ScoutNut

It depends on the council, but I believe that most have an annual solicitation program, of one kind or another, for their members and their families. In my council it is called "Family Partnership". Many councils also have 1 other council product sale during the year. Some councils do Girl Scout calendars some do magazines/nuts/candies. Like BSA, Girl Scout council sponsored product sales are not mandatory. Neither Troops or individual girls are forced to sell cookies or magazines. However, if a Troop wants to get permission to hold a money earning event they must participate in all

What do Girl Scout councils do with all of their Cookie money? The same things that Boy Scout councils do with their popcorn money! They pay for staff salaries, upkeep and expenses at council offices and council camps, camperships, financial assistance, and, of course, programing. That 400 million does not go to National GSUSA. The profit earned by each council's cookie sale stays in that council. Just like BSA's popcorn profit stays with each council. Like BSA, some GSUSA councils do very well with product sales and others struggle to find the funds they need. Most GSUSA counci

You do not have to have regular Summer den meetings in order for your boys to start work on their Bear requirements. All the boys need is their Bear book. Remember, most rank requirements should be done with the family. Summer is the best time for families to complete many of them. Like many of the others here, we hold den meetings right up until the end of the school year. At that time we hold our Graduation Pack meeting. The boys receive their new neckerchiefs and books. In June we go to a minor league ball game. Lots of fun & fireworks. July is camping month. We are do

I have known many men who were members of GSUSA. My husband was one of our co-leaders for about 8 years. There was a handicapped dad who was leader for many years. A neighboring council had a dad on staff who ran many programs for the girls. My hubby helped him out one year when our 2 councils collaborated on a 2-weekend event (1 at their camp & 1 at ours). Our parish grammer school currently has a dad who is very involved with the schools Girl Scout troops. He has been intrumental in getting our Holy Name Society (a Catholic men's organization) to sponsor the school's GS Troops (th

My son has earned 3 Roman Catholic religious awards so far. He will begin working on his next one this summer. My daughter, as a Girl Scout, has earned all 5 that she has been eligible for. As Shemgren stated each award focuses on a different aspect of their faith. Each award is also written for a specific age group. As they get older they learn a little more about their relation to their faith, and go into more depth with each new level. BTW - the little pins from the Scout Store are called Knot Devices. Many of the religious awards also have (available at the same time/place a

What I tell both my GS Leaders and my Cub Scout Parents is that they need to stop complaining about the cost and/or quality of the product and comparing it to similar retail products. You are not selling popcorn or cookies. You are selling Scouting! Sure you could come up with a different fundraiser that might make you more profit, but that is not necessarily the point. The Scout products have the program name featured on the product. If people just wanted microwave popcorn or mint cookies they could buy Orville's or Keebler's. They buy Scout products because they know that they are supp

Who can resist Dirt Pudding? Tasty, fun, and easy too! 3 cups cold milk 2 pkgs.(4 serving size)Instant Pudding, Chocolate or Vanilla 1 tub (12 oz)COOL WHIP Whipped Topping, thawed 1 pkg. (16 oz.) Chocolate sandwich cookies, crushed HINT: Crush cookies in zipper-style plastic bag with rolling pin or in food processor. MAKE pudding as directed on package using 3 cups milk; let stand 5 minutes. STIR 3 cups of the whipped topping and of the crushed cookies into the pudding OR alternate layers of crushed cookies and pudding/whipped topping. SPOON into 13" x 9" dish. Sprink

Sorry, but it is Marty_Doyle who is correct and not Twocubdad. With the many LDS units not doing the Tiger program and the boys who join after 1st grade there is no way BSA will discontinue the diamond Webelos rank badge any time in the near future. This is just another urban Scouting myth right up there with the Tiger one that crops up every year! And SC, talk about "unfairness", how fair is it to make a boy wait approx 7 months to receive a badge they have earned? That is what would have any boy in our Pack screaming mad! One of the basic policies of the BSA programs is immediat

Welsh Industries has 151 different stock patch segments. Here is their website: http://www.welshind.com/segs.htm

Sorry about the overlapping. You are a faster typer than I am and I have a tendency to type a bit then do some actual work (it would be nice if I could get paid for this, but no such luck LOL!) then come back to finish my post. As for 10 year olds screaming about the unfairness of it all - no I don't think so. In the 9 years I have been with Cub Scouts their has never been a problem. The boys are excited to be a Webelos. A big scout fish in the Pack pond. The Webelos program is different from the other Cub Scout programs. The boys know this and are are proud of that. Sure they are

Webelos is a transition time between Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting. Part of that transitioning is the tan/olive uniform and wearing only the most current rank badge. This does not make the Webelos rank badge superior to the other badges. The uniform & insignia changes simply makes the Webelos Scout stand out a little from the rest of the Pack. They start looking (and thinking) more like the Boy Scouts we would like them to eventually be. Perhaps BSA should take out the option completly, but I don't see it happening. We have had Webelos dens where 1 or 2 boys would start 4th grade

From the online Cub Scout and Webelos Scout Inspection Sheet (since I do not have a copy of the Insignia Guide at hand): "Webelos Scouts wear only current badge of rank (Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, or Webelos badge) centered on pocket. Option: Webelos Scouts who have not earned the Tiger Cub rank may wear all rank badges earned with diamond-shaped Webelos badge." I think this spells it out pretty clearly. Boys who have earned their Tiger rank should remove everything (ranks and arrowpoints) except their last (current) rank badge from their shirt (tan or blue) once they graduate into Webelos. Boy

Because the Tiger Rank is still fairly new, most of the ceremonies out there are for Tiger graduation not rank. It is fairly easy to just take one of the other rank ceremonies out there and change it to be for the Tiger rank instead. Our B&G theme this year was music. I found a sing-a-long advancement that was kind of cool and just added a verse for the Tigers. It worked out fine!

