SeattlePioneer

Is April Fools Day delayed this year for some reason?

I played the trumpet as a youth --- not very well. When I became Scoutmaster at age 32, I functioned as the Troop Bugler for a while, no one else having the skill. Eventually one boy was very eager to learn the bugle, and I lent him my trumpet on the condition he practice and return it to me when he was through with it. That's the last time I heard or saw that instrument.

To officially be on the District Committee you should complete an adult leader application. Unit Scouters (Packs, Troops and such) fill in their unit type at the top line of the application, while Council or District positions are identified to the right of the unit type on that top line. Your District Activities Chair, District Executive or District Chairman should be glad to have you complete that application and be officially recognized as a district leader.

I'm a pack Committee Member and Treasurer these days. But if I can come up with a Den Chief for the Pack, I have no doubt unit leaders will be glad to have him. One of my aims is to get the Troop to take more interest in the pack. The current SM was a CM in the pack, but they have taken very little interest in the pack the past 4.5 years I've been struggling to rebuild it. At present we have four Webelos II Scouts who could be entering the Troop next February. A Den Chief might make that more likely to happen.

Sorry to read about Basement's crisis of confidence. There was a Scout in the last troop where I was AS (2004-2006), He was enthusiastic about Scout but petrified of water and swimming, and his family was low income. I paid for swimming lessons at the local pool. They had an excellent program and he learned quite a bit before he quit the lessons in favor of other things. It's pretty natural for a lot of boys to outgrow Scouting after 1st Class. A fact of life, especially if a Troop doesn't offer high adventure programs that offer fresh challenges to young men. To my way of thinking, the most important things in Scouting are learned by 1st Class. Personally, I don't deal with leaders of competing activities. They do their things and we do our thing. At our June2-3 Pack campout, a lot of boys were going to come late after sports games. So I scheduled a Raingutter Regatta as our lead off activity from 1-2 PM, and a number of boys chose to attend that activity in the end. But even if they don't, making choices is part of life. By the time the Raingutter Regatta was completed we had most boys present to form their dens and do our other activities as dens. And in the Cub Scouts, we Do Our Best. Sometimes that's not all we wish it might be.

To squeeze or NOT to squeeze. That is the question!

Acco illustrates how trying to follow all the various rules and suggestions in Scouting will simply result in nothing getting done. I can't even get my e-mails to the Troop Scoutmaster and Committee Chairs answered, let alone get formal approvals from adult and youth leaders for a position they are little motivated to fill in any case. And of course there is an elaborate list of suggested duties for EVERY Scouting position, but I've never known a single person who filled them all. Most people choose a few things they are good at doing or they would like to do --- I see no reason a Den Chief should be any different. I'm afraid I see acco's comments as rule bound and lacking in experience. Instead of the approach proposed by acco, my aim is to tailor the position to the interests of the possible Den Chief, and to negotiate activities that would be of interest to him and within the limits of time he might have available for this kind of project. I would be running this idea past the Troop Committee and the SM to see if that sounds good to them. I don't know if the SPL sits in on Troop Committee Meetings or not. If the SM wants to discuss my offer of a Den Chief position to a Scout in the troop, of course he would be free to do so. As a Pack leader, it's not up to me how the unit leaders handle such appointments. In my experience, it is tough to find Den Chiefs willing to serve, but they can be very valuable for Cub Packs. I'm simply describing a method I am hoping will result in producing a Den Chief which otherwise would not happen. Is it something of a compromise? Very likely. If it works it would still be very valuable for the Pack and very likely for the Scout as well. That would be good Scouting in my book.

Interesting question. How 'bout deciding which water treatment methods are acceptable and need to be used, and which are reasonably optional? Any that need to be used would be carried as Patrol equipment by each patrol, and expected to be used. Training and experience in water treatment ought to be part of troop and patrol meetings. Each Scout might be expected to make and drink samples of filtered and chemically treated water. If someone has a microscope, it might be interesting to take a sample of river water and observe it through the microscope before and after it's been treated by various methods and combinations of methods. Dramatic story telling by someone who has had giardia might be part of the program!

You are being a generous and brave Scouter by adopting this approach, in my opinion. It takes a LOT more courage for an adult to try something like that in front of boys knowing you will fail than most things in life. It's good for Scouts to observe and understand that kind of courage in my opinion.

I happened to sit on the Board of Review for a very able Star Scout who earned his Life award as the Unit Commissioner for the Troop a week ago. I'll be attending the Troop Committee meeting Wednesday as the Unit Commissioner for the troop and I may use that as an opportunity to see about having that Life Scout serving as a Den Chief for my pack. Personally, I think we ask too much for a Scout to attend all the den meetings and activities and such. If invited to do so, I'd be inclined to negotiate with the Scout about what would work for him in serving as a Den Chief. The pack meetings start at 6:30 while the Troop meets a few blocks away at 7:00. Perhaps he can come and help get meetings started and then go on to his troop meeting. He needn't show up at all the den meetings either. Perhaps we could negotiate on which meetings and activities he's attend, especially when he might be leading an activity for the pack. And finally, in my experience a key issue for Den Chiefs is to treat them as pack and den leaders, not as help meets for the Den Leader. They should have significant leader responsibilities. So my theory is that I'll have a leg up on recruiting Den Chiefs if: 1. I have had a Scouting relationship with the youth 2. I have a working relationship with Troop leaders. 3. I'm flexible and accommodating about what I expect from a Den Chief. 4. I expect the Den Chief to have significant leadership experiences and a meaningful role as a youth leader. Any comments or additions in how to improve the odds of getting Den Chiefs for your pack?

