Daped01

Oh' date=' insurance. In our Council, that's the one dollar extra per boy and leader on the charter application. I do not know of any one person at Council who can answer that. I honestly have never heard of any unit that has ever made a claim. My understanding is It is "supposed" to be for secondary injury (your personal insurance is primary) ....[/quote']

 

I actually had to make a claim last month when one of my cubs had a tooth get chipped at our council resident camp. You are correct, it is secondary to cover after the parents primary insurance coverage takes effect.

we do not meet at our CO's Facility, and we have no problems with insurance

I'd love to check it out too

Our A/C called in to see if the problem could be fixed. The best answer they could give her is "it must be something with your computer". I'm starting to get very dissapointed.

We stopped using it because of the exact issue you have.

do you use something different? or did you go back to the paper way of keeping track?

We found that part, and I think we got it switched. How about getting the web version to reflect the changes. We tried doing a sync, but for some reason its not showing up on the web version. perhaps we did it wrong?

I have had to call them a few times and I agree, its been good to work with them, but their hours are the same as my work hours, and sometimes its hard to get the time to call them.

I am working with the web version of the system, and need to get our scouts to "move up" a den (i.e. scouts are still listed in their dens from last year, tiger cubs are still listed as tigers, not wolves), etc. Is there an easy way to change that? me and our advancement chair (who has the actual program installed on her computer) have tried figuring it out on our own, but have been unsuccessful. I was hoping It would be a simple fix and could get some advice here and not have to spend a work break on the phone, but if I have to, I will.

Does anybody here use Packmaster as their advancement tracking software? As a new cubmaster in a pack that just had a new advancement chair step up and a former advancement chair that is unwilling to assist the new A/C with the system we have a few questions.

Our Pack spent 4 days at the Northern Lights Council's Cub Scout camp (butler wilderness outpost) at its Primary Camping property, Camp Wilderness last week. Here is the video from our trip!

great idea. I plan to do that now this week when we go to Camp with the Cub Scouts Weds-Sat!

Our local camps never forced anyone to take a group picture.....or even offered to take one

same at our local camp.

Real insightful information given here. And i'm glad I solicited it. After reading through these pages the past few days, i have come to the realization that i am trying to get too much done too quickly. Over time when the emotional connection to my thoughts wore away it was much too clear. Ever since then I have re-prioritized my views on what needs to be done, and let me tell ya, it is a load off my stress level! Thanks for the discussion

 

Go to training. that way, you can respond to "we have always" with, that "but it's not the right way according to ...."

 

The most important thing for Cub Scout is to have fun. If the boys are not having fun, somebody isn't doing the program right. (Boy Scouts should be the same way).

from what I have seen, its more from poor/no planning or ignorance. I have seen nobody attend any roundtable meetings, district events, etc.. Hell, only a small handful of people even knew who our DE is.........or that we had one

IMHO opinion I would not go forward without 3-5 allies in the Pack that lean the same way you do. I would concentrate on 2-3 priorities and stick with that.

 

Try not to burn out or get your core group burn't out.

 

Summer was always tough for us--folks always seemed to be doing their own thing. We were lucky to do one event a month and usually not even that. Now I think a good alternative would be some low stress, low cost social type events during the summer--mostly just to keep the social connections going, We did a fishing derby, movie night, church sleep in, sort of deals. No focus on skills or advancements, uniform optional, open to the family, We also encouraged individual dens to do the occasional summer activities but only the Webes every seemed to do it,

 

Speaking as a busy scouter I always looked forward to the 6 weeks off.

Realistically, its only 2 or 3 people that aren't on the fence with what I'd like to do. its the former cubmaster (who stepped down due to personal conflict, yet wants to continue on the committee) and former advancement chair, who stepped down because of her "side business" at home starting to pick up. MOST of the rest of the committee respects my scouting experience, but are just gunshy about changing anything.....with a little explination I think I can get them on my side.

My experience has been that you are more likely to get negative responses from volunteers if what you are proposing is going to be more work for them. If you are willing to shoulder a little extra work this summer by planning those summer activities yourself (like it looks like you've already done)' date=' I'm sure the success of those events will be enough to encourage volunteers to take on the planning of at least one summer activity next year.[/quote']

 

 

This is about where I am at in my head with it. I solicited some advice at our last district roundtable about summer activities, one fellow scouter said they do 3 kickball games, 1 each in June July and August. I pretty much took that and tweaked it for variety, but still equally as simple of activity. My pack doesn't have a large contingent of those willing to go to cub resident camp/day camps, so I want to have an activity at home they can participate in as well.

 

we live in a small rural community, so finding open space (for free) for a game of kickball or anything else is extremely easy, and free. At least a few times, we will be on the lawn of the local Nursing Home/Assisted Living complex. The residents of the complex love it any time they can watch kids playing and having fun.

