ScoutLass

We don't charge dues. We do $15 per month, per 5 boys. So a den with three boys gets $15, while den with eight boys gets $30. Leaders can spend more, but they have to get treasurer approval first. But we don't just turn the cash over to the den leaders. We used to, but then we ended up with lots of doubles in supplies, like 20 lbs. of plaster of Paris, or a leader buying premade birdhouse kits when we had a huge excess of kits our old cubmaster had made. So, after the pack meeting, the den leaders give a run down of what they are planning for the next month and everyone offers their excess su

We have den flags. I made them upon the request of the last cubmaster and we use them at every pack meeting. Our flags consists of the 10 or 12 inch square rank patch the scout shop caries, sewn onto the fabric that matches that ranks neckerchief (we currently have one den per rank). We display them at pack meetings, have dens carry in their flag for the super-important events (like Blue and Gold), and we use them to display den awards. The den awards are attached to the top of the den flag, much as pack award ribbons are attached to the top of the pack flag. We give out homemade ribbons and a

Momof2, Segments are just small curved patches. Our scout shop has them or you can buy them online. They are only 50 to $1 each, which is good for our pack's limited budget. We award belt loops, but rarely actively encourage them due to the cost, so this is a good stand-in for those. You can make a vest for less than $2 and in 15 minutes, even if you have to hand sew it. I disagree with the bits and bobbles things. For one, we don't get a ton of patches beyond rank badges in our neck of the woods unless we have them made up ourselves. No Halloween patch or anything here. We award segments

I did a similar topic at our RT last year. From my notes: 1) Properly trained den leaders that understand program delivery. 2) "Trained" parents. I'm constantly surprised at the number of parents that don't understand they are also Akela and can work on advancement at home with their son. 3) Exciting ceremonies. An exciting ceremony, such as Bobcat facepainting, makes the boys that much more hungry to earn their rank. 4) Provide multiple opportunities to complete rank. I see this a lot. For example, the Tiger den does only the five required go-see-its. A kid misses one and is

We have pack and den meetings on Wednesdays. The schools around here primarily schedule their events on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Mondays and Fridays get looped into too many 3-day weekends plus people seem to not want to fill the whole days schedule with school/work and scouts at the beginning and end of the week.

Out of curiosity, what advantages do you have in mind? The primary purpose of the pack meeting is to celebrate the boys' and the dens' achievements from the past month with each other and with their families, not plan the program. Planning meetings occur with the leadership team and the parents, but these are separate events from the actual pack meeting. I'm not sure I understand what the point would be for the dens to have a 20 minute meeting in the middle of a pack meeting, I guess.

Committee: Committee chair Treasurer Assistant treasurer Advancement coordinator Event chair Popcorn kernel Communications coordinator Program: Cubmaster Tiger leader Wolf leader Bear leader Asst. Bear leader Webelos leader We recently went under some leadership changes as families crossed over, so a few of us are wearing more hats than usual. For example, I am cubmaster, tiger leader, awards chair, asst. treasurer and communications coordinator. We have filled most of the seats, but some people are still getting their stride, so except for the leaders a co

Please do not take my words out of context. I wrote "willing sacrifice" is one you make because you enjoy it or find it worthwhile. It is not the same as a forced sacrifice you would rather not make. But I believe you already know that and are familiar with this common phrasing.

Blade, Character is also what you do when others are watching. Right now, others are watching you verbally attack volunteers who willingly sacrifice their free time and money to work with and help youth. I understand that you feel very passionate about uniforming, but that is never a reason to resort to insults and rudeness. That is not modeling scout-like behavior or even mature behavior in any environment. Sometimes, we must agree to disagree. THAT is showing good character.

So what happened to a scout is kind? Friendly? Didn't realize calling people fat and lazy fit into the scout law. How is calling people fat and lazy helping other people? When you have a female body, with female curves, you can call me lazy for my uniform choice (and it is a choice. The uniform isn't a requirement for scouts or volunteer scouters). Instead of spending hard earned money on a tailor, I am going to spend it on my scouts -- where it really matters. Methinks some of the posters in this thread need to review scout spirit a little bit.

Well, I'm not much for believing that the point of education is to feed the factory. Our youth need an education so they can create meaningful jobs, not become the cogs in a corporate dinosaur. Of course, I am an anthro major, so what do I know The issue, in my sincere opinion, isn't wasted liberal arts degrees. It's too many kids going to college when college is of no benefit to them. It's kids not growing up until they are in their 30s. It's the basic unsustainability of an outdated educational system that's the problem. Well, those things and the fact politicians really shouldn't be d

Ah yes, another uniform police thread. Well TT, if those moms had said that to me, it would have been their problem when they had to find a new Cubmaster, den leader, event organizer, awards chair, webmistress, assistant treasurer and district roundtable commissioner. (Yes, I know I do too much and I am actively recruiting more adult volunteers) Thankfully, Scouts isn't a military organization and we aren't forced into unforgiving uniforming standards. One issue with the women's shirts for a long torso, busty woman such as myself is that they do not stay tucked in. If I raise my arms abo

Here we go, from a woman's perspective... I prefer the little folding shovels, the ones that go in a pouch you can wear on your belt. No digging in the pack for a shovel when the urge strikes. Preferred methodology, which I taught both my boys when they were little on camping trips, is to squat down, pants below the knees. Stick the blade of the unfolded shovel behind the pants with the shovel point in the ground. That way the shovel handle is pulling your pants forward and away from any fall-out. You can put your hand on the shovel handle to steady yourself and feel more grounded as you do

