tnff

Thanks for the thoughts guys. It helps to hear from others who live it. For the past two years, the "committee" has consisted of 4 of us: the CC, whose son is also well into Boy Scouts, my wife and I (our son is now Life), and our one other den leader whose son is now a Bear. Besides CM, I also have the Webelos, my wife has the Wolf den. The CC, as well as my wife and I brought our sons up through this pack; it was strong and active at about 45 boys. Because our sons loved it, we wanted to give back by staying on to help others. It saddens me to see the packs in our town collapsing, not

It's been a while. I posted some things a few months ago about being burned out. Well our pack took the summer off and went into things feeling a little better. We're merging another pack into ours because their leader is burned out so we thought the increased size of combined packs might generate some more volunteers. Nice round up and recruitment. Then we have our first meetings. Can't get through two meetings without some of the parents taking their sons and leaving. Why? Because we asked them to not drop off their child and leave, but to participate with their son. Then I get home t

Sorry for the long delay in responding folks, been a very busy couple of weeks in several areas. We finally held our combined PWD and B&G this week. Since we basically have just one den left, we combined this year, but it made for a very long day for the four of us doing most of the work. My son and daughter (he just got his cooking MB so this fit in) did most of the cooking for us, feeding about 50 people. Funny, we have 5 boys in the pack with two willing parent volunteers when there's work to be done, but 50 people show up to eat. Strange how that works. My current plan is to

Read this because we are in the midst of it now. One issue with the community college route, as mentioned above, is how will it fit into the 4 year school later. While the courses may transfer in (and our state has that set up where they do automatically), the community college may not offer the right mix of courses prerequisites for your intended degree. For my daughter, community college would have caused her to go for five years of school because she would have still needed a year to pick up the courses the community college didn't offer. Just didn't make economic sense.

Perhaps I shouldn't talk, but right now I volunteer for Scouts & Cubs. In our troop we have parents on committee who are also AHG leaders. In cubs one is also a GS leader. Roundtable and district have GS and AHG leaders there as well and we all try to share among each other to help out where we can. Heck the GS leader just sold us all cookies at the meeting. There are a limited number of adults willing to volunteer their time to any youth group so it's not surprising it will be the same ones. As well as coaching soccer, and baseball, ...

I posted a bit the other day about the problems in my pack. What I didn't mention was we also had a Webelos leader who was pretty much disconnected from the pack. Doing his own thing when he met, and often skipping/canceling meetings. Without getting into the details, I have learned that all our Webelos have quit. Our pack now consists of a single den remaining. And that den leader is getting fed up with the parents. It's very frustrating to me because just a four years ago, we were about 40 strong, with five full dens. I just don't know what to do. I know I'm not alone because just l

When we first started, we had the big, massive, recognize everyone and their mother, as well as AOL & crossover. Scouts and adults were bored to tears. We worked it down to where B&G was focused on the Webelos IIs for AOL and crossover. This made it a big event for them and for the younger boys to look forward to crossing the bridge when their turn came. To cut time out of the program, we moved the recognition for the other scouts to a separate pack meeting. Our real problem now days is not how long the B&G is, but having enough cubs to have anything (but that's another thr

May a new person just add a comment? My son was elected to OA a couple years ago. For him, it has been one of the better experiences in scouts. Yes, he's done the labor of tent packing for the camp, but participated in as many OA events as he can get too. I can drop him at camp as the only boy from our county with confidence he's made friends from around the state. He's had the chance to work at camp where he's a leader for the younger boys and I've seen his self confidence and leadership grow. As for a popularity contest, I'd say the boys seem to be pretty good judges of character

Hi, back again. Discussed this tonight at my son's Troop meeting with other leaders. They're aware and just as frustrated as I am at trying to get parental involvement with the Cubs because it has impacts to the troop down the road. I'll tell you, after having been involved in this, I fully support the teachers who don't want to be evaluated based on the students. When the students and parents don't step up, you can't accomplish anything no matter how much you work at it. This weekend is the combined PWD and B&G. We only have one new member to earn his Bobcat badge since Septembe

First time poster here, but you don't know how good it feels that I'm not alone. We have been with our current Pack since our son was a Tiger, even though he is now Life Scout. During that time we've been in several roles and at one time the Pack had about 40 boys in it. Anyhow, we were asked to come back a couple years ago to take over the Webelos Den. Then CM quit and I was asked to step in. Like the original poster my wife and I have run Webelos I & II, Tigers, & Wolves, as well as CM all at the same time. Not to mention Scouts, Roundtable & District. I know the feeling