SeattlePioneer

When a SM fails to approve a Scout for advancement, the advice on this board is usually that he made a mistake and that such things are the province of the BOR. Now we have a Scoutmaster approving a Scout for advancement, and the prevailing opinion is that the BOR lacked authority to withhold approval. As a UC, I wouldn't try to mediate the dispute directly. It should be resolved by the SM, CC, Scout and parents acting in their various capacities. Too bad the COH is so soon, it scarcely allows time for any deliberative or corrective actions. I think I'd advise the parents to consult with the SM first, and then the CC. The CC should be in a position to schedule another BOR in another month or so. In the meantime, the SM and CC can investigate the issues raised by the BOR, which may be the real reasons or perhaps there are other issues. One those issues have been explored and the powers of a BOR discussed as needed, it would be time for the CC to schedule another BOR with the same committee or another committee that might seem to be appropriate. The SM would be the best person to counsel the Scout in the issues at hand, and explain that unexpected things can happen in life, and that when they do you find ways to deal with those realities. A Life Scout should have the intestinal fortitude to understand that and to persevere. I don't see why this should be a huge issue. It's one of those problems that can crop up and needs to be dealt with.

I recall a classic rowboat outing in Washington State's San Juan Islands when I was Scoutmaster thirty years ago. This was about the third day of the trip, and boys woke up being pretty fatigued, too tired and hungry to make breakfast for themselves. Of course they "weren't hungry." One Patrol Leader had enough gumption to have made a small fire and was roasting a pathetic hot dog on a stick for himself. I figured it was time to kick a little ***! I tossed the hot dog in the fire and told the Patrol leaders that I could guarantee them that their Patrol Members would be hungry when breakfast was ready, and their job was to get breakfast organized and cooking. They did, and needless to say everyone perked up after they had some breakfast. I seem to recall we had a jellyfish catching contest from the twelve foot aluminum rowboats we had a few hours later.

I've promoted the use of the Journey to Excellence metrics with my Cub Pack Committee Chair, but she hasn't been interested in using it to target improvements in our program. I know where the unit is weak, and where it's strong. I think we would benefit from reviewing our weak points from time to time. But there's only so much pushing I can do, and I'm not going to push that until I find more interest in it. (Our strongest feature is an excellent pack committee, with well attended monthly committee meetings and parents willing to help out when asked. Our weakest point is advancement -- with few parents taking a hand in teaching and supporting the advancement method.)

My Cub Pack has the best pin I've seen anywhere on the website, in my opinion. Council flyers, yardsigns and such increasingly carry BeAScout.Org on this publicity material. I've had two hits in the past year. So I'd say it has had a small positive impact ---so far. I use the website quite a bit. It allows me to take tours around the country to see who is sponsoring Scout units and where. Few units have updated their pin. Mostly that's for my own entertainment.

> In Cub Scouts our motto is "Do Your best." That is both a high ideal and goal and a recognition that we are very human and can be expected to fail in doing as well as we would like. I'm teaching new Kindergarteners what "Do Your Best" means right now. I begin teaching it in conjunction with a fun activity or competition when boys naturally strive to do their best. I then generalize it by suggesting that it's easy to do your best in a fun activity, and a lot harder to get in the habit of doing your best all the time. I suggest that what we try to do is to get in the habit of doing your best even when it isn't fun to do so, and may involve practice which can be difficult to do. > A lot of leadership decisions involve making judgements. Rigid application of rules is not necessarily a wise thing to do all the time. So I generally aim to follow "the rules," but there may be occasions and reasons where doing so is not to be helpful, friendly, courteous, kind or wise. On such occasions the world may work better and be a better place by occasionally ignoring the rules when there is good reason to do so.

I do the Tiger Cub Den Leader training at our annual council training event, and one of the things covered is the Tiger Cub Den Leader knot. I hand out the requirements and application for that and encourage people to go for it. Of course, that's being merged into a generic Cub Scout knot, which I think is a mistake.

Youth working to support Camporees and such ten to be quite responsible in my experience. Young Commissioners in Training at Scout camp can leave something to be desired in terms of skills and experience, but they are usually trying pretty hard. I haven't seen problems with either youth staffers or adults being treated disrespectfully myself. There are pretty high expectations for youth or adult staffers.

