Brewmeister

No, it is the Personal Fitness merit badge, not the tenderfoot reqs. They did the mile run and the other PF tasks and did discuss some of the MB requirements as I indicated in my previous post. They were using those handy workbook printouts that I'm sure you're all familiar with.

Personally, I am an Eagle Scout so I have pretty good, albeit outdated, knowlege of the program, and this bugs the heck out of me. Also as a WDL I would say we were a much bigger stickler for requirements even on the Webelos achievement fitness badge!!!

But, to the Troop I am just a dad, and wanting to give my son his space to grow.

And no I do not want to undermine the troop by saying anything. So, should I take the time to go through all the missing requirements with my son, even though it is technically his responsibility to seek out and complete MBs, because the requirements were pencil whipped (at least in my opinion)?

Got something that I'd like the opinion of more seasoned Scouters on.

My son recently crossed over to a Troop. This troop has occasional Merit Badge Meetings in addition to its regular meetings. Now, I've read enough here to know that even though it's a common practice at most of the troops we've visited, it's one that some folks don't like, so I understand that.

Anyway, the troop was offering Personal Fitness in two meetings four weeks apart. I was somewhat puzzled about that plan to begin with because you can't fit 12 weeks into 4, but I thought the boys would get a partial or something.

My son went to the first meeting where they did the benchmark fitness tests and discussed some of the other requirements. He didn't come home with any plans or instructions or paperwork, but I am trying not to interfere so I just let him and his troop do their own thing.

Well, a week before the second meeting he severely injured his wrist, requiring a splint. He wanted to go to the second meeting despite that, and I told him that was fine and he could just complete what he could and do the rest later after he healed up.

When I picked him up from the meeting, he told me that all the boys earned their badge, including him. I asked the counselor leading the course what about the pushups and pullups that I knew my son couldn't have done, and the counselor told me "Oh, we'll just award it to him. If he wants to, have him do those later and send me an email."

Okay...

So at home I pulled up the requirements and asked my son what they did in the class. Sounds like they did about half of the badge as far as I can tell, not counting the fact that they got it done in 4 weeks and clearly my son couldn't do the physical part at all.

I'm really struggling with this one. It's bugging me that he didn't do the requirements. I feel like redoing the whole thing with him so that he does.

On the other hand, he's supposed to be "in charge" of his Scouting career now, not me, and it's a situation where the MBC signed off on the badge. I don't want to be "one of those parents."

What would you do, if anything?

We/our advancement coordinator tries to do something different for each type of award that is presented.

Ranks and arrow points and other "advancement" stuff gets a more formal ceremony focused on what the award is all about.

We presented bobcat badges in blown up ballons, where the boys got their Cub Scout careers off with a "bang" to claim their badge.

For the fun/elective stuff like belt loops, it's something fun and short. For instance we gave each boy a package of Swedish Fish candy along with their "Swimming" belt loop.

We try, but sometimes we're limited by time and they just get the baggie treatment on belt loops. It all depends.

Our Webelos dens do but the others do not. It is up to the DLs.

Boys are elected for a period of a few months.

We keep it simple--as the denner, you are the "go to" guy for the DL. You will collect dues, get your den organized when things need to be done, etc.

It works fine.

How do you balance the prop? Are you hanging it and shaving the heavy side?

Good ideas, SP; I like the way you think...

It can be a shock for active/outdoor families just how restrictive scouting is on some stuff...as evidenced also by the discussion in the "paintball" topic. We took our Wolf den canoeing a few years ago before I found out in the G2SS that it was verboten...whoops.

Half the boys in our Webelos den (4th grade) have already gone paintballing.

My son cannot shoot a BB gun in Cub Scouts unless he is at a duly authorized council facility...but he bagged a turkey two weekends ago with a 20-gauge shotgun.

But I would not let them throw knives...until they were equipped with proper throwing knives of course.

Is the program too tame, or does it struggle with trying to be all things to all boys, many of whom have no experience with the outdoors?(This message has been edited by brewmeister)

SP,

I'm definitely not dismissing your egg drop idea, and we have also done the stomp rockets.

I think there is value to both of those ideas and gets the idea out there that "cub scouting is about spending time with your Scout," versus "Cub scouting is about dropping your kid off for practice."

