King Ding Dong

My first suggestion is to speak with the school teachers and get some coaching on how to control the chaos. They are good at it and you know they do not put up with it. Everything bwprewmeister said. Structure the meetings so the schoolwork type stuff is homework and the active stuff is with the den. Even a den of 9 is large, so get some more parents to step up and set up 2 or 3 stations where they boys rotate doing activities. You can talk to the CM and CC about how the split was determined, but what is done is done. My den has several "kinetic" learners (including my youngest). Parental involvement is key. Sometimes they need to be removed from the group for a few minutes.

That wouldn't surprise me one bit.

So you would use it in the middle of a oratory ? At camp and IOLS it was just used when a speaker said the word "announcements".

How is your personal experience with poor swimming helpful to MidwestSteve's situation ?

Nice Scout Spirit BD.

BD you are completely misrepresenting my posts. The latest being the service hours. I specifically stated the service hours issue was in regards to the older scouts and had absolutely nothing to do with my son. Go read it.

DO NOT ask him where your should "stick" or "shove" them. Say "sir, what would you like me do do with them."

We speculate, assume and make critical judgements with little to no facts all the time on this forum. Why should we stop now ? Oh, it would be that pesky Scout Oath thing, wouldn't it ?

In general a boy starts kindergarten at age 5 is a Tiger at 6, Wolf 7, Bear 8, Webelos 9, Webelos II 10. There are exceptions because not all Packs are grade based, some parents hold their children back a year from school, some private schools operate differently, each state has its own cut off birthdate for starting Kindergarten, home schooled kids are a mystery to me. My own son started kindergarten at 4 because he was bored with preschool, was very tall (at the time) and met the age cut off at the time. What you are doing would not be allowed in the BSA. I doubt any leader would want a 1:5 ratio camping at that age. To many cats to herd. Some tall fences, moats, guard dogs, armed security forces, extraction helicopters, predator drones, pepper spray, tazers, and lots of Valium or Zanex and we might consider it. Joking aside, I know some grade school teachers who could pull it off. Most of us parents are just not that good managing herds of small boys.

Sounds like I am mostly a No Poo guy. I just rinse my hair well every shower. I will shampoo if it gets legitimately dirty like from lake water or an oil change malfunction with my car. Drywall sanding is another. Bring it on Bears !

I was briefly introduced to the announcements song at IOLS, but it faded out and did not understand it. At BS summer camp a version was used extensively and seems to be a cleaned up version that really did not make much sense. Announcements, announcements, announcements. What a terrible way to die, What a terrible way to die, What a terrible death, to be talked to death. What a terrible way to die. We sold our cow We sold our cow We have no use for your Milk now Announcements, announcements, announcements. SPEAK ! Seems a leaned up from this one We sold our cow, moo. We sold our cow, moo. We have no use for your bull now Announcements, announcements, announcements. That makes more sense, but is a little edgier. Our pack meetings do not have the "round of applause" and some othe fun things. Like "Hello my name is Joe". Response "HI JOE !!!" Would this be appropriate at the cub level and what other standard fun things work for your Pack ?

I am not sure I understand your position completely. Yes, the leaders need to lead by example, however there will always be someone who accuses us as not being squeaky clean. Not sure a Cub Scout is ever going to know the living arrangements off their Den Leaders. Keep your posts flowing and we can give or 2 cents worth.

Welcome. Keeping a pack going is a tough job. Make sure you are trained and read the leader book so you at least understand how it is supposed to be done. The biggest battle I have found is getting parents to step up and take on a position, such as popcorn sales, treasurer etc. if you can get that done the rest should follow. Your CO situation is not that odd. Many chartered organizations such as a PTO do not have any real involvement with the pack unless you start having conflicts in the Pack. Feel free to ask lots of questions and you will get lots of different opinions. Don't be put off by some of our grumpy members, they mean well. Our pack lost the CM as well and I am trying to avoid the position, but may have play the role once a month. A strong committee chair is very important. When you start taking on to many roles burnout is inevitable. Keep your focus on the Dens, that is where 90% of cub scouting takes place. Keep your pack meetings an hour or under and lively. Keep the "announcer talking to the kids or parents" part to a minimum. Games, songs, skits are fun and keep they boys interested. Keep guest speakers short, they can get boring sometimes. With Pack events I think quality is better than quantity. If all you can pull off is one campout, pinewood and blue and gold, just do that and add on next year. Encourage uniforms and neat appearance with small rewards but do not put down or make scouts that are not fully uniformed uncomfortable. Use the positive approach. There is a thread on best pack meetings you should at. YouTube and the net can help teach you songs and skits. Do as I say, so as I do songs work great and span the age groups. I am going to make a post about appropriate use of the Announcements Song shortly. It was a big hit at Boy Scout camp.

