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110Percent

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Posts posted by 110Percent

  1. Well, we had our meeting this past Saturday and several decisions were made.

     

    1. The problem will be disclosed to the parents by the CM and CC. $25 will be collected from each family to cover our $600 shortfall. (Not exactly happy with this solution)

    2. The current CC will step down (and stay on for a while as an adviser) and the Treasurer will step up to be the new CC. She was not part of our current problem since she was kept out of the financial loop due to bank issues.

    3. A new bank account is being set up to resolve our banking issues

    4. A new Treasurer will step up

    5. A more aggressive dues and fundraising structure was suggested to ensure this doesn't happen again (to be presented at the planning meeting)

     

    Additionally, several other items were discussed to make the pack more efficient; which will also be brought to the planning meeting.

     

    Also, on Friday I was able to find the fundraising person at council and get the submitted application approved.

     

    Things seem to be on the right track. Once we over the heartburn of having to collect additional dues, the pack will stronger than it has been in years.

     

    I'd like to thank all of you for your input. I will use many of these suggestions in my input for this year's planning meeting.

  2. The pack has not done any fundraising since any of the leaders have been in their positions (3 years max). I have gone to every round table and the CM is part of the staff but prior to this year the committee consisted of only the CC and CM and I have never seem our budget. I know that next year's budget will be thorough and made public to all the families.

     

    All of our events are potluck and there has been no other cost associated with them (running on a real shoestring budget).

     

    The pack is at the end of its second year of rebuilding and people are starting to step up to help. My biggest fear is breaking the spirit of the pack by hitting everyone with a bill and causing the pack to revert back to the collapse mode from two years ago. Last time only the current bear den survived.

  3. Our track is no longer serviceable and one of my assistant den leaders got a group of father together that were willing to build a new one but we never received the green light from the CC or CM. We could have built it but there would have been no where to store it without the CC or CM's access to the charter organizations storage facilities.

     

    Also, the treasurer is just on paper as the (tightly held) reins have never been handed over.

  4. Our Official roster shows 29 but in actually I'm think its closer to 25 and my Tiger Den constitutes about half of the pack at 13. The scouts have been having a great time this year as I have been doing plenty of extra activities with my den, and on occasion hosting a pack event.

     

    Our original due has thus far only covered our recharter and awards up until the point that the CC began paying.

     

    The current treasurer has suggested disbanding and starting a new pack but that would leave us in the same position of no funds and scouts without the awards they have earned.

     

    We live in a fairly populated town of 100k+ that only has 3 or 4 other packs. Most of the schools don't even have their own pack and losing this one could be a serious blow to our area. The current CC was a district scouter who stepped in to save the pack 2 years ago when almost all of the leadership abandoned ship one after another.

     

    Also, our newly formed popcorn team is posed and ready to prevent this from being an issue in the future once popcorn season starts again.

     

    But currently I am torn between suggesting to petition a dedicated group of parents to help fund us through the next couple weeks or have all parents fund the awards for their own children until the next school year.

     

    The pack is fairly healthy other than our current financial situation and i don't see this having a long term effect. The leadership was just not prepared for the pack to double in size and for the meager dues to not cover the year. This is my first year and I didn't realize something was wrong until January.

  5. Has anyone dealt with a Pack that was completely broke prior to the end the school year?

     

    There were were no awards in March. The April pack meeting and pinewood derby was cancelled and never rescheduled, without any explanation. Now an emergency meeting has been called to discuss our financial situation with the CC, CM, the current Treasurer (soon to be CC), and myself (a den leader) this weekend. The final Pack meeting is in a week and a half and I am worried that 3 months worth of awards will not be given to our scouts who have been working so hard.

     

    I have a partial picture of our financial position but it is based on information from multiple sources. We currently have a bank account that we can't access and is basically empty. The CC had been lending the Pack money to cover our short fall up till some time around blue and gold. Also, no one knows the last time the pack did any fund raising.

     

    I'm assuming I was invited to the meeting because I have been pushing all year to improve the Pack, but we are still fairly disorganized. I have not brought a single problem to the CC or CM without having a solution. I helped recruit the Treasurer to be the new CC when I found out that he would be moving on and found a new Treasurer. I recruited a popcorn team for the next school year and found a Kernal to run it. I even handed the CM a completed fundraising form which took a month and a half to reach council and I've yet to heard if there was a response (over a month later).