If it's not practical or desirable to keep growing, don't. You don't earn the award that year. That's life in the big city, or the small rural district.

Last year we used Scout Accounts with the popcorn sale, and more or less gave families 25% of what they sold. We charge $60/year for pack dues, and families can choose whether to pay cash or use Scout account credits to pay for uniforming, dues, den books or whatever. So families that want to buy adult uniforms with Scout Account money are welcome to do so. But none have --- not yet anyway.

That would be ME! You'll note I found an adult uniform at a thrift shop. But that's a rare find in my experience. I like the idea of checking with wealthier units. We have some of those in our district, and they might help us out. I'd like to find someone to clean and sew uniforms so that they are a nice, complete thing to present as described in Fehler's post. Wouldn't that be a nice gift to a new Tiger Cub Den Leader?

Hello Basement, I don't see this as a matter of race or class. I see it as an issue of a boy actively subverting the values of Scouting in ways that are actively harming other boys and could easily threaten adult leaders as well. Knowing when to fish and when to cut bait are both necessary skills. Mostly we fish. If we fish when we should be cutting bait we are subverting our values, undermining our unit and threatening the safety of all concerned. From the comments made in this thread, I'd say it's time to cut bait. I'd suspend the boy for 30 days and then give him another opportunity to see if he wants to live the Scout Law.

I mentioned this pack is in a low income area. Air Jordans aren't likely to be found and money is an issue for a good many families.

Hello acco, Because Irving, Texas is really not the be all and end all of Scouting, despite what they may think. Because there are really lots of ways to run a quality Scouting program, and quality programs may in fact be impaired by following trivial, nitpicking rules. Because Scout Troops have their own personalities and practices, many of which work just fine. Why is Irving, Tx making a lot of pointless, nitpicking rules that really aren't important and that they cannot and do not enforce?

So what are you doing for your Tiger Camp? I'm doing our Tiger Twilight camp for the fourth year.

Yawn.

Tampa Turtle says: > Heh, heh! I just found an adult uniform blouse at a thrift shop for $4. I'd like to give it as a gift to a likely den leader, or perhaps give it out as a loaner as long as they are den leader. I have a pack in a low income area. It's been tough to get adults uniformed, although I've been having some success. While I'm always in a full uniform, that has only been a partial answer to the issue. Uniforms cost money, and money can be an issue and barrier. Any suggestions on dealing with that, especially for new leaders?

In my opinion and experience, Tiger Cubs is the best year of the Cub Scout program. Tiger Cubs can be excited about pretty much ANYTHING... for about five minutes, ten minutes tops. Then they are ready to go on to something else, and you better be ready to move on to the next activity too. The Tiger Cub Meeting plan has a program for a series of activities, some very simple such as giving each boy a chance to talk about themselves and what they have done lately. The smart move is to sign up as the Tiger Cub Den Leader, to get trained to learn about the program --- and then to insist that other parents organize most of the program. By doing this you can 1) insure a high quality program 2) get parents in the habit of contributing to the program rather than running away from it. To boast a bit, I led two different Tiger Cub programs at two different packs one year, will be leading our July "Tiger Twilight Camp" this summer for the 4th time and will be conducting Tiger Cub Den Leader Training this summer to get newly recruited parents up to speed on how to run the Tiger Cub program so they will be ready to go in September.

The usual rule of thumb is that one bad Scout can drive six good Scouts out of the program.

> Sort of makes it pointless to have that kind of restriction, doesn't it? I have to say that the bottom line of this discussion is to make me more cynical about BSA "rules." There are too many of them and they are attempting to impose top down leadership from on high in Irving, Texas for reasons that are pointless. I'm readopting my original view that there is no issue with this practice of a highly skilled and experienced Advancement Chair being registered as an Assistant Scoutmaster. I wish I had as able a person serving as Advancement Chair in my Cub Pack, where advancement tends to be a shambles. If they were willing to be an Assistant Cubmaster too, they would be welcome to serve in both positions if they thought they had the time. As a Commissioner, it's not something I plan on pursuing.

I think there would be a lot to recommend suspending him from the troop each time this behavior is noted. Perhaps 30 days, then 50 days then 90 days. That gives him a chance to improve, but the main emphasis should be on protecting the unit and the Scouts and Scouters in it. But he will be thrown out of many organizations as long as he displays this behavior. Eventually he ought to get the message and change, and being suspended from Scouting is a positive step along that path. As long as the behavior is not punished, it is a winning strategy of sorts.

Hello Tampa, > Ahhh... a case study in unit leadership. So tell us something about your unit, and the effectiveness of the Committee Chair and Committee in particular and why you are having trouble finding a new SM.

> Cost and simplicity --- I like both. And I get great results with this as an activity.