WVCubDad

I'm in a similar position to Two Sirius, my CM is planning on stepping down in a year when his youngest crosses over. He suggested that I consider stepping up to CM next year with him as the Assistant. I've been mulling it over, currently I'm one of three Tiger Den Leaders and I am having a lot of fun with that. So this morning I asked my son over breakfast about this (we'd been discussing last night's pack meeting and talking about PWD, etc.) His comment was that he would rather have me be his Wolf DL, Bear DL and Webelos DL than become the CM. Of course he restated his desire to quit

Hi Paul, I think the alumni night is a great idea. Since your CO is a church, are there former Scouts (not necessarily alums, but that would be great) who might be interested in getting back into Scouting and helping their pack? I currently am a member at a church with a dormant pack and I'm a Tiger Den Leader in a very strong Pack just two blocks away chartered with a church in the same denomination. Long story short, the churches were on different sides during the Civil War and we've also got 4 other UMC churches in the downtown area. I would love to see my church's Pack come ali

Thanks for the Hancock Fabrics tip. I checked for Cub fabric and found a neat Allover Fleece design. 2 yards are on the way to be made into a nice camping blanket for our son. John BTW on my list is the Scout Expedition Hat.

We just got our first issues of BL and Scouting yesterday after having filled out apps in May (for my son), July (for me) and September (replacement app for my son). We apparently had several misplaced apps because I've had other Tiger parents ask me about when they would get their magazines. Hopefully they'll tell me at next week's pack meeting that they've started recieving it. I was somewhat disappointed with the quality of BL, remembering what I used to get in the mid to late 70's. Still it is nice for my son to have a magazine that he doesn't have to share with his sister, although

I try to set the example for my entire pack, in fact the other den leaders made some comments in jest about me showing them up by wearing a complete uniform to every meeting. Besides myself, only the CM and ACM wear a uniform of sorts - shirts usually. The boys are usually uniformed from the waist up. My wife and kids ran into last year's Tiger den leader at the store who made a comment about not even having a uniform and Karen said, "That's just John's way, he'll wear the uniform or not do it at all." I guess after 13 years she knows me. That being said, I still couldn't get he

AnEagle, As to water, I sweat like crazy even in freezing weather. I know that I need to keep hydrated and therefore I carry at least 3 quarts of water - 1 GI 2qt bladder canteen and one 1qt canteen or 1 liter bottle. Since most of my outdoors experience was courtesy of Uncle Sam, I'm trying to get away from carrying a lot of my old military gear and move more into the civillian world. Also the camping I'm doing now is more family/Cub camping and we don't get too far from water sources. In fact in my camping supplies tub there is now a collapsable 5 gallon water jug - definitely

2 weekends ago we had our fall pack overnighter. It was colder than normal (40's overnight) and only 55 during the day and it rained off and on during Saturday and overnight. However the next morning when I unzipped the tent, I was treated to a very nice sight of the full moon setting in the west over the mountain ridge and the beginnings of a clear blue sky. I took a picture. My son, a Tiger, didn't mind the rain, we even went fishing in it - caught plenty! Some of the families bailed, one had a bona fide problem with a leaky tent, the others were concerned with the health of their b

SSSCout - Perchance Western MD or close to the WV Eastern Panhandle? I thought I saw a small sign by the side of Route 9 heading west to Hedgesville advertising an SCA event a few months back. I'll have to Google... John

As a lad many, many years ago in a state far, far away a distinguished silver-haired gentleman took the stage to lecture the Cadet Corps (approximately 50 boys from 4th grade to 8th). These lectures were after the normal school day between 3-5 pm, usually on a Monday and given in the school auditorium. They were commonly known as "Formation". At the time I thought it meant that the cadets formed up to hear our Commandant speak, now I know that it meant something much, much different. "Character," Major Ormsby intoned, "is the sum total of what you are." I'm certain there was muc

Jeff, We did that as well Tuesday night. The Tigers were so energized to pick up leaves on the hike that we had plenty for the boys that didn't go camping to participate. The one thing that I couldn't do is find thin enough paper to get really good rubbings. I was surprised that Wal-Mart didn't have tracing paper or really thin writing paper, but then I guess I shouldn't have waited until an hour before the meeting to get my supplies! With the exception of my son who had an oak leaf that wouldn't fit under a regular sheet of copy paper, the boys had fun. John

We had a huge Tiger recruiting success. We now have three dens of 8-9 each. We split them according to schools - we recruit from 4 elementary schools. 2 of the dens (mine and another) meet in the same room and usually do things together. The third den really got off the ground last week and we're working to incorporate them into our activities. So far we've only had a couple miss each week. I too would like to see all of them cross over to Boy Scouts, but as my son put it this past weekend when we were walking back from the latrine at our second camping trip in as many weeks -

