Scouting Mom

Doesn't sound like you were an "assistant" to anyone. Where was the Cub Master all this time? Doesn't a new pack need a Cubmaster, a committee member and a den leader to start? Maybe this varies by council, but an Assistant Cub Master is always way down the list of require positions. You cannot be officially registered in two positions unless one of them is Charter Organization Rep. Now, acting in two or three different roles, especially in a new (or even an old) pack is not unheard of. In fact it happens quite often. Frankly, IMO starting a pack in June is about the stupidest th

Centered above the left pocket. But there is no "project" involved in getting one.

Wow, I will forever count my blessings. Our school schedule is published two years in advance. Private schools arrange their schedule to correspond to the public schools. The county prohibits fall sports practices to begin before a certain date in August. A coach even got fired for trying to force players to start earlier. We are one of the earliest districts back to school in our state at a week and a half before Labor Day. Our mandatory standardized testing is in March too. I bet it has something to do with reporting it to the federal government. BUT Spring Break statewide must in

Sounds like our pack in the years shortly before we joined... Dictatorial CC, indifferent DLs and a CM who really wanted to do it right, but was not comfortable standing up to anyone. Our CO, for all intents and purposes, exists in name only and has nothing whatsoever to do with the pack, so we had no recourse there. CC had the attitude that it was going to be done his way, even if he had to do it himself. So, everyone let him do it all. He was burning out, by his own admission, but wouldn't step down without handpicking his successor. Along comes a new Tiger DL. This was th

I've been on our committee for a year and a half now. Committee meetings are held in someone's kitchen and no one is in uniform. I don't have an official role at pack or den meetings. Most of my job as advancement chair is done by email. I got a uniform as a Christmas present for two reasons...I was scheduled to attend Univ. of Scouting in February (uniform required) and in June, I was slated to become Tiger DL. It came with interchangeable position patches on velcro. The only time I wore the uniform as a "committee member" was at a couple of trainings, the district banquet and when

I worked in a business setting where they hired a new salesman who was in his early 20's. It was a new type of position for him. He'd only done retail sales before. Now, I'm a very "mom" type of person. At that time, I was only about 7-8 years older than this man, but still I gave off a "mom" aura. I looked at him one day and said in a very even tempered way, "I know it's just a habit, but do you even realize that every other word you say is f***?" He and the others present were so shocked to hear the word coming from me that they all stopped and thought about it. He was much more co

We invited the Girl Scouts to our Pinewood Derby. We ran it for the boys as usual, then for the girls, breaking them down by grade instead of "rank" so that it would be similar. Then ran the girl winners against the boys. The girls won.

Our council does this on a council-wide level. Last year's item was a matchbox car with the "Race to Scouting" logo and tickets to a local race track which hosts "Race to Scouting Night."

Like any group of people there are good and bad people. If someone earned Eagle and is now a leader what does that mean? Pros: They know that scouting is a positive influence on young people. They know that the boys can get a lot out of the program and have fun doing it. They may know that sticking with it and earning Eagle can give a sense of accomplishment and could possibly help you in the future by giving you skills that will help you get a good job. Hopefully they can be a role model of Scouting values. Cons: Scouting has changed a lot over the years. I assume fro

gwd, I think your letter followed by a call is a good idea. A bulk mailing from the council is a bad idea because if their reasons for not joining were because they didn't like their Webelos experience or they visited one troop and didn't like it, a letter from the council will be ignored. The Webelos from our pack this past year almost didn't crossover. The DL was a last minute substitution when the old DL stepped down and he wasn't real gung-ho. He just muddled through because someone had to. The troop that we traditionally crossover to is struggling and made a poor impression o

There's no such thing as recruiting being "too good" and you can't turn away boys who are likely choosing to transfer over dropping out altogether. You can't be blamed for doing such a good job that all others pale in comparison. Your CM can't be expected to do double duty. It's unreasonable to think that is an acceptable long-term solution. Let me take a moment to speak from the other side of it. At one time, about the time that our oldest son first joined, the pack was falling apart and many boys left for another pack. Our pack was recruiting half-heartedly from 4 schools and droppe

Is our UC competent? Probably. Is he overworked? Definitely. I don't know him well. I haven't seen him at a pack meeting/function in about a year. I don't know how many units he is responsible for, but there is at least one other that is having issues that not only is he dealing with, but the DE has been called in to help keep the unit going. As a result, I'm not well versed in the Commissioner program and how it works. I do know that when a new pack was formed last October, they were left on their own to figure it out and they are only surviving through the dedication of the CM

The Charter Organization can require membership as a condition of participation in the scouting unit that they own. Look at LDS. But I also know another church in our district which does it, a Methodist parish I think it is. They have a Cub unit and a Boy Scout unit. I think one has 60 boys and the other has about 80. If your CO is floundering for lack of membership, it would be in your unit's best interest to see if you can do something about it.

