King Ding Dong

Should it really be based "whatever your Pack wants to base it on." ? Or should their be some sort of guidance from National ? I can't find anything other than than the order form. Don't quote me on this but the award has been around since 1971 and is a metric in JTE and National can't provide any guidance in 42 years ? The implication is a Pack should base any non rank advancement award on "whatever the Pack wants."

Yeah, I know. Just like there is no such thing as Class A and Class B. Would you feel better If I called it Arrow of Light Year or whatever National calls it now ? Or should there be no distinctions between 4th and 5th grade Webelos. Oh I forgot, your pack doesn't have a second Webelos year and its not because it is LDS. The awards are in the Cub Book, ever read it ?

I do not have new topic problem. Try logging out closing your browser and logging back in. Although I can name them it seems some of the forums are set up differently. I have noticed some have "page 1 2 3 4". At the bottom and some do not. My biggest problem is deleting all my RETURN keys so my posts end up one big paragraph and I cannot edit a post only a comment,

So how do you handle the Webelos ? 3rd grader earns Bear rank, school ends he is now in a Webelos Den. Earns the Webelos pin over the summer. Next year he finished 4th grade, presumably has earned his Webelos Rank, participates in 3 summertime pack activities. What pin does he earn now ? another Webelos Pin ? With the exception of LDS units or home schooled children how can a Scout earn the Tiger Pin ? It would be great if we were able to recruit Tigers at the end of Kindergarten, but that is not how the program works out in the field, in the vast majority of cases.

When has the BSA been anything but confusing ? From my understanding at the end of the school year they are not advanced in Rank, they are just advanced in Den. So lets a assume a Cub earned his Tiger Rank but didn't do much Wolf year and now is in third grade. He is in a Bear Den working on his Bear requirements. What Rank is he ? Tiger. Am I wrong ? He does not hold the Wolf rank, he didnt earn it, or the Bear Rank because he has not completed the requirements for either. No "Rank Advancement" form for Wolf or Bear has been submitted to the service center. That leaves the question what does he call himself ? He is not really a Bear, he does not hold the Bear Rank. Maybe apples and oranges but a First Class Scout does not call himself a Star Scout until he has completed the requirements and passed his BOR. It seems wrong to make him say he is a Tiger. It seems silly to make him get all nuanced and say "I am in a Bear Den" or "I am working on my Bear Rank". I was AC last year so I did a lot of searching on the issue. As further evidence to support this view the Outdoor Activity Award can be earned 5 times, flap with 4 devices, but the Summertime Pack Award only 4 times. The whole your Rank is Wolf but you wear a Bear Necker and are in a Bear Den thing is confusing. Try explaining that to parents. Or the this is Cub Scouts but your son is not a Cub Scout he is a Tiger Cub or a Webelos. He is a "Cub Scout" for only two of the nearly five years.

Wow. OK. I see where you are comming from Pack, and a slice of me agrees with you. The course of action you suggest opens a big can of worms. Scout Law and Oath for one. I'm not sure if you call the insurance and liability issue CYA or not. Wearing my IH hat, I am not very comfortable with that approach. My public school district has over 17k students and supports scouting. Not sure how many scouts there are but I estimate at least 1K scouts. To put that relationship in jeopardy by breaking rules you agreed to uphold, I don't know...

Boyscouttrail says the same thing. http://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/award/award-1584.asp

I know this isn't official but meritbadge.org says otherwise. The vast majority of tigers start with the school year so how could they earn the Tiger pin ? I think further evidence is that there is no Webelos II pin. "Since the goal of the Summertime award is to have Packs continue the program through the summer, the summertime award scouts receive should match their current rank rather than the rank they are working on (ie, boys who have attained the rank of Tiger will receive the Tiger pin even though they are in a Wolf Den and working towards the Wolf rank). " http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/National_Summertime_Award

Wow, I have never seen or heard of anything like that. Book, necker, slide and loops, but is rolled into registration fee.

Your description above was not very sunny.

I am not sure what you have in mind for a private setting but I would caution against closed doors in any circumstance.