In our experience, we have found it very helpful to split the boys from the parents so we can go over the nitty gritty with the parents (where to buy the uniform, how much will this cost, etc.). Likewise we have found it better in the long run to find leaders after the roundup, which was a question asked by the OP.

Beyond that, our best recruiters are existing scouts with full red vests who get up and talk about the fun they had at summer camp, and our best visual aids are the 5-minute slideshow one of our leaders created to a high-energy soundtrack.

In other words, the activity is a good "hook," but the boys need to see the breadth of the program in visuals, and the parents need to get enough info to understand it.

YMMV....(This message has been edited by brewmeister)

As far as cooking things individually, how about kebabs? Cut up pieces of chicken and potatoes. Beef also works well but you may bust your budget buying a cut that will taste good grilled. We did sirloin kebabs, sprinkle on some season salt, our fire was the envy of the camp.

We have found luck with adding variety to the typical foil pouch fare. Chicken, soup, vegetables, and minute rice rather than the standard burger stew. To help with it getting done without being burnt you can dice and cook the chicken beforehand.

If your goal is to have the boys cook individually, the only ways I know are in a pouch or on a stick.

This is my lest favorite derby.

My recommendation would be to really stress the "fun" of this event over the "competition."

In our experience of running this event for many years, this is the derby where Murphy makes the most appearances. Rubber bands are always breaking, rockets are falling off the carrier or falling apart. If you try to structure it like a regular derby, chances are you will be waiting on rocket repairs, etc. Also, there seems to be no rhyme or reason why one rocket wins over another. I'm sure there is but we haven't found it. There have been some rockets that won't make it halfway down the course, but we could not tell what was wrong with them.

We do this event as a "race when ready" event. We start running rockets as soon as we have enough to start running. Boys race X number of times, and we mark a card for W/L. After everybody is done racing we race off the boys with the most wins.

BUT the prizes are very low key...no big derby trophies.

Also a few pointers from experience:

-A good percentage of people will have the nose cone messed up one way or the other--glued on, put on backwards, missing the red wire protecting sleeve, etc. This year we took all the nose cone assemblies out of the kit and one dad put them all together beforehand. It took time, but less time than undoing prop assemblies that were done wrong.

-We have soaked rubber bands in glycerine, but found they get really slippery to work with. Another option is to put the rubber bands in without lube, then give a shot of WD-40 down the inside of the rocket, wind it up and let it release, then it is ready to race.

-Be sure to crimp the hook on the prop assembly quite tight otherwise the rubber bands will come off.

-On the winding peg at the back of the rocket, attach a small zip tie through the rubber band to make a loop about the size of a quarter. Use the loop to attach the winding hook, rather than putting the hook on the peg itself. This makes it easier to take the winder off the rocket. Hard to describe this one.

I think it is a mistake to push for adult leaders at a new cub recruiting night. Also I think hitting them with camp signup is too much info.

That's not to say you can't mention it, and certainly have adult apps on hand.

Our recruiting nights focus on recruiting boys. So on one hand we have animated sideshows of the stuff our pack has done (we use Animoto), then we send the boys off for a quick game.

While the boys are playing we talk to the adults about what Cub Scouting IS. Try to think back to when you were a new, overwhelmed Tiger parent. And a lot of families know nothing about scouting.

While we don't ask for adult leaders at that time, we do stress that cub scouting is a family program. We do literally tell parents that this is not little league...you cannot drop and run and you are required to be at pack meetings with your son, and all meetings if you are a tiger parent.

(We also run the first tiger den meeting and turn the next one over to the parents and a "coordinator." Often that coordinator becomes the DL.)

Waiting a bit before you push for leaders works for us because people are not scared off at the roundup night, and because it gives time for a leader to percolate up from the crowd, rather than just being a warm body who reluctantly raised his or her hand.(This message has been edited by Brewmeister)

We do cabin camping in winter.

I do agree two pack campouts per year is a good target but I applaud your ambition!

Maybe your webelos dens could also go den camping.

Thanks for the responses.

The flashing-neon "verboten" verbiage around simulated firearms in the G2SS is pretty clear. (Hmmm...maybe having the boys carve guns to earn their Whittling Chip at the pack campout wasn't the best idea...)