With respect to the requirement to fill out the adult application for a non-parent partner, it's still there. Ran into that on a couple of new Cubs during our recent recruiting drive. John

Sprocket, We had a pretty good recruiting night as well and now it appears that we'll have 17 Tigers. Our plan is to split into at least 2 dens, but the other potential den leader is now talking about just keeping everybody together if all the parents are there. We have two fairly large rooms that we can use in the church if it heads that way. I'm not sure that it should, I'd rather see two dens but he's been down this road before (DL all the way through CM) and doesn't want to do it on his own. One of the problems is that his boy, my son and another Tiger are all friends and do

Way Cool Elizabeth!!! Congrats on a great sign-up. It sounds like it really worked out well. I got an e-mail from my CM today and he told me that we have a total of 11 new Tigers for next week, so we'll split into 2 Tiger Dens now. One of my Tiger Teams is the former CM and his youngest son, so maybe he'll take the new den. Congrats again! John

Elizabeth, I'm sorry I didn't see this sooner today, but may you have the same success I had last night - 80% or better signing up. Your program sounds much more organized than mine, I'm curious to hear how it worked. John

Shenandoah Area Council has it scheduled for the 2nd and 3rd Saturdays in November. I like Moxieman's reasoning for moving it to February, although we could probably do it several times a year in our area and they'd still need more help. John

Jeff, My son and I joined in May and participated in the Pack acitivities over the summer. Since it appeared in the literature that the Cub Scout year starts in June, after I agreed to be the den leader I told the incoming Tiger teams to go ahead and start to work on their requirements since we wouldn't have any den meetings until September 5th. I focused mainly on getting the Bobcat stuff done with my son since that was a change to the Tiger program and I remembered having to work hard on it when I was a Cub. We did do a couple of the electives - help in the kitchen, go to work,

We had the first of two recruiting nights at our local schools tonight. We got 1 new Webelos, 1 Bear, 2 Wolves and 2 Tigers at my son's school. The Webelos was unexpected since his school only goes from K to 3rd grade. My CM gave me a well stocked box of forms and information sheets, pens and a sample New Cub Kit that our District gives out (racing lunch/pencil box, Cub Scout bumper sticker, wristband, Pinewood Derby card and Matchbox car). He also let me choose from several fold-out display boards of pack activities photos from the last few years. I let my son choose the board that a

Hi Jeff, I'm also a new Tiger Den Leader. We had our first den meeting last Tuesday. We'll have our second den meeting next week, tonight was a recruiting drive instead of a meeting, so I haven't had to deal with a huge amount of sign-offs yet. Was this boy active over the summer in working on some of the achievements/electives? Does he have an older brother who clued him in on the belt loops program? I have two boys (including my son) who did some work over the summer on their requirements and will be eligible to recieve their Tiger Paw and some beads at our Pack meeting in

The "2" comes from the military. A salute is a two count movement. Count 1 raises the hand to the eyebrow or bill of the cap. After the salute is held, Count 2 brings the hand back down to the position of attention. Since salutes could be held for long periods of time, think "To the Colors", "Star Spangeled Banner" (4 verses if you're lucky) the order to drop the salute was given to ensure a uniform appearance. John

Thanks for all the encouragement and good tips. I sent an e-mail to all my Tiger Partners today thanking them for coming last night and gave them some links to online helps for the Tigers, along with reminders about upcoming events and a list of the monthly themes. Hopefully some will spot the month(s) they'd like to help. The binder that the CM gave me had a basic attendance roster among other things, but I've found that using the two Tiger Record forms in the back of the Leaders Guide printed back to back works pretty well. I thought about using one of the spreadsheets, but I'm not p

Well, tonight was our first Tiger Den meeting. I've got a great bunch of boys and parents - 6 Tiger Teams so far. Everybody is interested in the program, the parents are supportive (and so far receptive to the shared leadership plan). It should be a good Pack meeting on the 26th, with several advancements to present. I've got two Tigers that are already close to getting the Bobcat Badge as well as the Tiger Paw IRB! Yes, one of them is my son and we've worked hard to get there. The rest of the boys are already excited about moving up the trail and have promised to work hard on the Ti

dibbus1987 - That's the first thing my wife told me when I showed her my new pants. Good advice. John

ScoutNut has some great suggestions and it wasn't until I saw poetry that I recalled some of my favorite yarns as a boy were from "The Collected Poems of Robert Service." "There are strange things done in the midnight sun By the men who toil for gold;..." A good online source for the poems is http://www.artdamage.com/service.htm Follow the links at the bottom to get to the poems. John

Great article Steve, thanks. Here's an 11th reason: Because it's my turn to step up, just like Harry, Steve, Ken, Bill, Mark, Joel, and George did for me when I was a boy. And, hopefully when my Tiger is grown and my grandson asks, "Dad can I join Cub Scouts?", he'll say "Yes, let's find our Pack." John