     

    I am not looking for praise. I am just frustrated and don't know how else to help my pack. It looks like we are heading in the right direction to becoming a better pack but things are moving at a glacial pace.

     

    Any tips of handling our current financial situation or any other issues you may see, would be greatly appreciated.

  6. I wish there was a pack doing spring recruitment around my neck of the woods. My son is a Kindergartener' date=' and he's so excited to be a Tiger Scout. My husband and I signed up online for training because we are both willing and able to volunteer within the pack as den leaders or wherever needed, but I can't get anyone to reply to my emails or return phone calls! I keep reading that membership is declining in the BSA, and I can't help but think that maybe a contributing factor could be apathy in the lower levels of leadership. At least, it seems that way around here. What's a parent gotta do to get someone to reply to an email?[/quote']

     

    ​I had the same problem last year, but the issue was that the Cubmaster was so overwhelmed that my email from beascout.org fell through the cracks. If you know when and where the Pack meets, show up with your son and I'm sure they will welcome you with open arms.

     

    I've been the Tiger Den Leader since the beginning of the school year and had a blast with my scouts, all 14 of them. My son missed very little during the summer and would have had nobody in his den if we started in the beginning of summer instead of the beginning of the school year.

  7. Hi there 110, I am just north of you in Frederick, Tigers didn't exist when my boys were in cubbies, but I was once a cub, a den chief, a den leader, etc. If I can be of any help, give me a shout.

    Oldscout

    PS If you sew a den leader patch on each knee of your pants, they won't wear out when you are crawling around cleaning up after the meetings!

    I really need to start trying that approach.
  8. Hi there 110, I am just north of you in Frederick, Tigers didn't exist when my boys were in cubbies, but I was once a cub, a den chief, a den leader, etc. If I can be of any help, give me a shout.

    Oldscout

    PS If you sew a den leader patch on each knee of your pants, they won't wear out when you are crawling around cleaning up after the meetings!

    Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending how you take it) my ADLs prefer cleaning to answering the million questions I get before and after the meetings. It's funny that the parents seem to have forgotten that I started scouting with them a couple of weeks ago.
  9. Good for you on your early success. Your den size might be getting too large. Thinking about a split in the future might be worthwhile. Two smaller dens that work together might leave room for the tigers to have a small group experience. Our pack capped den size at 9. 6-8 seems good. Just sayin.
    We are keeping the boys as one den for now but with the second ADL that just signed on we will split them into two groups during discussions and crafts, one ADL per group. Neither of the ADLs is willing to form their own den, but I want to get them used to handling their own roster before I push any harder for a split.
  10. Welcome to the neighborhood. Try the PM function, I live just down the road in White Oak.

     

    TTurtle has the right idea. Include the parents. Give them ideas, suggested places to "go see", give each a month for which to plan , and keep at them to make it work. It is (and never should) just be you.

    The parents are thus far completing simple tasks even if time consuming but I haven't been able get someone to step up and help plan. The ones most willing to help are holding back because they volunteered for other positions that the CM doesn't seem to want to hand over and they don't want to overcommit.
  11. I am a newly minted Tiger Den Leader from the Seneca District in the National Capital Area Council. It has been a little over a month and things seem to be going pretty well. My den has grown to 12 boys, 11 of which have already earned their bobcat, and we just added a second assistant den leader. The forums and blogs have been the only real assistance I've received from experienced scouter. Planning Go See Its has been an exercise in reinventing the wheel. I just can't seem to find the right person to teach me how to streamline the planning process.

  12. Our den made a flag and has a den doodle as well, but we are the only ones in our pack. I figured that the best way to get the boys vested in scouting was by having them take ownership in creating an identity for their den. They are all very excited about the name they chose (American Tigers), the logo I made, and wearing their uniforms. My assistant den leader acquired the materials and our assistant cubmaster put it all together. We use PVC for our flag pole since we can get it for free.

     

    Pinterest is a good place to look for cub scout flag ideas.

    http://www.pinterest.com/valayneostler/cub-scout-flags/

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