Scouting Mom

District commissioner or Unit Commissioner???? There are multiple unit commissioners and our district's policy is that whenever possible, the unit commissioner should not be a member of the units he is commissioner for. And yes, the reason is if there is a conflict, an outside perspective is often needed. Now a District Commissioner is a different issue. There is only one per district and he is the head of all the Unit commissioners. Since he most likely started out in a troop position and often still has a son in scouting, he usually holds some sort of position in some troop somew

My son joined our local version of "Troop 1" when he crossed from Webelos. He was ok with that. He had an ok time. Then when he got involved with an after school activity that conflicted with troop meetings, he transferred to "Troop 2." The decision to transfer was strictly a scheduling thing and I wouldn't have thought the differences were that big, but the difference in his experience is amazing. The boys in Troop 2 have a bigger ownership of the troop. They take more responsibility for the advancement of younger scouts. The SM may need to point out that Little Johnny is still T

I agree with the others, fill out the application, be honest. As a committee member in that same situation, I could see a restriction on you being able to drive other scouts, but in my experience in Cub Scouts, parents mostly drive their own kids. If there is some question of you having an alcohol problem as opposed to a temporary lapse in judgement, a wise committee chair may make surprise visits to your den meetings and/or occasionally ask other parents, "So, how is that new den leader working out?" But a single DWI with no history of them or further occurrences should disqualify yo

bsahandbook.org still contains the position descriptions that were linked here a year ago in the last post. Now, on this page: http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/ProSpeak/insights/2010_03_leave_no_trace.aspx it says, Leave No Trace Trainer The troop Leave No Trace Trainer helps minimize impact on the land by teaching members the principles of Leave No Trace and improving Scouts outdoor ethics decision-making skills. The senior patrol leader may appoint a Scout, 14 years or older who has successfully completed the official 16-hour Leave No Trace Trainer training course, to s

Every pack, every district and every council does this differently... Our district used to recharter in March, now we recharter in December. Our pack charges a pro-rated amount in September for new scouts and then charges everyone, old and new, in late November to cover the next year from January 1 to December 31. When we rechartered in March, we charged everyone in February. Between September and November, we lose a few, when our recharter was in March, we lost even more. No point in rechartering people who aren't attending and no fair for the pack to have to pay recharter fees for p

I don't have a small pack. I have the larger pack that absorbs all the surrounding small packs when they fail. The biggest complaint I hear from the members of the packs that fail is lack of parent involvement. In our medium sized pack, we have plenty of drop and run parents. There are those who are looking for us to be babysitters but by and large the reason is because they have other children and other demands on their time....they are rushing their kids off to soccer or ballet class and Cubs are just one more thing to squeeze in. You can't afford to let them drop and run, you have

How do you all figure you cannot register a boy who is 11 as a Cub? We recently had a boy register with us whose Dad filled out the application saying he was 11 (almost 12)and in the 4th grade. ScoutNet didn't kick it out. As it turns out Dad mixed up his sons' birth years and this particular boy was only 8, but ScoutNet STILL has him listed as being 11. Our pack also had a boy who was held back in Kindergarten and was 11 and in 4th grade when he last recharted with us. He crossed over just before his 12th birthday in his 5th grade year. As has been said, a boy can be a Cub u

Speaking as "the wife".... I knew what I was getting into when I got married to an Eagle Scout with fond memories of his time in Scouting. While we were dating, he got a job in the next state and we didn't see each other as much as we wanted to, so he filled his time by becoming an ASM with a Troop in his new town...never laid eyes on these people before, but he found a sense of belonging anyway. Flash forward a few years... When our eldest became a Tiger, my husband walked into the JSN wanting to be DL and couldn't volunteer fast enough. However, it was a rare event when I wa

10.5 years or 4th grade plus 6 mo.... My son finished 4th grade at the age of 9 years, 10 months. He could have crossed over at the age of 10 years, 4 months. He wasn't even the youngest boy in his den. OTOH, my younger son has boys in his den who will be 10 in October of their 4th grade year. They are eligible to cross over in April of their 4th grade year (assuming all AOL requirements are met), without ever being a "Webelos II" (As someone mentioned I or II is not an official designation, just what is commonly used for convenience sake)

I agree with Sephrina and would add... Make sure you know who your Unit Commissioner is and have their contact info. A good UC can provide valuable assistance in your situation. Make sure you go to your District's roundtable. These monthly meetings are important sources for all that is going on in your district, council and at the national level. It is also a wonderful opportunity to network with other lesders and draw from their experience.