Anyhoo, the remote control plan is intruiging but for practicality's sake we'll stick with what's ready-made.

So, unless we can convince our merry band of red-blooded war mongers that lobbing paintballs at each other would be just as much fun as shooting them from a gun, it looks like we'd have to run the paint/lazer option off the grid. Perhaps one of our Webs will have to have a birthday party or something.......

Ok. So our group of Webelos put down their macaroni long enough to determine that they REALLY want to do laser tag or paintball. Their preference is paintball because of the outdoor/tactical aspects, as well as the opportunity to whomp someone with an actual projectile versus an invisible beam...

Soooo...how do we make this happen?

Is the definitive answer to run this "off the grid?"

"Boys, if you would like to participate in a game of paintball/lasertag, which is definitely NOT a den event but just so happens to be organized by Mr. DL, just show up at such-and-such place."

????

>deleted double post<

(This message has been edited by brewmeister)

Boy, I feel really welcome here! And I never even commented on the paintball game, which sounds like fun...

kudu,

Youve stated that it would be fine with you if the BSA said good riddance to cub scouting.

Youve also made it known that boys who drop out of Cub Scouts (or knew better than to join in the first place) make better Boy Scouts.

You characterize cupcake, Cub Scout survivor Boy Scouts, who dont measure up to standards of being truly red-blooded, as Webelos IIIs, girl boy scouts, and so on.

Scouters who dont measure up are referred to as Den Mothers.

And for that matter, you certainly havent had many good things to say about Wolf Den Leaders who glue macaroni to paper cups.

I get it. You dont like cub scouts. And I will admit youre not alone in your opinion, as I deal with some looking-down-the-nose attitudes from boy scout leaders in the real world as well as here in cyberspace. I just thought, perhaps naively, that we were all on the same team.

Its obvious you know your scouting history and are passionate about scouting. You also probably have some good ideas that I could learn from. But your delivery positively obscures your message for me.

Then again, since I am just a "junior forum member" and a macaroni-gluing Den Mother, that might not be of any concern to you.

(This message has been edited by brewmeister)

I wasn't being critical of any posts, I had simply assumed that the average age of Eagles was getting younger based on comments, so it was very surprising to me to see the nearly 3-year increase. Which goes to show what happens when one assumes!

An infographic to follow up gunny's post:

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2012/04/11/this-eagle-scout-infographic-pretty-much-says-it-all/

What I found surprising was the average age of Eagles! I had just assumed it would be much, much younger because of the number of discussions here about "12 year old Eagles," etc.

Poop hunt! That is awesome! On the list it goes...

Let me give you the full details of what the DL and I have planned.

The two dens will meet in the parking lot of a large nature area that has miles of trails. It just so happens that the DL lives near this area.

The dens will be provided a map of the area, and a general "X marks the spot" where there is a cutoff trail to the DL's house. They have their compasses.

Each den will also have a GPSr unit to use because there are several geocaches on the trails.

The dens will go off on different trail systems, with the objective of finding the cutoff trail and rendezvouing at the DL's house, where we'll have a cookout and campfire.

Anyhoo, we thought we might have another badge-related activity in there for the hike portion. On the other hand, we've seen the boys happily spend an entire afternoon at camp turning a woodpile into a zombie defense fort.

So it may not be needed but I was looking for another idea to have in my back pocket. Thanks.

I looked into this thread because we are considering some type of outing for our Webelos.

I was disappointed to again see a cub scouting term (albeit an obsolete one) used as a pejorative description about something that somebody doesn't like about BSA.

I have found it is better to have something planned and not use it because the boys are having fun just winging it, than to decide to just wing it and wish you had a plan because they are not.

It's not about "planning every second," it's about being prepared.

We are taking two dens of webelos on a "hike out"--basically a 3 or so mile hike followed by fire building, cooking, etc.

Looking for activity ideas to do while on the hike, ideally that tie into a badge or two. Forester requires some identification of trees and plants...we don't have any really compelling ideas at the moment.

I'm not ignoring the advice, just trying to figure out the logistics.

I think I'd have to try out a setup before taking the plunge into hammocking.

Lots of recommendations regarding hammocks, but those aren't going to work in your average tent, unless I'm missing something.

???