Blaze66

Bob you do what you have to do! Thats the way it really works. Our pack has not in the 9 years I have been here had a committie that did anything and the CO has never done anything either other than gave us a place to meet. The pack was active for 7 years before I came into it and it worked the same way. I know that's not how it is suppose to work... I have been through all the training and I know what the orgainzation of a pack and troop should be, but the reality is that alot of packs and troops are running the same as we are. And its because of one thing and one thing only because we (

Eagle, our CR did that as I stated in another post. He wen't to the deacons and they basically said, we don't have the human resources in our church right now to help out, plus like I said they don't have parent's in the church that have kids of scout age, they are either older or younger and they don't want to get involved in anything their kids aren't into. Basically now its not about keeping the pack going, its about whats the best thing to do for the scouts we have right now.

Shell, that's exactly what we did four years ago when our former Cub Master left. She had been there 13 years and was ready to go. I was at the time the Committie Chair and also running the Webelos Dens. We had 10 Webelos cross over and they took two leaders with them on top of our CM leaving. We had a meeting, told everyone it was important information about the Pine Wood Derby (which we did have something to tell them about it... and its the only thing they really got fired up about and would come too). They got in the room we sent the boys off to their dens to meet and i shut the door

No it's not really up too the chartered organization. I know I know... in virtual scouting the chartered organization is in charge. But not here in the real world. Our chartered organization has not really been insturmental in our Pack for many many years. Other than giving us a place to meet they haven't really been much support to the Pack. And Committie? What Committie? We are lucky to just have leaders. The 9 years I have been associated with this pack there has never been a "committie". Now thats not to say we don't have people listed as committie members, and pay their recharter

Ok the future is now. As some of you may know from other posts I have made, I have always been real active as an adult in Cub Scouts, (long after my son had left the pack and moved to the troop) because my pack folded when I was a youth and I felt left behind. Also because our Pack and Troop are both chartered by the same organization and I feel that without a strong Pack you can't feed boys into the Troop and keep it strong. Well we have come to a delima. Our pack has been on the decline for the last three years due to many outside interests by the boys in the community. (ie.. s

I can't say much for our district or council but I can say that our Pack has seen a real decline in the last three years. Mostly in part because it's a small community and has some really strong sports programs. Sports pulls more kids away from scouting in our community than anything thing else. We have moved meeting nights and times around to try and accomodate and help increase our numbers but it just hasn't worked. We even tried some really creative ways of doing round up and put some real zingers into our program to jazz it up in hopes of drawing some more boys back in. But it's just

I always see something else I should have commented on when I go back and read all the other posts the second time. My daughter who is now 16 was in Girl Scouts. She made it through Juniors and had a really great time but after Juniors she got bored. Her Girl Scout Troop only went camping maybe two times a year once to a summer camp and the other was a work weekend where they would stay outside at their Scout Hut. The rest of the time they spent, in her words "cooking, sewing and making crafts" which was not what she wanted to do. I grew up camping so when my kids came along I didn

Well I didn't actually quit Cub Scouts, Cub Scouts Quit me... or rather the leaders did. I lived in a really small community when I was of Cub Scout age and there was only one pack anywhere around me. The pack was started by a few leaders in one of my friend's churches. I went through Wolves and Bears and then the pack folded up because the leaders quit. Two years later I got into a Boy Scout Troop across town at another church. I made it to Second Class and then I dropped out. Basically because the troop wasn't doing anything. Meetings were a joke, either the boys just sat there and go

Also about the double edged knives. Our scout shop sells a double edged rescue/dive knife it has a blunt/squared tip and two extremely sharp edges. Has a nice molded sheath that will strap nicely to your life jacket or even to your ankle which is real handy in the canoe. We don't let our boys carry them as a regluar scout knife though only for canoe or water related activities.

Something simple something small... I carry a Gerber mini Paraframe both at scouts and daily. It's light, easy to clean, stays sharp and has a clip. It fits right in the watch pocket of your jeans and the clip makes it easy to slide on your scout belt or the chest harness on your backpack.

