ScoutLass

Jamist, to add on to what Fish said... I'm a homeschooling parent myself. Google your city + homeschoolers and you'll likely find a few homeschooling groups. You may also want to search meetup.com for local HS groups. Contact the group owner/moderator/organizer with your scouting pitch and offer to give him/her some info to pass on to the other parent's. Another option is to ask if your library has HS services. In the city I used to live in, the library gave out packets of info/coupons for local businesses and organizations targeted at homeschoolers. If your library does this, ask i

We have been told to never use the adult app. with Tiger Partners. If there are multiple partners for one boy who live at different addresses, they just fill out the bottom half of another youth app and we attach it to the original app for the boy before turning it in. Could just be our district's way of doing it, though. As for running your own background check, I believe you have to notify the person you are doing so by law. It may depend on your state, but that is how it is in where I live.

Awesome Scoutfish We've had a couple meetings already this month and they've been great, but we also stay pretty busy over the summer. We have our pack party tonight, so keeping my fingers crossed for a good recruit turnout!

Sweden, Norway and Denmark have Scouting and also have high populations of athiests/agnositics. http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html The lack of Scouting in places like China and North Korea has nothing to do with the religious beliefs of the country or its population, but by the corruptness of the government. Let's not compare apples to oranges.

Not all mobility scooters are created equal. There are models that can handle most moderate trail conditions. My dad has one, a Rascal something-or-other, and he joins our family on hikes in the mountains regularly. These scooters are specifically made for off-roading and look like miniature ATVs almost. His has a key in it, so I'm guessing most probably do. You don't have to own, many places rent mobility scooters, though not sure if they rent all models. (Medical home care suppliers and Scooter dealers mainly). It's worth checking out and at the very least, they can probably outline some opt

At the cub level we include sports. In fact some achievements for rank require some sports, such as ach. 1, Feats of Skill, for the Wolf rank. Our den meetings usually consists of a craft/activity/discussion for the first half and a game for the second half. When weather permits we try to incorporate outdoor games. For example, a couple weeks ago we played flag football (which also counted toward an elective point). The belt loop program at the cub level also includes lots of sports. At the beginning of each program year we ask the boys what they enjoy, including sports. Then we incorporate th

Glue dots. These are available where scrapbooking supplies are sold. Glue dots stick on and peel off, leave no residue, and are acid-free archival quality. There are two types, removable and non-removable, so make sure to use the right one. Since they are marketed to scrapbookers, they must be archival and not damage or discolor fabric, paper or photos.

Luckily, we do not get many requests for assistance from families since we pay for almost everything except the $20 registration/insurance. Most of our money is from popcorn. We usually get another $200 to $300 in donations during the sale. Door-to-door selling isn't popular with our pack, due to the neighborhoods some of our boys live in. Most of our sales come from Blitz day and booth sales. We set up booths three days a week during the sale at a hardware store. (Not to sound sexist, but mainly men tend to go to hardware stores, and many of these guys were scouts. If they don't buy popcorn,

Our pack is trying to develop a workable budget, but we are getting there. We are still rebuilding our pack from near death a few years ago. The problem adult leadership team has moved on, thankfully. When the current group of leaders took over the pack, we had a negative balance in the pack account (though the ledgers said differently). Whether it was poor record keeping on the part of the last treasurer or theft, we may never know. We have two main feeder schools for the pack. One is a solidly middle class school while the other holds the distinction of being the poorest in the county.