Thanks for all the replies. I think I may be trying for too much too fast then. I will slow things down so its not so many things at once. My main focus the rest of the summer will be to get the budget (introduced it with help from the treasurer) to those that showed up to our last committee meeting. only 3 of us attended. We will have another meeting next month to hopefully get any further input/approval. after budget approval, we will work on Program Planning. Our DE wants to meet with us sometime in early august to set a date for her to come help us with planning. After that I will start focusing on putting on really good pack meetings.

Where is your Pack Committee Chair in this? Have you discussed your vision with your CC?

 

Since you stated you have a small Pack and thus must have a combined Pack/Troop Committee, this screams lack of Cub parent support.

 

In order to have a budget you need a treasurer. In order to do summer activities you need someone to plan, and run them.

 

YOU CAN NOT DO IT ALL YOURSELF!!

 

Since your Committee is combined - what does the Troop do for a budget? Or are they running on the seat of their pants also? With the SM on your side, you can approach the CC TOGETHER, and ask for some kind of plan to be put together for the upcoming year for BOTH units.

 

Being as this is now June, putting together any Pack activities for this Summer is going to be difficult. Most summer camps have already finished registering. Most Pack families already have a good portion of their Summer planned. Your Pack is done meeting formally for the year so you can not present plans to the entire group at once. you will have to rely on e/snail mail.

 

Find a Pack parent willing to take on planning one, cheap, fun, activity, for this summer. Plan it for July or Aug, so they have time to contact everyone in the Pack, and the Pack families have time to incorporate it in their schedule.

 

One of our staple events was a Back To Scouting picnic in mid to late August. Find a picnic area by a playground, and/or a splash pool. Do this SOON as these picnic permits go FAST! Most municipalities will waive permit fees for Scouting groups. This is an easy activity because even if your family, and the family doing the planning, are the only ones who show up, it can still go on, and will still be fun!

 

Thank you for the reply!

We (I) have a plan for summertime activities. June will have cub scout resident camp at our council cub scout outpost which 3 or 4 boys have already been registered. Also, at home we will have a Kickball game. It gets kids outside, it gets kids active, and it gets us together.

July will have us marching in our Annual 4th of July Parade,

August will be Cubscout Day Camp, or swim day at our local municipal swimming pool.

Those that can make it to summer events is great! those that can't, I don't lay any guilt on them, nor schedule it as a "mandatory". as we move forward it will eventually become the norm....that's my hope as least.

Basic things to me that are totally foreign to them. Preparing a budget, having a program planning conference.etc. Even doing ANYTHING in the summer (I was told at our last meeting, we are used to shutting down completely in the summer.....?!?!?!?!?. I do have at least 1 ally with me in our troop scoutmaster (small unit, combined cub/boy scout committee) who is an Eagle Scout. Between he and I our previous scouting experience combined, a few of the Committee members could be easily swayed.

Hey guys and gals, I want to ask you guys what you think is too much change too quickly? I recently was asked to be our Pack's Cubmaster, to which I agreed. After going through the program as a Tiger Parent/Tiger Den Leader it was easily apparent that something was not being done properly, or what I viewed as even close to properly. However out of respect for those that are volunteering their time and me being the New Guy I just patiently did the best I could for my tiger den. However now that I have been named Cubmaster, I would like to start making gradual changes to get to what I feel is the BSA Cub Scout Program. Some of the suggestions I have brought up have been received with "we have always....." We have never done.............before" or the , we tried it but it didn't work before, type answers. I want to build the pack up to the levels it was at when I was a scout, and my vision of how to do that calls for some simple, yet extremely important changes to be made. However I don't want to make so many changes that it pushes everyone away and I'm standing all alone.

do you have any advice for a rookie CM?

Mr Gates' speech to the assembly last night.

Shooting BB guns, rifles, shotguns?? What does that teach kids about violence?.

absolutley nothing. nor does it promote violence.

Shooting BB guns, rifles, shotguns?? What does that teach kids about violence?.

absolutley nothing. nor does it promote violence.

Holy smokes. I just got back from sign-up and out of just over 30 boys in this years kindergarten class, I have 11 signed up for next year! and I even got 3 adults!

I had never heard of a spring roundup before either, but a few months ago at roundtable it was brought up, I guess we are doing it council wide to bolster our tiger cub numbers for next year.

Tonight is our Pack Spring recruitment sign up night. Yesterday I was in the school talking to the kindertardeners doing boy talks. If it were up to the kids I think i'd have 30 tiger cubs next year. I guess tonight i'll see how good of a sell job I did to the boys! Wish us luck!