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 for a lack of boys who want to participate, but for a lack of parents who care enough.

Thanks,

jim

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 tonight to find an email from another parent complaining about their den leader not being an experienced leader. This is for Tigers. We found a parent who was willing to step up and put herself on the line to lead the den, and what thanks does she get? Complaints from a parent who wasn't willing to step up.

I try to be available to all the new parents and help them get settled in, but it seems that at least half or more all wanted to complain that they had tried Cub Scouts before and the packs never did anything. What I want to ask them is "Well, what did YOU ever do? What did YOU volunteer to lead? How much time did YOU give?

What I'd really like to do is post a giant banner at every roundup: If you are so busy you can't find an hour a week to spend with your son, then don't even bother to sign up. No one will have any fun.

Sorry folks, had to vent. I love Cub Scouting. I love the boys and seeing when they catch on to something. I love seeing them grow and cross over into Boy Scouts. But I am done with parents.

jim

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 hopefully recruit someone to take over CM so we can spend the summer recruiting then turn it over when they are ready and I can spend more time with the troop which we are finally starting to regrow after several bad recruiting years in a row.

I just want to leave this pack a success for whoever comes after me.

jim

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 last week we learned that about 20% of the packs in our district folded this year and many others are struggling to get enough leaders.

It's either funny or sad that National and Council are worried about Journey to Excellence and I'm worried about survival.

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 thread).

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, perhaps at times it seems better than the adults.

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 September. None of the others have earned their badge of rank. We will see how this turns out.

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 of no one to help. Last year's B&G, the parents who ran it dropped of two boxes of dried spaghetti and a jar of Ragu two hours before start time and said that was their planned meal, but they were too busy to set up. So I gave my 17 year old daughter the credit card and sent her to the store with orders to do a "dinner impossible" in two hours (which she pulled off by the way) while we set up the tables.

We have only one set of parents who are involved and are down to one Tiger, 5 Wolves, and some Webelos. Can't count on the Webelos, they seldom show up for pack meetings, and won't attend committee. Of the five adults who struggle to keep it going, only the one set of parents has a child in the Pack. My wife, myself, and the Committee Chair all have our sons moved on to Scouts.

The parents aren't interested and don't care. When two parents got mad and took their kids out of Cub Scouts because they had come pick their kids up TWO HOURS after the meeting was over and we wouldn't just watch them the rest of the day while the parents went clubbing.

I know I should just let the den go. I just feel for these kids who so badly need positive adult role models and they aren't getting from their parents. Thanks for letting me vent. I don't know what to do anymore.