Faith

These are great, thank y'all so much. I ran all this past my husband today on his lunch break and mailed it to my CM (along with the concerns.) I was thinking maybe each scout get a chance to perform one of these 'ideas' and then the rest of the shooting be the normal requirements of the firing range (maybe save these until the end of their turn.) I really appreciate all this!

I agree, I enjoyed reading this (and seeing this kind of chatter is part of my daily job, just glad I can join in here!) I look forward to seeing how our parents handle this in the future; if they leave or stick around. I know at our one overnighter everyone remained (rushed to get out of there the next morning but not the night before.) A lot of the points in here I've never thought about, the varying opinions here make me wonder how I'll feel about it if/when it happens.

Thank you for your suggestions Virden and your input Sqyire. I understand where you are coming from, I actually brought that up at the last roundtable (I asked if it was going to be part of the 'theme' or on its own like it was at the campout last year.) Our CM that is moving on is over camp (their last hoorah I guess) and she is the one that requested tying it in. I'm not sure if they would continue with those areas or not if we can't (this is my first year so I am unsure.) I will say that most of the boys who will be there I believe earned their beltloop at the campout last year (which will mean this is their second time at it.) Not all of them of course (we've had scouts come and go since then) but some of them have experience - some do not. I will mention all the suggestions here, so we can discuss both sides.

I was wondering if I was the only one thinking that, lol. They want it almost chemistry related (lots of experiments and such will be there), I'm just drawing a blank. Spent a couple hours searching around and couldn't find anything remotely close to what I'm aiming for (especially for cub scouts.) But I will not give up! I like the wall idea, just gotta look more into that (thankfully the husband was a carpenter for almost 12 years so maybe he'll have some ideas with that.)

Hi all This will be my first time posting in this forum for ideas, please go easy on me, lol. My husband is going to take the range officer training this weekend so that he can be over the range at our upcoming day camp this June. Our day camp's theme is Mad Science. With these two things in mind, our CM contacted me today and asked me to partner up with my husband to try and come up with some ideas for the bb gun and archery range. They want it science related. I am a crafty person by nature, I do scrapbooks, posters, etc. and have helped out in the past with these. However, I have never taken part in any shooting activities so coming up with something will be a new challenge for me. I've looked around online for ideas, the only thing I've come up with so far is filling balloons with baking soda and letting it drop into something containing vinegar (and causing a reaction the kids can see.) However I know they'll be fairly far away and thinking of things ricocheting, I'm still trying to come up with something. I know things with sights/sounds will draw the most attention from them - with all these factors, any ideas? I will continue to browse around and figure something out!

Welcome, glad to have you here!

When I started as a den leader, I was told to use the dues we collect monthly in the den to make any needed purchases. As I posted elsewhere on here, those quit coming in regularly and most of the things I needed to purchase were bought out of my own pocket. I wasn't offered any reimbursement from the pack but if I had of been, I would have refused. In my opinion all you can do in your situation is mention it to them (which is apparently more than some packs do) and if they refuse, thank them and move on. The only time I'd make a point of even considering a reimbursement is if it was a huge, necessary purchase that couldn't be purchased any other way (however next year I will not be footing the bill for those who don't help at all and only show up here and there when money is required and expect me to cover it.)

I learned many years ago, before scouts was ever a blip on my radar, not to I've did my own fare share of 'discovering' myself and what I believe in and for those who respected that, it was greatly appreciated. I know 2 of our scouts attend church from 10am-12pm and again from 4pm-6pm (I remember the times from when we discussed setting a den meeting date in the very beginning.) Since they are two of our most active scouts, I wouldn't consider squeezing a meeting between or after that. Thankfully for now Mondays work well enough for us all.

Welcome! So glad to see another new mom and den leader here This place is great for beginners (in my experience.) I've already picked up quite a bit in a little bit of time. Hope to see you around!

Thanks to work I have to use Firefox as my primary personal browser and also had trouble with this. After some careful (and quick) hovering and clicking, it registered for me to update mine. It is another feature that is touchy on here, sometimes it'll work fine, other times, not so much. I about did a dance with it the last time trying to get it to work (hover, scroll up, scroll down, hover, click - repeat if necessary.)

Not sure what you mean by repeated but as far as I know no BBCode works properly on here as of right now, either. So many things borked with the 'update' (and possibly some before that, I wasn't here at that time)

I've managed to edit two posts since I joined. Its very touchy-feely. I do not suggest taking KDD's advice; I tried that and ended up with nothing but a sore throat. My misspellings were still there for all to see

Welcome! Glad to have you here, hope to see you around!

Nothing here, thank goodness. I could do without something like that (especially when I'm normally happy to see anything related to scouting arrive in my inbox.) As for the sender, some people get hacked, some get 'mimicked' (just for someone with an agenda to look authentic, and they can easily do so as long as they have the know how) and some people just feel that strongly about it. I was not a part of any discussions on this matter for our pack nor do I know how our council/the other packs around here feel about it. I imagine I would not share the same ideas as most in our group and may be why I wasn't included, no way to know for sure (still learning the hierarchy with all this as well.)