One more thing, I know that every training you go too is different depending on the instructors. But I went to WLOT about four years ago and then a few years ago I went to OLS, In fact I was in the first class in our Council to go through the New OLS rigth after it was changed from SMF. Basically WLOT and OLS were the same. They had the same basic fundamentals of camping in each class. In WLOT we were split up into dens and had to do everything just as Webelos scouts for THREE days not one over nighter. We went in on a Friday afternoon and left Sunday afternoon. And in OLS we did the sam

WOW One time when I can finally totally agree with Bob! If your taking your Cubs camping to a place where you need map, compass or GPS then you have no business taking them camping no matter how much training you think you have. The most rugged our Cub campouts ever get is when the pack comes to my farm to camp and they have to use the home made porta potty/latrine! One thing I do want to put my opinion in on is the training. One as we talked about before you do PACK FAMILY CAMPING. So that in mind you have all the dens and leaders in your pack there. SO, you have someone Baloo Trained

Ok I read through about 3 of the 6 pages of replys and got tired of reading the same thing over and over so I decided to put my two cents in. The main reason that BSA policy doesn't allow Tiger, Wolf and Bear dens to do camping as a den is in my opinion the same reason it doesn't let 12 and 13 yr old Boy Scouts do High Adventure. It's not because they can't mentally or physically do it, it's because they want to keep the Boys in scouting by giving them something to look foward too as they get older and grow in scouting. Personally I don't like it because we have lost alot of Cub Scouts in

Our troop has two setups. First about 90% of what we do is backpacking so light weight is our first method. The only time we do any sort of car camping is at District or Council events. When we go to these, we have a giant chuck box on wheels. Basically it's a home made 8 x 10 trailer with fold out sides. One side for the scouts one side for the leaders. Each side is equiped with a set of cook ware, utinsels, stove, lantern, etc... Then in the center of the trailer we carry patrol tables and a large frame tarp. Each of the boys basically brings their own gear (same stuff they bring for

We don't allow our scouts to wear ponchos. One reason is because we do alot of multi day canoe trips and Ponchos don't mix with canoing obviously because if you turn over you can't get out of them or swim very well in them. So to keep the boys from having to buy two sets of rain gear we just tell them no ponchos period. Most of our guys use light weight packable two piece rain gear.

Finally I think most in here can agree on a couple of points. One contrary to popular beliefs, I do think that the uniform is an important part of scouting. It does put all scouts on some equal ground as far as looking alike and feeling part of a group and being accepted. We do try in our troop to enforce the uniform policies of BSA and encourage all scouts in our troop to wear full field uniforms to meetings and other special occasions. And the biggest thing I think is agreed on is that the new uniforms are not practical or durable. It kind of hit me last night at our meeting. I put on

Ok excuse me for being OLD SCHOOL, there is no Class A or Class B by official policy, its OFFICIALLY called Field uniform and Activity uniform. But every troop and district in our council and even council still refers to it as Class A and Class B. And I never said that Our OFFICIAL uniform requirements are anything but BSA policy. I just said we tolarate it because 1, alot of our boys cant afford scout pants and two we have much bigger battles to fight than whether they do wear full uniforms. I never said we dont push full uniforms or dont try to get them to follow BSA Guides for uniformi

It's not that I or anyone in my troop is trying to find ways to violate BSA policy, because we are not. Your talking to a person in a troop that makes sure that every I is dotted and T is crossed when it comes to filling out tour permits! And we are the ONLY troop in our whole council that fills out a tour permit to the letter every time we go somewhere! So don't say that im trying to find ways to violate policy just from the few comments that have been made in this forum. Look at what you just said in your last post, its not the uniform that makes the football player its the way you play

This is the reason I quit replying to forums with other scouters. True there are many lessons to learn and alot of experience to gain from others, but then there are some that want to preach BSA policy till they run it in the ground. I know what the policy is and I know why they have uniforming policies, BUT I'm sorry if everyone doesn't agree but policy doesn't work for everyone in every situation. FOR instance... Sure your suppose to wear your uniform a certain way, but here is a good example of when we don't wear it by policy but it works to our troop's advantage. Last summer we went o

We too live close to a military base so military issue clothing and gear is very abundant. We also have a number of scouts who's parents are in the military. We are very lax on our enforcement of uniforming policies. For a number of reasons. First of all a scout uniform is VERY expensive. As everyone knows a full uniform with all the accessories is well over $100. I have some parents that won't let their scout wear their uniform to anything but scout meetings and special events because they are afraid they will mess it up. So we don't push the policy that strictly. Most of the time we