Gary, while I agree with you in theory, in action money is a limiting factor. If the choice for a pack is to award unlimited belt loops or to spend the money on field trips and activities for the boys, I vote for the activities hands down. If we began requesting dues, we would lose a lot of boys. It has been attempted in the past, and parents pull them out rather than admit they can't afford it. (Pride can be a strange thing). The CO now requests we don't do dues. It's just a request, but it makes sense for our group. The families that are better off financially already fund a lot silently, so

The way we do it is each den votes in September and again in January on which belt loop they want to earn. Then that den works toward the loop. The pack pays for these two loops. Any loop earned at home, the parents or scout pays for. Our pack doesn't charge dues, so we have to have some limits in place. The boys can also decide to work toward a pin on an already earned loop instead, if they want. Our CO requests we don't accept dues, because we have quite a few families from low-income homes that otherwise wouldn't participate. Boys are expected to participate in fundraisers instead, which wo

Sounds like our Camporee this weekend. We only went for Saturday, because who wants to camp at the fair grounds? Most of the events were held inside the Expo center, and the only food available was from a local fast food vendor that has an exclusive contract with the fair grounds. We had a one of those big blow-up jump houses there, the climbing wall, and a pinewood derby, as well as a bunch of other carnival-like games. A ton of local businesses had booths set up for the boys, and it seemed like a lot of people were there for the free swag more than anything. The Smokey Bear booth did th

I am a little curious about the religion requirement. We're good, our family is Buddhist which is 'acceptable' by BSA standards, even though there is no true god in Buddhism. (Buddha is not a god, just a man, though many non-Buddhists mistake him or Hotei (the fat Buddha) as a god). The problem is, by allowing all religions the BSA cannot claim to be a Christian organization. Which means they are ignoring the needs of a portion of their membership who meets the religion requirement but does not practice some of the, shall we say, less than savory bigotry that tends to wrongfully pass as religi

As the others pointed out, this isn't how a pack should be run. In fact a Webelos should be doing most of his work in the den with the other boys. Please don't let this turn you off scouting, it is a wonderful adventure that really fits in with homeschool philosophy when it is done right. I'm a homeschooler too. Many areas have packs made up of homeschooled kids, so it may be worthwhile to inquire at your local scout office to see if they are aware of any. Local homeschool groups may also know of one. Check out a couple of packs and find one that is a good fit. Good luck!

Potlucks require organization to be successful, so don't give up on them too soon! Otherwise you end up with one or two families trying to feed everyone. It usually just takes one bad potluck for everyone to realize they better pull their fair share next time. The first trick our pack discovered is to do a theme--Italian night, chicken dinner, what have you. Then, assign dishes by den. For an Italian theme you may have webelos families bring the main dish, bears the salad or side, wolves the dessert, and tigers the bread. Give families the option of opting out of the potluck for a small d

Thanks for the info Troopgeek! I went ahead and did the survey. If you need any other information feel free to ask me.

We are told each year at Pow-wow that most boys join cub scouting because they think we want to camp all the time. It is how the program is sold. Even the little sheets of paper we hand out at the schools have a boy in a canoe on them so naturally this is what they boys expect. Now, you don't have to go camping to satisfy this. Go to a local park for a den meeting and practice setting up and taking down tents. The boys will have a ball. Alternately, plan a a whole day and run a 'camping skills seminar' either at a nearby campsite or at park. Practice tents, first aid, setting up logs for

I'm a little confused as to why you are gathering the information. Are you looking to build a pack/troop site, offer a product to packs/troops, or just curious? Knowing the aim of the information may make me a little more comfortable with sharing it. That being said, I am our pack's webmaster because I'm the one who knows how to build websites. I used Wordpress on my own hosting account to do so, because Wordpress is awesome and whoever inherits the website duties from me can quickly be shown how to update it--even if they have never seen a computer in their life. I use our council

I'm not too picky, but there better be a lake or river to take a dip in if the weather is too hot. A local troop offers an outdoor winter seminar for all the cubs each year. The troop camps the whole weekend but cubs and their families are welcome to camp the night if they desire. This year my 4 yr old son tagged along and he didn't want to go home, he enjoyed it so much. Of course, it only got down to 25 degrees. I think a lot does depend on what neck of the woods you are in. Here in Eastern Washington people start wearing shorts and sandals if the temps are above 40 in the winter.

I finally got in, too! Thanks to those members who noticed that registration was a no-go!