SeattlePioneer

What is the responsible thing to do if you have custody of a child and the child's welfare and the child gets sick? I suggest that informing the parents of the illness and the nature of the illness when reasonably possible to do so is the reasonable thing to do. Perhaps that's burdensome for camp staff. Tough. This is one of the things Camp Directors should plan for and be ready to do if necessary.

My Tiger Cub Den Leader knot is one that I wear most proudly and show off to Tiger Cub Den Leaders in hopes they will choose to earn it. One of the prettiest and most recognizable of the knots too, at least in my opinion. Scoutmaster Key but no Cubmaster knot, eh? That's shortsighted.

> Yes, that's all too common. And it leads to troop failures. As District Membership chair I'm working with a troop like that right now. We've scheduled a recruiting night for the troop in September and will be using a community celebration and school visits to identify interested youth and invite them to the recruiting night. No guarantees that that produces recruits, though. It may take several recruiting efforts to figure out the particular methods that will work in finding and attracting new Scouts. It's tough work, but it's essential that it be done!

Do we trap Den Leaders when their boys join Tiger Cubs or Wolves, and then expect them to keep serving as Den Leaders years after year? Is that desirable or fair? What should we aim to do about it, if anything?

http://www.ahgonline.org/pages/page.asp?page_id=146921 In contrast to Girl Scouts, which as I understand it owns all the troops, AHG appears to follow the BSA model of relying on chartered organizations as sponsors. After four year of building, my Cub Pack, chartered by a Catholic parish, is a going organization. My aim this fall is to concentrate on recruiting Latino families, of which there are very large numbers around here. But longer term, it might be worthwhile to consider supplementing the Cub Scout program with an AHG unit for girls. Looking at the AHG national website, they have an interactive map showing AHG units around the country. That discloses a sprinkling around western Washington, mostly chartered by Catholic Parishes. The Archdioces of Seattle Scouting Committee seems to be supportive of AHG units, so that might be a natural to propose to our CO to start an AHG unit and start it with the support of the Cub Pack and parish. Meetings of AHG dens and Cub dens could take place in the large parish hall we currently use. When I'm doing recruiting for Cub Scouts at schools, I'm always asked about a program for girls, so we could do recruiting for AHG and Cub Scouts at the same time. We could probably share common recruiting nights and common events as long as both units wanted to do that. Sounds as natural as having left and right shoes for your feet!

Now we are to be governed by Tweets? I'd consider that someone's unofficial opinion. Still, that would conform with my methods and biases.(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

Based mainly on the comments by Big Bovine, his decision to go with the new troop seems reasonable and plausible to me. The old troop's failure to do recruiting for five years sealed their fate as an independent unit. Their only hope was a gift from new parents they didn't earn. I'd look at letting the old troop and SM down as easily and generously as possible. I'd look for a merger of the new and old program if possible, perhaps taking the old troop's numeral to the new unit if the leaders and chartered organization would like to do that. Perhaps you can do some joint activities or outing with the old troop. In the end, there can be only one. (well, that's only on "Highlander," but perhaps it applies here.) In short, see if you can cooperate in order to effect a merger of friends and equals.

Cotton Mather has spoken.

Hello Suzy, Congratulations on jumping through all the hoops. Are you in time to go to summer camp as a troop as you planned? Do you have plans on how to recruit additional boys for your new unit? Getting those Webelos Scouts out camping would be a good thing. Are there boys who completed the Webelos program this year who aren't in a troop? They would be likely prospects. If the Webelos Den Leader is agreeable, you can let the Webelos Den camp pretty much like they were a Boy Scout Patrol. You probably have youth oriented community events at which you can get a table to publicize your new Scout Troop. I've found that doing a stationary bicycle "race" can be a good draw for Boy Scout aged youth. Use a stopwatch to let boys "race" a half mile or so, and get their name and phone number so you can let them know where they ranked when your racing is completed. You can call them with the results and invite them to a meeting to prepare for an easy camping trip. Figure how you can be using the summer for recruiting, and how you can be using the fall for recruiting as well. Sending flyers home at schools combined with school visits to invite 6th and 7th graders to a Scout meeting is a traditional method, along with using school open houses to reach boys and parents.