Ok, so what I'm getting is that the Journey program is along the lines of the Cub Scouts program helps and monthly themes...a plan to guide the leader, especially geared to those who don't have any ideas of their own, but not the only resource available for that purpose. The leader we have usually has pretty good ideas for activities. She's not focusing on petals too much, in fact, she seems to be trying to spread them out over the entire 2 years and fill in meetings with craft activities. The Troop went to one Service Unit activity last year and the leader mentioned another one i

My daughter just started her second year as a Daisy. I'm pretty new to Girl Scouts, but I know a lot of GS leaders because they have sons in Cub Scouts. I recall, before my daughter joined up, that one of these leaders was talking about "journeys" and basically that it was designed to supplement the Daisy Petals and that now that there were 2 years of the Daisy program, most leaders were using the journeys for the second year. So, I didn't give it much thought last year. Then over the Summer, we were at Cub Scout Day Camp and there were about 6 Daisy Girl Scouts hanging out in the

Tiger Stripes All boys but one line up facing away from the audience. A boy walks up the the first in line, taps him on the shoulder and asks, "Why do tigers have stripes?" The boy who was tapped turns around and says, "I don't know" taps next boy and asks, "Why do tigers have stripes?" and so it goes down the line until the last boy turns around and says, "Because they would look silly with spots" and we see that the last boy has spots stuck all over him.

Any new word on this? I looked on scoutstuff and the old book isn't on there anymore.

"Elmer's white school glue will temp. hold a patch to be stitched. It washes out. " Yeah...I use a glue stick

If the boy is doing a good job, don't penalize the boy by taking him away from the boys he has a report with. If the affiliated troop has a boy they want to provide as a den chief, let him cover the bear den, and then promptly take the Webelos over to the affiliated troop for a troop visit, so the troop can make their case for joining them. Our affiliated troop has gone downhill over the years. In the last 4 years, we've only crossed over one Webelos to them. The rest went to another troop. They sent us two den chiefs in that time and one of them ended up switching troops to go where

The parent is Akela. The den leader is Akela. If they say the award is earned, it's earned. There is no testing done in Cub Scouts. The AC's only role is to double check that any pre-requisites are met (ie. if they never earned the belt loop, they can't earn the pin...maybe the DL forgot to mention the boy did both). And then the AC arranges for the awards to be purchased and awarded. I will however, repeat what I said earlier...have the parents communicate awards through the DL, not directly to the AC....it saves on confusion. AND parents aren't to sign off in the Webelos book. T

Boy's not interested, Dad is nothing but complaints.... Don't count on them staying in scouts too long. In the meantime, ask Dad to organize or run an event or outing of some sort. Either he will step up to the task and have some appreciation for all you do, or he will run for the hills and you'll be rid of him.

Don't like it. I tried to sew on a patch that had been badge magic'd on, but was coming up at the edges and the needle got so gunked up, it wouldn't go through the fabric anymore. One patch came off it's backing, leaving the backing on the shirt (not the world crest, which even BM warns you will do this) I managed to get the backing off of the shirt, but nothing I did would get the badge magic off, not Goof off, not wd-40, nothing. More than one person in our pack has a badge magic stain on a shirt where they put a patch in the wrong place or for some reason removed a patch and

"It is my understanding that it is 1 patch earned after doing 2 requirements in each of 5 categories. Then if you complete the entire category after earning the patch there are 5 pins 1 for each category. Much like the Varsity C Letter pins where you earn the belt loop first then for completing the entire requirement you get a pin to add to the Letter." You don't have to do the WHOLE category to earn additional pins. Just two more activities. "I just looked at the scouting store. I was wrong. There is 5 different patches and pins as well as the Family award patch. I still believe th

The either/or was in the old requirements. In the new book, it says, "Upon completion of the award, the family may be presented the BSA Fun for the Family Award certificate and each family member may be presented the BSA Fun for the Family Award patch or patches, according to the requirements that they have met." (This is what is confusing to me, because there are 5 different patches for 5 categories, but you must do two activities from each category to earn the award) Then on the very next page it reads, "After receiving the patch, family members may continue working on the Fun for

I know I read a discussion somewhere on changes to this award, but for the life om me, I can't find it. Anyway, I recently got a copy of the new requirements for this award, which is now called "Fun for the Family" award. Basically, the award is earned by completing 10 activities, 2 each in 5 different areas. The family members would earn a patch and a certificate for this. THEN the family members can earn pins to wear on the patch, by completing 2 additional tasks within any of the 5 given areas. The color of the pins vary depending on the area worked on. Under the old award

The diamond shape Webelos badges are still available and both Bobcat and Webelos badges can be worn on the tan uniform in the same configuration that they would be worn on the blue uniform. You'll notice on the uniform inspection sheet: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34282.pdf it shows the full diamond configuration with a Webelos badge and it says, "Blue or tan shirt." So they can wear both the Bobcat and Webelos, but since they just joined, they wouldn't have the Bear and Wolf. Or they can center the bobcat on the pocket and remove it when they earn Webelos, wearing eit

Don't be above correcting the behavior of other people's children, siblings included. Get to know their names. Nothing stops my daughter in her tracks faster than some other adult calling her to task. She hears me often enough to tune me out. You'd also be surprised how many parents tune out their own children because they get to talking to the other parents and aren't aware of what's going on. MOST of them will back you up if you are consistent in enforcing behavior. The ones that get bent out of shape over it will either get over it or they aren't really into scouting's values any

Does he collect Scout memorabilia? If so, get something either new from the scout shop or some collectors item off of ebay, doesn't have to be expensive, just something you think he'd like. You can also apply to get him recognized with the President's Volunteer Service Award... http://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/index.cfm Costs nothing, sounds impressive and it's a huge pat on the back for all he does for the unit.