SeattlePioneer

The Chief Seattle Council in Seattle has had an alternate means of promoting particular Merit Badges by partnering with major corporations to present a merit badge. An example would be a program conducted recently by Alaska Airlines to present an aviation Merit Badge. This was promoted from the top by the CEO of Alaska Airlines, and not surprisingly co-operation was great all along the way. Boy Scouts encountered pilots, mechanics and other trades and professions in a high developed program. They had access to the latest in facilities and equipment to inspect. I'll bet this was a superior experience for the scores of boys who took this program. The Chief Seattle council has organized several of these in the past few years.

Hello dg98adams, Sounds like a fine program! Is this a district program, and a program of the district advancement committee perhaps? Who developed this program, and where did the motivation to do so come from?

In my experience it's VASTLY easier to keep a program going to to recover after it's failed. I wouldn't let things slide a year. I'd be aiming at doing that spring recruiting program with an active spring and summer program to go along with it. Newly recruited parents don't have the habits of dodging helping out like experienced parents may! Most new parents are enthusiastic about the program or they wouldn't join, and they are ready to help to make the program work for their boy. Find out what activities your district has going and work those into your program ---day camp being a good example. But you can schedule hikes, Pinewood Derby or other fun activities during the summer to build interest and invite boys and families to bring more boys to your spring and summer activities. That way you should have a cadre of new parents to help plan your program for the next school year and have a better program to offer for fall recruiting.

I've read lots of threads on complaints about the Merit Badge part of the Scout program ---many no doubt justified. About the only practical solution I've encountered is for Scoutmasters to exert themselves and take charge of where Scouts are directed to complete Merit Badges. But that doesn't do anything about weaknesses in the program as a whole. I suggest that the other major solution would be for more volunteers to participate in their district or council advancement committees where there is a lot more authority to address these issues and make standards and solutions stick. Most districts have monthly committee meeting of adult leaders you could attend, and I suspect that most district advancement committees would be glad to have more unit leaders volunteer to attend advancement committee meetings and help manage the advancement programs.

I agree that "rescuing a failing Cub Pack" is too broad and vague of a goal. But "organizing a spring recruiting night" is not. There doesn't appear to be any shortage of discrete tasks that need to be done in that pack.

Merit Badges completed under the auspices of a Troop can be crap, too. I recall one Eagle Scout applicant who had complete ALL of his Merit Badges with his father. My personal assessment at the time was that he was a competent 2nd Class Scout. And as we've heard, Merit Badge classes at some Scout Troops are subject to low standards as well. What I'm basically asking here is what policies the District Advancement Chair and council Adavancement Committee should be following to preserve the integrity of the Merit Badge program. In particular, I would suppose that District Advancement Chairs organize or are responsible for a lot of MBUs.

I'm guessing there is only one question asked when interviewing a potential Scoutmaster in many weaker units: "Can you start TONIGHT?"

> There ARE unreasonable abuses of the MBU concept. Let's have some practical ideas on how those abuses may be corrected and reasonable standards for merit badges earned at Scout Camps, MBU and in Scout Troops themselves maintained. Some things are being done, such as requiring certifications for various aquatic Merit Badges. What else can be done that is practical?

> If you look at pretty much any BSA job description for volunteer positions, there are FAR more things suggested as responsibilities than anyone can do. I interpret such lists of responsibilities as a cafeteria plan in which I then choose the responsibilities I am either GOOD at doing, or which I WANT to do for various reasons. So I disagree with your theory. The JTE is a program suggested but not required by BSA. Personally I wouldn't bother spending large amounts of time figuring out if I met a particular goal by .1% or whatever. I'd ballpark it unless the council gave me better information. Personally, if I had a Gold unit, I'd fill out the form in order to have something to report at the Blue and Gold Dinner and to have something to crow about. But I don't, and I use the JTE to set priorities on what my Cub Pack needs to work on the most. But heck --- if a unit leader doesn't want to fill out the form, they don't have to do so.

> THAT was a VERY foolish decision, in my opinion. When a unit is falling apart, it is foolish indeed for people to fence themselves off in their position and say the problems are someone elses to solve. Unfortunately, that sounds like dumb Woobadgery thinking getting in the way of doing some critically needed work.

Wow! You get Five Gold Stars for that program, Packsaddle, and for doing a great job of promoting it!

Cub packs actually have three separate programs, each age appropriate. Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts (Wolf and Bear) and Webelos are the three programs in one Cub Scout Pack. Webelos programs differ significantly from the Wolf and Bear Program. For example, in the Cub Scout program the parent signs off advancement requirements, while in Webelos the Den Leader does that. In Cub Scouts, dens are not allowed to go camping as dens, while camping by Webelos dens is encouraged. Still, Webelos is also distinguished from Boy Scouts. Boy Scout patrols elect their own patrol leaders from among the boys in the den, and vote on which boy will be senior patrol leader. Webelos dens have adults as den and pack leaders which the boys do not elect. In Boy Scouts, boy leaders should be signing off advancement requirements while in Webelos that's done by the adult Den Leader. So Webelos is different from Cub Scout and from Boy Scouts. I would call Tiger Cubs "little boys" but not Webelos. Most Webelos Scouts have DONE Cub Scouts and they are ready for new challenges. If they don't get them, they will tend to get bored and leave. Too old for doing Cub Scouts again! Too young for the demands and challenges of Boy Scouts! In my opinion, a Webelos den leader needs to be able to accurately interpret the challenges Webelos Scouts are ready for and make that his program. And I'd be looking for opportunities for the Webelos den to go camping with a Boy Scout troop when the trip is suitable for Webelos. For example, 2nd year Webelos Dens are encouraged to participate in our district Klondike Derby (Winter camping trip) and the Webelos Dens compete for awards among those dens. Also, our district camporee in June invites 1st year Webelos to attend camporee and compete in camporee events, again with webelos dens competing among themselves for awards. At the same time, there may be pack activities that Webelos Scouts will want to do that they have done several times already. That's fine too. So it's a balance requiring good judgement by the Webelos Den Leader in my opinion.