One of the really critical things for every Cub Pack is to get a Tiger Cub Den started with a quality program promptly at the beginning of each school year. That's one of the things I keep my eye on as a UC for a pack. Personally I thing the Tiger Cub program is the best year of Cub Scouts, unless you have a really good Webelos program that has hiking and camping with a troop.

Hello Bovine, So what kind of outdoor skills and experience do you have?

I will be Camp Director of our district Tiger Twilight Camp. Wednesday and Thursday evening 6:30-8:30 PM and Friday after noon at thee regular Cub Scout day camp shooting bb guns, bows and arrows and stuff.

Hello Frugal, Very glad to see your interesting post. One of my current goals is contact fifty people on the Scouting Alumni list who live in my district and to invite them to become active on the unit or district level. The example you provide could be my inspiration!

I have a filing cabinet drawer full of maps I've accumulated over thirty five years or so. Most are USGS topo maps, but there are numbers of forest service maps, road maps and such. Also, trail guides may have maps that are useful supplements to a regular map. Also I have platt maps for my subdivision. I pretty much am always on the lookout for maps and pick ones up that I think might be useful. 99% of the time, I make a point of knowing pretty much exactly where I am on the map I'm using. The other 1% of the time I know I have the resources and experience to find my way when it counts. If you only take your map out when you need it, you may not have the experience to be able to use it effectively.

I like that approach, Lisabob!

> I recall a camping trip at Glacier National Park. One person cleaned all the trout we caught and he SMELLED like a dead trout! We decided that was good, because none of the rest of us were likely to have to worry about bears that night. The guy did a major clean up before lights out that night ---on his own initiative.

Frankly, trying to analyze the schedules you post is not worth my time. In general though, I'd change the night of a troop meeting and/or find others to attend various meetings. You need to decide what you can reasonably do, and if that's not everything you'd like to do, tough. You might notice that BSA lists a lengthy and extensive lists of responsibilities for pretty much every Scouting position. No one does them all. I look at such lists and decide on two or three or so that I'm either good at doing or that I would like to do. The rest don't get done or I find someone else to do them. You might consider trying something like that.

Hello Scout Nut, Yes, if the plan is to use Webelos Den to start a new Troop, that is a promising plan. I would consider the impact a new troop would have on other Scout Troops in the area. That's not a bar to starting another troop, but you might wind up with two weak units that would both fail withing a few years.

I would suppose that many Scouters leading Klondike Derbies and Camporees would be glad to have Girl Scout and American Heritage Girl units participate in their activities. Shop around for districts in your area having programs like that and contact the leader of the activity.

> The current Scout leadership more or less made a decision to fold the troop when they abandoned a recruiting program. The responsibility lies with them. What are the possibility of moving the existing troop to a new chartered partner, combining that with your pack's CO? It's a huge effort to begin a new Troop. It's very likely worth the extra drive to the existing troop to maintain that resource and leadership base. Having a quality Troop Committee Chair is a big advantage by itself. I would suppose that the odds of both the new and old troop failing within a few years are fairly good. I'd look very carefully at how you can keep the resources of the old troop available --- either by a moving the program or by staying with the existing troop. But if you want to start a new troop, you are entitled to do so. I took over a Cub Scout pack four years ago that was down to a single boy. I've put huge amounts of time into it and we have a quality program but it is still struggling.

