Snow Owl

Greetings fellow Scouters. I am looking for a program or meeting schedule to help our new Scouts go through the first 4 ranks in 12-18 months while still having fun. Most summer camps and winter camps have some sort of new scout program but I am looking for a lesson plan or program to follow for our new Scout Patrol to follow to stay on track. We are a new troop and learning this as we go. Thanks

My pack & Troop parents are getting tired of BSA asking for money all the time. Popcorn sales, Friends of Scouting and then campcards. BSA needs to modify their priorities or something unless BSA means Buy Sell Ask. The Friends of Scouting presentation they wanted me to pitch is the same the minimum recommended donation is $150. They even pre-printed pledge cards for everyone in my pack. At our most recent roundtable we had a council person pass out pledge cards and wait for us to fill them out. The hard sell is really uncool. I just don't see convincing my pack families to cut yet another check after the dues increase, popcorn sales, camp card sales and the other fund raisers they slip in on us. Question. what if a unit just passes on Popcorn, Camp cards and FOS?

The South - Louisiana

I too am lost in your post. I will tell you how we do it and it seems to work. miner awards (belt loops, beads toward rank etc) are awarded at the den meeting. Normally the den meeting following the activity (the meeting after the activity/event) Rank or major awarded are awarded at the next pack meeting. There may be one scout or 10 being awarded rank at a pack meeting. If we are close to the holiday party or the end of year party we might delay the awarding of the rank by a week or two. Is this type of process what you are talking about or is it something different?

Yes you would think that. Our council is . . . . to be polite . . . .less than helpful or informed. And for better or worse I am the pack leadership

Evan. First off hang iin there. Second, the meeting structure is very similiar to the way our pack does it. We meet every other week for a Pack/Den meeting. Not a traditional pack meeting but it works. We meet as a pack and go announcements, opening ceremonry then any advancements or awards (10-15 minutes Max) then we break out into the dens for the remainder of the hour. So the den meeting is 45-50 minutes long. As for parents. The hardest thing is to recruit parents. Make it simple, if you want you son in Scouting, a parent has to attend, period. You need to get your DE and district on board to help. But if you ave a weak district and a weak DE that may be a dead end. Take the kids you have with parents showing up and start doing really cool and fun stuff. They will enjoy it and so will you and your son. The kids who are mssing out because their parents are not helping are going to want to get in on the fun and may get their parents on board. Good Luck

My son is currently a bear so will be a Webelos this summer. I would love for him to d a sleep away camp. Any suggestions?

It really depends on the Troop. It is sad to say, but there are situations when a scout "earns" his eagle on paper and was not given the full oportunity or challange to earn his Eagle the proper way. It is sad to think that there are "eagle" mills that truly undermind the entire program by handing out rank automaticly.

We have several female leaders and none of them wear the uniform pants. A couple do not wear the leader shirts either but instead wear a pack t-shirt instead. It is hard to argue the point that they have to wear the uniform when leaders are in such high demand and the uniform is about as unbecoming on women as possible.

Trying to be as delicate as possible, I wanted to get some input about the make-up of their council’s officers, district committee members and other Executive board members. Are these members long time Scouters and people who have been in the scout program as volunteers at the unit level and risen through the ranks or are they political and community leaders put in the position mainly to raise or donate money. What are your thoughts on this?

I am the Cubmaster of a Pack and CC of a Troop. Which uniform patch and shoulder loops should I use?

I am a somewhat new Cubmaster. My pack did not follow many of the BSA norms. We never split the age into multiple dens. We had a 28 scout tiger den! We are going to start using the traditional den structure, as best we can. My question is, Do the scouts get a new number when they go to the next level. As in Den 1 and 2 are always tiger dens, dens 3 & 4 are always wolf dens etc. or You were a tiger in den one last year, now den 1 is a wolf den and next year den 1 is a bear den.

Many of you may not know this yet but scout supply no longer makes the embroidered troop flags. The ones they have now are screen printed. They look VERY cheap and it is embarrassing that they want us using such a flag. Does anyone know a source where we can get the old styled troop flag?