I can think of several reasons I have seen personally. When my family joined our pack five years ago, it wasn't a uniformed pack. Less than half the boys and maybe one leader ever wore a uniform. Our pack is now at near 100 percent uniformed and all leaders wear one. I've seen the difference. Boys in uniform have a greater sense teamwork, a sense of pride (in themselves, in their pack and in scouting in general), and commitment. The boys can also easily recognize each other and be recognized when out in the community. For leaders, a uniform first provides recognition to the scouts and par

I believe in uniforming, but it is only one of the methods of scouting and not the be-all, end-all. Personally I'd feel uncomfortable and unkind sending home a boy because he wasn't in uniform, especially since in your example the fault seems to primarily lay with mom and not Billy. As I said before, I'd have a long conversation with mom. The extent of punishment in our pack is that boys that don't wear uniforms can't participate in bearing a flag during the pack's flag ceremony and they won't be chosen as Denner. You could also resort to outright bribery, with prizes such as small candie

BasementDweller, Have you tried asking any of the troops you send Webelos to for old uniforms? Our pack is split down the middle between low-income and middle-income, so we have the same issue. It's the main reason we started doing the vests, so all the boys could at least have something. The district used to have a uniform closet, but it's been tapped out. We've found that troop parents sometimes will donate their boys' old cub uniforms to the pack if we just ask. We don't require uniform pants, belts or hats for this reason.

We do uniform inspections and awards. Den leaders do an inspection at each meeting, usually starting in October so the new boys have a chance to get uniforms. Proper uniforming is one thing the leader uses in determining who is denner for the month. We also hand out patch segments at the pack meeting for the best uniformed boy in each den. By November we have almost 100 percent uniforming. Occasionally a boy shows up without a uniform, but things happen. If it became an ongoing issue I'd talk with the boy and his parents. We also issue a reminder in our monthly newsletter that boys & leade

First, it will NOT suck as a two Tiger den. My first Tiger den was a two tiger den and it rocked. Our den last year was three boys, and it rocked. My current Tiger den has three boys (one my son), and we're going to rock it this year, too. In Wolf year, the last two Tiger dens have at least tripled in size, and I expect the same next year. A lot of parents seem to write off Tiger year as "too much work" due to the adult partner set-up, I think, but then join in Wolf year. I've posted this before, but I will again. A two boy den can do a ton of stuff that is more difficult to arrange/sched

I don't think there is an actual written rule, but it really is best to split a large group into smaller groups in my experience, and for several reasons. First, boys at this age feed off each other. One kid having one of those days causes most of the kids to go off the wall. Manageable when you have six boys, not so much with 12 boys. Smaller groups just work best for most of the activities. Also, while it's great that parents want to help, one person is going to still get stuck with the vast majority of the planning and record keeping. Not so bad for a few boys, awful if you have a lot.

We've done a similar soup on a campout. It became more of a casserole because of the amount of noodles brought but the boys had fun with it. One word of caution -- assign each den a theme item, such as tigers root vegetable, wolves non-root veggies, bears meat or protein (like beans), and Webelos grains and starch. Otherwise, you may end up with a lot of carrots, or like us, noodles and nothing else!

Yeah, that's the rub, for Tigers it doesn't appear there is the parent leeway as there is in later ranks. This child has a winter birthday, so he'll turn 7 three months into the start of program year, and could probably join then. Not too big a deal, but I'd hate for him to feel like he has to catch up with the boys who started out the year. Maturity-wise, the parents think he's ready (I concur with their choice. I know the boy fairly well). He isn't being held back for behavioral/academic reasons, not that it matters when you follow the letter of the membership requirements.

I know this should be straight forward, but I could use some feedback. We have a prospective Tiger Cub who is age 6 but was held back to repeat kindergarten. I know the Tiger requirements are age 7 or completed kindergarten. All his friends are going into first grade and becoming new Tigers. (For example, my son is actually a month younger than this boy, but qualifies as a Tiger since he completed kindergarten). My guess is the poor kid has to wait, but I just wanted to see what the great minds here thought. Now, I know in later grades if the boy is held back he still advances with the o

I don't know. I backpack (outside of scouts, since I'm at cub level car camping with the boys right now!) I've traipsed all over the New Mexico and Colorado back country. I'm all for skipping out on the Mountain House food, fancy tents and sleeping bags (at least for 3-season camping), and high tech water bottles. But some of the new gear shouldn't be shunned. A good water filter is a must, unless you want to pack in your weight in water or chance giardia or worse. I'm also a proponent of a good lightweight backpacking stove. Too many forest fires start because of irresponsible cooking

I agree that you can't do the same thing every year, and that is one of the most difficult parts. A great idea is only great the first couple of times, but oh, those great ideas are sometimes so hard to come by!

I found 83Eagle's comment interesting over on the other thread, about the difficulty to design pack activities that interest both 6 year old Tigers and 10 year old Webelos. Personally, I haven't run into much of an issue with it. We're a smaller pack (around 25 boys), so maybe that's why. Maybe it's easier to know the boys' individually and have a good grasp on what will excite them when there are fewer kids. So, in the interest of sharing ideas, I was wondering what other packs have discovered that work well for all ages. We have a pack activity monthly outside of the pack meeting.