blw2

What is a "venture Patrol"? I thought Venturing was some sort of explorer outfit separate form Boy Scouts that has a different focus or interest, such as aviation explorers.... Seems like all together to much overlap and competition between the same interest. Like a company selling a product against itself.....

I sort of see it as a chicken or egg thing. Which came first? Maybe if the whole pack, leaders and all, went all out with the uniform.... not so much as to be rigid or military, but enough to instill an attitude of Doing Your Best.....Maybe it could as designed or intended, install a group identity and pride in self and accomplishment, that is missing. Therefore pack meetings would get better participation and the program will be better. Of course it wouldn't work without a fun meeting agenda, but hand in hand??? I think it stands a good chance. Whoever it was that started this uni

oh, the baggie thing is the awards. Basically the leaders each stand up with a handful of baggies. One baggie per boy. "Little Johnny earned, this and that and the other", and Johnny comes up for his baggie.

For sure. I'm sure he's pulling his hair out over this one.... But it sure seems to be acting much better this week. maybe not perfect, but I'm able to post and I'm seeing activity. Not that it probably will help matters now that this is so deep here, but I frequent a forum, well actually a group of them, that works great http://rvitch.com/ http://www.popupexplorer.com/ and several other RV related forums that all interact. If your interest is Travel Trailer, there's a portal. Interest in Motorcycle towables, there's a portal for that pop-up campers, yep I think they hav

As an active cub scout dad with a rising Kindergarten aged girl and her 2 year old little sister.... I find this an interesting thread. I've ben in contact with our CO's GS leader a few times re. recruitment efforts in the parish. haven't met her, just email and a couple phone calls. My last call to her was to get info. to sign up my daughter in the daisy program next year. She asked if my wife would be interested in leading a daisy 'den' or whatever they call it, since they don't have any active girls that age.... Noticed that she conspicuously didn't ask my availability for leadersh

I've had similar thoughts about getting them outside. Have suggested it too, but there's always the logistics and it's just so much easier to go inside, pull up a seat, and do the same old distribution-o-baggies thing..... I want to do something different, but I'm not the one running it, and can't turn a ship by myself.....

This is us a year ago. The only difference is that we had some activity in there as well - some activities were better than others. I tried the sit on the floor in a circle thing and it sorta worked, but it can get chaotic. As a CM, one suggestion. Pick an area of the pack meeting you'd like to see improved and volunteer to the CM to take that on. If I had a leader that came to me and said, "I'd like to make awards" more meaningful, I'd be most appreciative! What interested me in the den activities is that I have a gut feel we need to move beyond the pack meeting as entertainment +

I think the T-Shirt thing is just lazy. Yeah, sure.... there's a place for it when doing some highly active outing or something..... but IMO a meeting aint the place. A field trip to tour a fire station or whatever aint the place. Hanging from a zip-line, jumping trampolines..... ok, I might buy the idea of a T-Shirt here..... I've heard my son grumble about the uniform 2 or maybe 3 times over the Tiger and Wolf years..... but I think only because he's had to get up and move to make the meeting. It's more about not wanting to change clothes, go find his socks, etc..... than the un

I've started since day one trying to teach my son that same respect for the blue uniform, and pride in wearing it correctly.

With the t-shirts, the whole pride in accomplishment thing is shot..... no point then in rank patches, belt loops, temporary patches, etc... Shoots down the whole idea & function of the instant recognition beads. its a lot of money and work sewing on those patches for something that will be worn a handful of times before they outgrow it. The boys don't get used to the feeling of it, making them even more self conscious when they finally do wear them. the public identity is lost .... I could probably think of a few more......

Yeah, I don't feel like we've hit the magic formula either..... not even close. I've been trying to "suggest" to our CM that we need some sort of activity or something to get the boys out of the chairs, but that's not his style. He's following the model of his predecessors. Basically we do maybe a prayer, flags, announcements, a few jokes from the CM maybe, awards..... maybe a skit or two from one of the dens. More blah blah blah..... much of it directed over the kids' heads to the parents in the back. I even suggested that instead of chairs at the tables, he get the boys to sit on

Last year I watched at one of the last den meetings of the year, as the DL sat down with several of the moms and went through their books signing off on stuff...... then they went through through the belt loop book...... "Sure, little billy knows how to swim"... "Safe Swim Defense, what's that?".... ah, that doesn't matter...... "He played volleyball at a family picnic last year".....