Check with your local library first. They just might have a copy already. Our library keeps copies of all current scout (GSUSA & BSA) handbooks in the Youth section. I am not sure about the Fieldbook though.

Yes, if the scout & his family wish (their choice, not the Pack's), and the boy has not earned his Tiger rank, they can transfer all of their scouts ranks, arrowpoints, and whatever else to the tan shirt for Webelos. Once he crosses to a Boy Scout Troop he would be required to take off everything except those badges which can be transfered to the Boy Scout uniform. According to the Uniform Inspection Sheet, the option of wearing the ranks diamond w/ arrowpoints is open only to those Webelos who have not earned Tiger rank no matter which color uniform they choose (badge placement is the

Your biggest problem is the 2-lane track. That really limits things. Ask at your local Roundtable or give your DE a call and see if anyone has a 3-lane track that you could borrow for the evening. We have a 3-lane track and had about 34 boys racing this year. We do round-robin and every boy races every other boy and on every track. We don't care about speed, the 3 boys with the most wins race for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd. Our race was on a Friday evening & was supposed to start at 7 pm. Well as often happens, there were some snags! We were not able to get into the hall to set up until after 6pm

Rank insigna - The most current badge of rank is worn centered on the left pocket of the Boy Scout tan shirt above the AOL award. The most current for a brand new Boy Scout would be his Webelos badge. He can leave his oval Webelos Rank badge on his tan shirt untill he replaces it with his Scout Rank badge. Also don't forget Cub Scout service stars. These can be worn on the Boy Scout uniform too.

Actually, for rank badges, if the boys have chosen to wear the oval Webelos badge they can wear that until they have earned their Scout badge.

I have found my Tiger dens to be a bit Go-See-It challenged also. Many of my boys, and their other family members, are into many other activities as well as Scouting. Sometimes getting them to a trip that takes the better part of a Saturday is hard. The 1 hr ones are a lot easier because we just use the regular meeting time. Also, some months we don't have a lot of trip time available. Meetings are taken up with working on Haunted House, Showtime, Cardboard Box Car Derby, or B & G table decorations. Then we have the holidays. We "Do Our Best" and the boys seem to have fun! Gee

What I tell my parents is that Den trips and Den activities come first for the rank requirements. Only if they miss an activity will I take a family trip or activity in it's place. You need to take the time to explain the program to them. Sometimes more than once! Another thing to stress is that only activities that they did with their son while he was a registered Tiger Scout can count. Last year I had a parent who signed off on a lot of electives with notes by each one that they were done on a family trip 2 years before!

Most religious organizations use Scout Sunday to recognize those of their members who have earned religious medals that year. Our church is very pro scouting. Scout Sunday mass is very special. The banners made by the boys earning their Parvuli Dei religious emblem are used to decorate the church. All of the servers and minsters are either boys or Scouters. All of the Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and their leaders, in uniform, gather at the back of the church and process in before the Pastor. We carry in the American flag and the Pack and Troop flags. The boys and the leaders sit together

Girl Scout Week, like Boy Scout Week, celebrates the beginning of Girl Scouting in the USA. The "birthday" of Girl Scouting in the USA is March 12. Juliette Gordon Low's birthday is October 31. World Thinking Day is a day to think and learn about, Girl Scouts and Girl Guides around the world.

We stopped elimination races because they were just no fun for the boys. Once they were eliminated many chose to go home. We now do a type of round robin with the whole Pack (no separate Den races). We have a program which allows us to have each boy race every other boy and in each lane. It works out great because we keep all of the boys racing right up until the end. if it is getting kind of late we just drop a round. We then take the 3 who have won the most races and have a race off for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. We use Asst Scoutmasters from our Troop as finish line judges and Boy Scout

I agree with Bob. Leadership abilites do not spring forth full blown overnight. Has this boy been trained? You state that the pinning issue has been raised with the boy and his parents. Has it been solved? If it has, then it is a dead issue and should not affect anything. If it is still ongoing then your SM has a whole different problem than just if this boy qualifies for andvancement.

nosretep - The suggestion to see if your Pack can subsidize the boy (& possibly his brothers if they are having problems as well) is a good one. One of the reasons the boy does not come to den meetings may be because the mother is embarassed that she does not have the money for dues, books, uniforms, etc. If your Pack committee can't find the money in their budget for BSA registration, a book and den dues have them talk to your Charter Organization. Your CO might be willing to help pay for financially needy boys. By the way, the den leaders, parents, and Cubmaster should not be going