Hello moosetracker, > When I was reading through the "Administration of Commissioner Service" link provided earlier, I thought I saw a rule prohibiting Unit Commissioners from also being Roundtable Commissioners. You motivated me to go back and read through that again more carefully, and this time I didn't see it. So I guess I'm now "legal," as both a UC and Roundtable Commissioner. That's an excellent resource, incidentally, and it's the first time I've seen that publication: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34501.pdf

> I think you've done very well. The only thing I'd add would be a discussion with the SM over this issue, to put him in the picture and find out what he wants to do. What he OUGHT to do, in my opinion, would be to have a discussion with the ASM on the issue and find a way to resolve it. That might include having another session or two on the Merit Badge to give Scouts the chance to properly complete the requirement. It should also be a teachable moment at a Committee Meeting to discuss the standards needed to complete a Merit Badge. Or the SM might desire to do something else, including blowing the issue off. If so, at least you would have given him the heads up and you would be informed of the standards expected in the Troop.

> Not the same thing at all, of course. Unfortunately, many districts are critically short of the volunteers needed to fill positions. Frankly, I was never aware of that rule until this discussion blew up. District Commissioners who are short of help are violating a rule by making such appointments, but it's not the same thing at all as conniving to issue advancement awards that haven't been earned. In fact, such people are taking on extra duties. Within the past month I've offered a Cubmaster who hasn't been getting the support he needed from parents a formula for reinvigorating the pack's Committee meetings. It may be effective in getting the additional adult leaders needed by the pack including a new Cubmaster. Sorry if that conflicts with my position as Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner, but keeping a fine pack on track seems more important than that detail.

Hmmm. You learn something every day. I wasn't aware of the restrictions on Commissioner service. Well, I gave up being Cubmaster with the new year, so that leaves me as a Unit Commissioner and Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner. I'll be giving up the Roundtable position after the August Roundtable after a two year term. So apparently I'm slowly coming into compliance with this policy, which I wasn't aware of.

I know of no reason why a Scoutmaster can't serve as a Unit Commissioner as well. A gave up my position as Cubmaster at the end of last year, but until then I had been: Cubmaster Unit Commissioner Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner District Membership Chair

Hello gordosdabom, Good luck. I'd like to hear how that turns out, if you would care to let us know.

Usually districts have camporees as part of their outdoor and camping program, but if a council wants to have a camporee I don't see any reason why they couldn't do that.

> Heh, heh! There's certainly some of that! Santorum's public message is that despite his suspension of campaigning, he wants to maximize the number of delegates he has at the national convention. I'm sure Gingrich and Paul want to do the same. The nominal goal is to prevent Romney from acquiring the majority of delegates he needs to be nominated, however unlikely that is at this point. To do that, a main goal needs to be to minimize the number of delegates Romney gets. So a joint slate with Gingrich and Paul makes good political sense. In addition to that, going to the state convention is a hoot and a fun and educational activity. Why give Romney people that plum when we can divide the plum among our three campaigns? So we are willingly doing what many people want to see happen in politics: cooperating and sharing to promote a common political strategy. Too bad Santorum, Gingrich and Paul couldn't find a way to have a common, cooperative strategy against Romney on the campaign trail. That might have shut him out of the race rather than holding all the marbles. Plus it was great fun leaving the party regulars in the dust last Saturday! They are used to winning and very likely thought they had a winning strategy. I bear the Romney folks and the regulars no ill will. They ran a fair and honest caucus and allowed themselves to be beaten in a fair and honest way. I will be glad to support Romney when he is the Republican Party nominee.

I was asked this morning to help set up this kind of coalition slate at another legislative district caucus that will be meeting this next Saturday. Unfortunately, they had their meeting to plan strategy last night, too late for me to attend. And I have a Bobcat Den hike and hot dog roast on Saturday, so I wont be able to help with that one. Perhaps another though. Promotion to leadership positions or being a political adviser can be rapid in political campaigns!