If you know where they meet try contacting them, such as the school. Unfortunately what can happen is a email address can be set up for contact and as leadership changes that responsibility does not get transferred. Try and get a phone number or call your local council and explain your problem. They should be able to put you in touch with the Unit Commisioner who may have better contact information.

At zoos all across the country Christians are routinely fed to the lions. Google it.

The OP has not given much information to go on here, other than no head under water. I have zero experience what it takes to get an exemption from the council, but the fact that it was granted indicates it is legitimate, in my opinion. The range of reasons could be many and it may be that there is reason for his head to not even get wet. I would imagine most people are aware of swim caps and ear plugs and those options have been rulled out. Latex or silicon caps keep a lot of water out but not all. Maybe he has a scalp condition and chlorine severly aggravates it. I know of no salt water pool in the Midwest, those are usually only on the coasts. I have worked with a couple of kids who can swim well but have some sort of neurological condition that just drives their ears crazy trying to float on their backs. Who knows at this point. In the interest of being helpful to the OP and assuming the the best in people not the worst I offer theses suggestions. There are many skills that need to come together in order to successfully swim, head in water and breath control is an very important one but there are others. Arm and leg coordination as well as conditioning play a very important part as well. A straight leg kick, whip kick and even dolphin kick take many people time to develop and different muscles are used than on land. A PFD along with a kick board could be used to swim great distances and develop good technique. With a vest you PFD even arm movements could be added. Developing the ability to do these activities measured in the hundreds of yards not feet could go a very long way. One of the major reasons for the swimming requirements is survivability, not just fitness. Becoming very proficient in treading techniques would be very beneficial. The egg beater kick water polo players use takes a lot of skill for many to master. The ability to tread water for an extended period of time, say 20 or 30 minutes could go a long way in meeting the spirit of the requirements. Without looking the lifeguard requirements up I think five minutes without hands is all that is required. 20 minutes would be phenomenal and a great workout and self confidence. A spotter could be used to ensure he does not go under. The panic that can develop in an emergency situation is what does most victims in. He could even learned to propel himself in the water several hundred yards while treading. Though I would not call this "swimming" In short he could master many aquatic skills that do not require head submersion and be in a very good place when his medical situation is resolved. The real danger here is if the requirement is checked off and it is not stipulated that it must be revisited at a later time.

You keep throwing up straw men. Kids riding a bike to a pool and goofing off for a few hours. I am talking about serious activities. Swimming laps, or a distance ride on a trail. You live in a different world than I do. We are to geographically dispersed and 10 year olds do not ride bikes unsupervised on roads. In fact we don't ride bikes on roads period at this age. The drivers around here do not respect cyclists. That may make it impossible to get the cycling merit badge for some time.

He must hate Mosquitos more than I do.

Who shampoos when camping anyway ?

Certainly your not suggesting the BSA discriminate against people with eating disorders ? Kick those FAT people out!

Hey kettle, its the pot calling.

There is a new form for that kind of thing.

Always the optimist BD. Always looking for something that isn't there. Did I say anything about my son ? No I did not. I wouldn't even consider having him run a full sized charcoal grill unsupervised. I would be asking 3rd yr and up scouts.

I guess you could call the dog paddle swimming, I don't. Can you name a stroke that does not require you to submerge your head ?

So what does the BSA say a patrol activity is ? What the bleep is a bike rodeo ? Rodeo is a bad word in my book. Like NASCAR, Monster Truck and Honey Boo Boo. So if less than 50% of a patrol show up nothing counts ?