Costs are readily found with a google search. I can't comment about any recent track purchases, but I have worked the races the last couple of years. Our pack uses a plastic derbymagic track. I like it better than the aluminum ones.... and better than the wooden tracks I've seen, but given the random mechanical abilities of those assembling and disassembling over the several years the pack has owned it, a few of the attachment screws have pulled through the plastic. It could be designed a bit better in my opinion.... For software, we use http://grandprix-software-central.com/. We

something like that is what I imagined, but with some sort of formal color code or other way to record progress toward rank..... to either add to or replace the instant recognition bead thing....

Yeah, something like a rubber band might work....... Someone on another forum turned me onto the idea of the arrow of light awards where they wrap band of various colors of thread or tape around the arrows to indicate all the ranks and achievements. The idea being that the boys could each have a shaft, that over time becomes their arrow of light.... I still would prefer a hiking stick, but the arrow thing seems like a good idea.... they both have their own logistical issues and add layers of complexity that I'm not sure is good though.... As you said,WEBELOS has the pin system....

I see the same issues with the Cubs and advancement too. Drives me crazy to give these awards to boys that I can tell didn't do their best.... or I'm pretty sure in some cases that the parent signed them off late one evening after they were in bed, just because they did this or that once..... maybe last year or the year before..... A personal regret I have is not continuing with Scouting as a boy.... I made it through cubs and quit after the first year or so in the troop......so to that end I'll push my son.... scratch that, GUIDE him....but only so far. I gave into the peer pressure that

done. Let me know if it doesn't come through.....

If no rank to work towards, what's the point..... just flounder along, doing various activities and outings...... talking about "stuff".....with no specific point or direction.....?

Now as a boy, I went through cubs but I didn't get very far along the path in Boy Scouts.... I'm a Cub Leader now, so I don't have experience in this area...... BUT I sure don't like the sounds of this leader. I understand that if a boy isn't mature enough and isn't doing a good job I a given position he shouldn't get credit for it as if he did well..... An example that I can think of..... At my church, there are a couple small garden areas with a bench or two set, nice landscaping, etc.... and a small sign indicating that it was so & so's Eagle project.... a good effort, but the be

I meant my original idea, not the hydrogen.... that's just plain crazy talk!

ok, for flashy.... fill the balloons with hydrogen gas. Place a lit candle near by the target, maybe shielded form view by the boys. Pop the balloon, bang! and volunteer her for filling and resetting the targets! I like a marriage of my idea with ScoutNut's

I'm ADL for my son's Den. We'll be the Bear Den next year. The DL & I are trying to think of ideas to better encourage the boys' participation in recording their advancement. Our original DL didn't really utilize the instant recognition bead thing well at all, and this has continued this year as well. We just haven't made it a big part of the meeting. I've tried encourage our leaders to use it and I think it could work if we pushed it more, but I don't really think the boys care about getting a bead..... since many don't wear their uniforms enough, & frankly it is kind of bor

I'm ADL for my son's Den. We'll be the Bear Den next year. The DL & I are trying to think of ideas to better encourage the boys' participation in recording their advancement. Our original DL didn't really utilize the instant recognition bead thing well at all, and this has continued this year as well. We just haven't made it a big part of the meeting. I've tried encourage our leaders to use it and I think it could work if we pushed it more, but I don't really think the boys care about getting a bead..... since many don't wear their uniforms enough, & frankly it is kind of bor

I'm ADL for my son's Den. We'll be the Bear Den next year. The DL & I are trying to think of ideas to better encourage the boys' participation in recording their advancement. Our original DL didn't really utilize the instant recognition bead thing well at all, and this has continued this year as well. We just haven't made it a big part of the meeting. I've tried encourage our leaders to use it and I think it could work if we pushed it more, but I don't really think the boys care about getting a bead..... since many don't wear their uniforms enough, & frankly it is kind of bor

At our B&G, the boys not going on to a troop didn't cross the bridge.