Hello bacchus, Paul, Santorum and Gingrich supporters are getting together because politics makes strange bedfellows! Delegates to the state convention had to be elected by a majority vote, but none of the candidates had a majority elected as precinct delegates. The Republican regulars who have run the Republican legislative district put together a slate of mostly THEMSELVES, which included mostly Romney people plus some Santorun and Gingrich supporters. Of course, people could run on their own as individuals, but were not likely to attract a majority vote by that method. Santorum and Paul suppoters had about the same number of delegates. Each could have put forward a slate of just their delegates, but these slates would have been defeated for lack of receiving a majority vote. In the absence of a better strategy, the "Unity Slate" of Republican regulars would have won all the delegate and alternate seats to the convention. To avoid rewarding Romney, the Paul, Gingrich and Santorum Delegates decided to form a joint slate of delegates, sharing delegate slots among all three of those candidates. By doing that, we could and did shut out the Romney folks from sending ANY delegates to the state convention, while sharing all the delegate slots among ourselves on an equitable basis. At a meeting held before the caucus, a former District Chair attended, trying to get Santorum and Gingrich supporters to support their slate, and describing Paul as being, "The Devil," ---literally. No love lost there! By co-operating, the Gingrich, Paul and Santorum delegates formed a majority that controlled the selection of all the delegates and alternates. Does that make sense?

Hello For The Boys, > Well, the Tiger Cub program includes Denners: > http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Tiger_Cub_Den_Leader >> I'm thinking about doing this very simply, and appointing a new Denner for each of the two Den Meetings the Bobcat den will have in may before boys form their regular dens for next year. One of my aims is to SHOW brand new parents how the Cub Scout program works. So showing how Denners can be used seems like a good idea. > I'm just imagining possibilities right now. Since tardiness was an issue Monday, perhaps appointing the Scout who is on time as the Denner for that meeting. I'm expecting to have two teams of three Bobcat figure out how to set up tents as an activity ---perhaps the Denner can unpack the tents or be of help in some other interesting way during the meeting. Keeping it simple! Boys love to be picked out to do something special. (This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

Hmmmm. Pie in the face still a big motivator? Maybe we should consider hitting the Cubmaster with a pie for sales over $1,000 or something. I'm no longer the Cubmaster....

> Our pack is in a relatively low income area. Money for Scouting can be scarce. So one of my aims with the design of the popcorn sale is to allow interested families to pay for most or all of their Scouting expenses through the popcorn sale if they wish to do so. One of the things I mention for new families is that they might consider using the popcorn sale to raise money to buy uniforms. A Tiger Cub or Wolf Cub with a vision of a uniform is very likely to be a motivated seller of popcorn, is my theory. And a number of our parents seem to be motivated by not having to lay out cash for membership, uniforms, day camp and so on. So prizes wouldn't be a good option for my troop, I don't think. Of course units are different, and making suitable choices is what leadership is all about. We've generally had weekly prizes, like a big chocolate bar, for the Scout who's sold the most popcorn each week. That's a prize that works for us to build interest and enthusiasm.

> No. Not in my opinion. That SM seems to be giving boys as many opportunities to take charge as they can handle, and working to train them to take charge and understand the things that need to be done. That's the right approach, in my view. At some time more experienced leaders will be developed and take charge of more responsibilities. You COULD just let them fail, which is what the second troop is doing. SOMETIMES failure might be the best method to help boys learn, but too much failure leads to a failed program. I think the second Scoutmaster is failing to do the leadership teaching and coaching that needs to be done. I'll be interested to read other opinions though, especially that of an African antelope with long curly horns....

Go ahead and complete the application. Make a point of disclosing the DWI. Should that result in your being turned down, I assure you it would be handled in a tactful manner. Even if you are turned down, I'd apply again in another year, and with a year of experience with the pack you are more likely to be approved than when you are new to Scouting. It sounds like you are making a great start! Keep looking for opportunities to help with the pack. I hope you'll report back on your experience with the application --- and good luck!

I've never gotten around to using Denners in my den programs, but you've got me thinking. I just formed a new "Bobcat Den" out of three Kindergarten and three First grade boys I'm hoping will join the pack (only two have at present). We formed the Bobcat Den last night, which will last until our Overnight Camp June 2-3 when they should have earned their Bobcat badges and be ready to form their regular dens for the next year. I'm thinking about cutting and sanding a section from a tree branch and putting a Bobcat sticker of some kind on it as a Badge of Office for the Denner I appoint for a meeting. The Badge of Office would be on a lanyard of some kind, perhaps a boot lace from hiking boots which have traveled over many miles of trails. The Denner will be asked to help with activities like putting up a self supporting tent which I have planned for the next meeting. I'll have to look for some positive quality which will allow me to choose a boy for that office at the next meeting ---- a boy who is ON TIME for the meeting, for example. (Tardiness was an issue.) At the end of the meeting I would get the Denner Badge back and be ready to award it to another deserving Bobcat at the next meeting.

