raven99m

Many of you have jumped to discussing the BSA requirements. This is a "Cub Scout" question on the "Cub Scout" forum. As I mentioned requirement #1 for the Arrow of Light Award requires that the scout, "Be active in your Webelos den for at least six months since completing the fourth grade...

The requirements for the Webelos badge defines "active" as "having good attendance, paying your den dues, and working on den projects." Do you consider attendance at one or two den or pack meetings out of 12 to 16 meetings "good attendance?"

Thanks for all of your responses! The term "Active" sounds fairly open to interpretation. We are not active during the summer so I still do not think it is fair for the boys who participate in sports to only attend one meeting from September to December and have that be considered active. I support the idea that choices have consequences and achieving the Arrow of Light later than the boys who regularly attend the meetings would be the most equitable solution.

ScoutNut brought up another issue that was a problem for our den. Our leader did not stress the point that parents are no longer supposed to sign all the achievements for Webelos so some of the parents were bringing in the books with achievements signed with no proof that the requirements were actually being done. In some cases they were not even aware of some of the components of the requirements! When I requested that some documentation or actual projects be brought to the den meetings to be shared with the other boys the parents seemed to feel that I did trust that they were actually being done.

I just felt that it was important to show the other boys the work that was being done and perhaps that would serve as an inspiration for the other boys to work on the requirements themselves. I was not supported by the den leader for this.Instead, I was asked to remove myself as the person who tracked achievements for the boys in the den.

One of the requirements for the Arrow of Light is: Be active in your Webelos den for at least six months since completing the fourth grade...

My question is what qualifies as Active? We have a couple of boys in our den who participate in sports in the fall and attend only one or two den or pack meetings until December when they begin to attend meetings again. Do the two or three months when they don't attend count as being Active in the den? It seems that would set a standard where coming to den meetings isn't important and also diminish the significance of those Webelos who never miss a meeting.

The boys plan on getting the Arrow of Light in February and I was wondering whether they should all get it together or if the ones who miss most of the meetings should have to wait a couple of months?