> I think that's a very good idea, Packsaddle. Any particular kinds of activities that helped attract new members? And what methods did you use to publicize these activities?

This past year we used Scout Accounts for the first time --- and tebled our popcorn sales over the previous years. Most families used their popcorn sales money to pay the 2012 pack dues. We packaged Scout accounts as being available for families to use from pretty much any Scouting related purpose, so I don't see any reason why that shouldn't include FOS if the family makes that choice. Some families may wish to make an FOS contribution that doesn't involve out of pocket donations. I don't see w The past two years the pack made the council's FOS goal.

> That's true. But the process of watering down such standards began many decades ago at Scout Camps, where Merit Badge Universities were no doubt invented. You want high standards? Don't do Merit Badge universities or Boy Scout camps where such things are the usual custom. The fact is, there is considerable diversity in the Scouting program, including the Merit Badge program. A SM can enforce high standards in his own unit if desired, but not on other units.

Oh, I have no doubt the pack can be fixed. 3+ years ago I undertook to rebuild a pack down to a single 1st year Webelo. As of Jan 1, I'm COR and CM, and the pack is shakily adapting to more or less providing most of its own leadership. But doing that has been a big job.

Most Cub Scout Packs are pretty insular. Each unit does its own thing and not many people outside the unit have much of an idea of the kinds of things that the Cub Pack does. If unit leaders saw the wide variety of things Cub packs do, they might pick some new activities that sound exciting and give them a try. In theory that's what Cub Scout Roundtables should do. As a Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner, that's the kind of thing I'd like to do. Does anyone have a district or council that publicizes programs like that? If so, how do they do it?

My pack awarded about 25% of gross popcorn sales to individual Scout Accounts, and that worked quite well. I'm thinking about inviting families to make FOS donations from their Scout account balance should they wish to do so --- perhaps put "Scout Account" on the donor card on some such. Anyone have experience in doing that?

Hello Basement, QAs always, sorry to hear about your district and council wars. So, if you had filled out your JTE report, how would you unit have done? Any particular weaknesses you plan to work on? If you tell all I promise not to pass that on to the DE.... As I noted, I've got plenty of issues in my struggling Cub Pack. We do our best, but sometimes that's not a high standard. On the bright side, my pack had it's first den meetings without me as Cubmaster, and did fine. The CC and I (nor COR) recruited a Tiger Cub parent to organize our Blue and Gold Dinner. We are eyeing a Tiger Cub Parent as a possible Asst Committee Chair to be Committee Chair in 2013.(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

Hello Two Cub,

> A perfect illustration of that reality is having OA advisors on this board complaining about adults being nominated "as an honor." As this thread has illustrated, it's really a rather pointless distinction, but it apparently feeds the ego of some people to make such a meaningless point. Interesting that when they are pushed on the issue they fall back on what as a defense---- that being selected for OA is an honor for adults.

Hello Tampa, Which were the items on which your unit was weak, and do you have ideas on how to improve those? Personally, my Cub Pack is weak --- marginal and struggling. As I review our JTE scores, they are sometimes weak or failing in particular areas. Just as an example, we did two service projects last year --- three would have been bronze. We failed to meet the bronze advancement or retention standards. We have a newly appointed advancement chair. Retention is tough --- I'm not quite sure what the issue is there. But the JTE does a good job of fingering our weaknesses. If you already have a fine pack it's probably not going to tell you much.

I've helped revive two Cub Packs. I've worked 3+ years to revive my latest pack which had one boy when I started. Last night a new Cubmaster took over from me and we had three quality den meetings going on. That pack isn't out of the woods, but they have a reasonable chance of surviving and thriving. There is no reason your Wood Badge person can't make her six Scout Webelos Den a success. Whether the pack survives is a different issue. In my view, the key to the pack surviving is someone doing a quality recruiting program to attract the boys for a Tiger Cub and Wolf Den, and then going from there. That's really something every pack faces every year. The most common reasons packs fail is that they don't do that recruiting job effectively. That's my experience as a district membership chair, anyway.

My Cub Scout Roundtable program Thursday is going to have a segment on "Using the Journey To Excellence as a Pack Management Tool." The basic idea is to review your performance on last years JTE or to decide how your pack or unit would have scored. Use that as a guide to setting your goals for the current year, particularly any areas that need improvement. The unit leaders should probably be the ones making this assessment, which can be shared with the unit committee if desired. During the course of the year the goals can be reviewed from time to time to see how the unit is doing, especially on weak areas or areas where the unit desires to improve. By the end of the year, this ought to allow the unit to show improvement by concentrating on areas that are important to having a well led unit and quality program. So while the JTE can be ballparked or merely a slap dash effort, I think it can also be a good management tool, and learning to use it is a good management skill to learn.

Hello John, Interesting point. Presumably female Scout Executives and District Executives are eligible for OA membership. And female adult Scout leaders. Just no female youth members.