ASM, Yes, the VFW as well as the AFL-CIO scholarships are for members of those organizations. There is no stated restrictions on the applications besides membership, but given the limited number of awards, it would make sense for them to pick those people who will do their organizations the most good, (ie. for a VFW chartered unit) Also, the Catholic Church nationwide now requires leaders of their scout units to go through the Church's YP training and criminal background checks. And as Beavah said, the "big guy" (the archdiocese's office on scouting) understand the big picture, ev

If the troop committee really wants this person to go to Wood Badge and it's not going to happen without the troop's help, then it's something they have to consider funding. It may be possible to set up a "scholarship" program within the troop. Set up guidelines for what factors are considered in establishing eligibility. For example, require that a certain number of ticket items directly benefit the unit. Since one of the steps in writing a ticket is to get the cooperation/approval of those whose cooperation is needed, the committee will need to be consulted for anything affecting the

Our Council's Boy Scout Camp has a program for Webelos. W1's and W2's can both go for a week long program with activities geared toward earning activity badges. Maybe that's the kind of thing being offered and someone got their terminology mixed up.

Our CO is so uninvolved that every 2 years we have to inform their newly elected president that we exist. We get no money from them at all, ever. We get banquet space for free in their building and we have a storage shed on their property. That is the extent of their support. Changing COs depends on the CO. They can make it as easy or hard as they want. AND any new CO you find isn't going to be thrilled to learn you want money from them from the start. You need to build that relationship first. It would probably be easier to build a relationship with the existing CO. P

I just went for my Tiger Leader Specific training. There were two of us there, so they lumped us in with the Cub Scout LST. I spent more time sharing my experiences with my older son's Wolf & Bear dens, to assist those Tiger DLs turning into Wolf DLs, than learning about being a Tiger Leader. They didn't return the favor, mostly because they seemed more lost and confused than I was. What I would have liked to discuss was shared leadership and how to make it happen. Go-see-its and the resources particular to my area for doing that. For example, we're a rural area, so a trip to a f

There is computer software out there just for PWD racing. I've been told you can do a search for it online, but I've never tried, because our pack already has a copy that they use. You can enter the number of racers and the number of lanes and the computer will tell you which lanes to race which cars. Each car will get the opportunity to race in each lane in order to rule out one lane being "faster" than another. The computer then will correct for any lane preferance issues and declare a winner.

I've always been curious why an atheist would choose to join an organization or to have their child join an organization that requires them to say an oath to do duty to God. How do you explain to the child the discrepency in swearing duty to something that they believe doesn't exist?

Congratulations on your new position and thank you, you are appreciated for stepping up, even if it takes a while for your pack to value your contribution. As for how a meeting should be run... You are the Chair, you set the agenda (with input from the committee, hopefully). Send out the agenda in advance, so that everyone knows what to be prepared for (ie. the treasurer actually needs to know that they are expected to report on something). And don't get discouraged. Remember, no one wanted the job, probably because no one set a good example of how it should be done. Set that examp

Our district sometimes holds "upgrade" leader specific trainings. These are abbreviated trainings for leaders who have already attended one LST, but are changing positions. They just eliminate the overlap and focus on the differences.

Anyone ever heard the term "loyals" when referring to cub scouts? I saw a message floating around our district communication board(original source was a den leader) referring to "Webelos and Loyals" working on their activity badges. So, from this, I gather that the term "loyals" is being used to differentiate between Webelos I and II, but I'm not sure which is supposed to be which. Not that it matters, since they were working on the same badges. I know that officially a Webelos scout is a Webelos scout and that common usage refers to I & II, to distinguish between 4th graders and 5th g

Our pack meets in a school. The schools have banned them even after hours because of safety and because they mark up the floors. The church social hall where the local troop meets has also banned them.

I believe what makes the difference between something being labeled properly for individual sale is the nutrition information. By law, people have a right to that information. I think a copy machine could solve that problem.