Scouting Mom

"Actually that is incorrect. The boy is not a Boy Scout until AFTER the application and money has been sent to the council office and processed. I would often accept an application from a Webelos family prior to the scout crossing over and would hold it until after the scout crossed. Think of it as a "letter of intent". Once the Scout received the AoL I would send the application to the office." Part of my job with the unit is accepting applications and turning them into council. Once an application is complete and accepted by the unit, the boy is covered by the insurance and is eligible

Overlooking the obvious absurdity of allowing a boy to earn a rank for a program before he is actually a part of the program.... Requirement number 10 for the Scout rank is... "Participate in a Scoutmaster conference. Turn in your Boy Scout application and health history form signed by your parent or guardian, then participate in a Scoutmaster conference." You have to turn in your application for the program THEN have the required conference. Once you turn in your application and the Boy Scout unit accepts it, you are no longer a Cub Scout and are no longer eligible to earn AOL.

Vinegar has the same tenderizing effect on meat as alcohol does. Cider Vinegar is probably the closest to the flavor of beer, but there are all sorts of other vinegar flavors...wine vinegar is closest to red wine...Balsamic vinegar doesn't resemble any alcoholic beverage that I know of, but has a strong flavor that compliments red meats...not sure how it would work with corned beef, but it is fantastic with steak or venison. There is such a thing as Beer Vinegar, but it's expensive and not readily available. I have also heard of using Ginger Ale.

That video is a good marketing tool. My Webelos son has never been really excited about scouts...he's always done it because we told him he had to do some sort of extra curricular activity and he doesn't like sports. He's getting more into it now that he has the opportunity to make more decisions himself...more a Boy Scout mentality than a Cub Scout. I showed that video to him a couple of months ago. He says, "COOL, I am SO gonna go to THAT!" So, I said, "you know it's only for Boy Scouts, not Cub Scouts and it's not until 2010." I could see the wheels turning in his he

Don't get me wrong...we didn't stop the free ride for this boy just for lack of participation. We did a lot to encourage them to continue. I don't want to go into their personal business here, but as I said, money wasn't going to fix their problems anymore, so it became pointless to give them the funds to continue scouting if that was no longer going to happen regardless of how much money we threw at the problem or how much desire the boy had to continue. We weren't going to keep paying his membership fees to keep him in the pack on paper on the off chance that one day things would get bett

Our pack decides things like this on a case by case basis. Our CO pays for nothing...not one single dime. All of our money comes from our parents and fundraisers. Some years are leaner than others and some years we can afford to give all the boys much more in the way of benefits. It is the general feeling of the current committee as well as most of the parents that I talk to, that if money is preventing participation by a scout, we (leaders and parents) need to do something about it. When I was collecting money for the last recharter, I had two different parents from two different den

"Your council shop should also have the right book." This statement is true at the moment, however, when books are changed, the Scout shops will sell the old books until they run out...at least that is true of the Tiger Handbook, which was the last book to be updated in 2006, even though the changes in that handbook were major. They also don't have the current Boy Scout Handbooks, even though new requirements went into effect in January 2008. As far as I know there is no comprehensive list of what the most recent editions are...for example, as I said, the last book updated was the Tig

Our pack does it too. It has no logic or policy behind it. It is a tradition going back more than a generation, since whenever I object, the answer I get from the male leaders is, "That's how it was done when I was a kid." Yes, it's adding to the requirements, yes I hate it BUT any display of good manners by a boy can be termed a "good deed" so it really becomes meaningless and I've learned to pick my battles.

Since the A&S program is supplemental, your pack can set some guidelines or policies related to it...for example, I've seen many sites that say each BL can only be earned once per rank, however, no where in official BSA literature does it say that. Your pack, however is free to make that policy. Our pack, and I'm learning many others, only award one BL of each type per boy...even Webelos, who often earn certain BLs for a second time don't actually get it physically awarded if they already have one. Your pack is free to set the policy which will suit them and their budget. This is e

I would say that the fact that they want to come camping is a sign that they don't want to give up on Scouts. IMO, as long as they don't give up on Scouting, Scouting shouldn't give up on them. I know that there may be attendance or participation requirements at the Boy Scout level, but at Cub level, any way to keep them involved is good. NOW, that said, if you require that parents chip in to cover the cost of camping, or if you use your fundraisers to cover that cost and they don't contribute in a financial sense, that could be a different story, but you need to have a consistent polic

"Again, had you looked at the post you would have seen that my regerence was to page 22-1 and not 21-12." Do you have the latest version of the Leader book? Because I do, and page 22-1 doesn't say anything about when a boy can or must move to Boy Scouts, however on page 22-4 it says: "Note: Although a Webelos Scout reaching age 11 or completing the 5th grade and at least 10 years old is eligible to become a Boy Scout, he may remain in the pack for six months after his 11th birthday or until he completes fifth grade, whichever is later. Webelos dens usually graduate together and form a n