Well I meant is how to find what you and most on this board consider a quality program. Boy led, active, not an eagle mill etc.. The objective stuff is easy (program schedule, costs, older scouts still in program, etc). From the outside how can you tell if it is boy led, cohesive patrols etc. I doubt there are many SM that will stand up and proudly declare they are an adult led program and churn out 12 year old Eagles. "I can wrap this program up for your son faster than any troop in the area".

Testing direct editing of commentI mostly use an iPad and it makes this a pia, but you can copy and past the text and use the quote /quote tags to accomplish this. Not ideal. I agree with all of you going back a page and commenting is not a best practice. But things a far better than there were in the spring.

Testing direct editing of comment

441, the more sub forums you add the harder it becomes to navigate. This is an active forum, but not so active we need to create an even more complex structure. If a moderator thinks you posted in the wrong forum it will get moved. It doesn't happen very often, and I wouldn't worry about it if does happen. Have fun posting and try not to get bent out of shape when it seems like people are piling up on you. We all cross the line sometimes, but this would be a boring place if we didn't stick our necks out there. The fact that you keep defending your position on chess does show courage. I wish there were more youth on here. Stick around.

Obviosly the training programs differ greatly. My IOLS training staff was as good or better than corporate session. There were at least 20 of them for a class of 50. No droning on, except for the usual BP, Boer War, Zulus stuff. Timers in the back signaling to end segments. The vast majority of the staff no longer had children in scouting. I guess consistency accross the country would be nice, but the cost would be huge. Please carry on you two, I am enjoying the show.

Don't understand the fish thing. There is a big difference. Your genes play a huge role in making state championship football. Eagle is obtainable by all that want to work for it.

This is fun. Don't let him push your buttons blw2. You both have some excellent points. I don't know your council's schedule but offering training more often would be nice. The problem is getting people to show up. At least in my council I know all the professional scouters are running themselves hard to to keep the camps going. My DE has only a 24 hour break each week. From what I have seen most of these guys are fundraisers and paper pushers so you really don't want them conducting training classes, they would be useless. Better to learn from someone that actually spends time in units. I am just guessing here but I suspect there is only a small minority that want training in the summer, but I would be game. I do accept some excuses for not getting trained but not many. If you work for company owned by Bain Capital, their mantra is "work em like dogs", so a free weekend is rare. My head about exploded when I asked one dad to take climbing training with me. "I can't do anymore training, then I get asked to come along on these events." It took all I had to not tell him his son will not be allowed at these events. Sorry to interrupt your golf tournament on TV.

What kind of vitamins do have to take to plan on having a baby in six months ? Sorry, I just couldn't resist.

When are 8 year olds not playing rough games ?

I think a Guide to Troop Shopping would be a great thread. As BD keeps yelling at me to find a new troop. When you are on the outside what exactly are you looking for ? One bit of advise I received was to show up at a troop meeting unannounced and just hang back in a corner like you were an uncle dropping your nephew off. Do you think hanging out in a blind with binoculars and a parabolic microphone at campout might be a little creepy?

Yes we we have medical forms. Now we need a volunteer to keep track of the yes boxes.

They probably just figured out there were a few gay scouts that attended and are now getting their panties all in a bunch about it.

I hole saw kit is very handy. Harbor Freight has sales on them all the time.

That's right, basement. I don't remember the exact situations now, but there was only one or maybe two times.... and they conflicted with something big..... so no, I'm not going to have my son & I miss out on a major pack event to do something that should be offered much more often than it is. I'm not talking about a den meeting, I'm talking about a camp or a trip or something. Honestly, there should be no reason for me to even have to miss a den meeting for training. I thin it's mainly my district, but to a lessor extend the neighboring districts too..... but these things should be offered much more often..... and yes, they need to be offered over the summer when the students can actually attend. Let's turn this around.....Are you implying that if you were a trainer, you wouldn't miss out on going to jamboree to teach a class for the many Cub leaders that need to take a class over the summer?.... but if our Pack planned a trip to say, sleep on an aircraft carrier, that I should miss that trip and make my son miss out, so that I could attend Baloo? BD, were you a trainer offering 4 different IOLS sessions or is that how long your IOLS course is. Mine was a Saturday indoors and a Friday evening through Sunday afternoon.