Sprocket

John-in-KC, the council number (on your membership card) doesn't have anything to do with the size class your council is in. For example, the Greater St. Louis Area council is a Class 200 council, but it is council #312.

Just got back Saturday from our council's first weeklong course in over 10 years. I used to be a fox. Now it's time to work my ticket...

Stosh, The cannons and large-bore artillery restriction is supposedly due to accidents at a few scout camps where cannons used to fire blanks during flag ceremonies exploded and injured scouts. I can recall one of my council's camps using a cannon back when I went to Webelos camp as a scout--the cannon is no longer there.

The flags you can get from your US Senator or Congressman are not free, and really aren't that cheap. I looked into it last fall. I then contacted my state rep, and he sent me a U.S. Flag and State Flag for free. Your mileage may vary...

In my council, every adult leader wears a district patch on their right sleeve. It's been that way for well over 20 years (they were doing it when I was a scout). It's an approved council variation that has withstood several SE changes. The scouts don't wear district patches. I've yet to be in a situation where I was in uniform around folks from other councils, so I haven't had to deal with people questioning our district patches. But in our big council, it does help us to know what general part of the area people are from when you are at camp or some other council event.

I recall reading somewhere that there is a provision for boys being registered in two troops. This most commonly happens when a boy's parents are divorced and he splits time living with parents in different cities or different parts of the country. He can then participate in scouting no matter which parent he is currently living with. It takes extra coordination between the parents & units, though.

The scoutmaster doesn't even need to be there (although he/she should). Between my Eagle BOR and my ECOH, my SM got a new job in another city and moved 800 miles away. I didn't even have an address for him to send him an invitation. We didn't have a new SM and the troop basically folded for a few years after that. I had a UC from my former troop present my Eagle.

Class of '93. Now a Tiger Den Leader for the pack & ASM for the troop.

When I wanted to get back into scouting at age 22 or 23, I was encouraged to sign up as an ASM to help my then-church's troop. I went through SM Fundamentals training, and was incredibly enthusiastic. But the SM would cancel or reschedule meetings, letting the word go to the boys at school, and not bother to call me. So I'd show up for troop meetings and no one would be there. It was a small troop, and the SM didn't know what to do with an ASM. It began to feel like a waste of my time, and I stopped helping, despite the SM's wife apologizing and making excuses for him nearly every time sh

There was a lot of discussion here and elsewhere several months back, but it really died down. Supposedly, it was going to be piloted in a few councils. Maybe somebody on the forum from one of those councils can let us know how it's going...

Were our pack chartered to a non-religious organization, I would agree with all of John-in-KC's comments, however I will continue to disagree with some of them. The Rosary patch program does not require the boys to profess Roman Catholic beliefs; it educates them about the Rosary. The Rosary is not actually specific to Roman Catholicism. Some of the most prolific Marian scholars have not even been Catholic (one was a Lutheran pastor and seminary professor). At any rate, my wife and I are neither the CC nor the CM. The patch is something the pack has done for the past year or two, and

Since this thread has some life again, let me clarify for ScoutNut & John-in-KC. All of the boys in our pack are Roman Catholic. If any aren't that I'm not aware of, their parents have already chosen to send them to a Catholic grade school where they sign an agreement about the Catholic religious education that will be provided for their child. I'm not worried about getting written permission for the boys to participate. They were all informed in our pack newsletter that the boys would be working on the Rosary patch at the pack meeting. Besides, it's a pack meeting--the parents are *

In another thread, the abuse of repeating Tiger electives was brought up, such as Elective 14, which involves reading a short story or magazine article with your parent or adult partner (what about kids who read every night?) or Elective 48, taking a ride on public transportation (a parent who wanted to count the scout riding the bus to and from school each day?) The responses I usually see when this is brought up involve scouters saying that they only count each elective once, or they'll let a scout count each twice, or some limitation like that. The Tiger electives are going to be

