sprout18

So the three scouts are my son, the committee chairs son and one other boys. The committee chair has said from last year that she doesn't want her son going to the troop until corvis solver in May. No idea what she expects her son to do but whatever. My son is very gung-ho about going to the Boy Scouts now! He will be 11 in Jan and just wants to join. The other kid doesn't seem to care one way or the other. Also I will be taking over as committee chair next year so I'm trying to ruffle as little feathers as possible. Which is why I just won't award now and be done. Plus I still have the rest of the year to deal with them. I still haven't heard back from the cub master as to what the COR said.

Unfortunately I wont be at roundtable tonight while the cub master, committee chair and cor discuss this. I am taking a few members of my Sr Webelos den to visit a Troop meeting tonight. Another problem is the Cubmaster is also the sCoutmaster of the troop of our same charter organization.

So it seems like most agree with me. My cub master and committee chair do not. They are now going to the charter organizational rep for his opinion. Im now very worried they will not even allow them to recieve these awards at Blue and Gold as its always been done at cross-over in May for our pack! I dont know what to.

So I have 3 Sr Webelos who just earned their Arrow of Light Award. Under cub scouts immediate recognition shouldn't we award their patch to them at the next pack meeting? Do they really have to wait until Blue and Gold to be acknowledged for obtaining the highest award in cub scouts? I'm not planning for gem to move on to the troop until Blue and Gold which is where they will get their plague and arrow but shouldn't we at least recognized that the earned this?

When do most packs transition into boy scouts? I went to Pow Wow last year and took the 3 hr Webelos leader training and they said that we should complete our Arrow of Light by Blue and Gold (February) and the boys should attend Boy Scout meetings after that. I have no problem with this as my boys will definitely be done AOL by our Blue and Gold meeting. The problem comes with one of our parents. She is the committee chair for our pack and her son has been in my den since Tiger. She says that we have never done it this way before and no other pack does it this way. She doesn't care what I do but her son will not be going to the Troop before Cross-over (May) and will continue to attend den meetings. I think most if not all of the other parents are on board with my suggestion as to why they should go to the pack in Feb which includes getting to know the troop members and fundraising with the troop for their summer camp (which can be upwards of $400). Our committee chair doesn't care about my reasons or what I learned at Pow Wow training. She said I'm making the boys grow up too fast and kicking them out of the pack. I'm just not sure what to do. I want to give them their awards at Blue and Gold but am afraid to approach the subject of this with her as she is so against it.

Do other packs bridge over at Blue and Gold?

I agree that splitting can be tricky. As a den leader that has had between 10-12 scouts in a den - it is way too many. You can not do all the fun things safely if you only have one den leader and that many boys. I would definitely say no more than 6 to 8 kids in a den. When there are more than that it is very hard to get everyone through the requirements and help each individually if they need it.

When breaking up the den make sure you don't break up good friends into different dens. It will make one or the other drop out. Talk with the current den leader and see who they recommend keeping together. They are the best judge of who will work well together and who has issues with other scouts. Also recruit den leaders BEFORE you split and make sure they are definitely agreeing to take a den and know the scouts are counting on them to hold to that decision. We've had those who say ok they will lead a den and when we go to split they back out.

Good luck!

I don't think we need OWLS because we will have someone IOLS trained which is basically the same thing. In our district they do IOLS and OWLS all together the same weekend combined together.

I am a Sr Webelos den leader and am thinking about taking my boys on a Webelos only camping trip. Last year as Jr Webelos we went to a Webelos Campout at a local Athletic Club (they slept overnight there and completed a few activity badge requirements in Sportsman, Fitness and Readyman). I am planning to get BALOO trained and my husband will have IOLS from Boy Scouts so we are covered with training. I have a couple of questions.

1. Are we allowed to tent camp in MD in November or does it have to be Cabin Camping? I'm good either way with going camping I just want to make sure I'm following the rules as it can be cold in MD in winter (or it may be 70 degrees you never know!)

2. When looking at the guide to safe scouting it says Webelos overnight but not weekend camping. Does that mean we can only go Saturday-Sunday (go up Saturday morning and come home Sunday afternoon) and not Friday-Sunday (go up Friday night and come home Sunday afternoon)?

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks so much.

Ericka

So for the boys that have achieved arrow of light but decide they don't want to cross over what do we do at the meetings after Blue and Gold?

First I have a question about the artist construction requirement. Can this be anything they make or design or does it have to be a sculpture of sorts? I had an idea to take square glass votive holders and modpodge some tissue paper cut outs onto it to give as a Christmas gift. My boys all earned the Craftsman badge at Day Camp this year so I was thinking we could use this for the artist construction requirement. Would this work?

Also I have a parent/committee member who is having issues with the boys bridging over to boy scouts next Feb after Blue and Gold (they will be Sr Webelos then) if they have achieved their Arrow of Light. I went to PowWow this year and took the Webelos leader program 3 hour training. They discussed that the Webelos Program is meant to be an 18 month program and if done correctly the boys should have their arrow of light by their Blue and Gold ceremony in their SR Webelos year. Well so far we are on track to have that completed since all 8 of my Webelos attended Day Camp this year and are also planning to go this coming year. It has never been done this way in our pack and the boys always bridge over to Boy Scouts at Cross-over in April/May. She feels that doing by Blue and Gold and having them join the Troop then feels like pushing them out and they won't be able to do anything Cub Scout in the Spring. I didn't know what to say. I told her this is the way the program is set up and having them bridge over after they earn their Arrow of Light will allow them to start fundraising early for their first year for Boy Scout Summer Camp and allow them to get to know the troop members and such before. She is pretty adamant we shouldn't do it this way and continue with having them bridge over at Cross-over even though they will have earned their arrow of light and its pretty pointless to keep doing cub scout stuff when they could be working on Boy Scout stuff. I'm not sure what to say - I've talked to our Cub Master (who is also the Troop Master) and he feels that it is fine to have them join in Feb and actually likes this idea. Any advice on how to handle this parent (who is also the committee chair)?

Thanks.