Last night I had six boys new to Cub Scouts and their families show up to form our Bobcat Den of new Cub Scouts. The gathering activity was to make a neckerchief slide, sanding a 1/2" section cut from a tree branch to make it smooth. Then boys used a Dymo label maker to make their name in plastic tape and stick it to the sanded wood surface. Two holes were pre-drilled near the top of the wood blank, and boys and parents threaded a pipe cleaner through the holes and formed a loop in back to hold a neckerchief. We had a ceremony welcoming each new boy to Cub Scouts. Each boy was awarded a neckerchief I'd cut from a colorful bed sheet (20 from a $5 thrift shop bed sheet), and the parents helped the boy put the neckerchief and slide on. Now that the boys were "in uniform" we did a flag ceremony, and learned the Cub Scout salute. I'd assembled a pole and crosspiece and cut out some things for a Bobcat Den Flag, but the boys and parents decided how they wanted to assemble those pieces to make a den flag and glue them down with hot melt glue. The new Scouts completed two Bobcat Badge requirements, and lit two candles on my "Bobcat Trophy" to commemorate that and look forward to completing the other six. If my program needs neckerchiefs, we make neckerchiefs. Mine aren't fancy --- I cut them out of the bedsheet with a sharp butcher knife. Despite that, the boys and parents seemed enchanted with that, and parents often took pictures as one parent was helping their son put on their neckerchief. By the end of the hour meeting, all the new Scouts were in uniform with a new neckerchief and slide they had made, had a new den flag they had made, had learned something of the "Law of the Pack" and practiced the Pledge of Allegiance while holding the flag on a staff, learned the meaning of the Cub Scout Motto by actually DOING their best, and had been invited to a Saturday Bobcat hike and hot dog roast. As best I could tell, both the boys and parents were pretty impressed. (This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

I would like to report on my Cub Packs popcorn sale, which I think is a good one. 1. The popcorn sale is voluntary. 2. The pack dues are $60/year--- $5 per month. Families who wish to pay the dues and for activities out of pocket are welcome to do so. 3. We encourage families to participate in the popcorn sale in some way, because it is a fun and educational Cub Scout experience. 4. Families who sell $200 in popcorn receive a free pack membership for the next year, saving that $60 membership fee. For sales in excess of that $200, families receive 25% of those additional sales in a Scout account which can be used to pay Cub Scout activity fees, uniforms and other Scout expenses. Scouts going on to Boy Scouts can use Scout Accounts to pay any initial Troop membership fees and can transfer unused Scout Account balances to the troop. Other than the above, families leaving the pack lose any Scout Account balances to the pack. 5. The popcorn sale is built into our fall recruiting effort. We have a recruiting night early in September. Newly signed up boys have an initial den meeting and prepare for a hike and popcorn sale at the nearby government ship canal locks ( http://www.google.com/search?q=ballard+locks&hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS457&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=4BSOT_jqEuiSiALfmpCUDw&ved=0CEcQsAQ&biw=800&bih=382 ) The trip to the locks begins with a site sale outside the gates for the locks to introduce boys and families to the methods of selling popcorn. We usually have a fun time with that, and get good sales. After an hour or when boys start to lose interest, we proceed with a tour of the locks, which includes seeing boats going up and down, walking past a dam spillway, a museum and salmon swimming through the fish ladder. After that is concluded, we adjourn to a small city park overlooking the locks and have a hot dog roast, with boys roasting hot dogs on a stick over a fire. This is our initial outdoor activity for newly recruited families, and it's a great way to introduce families to the popcorn sale and a fine Cub Scout outing by COMBINING the two. Results: About 80% of families pay for their pack membership by selling popcorn. Quite a few families sell well in excess of that $200 level to pay for uniforms and other activities. YES there could be IRS issues about Scout Accounts. NO we haven't had a problem. Not yet, anyway. Our current Pack Popcorn Kernel served two years. We have a new parent recruited to do the sale in the fall, who will have the previous Popcorn chair as an adviser.(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)