Four years ago I took on the task of rebuilding a pack that was down to a single boy/ That boy was a WebI, and he was coached by the Cubmaster, the only remaining active adult. I began rebuilding the pack by organizing and leading a Tiger Cub Den, and expanded with a new Tiger Cub Den each year. Four years later we have four Webelos IIs who I'm hoping will be crossing over into Boy Scouts in February, and we have a pretty good cadre of adult leaders developed over time. It's a LOT harder to recruit Webelos than Tiger Cubs and Wolves. And Webelos Scouts and families are going to be gone in a year or two, leaving you without a functioning pack. I like my strategy of starting with Tiger Cubs, but making a try at starting both a Tiger Cub and Wolf Den would be worth considering. You need to start with a carefully devised recruiting plan to insure that you will have the boys you need, and you need a well though out strategy on how to get the new parents involved RIGHT AWAY as well, in my opinion.

Hello desertrat, I'm opposed to brutal personnel practices, and I council's have a reputation of being unreasonably demanding of DEs. Personally, one of my aims is to take some of the load off of my DE, and I think I help with that. But the real answer to that issue is more volunteers who take charge of doing more stuff. Ideally, we should be able to run our programs with volunteers only, would be my theory. So one of my aims is to find ways to attract and keep more district and council volunteers. Keeping more of our youth as they become young adults could be part of that, and the motivation for this thread. When I get around to it, I've set a goal of calling fifty people on the new Scouting Alumni list in my district to see if I can find some new people to help out with our district program. To some extent, Des make their own problems. If they are effective in recruiting, training and motivating district volunteers, their job can be a good deal easier. If they aren't, all the hard work in the world may not be enough.

Realignment In 2004, the Girl Scouts of the USA hired Professor Willie Pietersen, an instructor at Columbia Business School, to use his expertise in business metrics "to help Girl Scouts develop a strategy to ensure our future success and growth." They used his help in setting targets and implementing ways to change the organization for the better. In addition, six "Gap Teams" looked at ways for Girl Scouting to improve their structure to prepare for future growth and success for the organization.[28] This was following declines in membership and in revenue, as well as challenges in cross-subsidizing programs for inner city girls. The governance Gap Team found that consolidation decreased confusion and provided economies of scale, and recommended an optimal council size of approximately 10,000 girls.[29] As of 2006, there were 312 regional Girl Scout councils, which own the 236,000 local troops and other groups. As part of the August 26, 2006 reorganization, the National Board of Directors decided to restructure the 312 councils into 109 councils.[30] This was not without resistance, as the Girl Scout council in Manitou, Wisconsin sued the national GSUSA in Federal District Court alleging breach of the Girl Scout charter, which was summarily dismissed with prejudice by the court.[31] However the Seventh U.S. Circuit of Appeals overturned that decision stating that a Girl Scout council agreement "was no different than a Dunkin Donuts franchise" and maintained the status of the Manitou council. Thus, there are 112 Girl Scout councils in the United States.[32] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Scouts_of_the_USA

I've seen two really excellent DEs who are making fine successes as professional Scouters. One of them spent a good deal of his second third and fourth years as DE as the Camp Director for the council summer camp. I see some DEs working really hard. I see others working smart, concentrating on recruiting volunteers to do a lot of the work DEs would otherwise have to do. As a district membership chair since 2004, I'm an example of that. I was recruited by the DE to be the Membership chair and then groomed to take significant responsibility in managing the district's recruiting efforts. At least in part because of that, the district has been more successful at recruiting and the DE has had to do less work. My current DE works very hard himself, but has been less successful in getting volunteers to help get things done. Which model is better ---- a very hard working DE who does stuff himself or a DE who recruits additional district leaders to help get things done?

Personally I think you go too far in emphasizing helping other people. If Scouts lose equipment, they aren't being responsible. They aren't being TRUSTWORTHY. A gentle reminder of that failing seems reasonable and appropriate when someone loses gear. Singing a goofy song because someone else bailed you out because you weren't being responsible seems reasonable. In other circumstances, losing gear could have fatal consequences. Getting in the habit of paying attention to such things is valuable. It's certainly a habit with which I still have to struggle all too often. So I don't have a problem with it.