"Actually, the Webelos Activity Badges DO go on the advancement reports. This may be something new, but we had to go back and put them in for the older boys who earned them before the pack began keeping good records in Packmaster, and submit the report to council." This may vary from council to council. Although there is a place in PackMaster for it, it can easily be overridden...in fact, if you put in Webelos or AOL without putting in the required badges for it, it will give you an error message with the option to ignore it...it doesn't let you ignore Bobcat, however. AND although there

Bob White Wrote: "Check with your Council's registrar. According to ours, 11 or out of the 5th grade means whichever comes first." Shouldn't that be whichever comes second? Depending on when the school cut off date is for your area, there could be lots of boys turning 11 while in 5th grade. For example if the school system uses September 1st as the cut off, boys could turn 11 on Sept 2nd of their 5th grade year, but if they are following the traditional 18 month plan for Webelos, they won't earn their AOL until the following Spring. And then there is the issue of boys who were held bac

A few years ago, we were having a yearly planning meeting. Someone brought up the Order of the Arrow and the AOL ceremony. A new den leader, who happened to be an American Indian (the preferred term to them), objected. She is very sensitive to disrespectful "play-acting" and things of that sort. She was spoiling for a fight. We assured her that the ceremony was done with the approval of American Indian tribes and that it was done in a respectful manner. She was still fuming, but given that this was several months before the event, she agreed to hold off on her objections until she co

Oops, I just went back and read the original post and realized I didn't address the original ideas... Our council does let kids sign up for day camp individually...in fact, I've been told that any boy who is a scout anywhere in the country can sign up for a day camp anywhere in the country...eliminates the "I'm spending the summer with dad who lives 5 states away, so I can't do day camp" excuse. BUT, if they boys don't know anyone and will never see anyone from camp again come fall, I don't think it matters for retention. Six Tigers is a lot for us to recruit before school lets out.

The last three years, we've had Tigers sign up before Fall. Three years ago, there was no recruiting event, just some little brothers in our pack. Mom had reluctantly agreed to be den leader. It was ok, the boy stayed in, Mom didn't really do any DL things until Fall came and eventually they moved. A second early Tiger also moved over the summer, so never really became part of the pack. Not a very successful situation. Two years ago, two Tigers came to us through a District recruiting event. They were invited to our graduation, where they were acknowledged as incoming Tigers. T

On your official Unit Roster it will list the number of months your unit has been chartered. You should get a copy of the roster from Council as part of your recharter packet each year, but if you use "internet advancement" you can access your unit roster through that site at anytime. Or you can ask your Scout Executive to obtain a copy for you.

Silent auctions are not games of chance. You don't put up any money except to purchase the item in question. If an item, or group of items has a retail value of $50, you could choose to put your name down for let's say $10 and if you are the high bidder you get $50 worth of stuff for $10. There is the opportunity for someone to wander up and put their name down for $15 and in that case, they'd get the $50 worth of stuff for $15 and the $10 bidder has lost nothing. Plus, the $10 bidder can come back later and bid $20. In the event someone ends up bidding $60 for items worth $50,

I've read a couple of articles about this case,...the Boy Scout part wasn't mentioned at the top of the article, though. It was mentioned later along with him being an honor student, etc. I'm not ready to buy into this boy's guilt just yet. If he killed the family, then went to hang out with friends in order to have an alibi, then the friends know something. The boy would have been acting strangely, nervous, would have said something odd...maybe he did and that's why he was arrested, but I'm reserving judgment.

"Raffles are legal in many parts of Pennsylvania..." Raffles are legal in most states. But it's still against BSA rules.

"Ah.. but they did, as it appears in the King James version of the bible." Oh, my....I'm speechless. Part of what made Protestants "protesters" is that they didn't agree with what writings the Catholic Church chose to include in the Bible. They removed some things, and chose different versions of others. The King James version is a translation of that.

We took a group of Cub Scouts on a day trip to Jamboree 2005. We live about an hour away. They had a blast and were only able to participate in a small portion of the activities. We saw less than half of the grounds because we were only there one day. Is it worth it? The boys will think so, although I can see the parents not wanting to put up the money. I'd make the boys fundraise for it.

"I really like the idea of 1 Pack per elementary school, not 1 pack from 3 schools." Believe it or not, that is the encouragement of our school superintendent, not so much from the BSA end. We draw from 2 schools. Of the two schools, the one where we meet has half the number of children enrolled as the other school we draw from. We have about the same number of boys from each of the two schools. So it could be argued that if we had two packs, we'd be able to draw more from the bigger school. The idea of attending a meeting at your "home" school, rather than one down the stree

This one? http://www.scoutingbsa.org/Programs/Awards/Adult_Leader_Awards/Distinguished_Commissioner_Award.html

The Trax programs are free, it's an Excel spreadsheet. I'm a Tiger leader and I sign off on books during den meetings as much as possible...which I can do because I'm using the shared leadership and I'm not running the meetings. Next year, I'll either get the ADL to record the achievements or else take the books home. BUT I can tell you that when you hand out beads for the PTR badges (I know they've been recalled, but the new ones should be available now) and Little Johnny gets one and Little Timmy doesn't and you tell Timmy that it's because Dad didn't sign anything off in his book...