Hi all, My wife has been tapped to coordinate our pack's participation in the rosary patch program for this year. For the past couple of years, the pack has had the boys earn that year's rosary patch at the Jan. pack meeting (our CO is a Catholic church). She's hoping people might have ideas for doing the rosary patch as a big group. Last year, the CM read a story/explanation to the boys followed by a round-robin format where different adults each had a question, and the boys would go around and get a sign-off on a card when they answered a question correctly. The wife is thinkin

f2c, I understand some of your frustration. As a former scout, I wanted to start volunteering with scouting as soon as I finished college. I didn't have any children yet, but signed up as an ASM with the troop at our church (Catholic parish). I got fully trained, and was ready to go. But there was no communication from the SM. I'd show up for a troop meeting and no one would be there, because it had been cancelled for some reason. The SM had made sure all the scouts were told at school that day, but didn't bother to call and tell me. I eventually gave up and stopped showing up, despite th

I think that Scoutnut's ire was directed at me. He and I apparently disagree over the degree of flexibility to exercise within the Tiger program. (although I think we agree more than we disagree) At any rate, my response may have caused TigerDen2's thread to get hijacked a bit. Sorry 'bout that. TigerDen2, you might start off by giving them a list of the program things you need/want help with. If the parents are unwilling to tackle a whole month's worth of meetings, then give them specific parts of the meeting to be responsible for. Give them suggestions, so they don't feel comp

Scoutnut, I understand the message you're trying to convey, and I agree with you that parents should attend everything with their Tiger cubs, but I question that BSA rules *REQUIRE* that adult partner must be in attendance for the Tiger cub to be able to be at a den meeting. It is not stated anywhere in the G2SS, and the Den Leader Handbook does not go so far as to mandate it. Now the literature states that adult partners should attend, and I take that approach as well, but I don't think it's right to keep a boy from a den meeting or pack meeting if his parents have work conflicts, or

I echo Eagle-Pete's comments. From my experience as a Tiger Den Leader so far this year, many parents are reluctant to volunteer. They don't want to put in the time, they feel/say they don't know enough to do it, and they're more than happy to let the DL do the work. Plus, they may see the other dens run without the degree of parent involvement, and not understand why Tigers has to be different. Tigers wear the same uniforms, they're a den in the pack, why does Tigers run differnt? My pack is one where Tiger dens in previous years were run like Wolf & Bear dens. No shared lead

Seems like it might be good to get your Chartered Organization Rep or some other experienced scouter involved in the meeting with the den leader. It would help to have someone else there who you know the den leader respects and whose opinion the den leader is less likely to ignore. This way he can't discount what you are telling him by saying he has more years of scouting experience, or whatever.

We had a good School night for Scouting the other night, and had 15 boys sign up. Eleven of those are Tigers, and at least two more Tigers are expected to join at next week's pack meeting. So that makes 13. There's another boy we were expecting to sign up that we haven't yet heard from, so it could even be 14. I'm the new Tiger Den Leader, and am thinking about how to broach the idea of splitting into two dens. Our pack is at a Catholic Parish/School with one classroom per grade, and all but one of the Tigers go to that school. Our pack traditionally hasn't divided dens, although the

The article also mentions that the scout earned the Hornaday medal. Not an easy feat. He sounds very motivated.

In my council BALOO training is a day and a half, including an overnight campout. Usually from Saturday to Sunday, I believe (haven't taken it yet, I'll probably do it in the spring). Is there any information on your council's website?

"he will be told to leave the troop as well as the scouting program with no chance for reinstatement." ----- I fail to see how a troop committee could keep the boy and his parents from signing up with another troop. Sure, they might be able to make life difficult and refuse to transfer over his advancement records, but I don't really see it as being their call to kick him completely out of scouting, unless the district or council were involved.

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions (please, keep 'em coming!) ScoutNut, I took my training back in May so I'd have it done before the start of the school year. I plan to use the shared leadership, but it hasn't been done in prior years' Tiger Dens in our pack. As some of the parents have older sons who've been through Tigers without it, I don't want shared leadership to be too radical of a change, and be seen as a negative. On the other hand, these parents with older sons are also a good potential resource. What I plan to do is to map out what I'd like worked on each month ad

You're probably right. Yesterday we went and checked out Whitehaven, the Ulysses Grant National Historic Site, which is very near here. My 6 year-old thought it was "boring," but for scout groups, they have a program they put on to show kids how things were done 150 years ago. The ranger made it sound more hands-on. My son probably would've had more fun if his friends were along, too. It doesn't help that I've been feeling a lot of pressure lately since the other parents in the pack and some of the incoming Tiger parents have heard that I'm an Eagle and seem to make a deal out of it.