my calendar better. Like saving the electives on bird watching till Spring. We won't find many in the winter here, which is where the pre-set order would place the meeting. I haven't found it difficult to juggle though.

NickP412: "also I believe the Arabian country's like America dont allow girls in" All I know is, I am not going to follow the Arabian countries' leads on gender equality. My local camp is doing one week as a co-ed program, but they aren't calling it a Cub/Boy Scout week. Another organization is coming in to run the camp, and it won't be scouting associated. It is just taking place at the scout camp. Open to anyone to attend. Might even be resident camping...