I agree with Koolaidman. I would go by personal preference with parents/scouts or something more 'personal' before I went the route of names/alphabet/other non-meaningful reasoning. Especially with boys that age. If they already have some bonds, go with that. Breaking them apart for the sake of name/absolute even amounts/etc. would cause more harm than good, I'd think. We thought we were gonna have to do this with our tiger den but it dwindled down so much by the end of the year that we are able to keep them altogether. But if things had been different, I'd have went with the little 'groups' I saw forming before some of the boys left. Made sure they all worked together but bonds form and I'd hate to tear that apart, especially in their early scouting years.

I am, I purchased it, the leader book and a few others at the Scout Shop. I haven't looked through it for the Wolf yet but most definitely will!

We started out last year with a den leader that took it all for granted, to put it nicely. The first 3 months were insane, our meetings kept getting cancelled, she couldn't decide what we would work on and most of us started doing the achievements on our own time (well, besides the Go See It!s) to try and keep up. When I took over in December we worked together and got it all done by February but I can promise you that will not happen again this year. Most of the parents that were good friends with her bailed (those are the same I discussed that only show up to costly events that they had zero 'part' in) but we have a few that stuck with it and helped out tremendously. I already gave out a paper at the last meet on everything upcoming through September and planned to start on a list for the Wolf items next month (so that we have time to plan.) Our 5 regular scouts' parents are all on Facebook and we have a private chat on there where we communicate almost daily. We are not school based (our charter is the ELKS Lodge here in town and we meet at our local recreational center) but after seeing what is required I will see if I can find any tie ins elsewhere (that's actually how we got some of the electives done so all the boys had at least 20 finished up until now.) One of the parents is a teacher at an elementary school that 3 of our 5 regulars go to so maybe coordinating with her will help us (as far what all schools may be doing ,etc.) So many things we can do to make the best of it and I plan to explore those options to the best of my ability

As would I. We do not attend church (me, my husband and my two boys) but choose to do our religious duty in other ways (and mostly at home or with family.) I know some don't agree with that (and not here to discuss that, lol) but some of the other boys have a very strict regime for church and I am not about to stick my nose in that one. My son does attend every now and then with his grandma in another county but he loves their services so whenever he wants to go, he's more than welcome (he earned the Scout Sunday award by going and helping out there this past February.)

Right, same way the Tiger Cub electives went (they didn't get any elective beads until the 15 achievements were completed.) Since we were so pressed for time, they did start the electives in September and got their beads for them in March after the B&G. I will mention the 'with your family' requirements but most parents will probably wait (I know my son most likely will.) As for the summertime award, we have camp in June, I myself am orchestrating a water based pack meet in July (with the support of our new cubmaster) and we will ahve a pack meet in August. He got all the requirements printed (I believe the page you linked is one of the ones I saw him have last roundtable) so we should be good to go! I know at least 3 of our 5 regulars will be coming to all 3 (they don't miss ANYTHING), so we should be good on that. As for the pack...heh, I can't speak for the other dens. Hopefully they will want to participate as well ) I was just confused on why our boys would get the Tiger pin for the summertime award, instead of the Wolf (not complaining, that will give them a chance for all of them each year if they stick with it - it just threw me off that it would still be Tiger.)

"We award rank badges at our June campout instead of at B&G." - We considered doing that same thing and was told we'd be the only den not ready at B&G. I was torn as to what to do (and we ended up rushing to get it done since they were only working on them from September '12 to February '13.) I didn't want them to see all the other scouts get a rank up and they be 'left behind', so to speak. Now that we have a new Cubmaster I will see what his thoughts are on all this.

We have never scheduled anything on a Sunday, due to the majority of the den having service in church that morning and in the afternoon as well. Sunday is normally a slow day for my scout and another, I'd love to schedule something on it. But I doubt the rest would be able to make it so we stick to Mondays (which is just as bad with sports going on, here they are almost all scheduled on Mon, Tues and Thurs.)

Ah, let me re-phrase, as I didn't explain fully. When they earned the Tiger rank in February, they then continued to work on Tiger until June 1st (beltloops, electives, etc.) After that, all activities are considered wolf (although we don't do things together at this point until September, that's what they would be marked as, I assume - our first year so still feeling all that out.) Not sure how many of our boys will actually work on stuff over the summer (beltlopops, awards, etc.) but when they attend day camp in June, its as Wolves (as we will have some new Tigers there that were recruited in the schools.) So if I mark any of that down, it will be under wolf. I love the whole arrow points idea, just need to research more on it so I understand how it works for those that do want to work on any things over the summer. When I said 'save the wolf requirements for September' - mainly meant the requirements in the book that we'll do a majority of together (haven't fully read over those yet, need to ASAP.) I realize I clumped all that together in my reply, instead of elaborating on each part. We will be going for the summertime award this year and I was told they would get Tiger rank for that (even though they are wolves, online and our scout shop both agree they get the rank they just came out of, not the one they are just starting.) I hope that makes sense.

This was something I was wondering as well last year. My son just is going into Wolf, so I hand sew all his patches on (and mine too as Den Leader.) I don't own a sewing machine and I refused to pay someone here in town to do it (most boys in our den had their grandparents use a machine to put the majority of theirs on.) I've talked with the parents and either this year or the next, we are going to do what BD said and teach them to sew the patches on. That way when they make it to Boy Scout, they will already know how to do it and continue to do so (that's the idea anyways.) My son already wants to know how to sew them on, I did take the time to show him how to thread the needle and knot it but when it came to putting it on, he got frustrated and watched me instead (he's 6 so I'm not making a big deal out of that at all.)