WVCubDad

Thanks, that helps and is in line with what I know from CAP. I'll check the IRS publication as well.

John

I ordered mine through ScoutStuff.org and they arrived today. My first thought was that they looked and felt like GI Nomex Flight Pants, there were also a lot of rappelling ropes to be dealt with! I'm a larger guy and ordered the XL with a 30" inseam.

They are a different shade than my brand new poly/cotton shorts - duller and more drab than olive. The fit is good and my son (a Tiger Cub) commented that now I had camping pants like his. When the legs are zipped off, the shorts hit right above my knees where I normally wear my shorts.

But, I'm looking forward to breaking them in at our Council Family Camp in a few weeks.

John

ASM59 -

You raise a question I've had about tax deductions for Scout related expenses. I've been a member of Civil Air Patrol for 13 years and there are certain things that I can take deductions for - uniforms, training materials, certain milages, aircraft costs, etc.

Is there something similar for Cub/Boy Scouts? Is there a publication or reference (I'm sure there is )?

BTW, I was told when I went to turn in my Tiger Den Leader application that the Pack will cover my fee. So far, I've paid for activities myself (summertime pack stuff), but don't know if that will change as we start up full swing next week.

John

Thanks ScoutNut, the Tiger box will work for me.

John

I thought I'd gotten an e-mail from the national store that had a monthly theme box with 8 of these books, some craft supplies for animal masks and the monthly theme activity patch for September, but I can't find the e-mail or the box in the online catalog. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks.

John

Scout Nut - I'm sorry to report that it went so quickly that we didn't have a den name or cheer. That won't happen again!

My den had Cubs from each level - 2 Tigers, a Wolf, 2 Bears and 3 Webelos, so I tried to come up with Ti-Wo-Be-Los, but they didn't really like it. In the end when it was time to name our model boat we agreed on "The All Of Us".

I was a little worried about the spread in ages, but the older boys helped the younger ones and it worked out okay.

The camp was pretty short - 3 to 8 pm and we didn't have a campfire because the city park closed at sunset, but that's a good idea for the next one. I suspect that had the original twilight camp gone off as planned we would have had a campfire.

It was a good learning experience for me as a new leader and I got a chance to meet some of the other leaders in the District. I can't wait for our next pack meeting and my son is ready for that as well.

The other night he offered an interesting comment - "I'm going to quit Cub Scouts." I asked him why and he said "I only get to see them when we go on trips." I explained that we would start up regular weekly meetings the first Tuesday in September and he seemed okay with that, but his complaint stuck with me. So my question is, how many packs or dens keep meeting through the summer and has it made a positive or negative difference?

John

Our District twilight camp was cancelled (a lot of competing schedules over a 4 day period), so instead we did a single afternoon/evening Cub Camp that was a heckuva lot of fun. It was my first District sponsored event and from my perspective we seem to have a pretty good group of Scouters.

We had about 35 Cubs from 6 different Packs that I could spot, there may have been more (thank goodness for Pack T-shirts). We were able to break up into 5 dens of 8 with the addition of some siblings. We spent a couple of hours swimming, then we had hotdogs, made a "rain stick" and had a boat building competition with craft sticks (my Den won!!! Way to go guys!!!)

After that was a neat game that called for teams of 4 Cubs to hold a corner of a piece of cardboard that was their boat. When the DE blew the whistle they were to run as fast as they could with each boy holding on. At the next whistle blast they were to drop the cardboard and step on it with no part of their feet hanging over the edge. This resulted in many using only 1 foot and a lot of balance to stay on board. The first team across the line won. Any team that had a foot touching the ground instead of the board had to go back to the start line and try it again. Then we kicked it up a notch and had three boys close their eyes and one boy direct them around 4 adult "turning points". This was done at a walk so that we didn't have bunches of eager Cubs carreening out of control...nice thought, but it happened anyway :-)

A quick wrap up and application of the NLT principles and we were on our way home with cool shirts and patches, crafts and good memories. I took my son (a Tiger) and his buddy, a new Bear, and they really enjoyed it. It was a very positive start to the fall Scouting season.

Thanks to all in the Potomac District who made this fun event possible.

John

Thanks for the suggestions ScoutNut. Tiger badges by the B&G sounds like a great goal.

After I posted the Bobcat den question, I thought it through some more and agree with you that it means more if its done in the context of the age appropriate dens and not as a large group.

John

I will be my son's Tiger Den leader in the fall as well. I purchased a regular bound Tiger Cub handbook earlier this summer and gave it to him for his birthday last week. After our last Pack Overnighter in June, the CM and last year's Tiger DL asked if I would be interested in taking on the challenge -- ABSOLUTELY and I got the CSLG, Program Helps 06-07, found this forum and other CS/BSA sites and started reading.

Based on info I saw in another thread I also purchased the coil bound version of the Tiger Cub handbook today. The Bobcat info has been moved to the front of the book and there are a few other small changes.

My question (and that of another Dad that I talked to at our July Pack activity this past weekend) is can the Tigers get the Tiger immediate recognition emblem before the Bobcat badge? My reasoning for this is that the requirements for the Tiger emblem are items 4, 5 and 6 on the Bobcat trail. Also the various trails/tracking pages in the back of the handbook do have the recognition emblem listed first, then the Bobcat badge, then the Tiger Cub badge trail and the Tiger Track trail.

A second related question is, since all Scouts in the Pack need to get the Bobcat badge, does it make sense to have a temporary Bobcat den? Is this practical, not worth it, totally outside the aims of the program?

Just trying to make sense of it all and give my son and the other Tigers the best program possible.

John