Lenae

I second the recommendation for a designated sibling watcher. A small craft, game, toys, books, etc. The siblings should be in a different room, if possible. If that isn't possible, do your best to physically separate them from the rest of the group. My daughter is now a Cub, but has been tagging along with me to all of my now AoL scout son's meetings. I have a large den of very active boys, and keeping the meetings entertaining and educational meant not having younger siblings around causing distractions. If the siblings are just a year or two younger, and therefore more able to participate w

In regards to the "program year" the official Cub Scouts website listed the start time as fall 2018, so I assume they mean September. My social media accounts have been blowing up, and I'd say that just a little more than half are in support. I suppose that info comes with a bucket of salt though, being as I am a late 20s something woman, and I think the younger generation is more in favor of this change than the older folks, and I know at least 10-15 MOTHERS who would gladly step up to be den leaders for new all-girl dens. So that probably skews my statistics, much like anyone's demograph

Well, I can only offer my point of view, but here is how I see it. I would like to point out again, that I'm not necessarily for coed BSA, I'm also not necessarily against it. But if I were to be in favor of it, my main reason is the programming. Not to have my daughter spend all her time with boys in a pack or troop, or to have my son spend all his time with girls in a pack or troop. I see the merit of having single gendered packs/troops. Boys able to be boys without worrying about girls. Girls able to be girls without worrying about boys. The BSA far and away offers the kind of chara

I'm in the PNW, most of my councils camps already offer girls weeks of summer camp, and do so successfully, so why not alternate weeks for camp? One week boys, the next girls, the following boys, then girls, and so on. Is there a reason that wouldn't work?

If I were to envision the BSA allowing girls in, this is how i would like to see it be done. A charter org could choose whether to offer a boys pack/troop, a girls pack/troop, or both a boys pack/troop and a girls pack/troop. They wouldn't be coed units, they would exist autonomously from one another. If units wanted to work together to run certain events, say a Pinewood Derby or a fundraiser, together, then allow them to do so, but the units would stay single gendered. Council events would be coed, but camps could run with boys weeks and girls weeks. I said before that I am torn on the issue,

I use the handbook and the leader guide to plan meetings and outings. I haven't asked the boys to read their books, or read passages to them. As a matter of fact, I hardly use the leader guide to plan den meetings anymore, and haven't since Wolf year. I feel like the meeting plans dumb down the information and treat the boys like they are younger than they are. We've had much more success keeping the boys interested with using the actual handbooks (not the leader guide) to plan our meetings. My husband is my assistant den leader, and he's a very animated, funny guy. He's good at making the mat

I've been a den leader for three years now, my sons den. Started as Tigers, now they're Webelos scouts. We hardly ever utilize the rank handbooks, and I honestly feel like it's a disservice to the boys. I know that some of what is in the book is fluff, but there is quite a bit of good info in them. I know, because I read my son's book every year. So, my question is, do you, my fellow den leaders, use your handbooks? If yes, how? Do you read them during the meeting out loud, or have boys read pertinent sections? Do you assign the pages you're covering as homework before a meeting? I'm just not

I'm torn on the allowing girls in issue. I will, however, say that I personally believe the reason that girls are clamoring to join the BSA and the opposite isn't true of the GSUSA, is because the BSA offers a far superior program. Girl Scouts do crafts, learn how to be feminists, and SELL COOKIES. That's most certainly not anything my daughter wants to be involved with, however she'd love to become a Cub Scout like her brother, and have opportunities like BB gun shooting, archery, panning for gold, woodworking, fishing, hiking, camping, etc. The BSA may be a boys character development program

Wow, thanks for all the responses! I definitely have more research to do. I would like to say that our "assistant" den leader is a dad to one of our (soon to be) Webelos, and also the dad of a Boy Scout. He has BALOO training, and would be actively involved in the trip. I still don't know if backpacking is allowed or not! I called my local council and they brushed me off, again. Our pack does pack wide campouts in the fall and spring, with a winter overnight activity indoors typically. We do day hikes as a pack once every couple of months or so. I'd say as far as packs go, ours does a pret

Thank you for the infograph. I've never seen that before! Looking at it though, just brings more questions. Under the camping category, it says family camping is only allowed at council designated locations. Does that mean our pack summer campout has to be at a council owned property? Also, it says Webelos are allowed to go on den overnights, but not weekend overnights. Does that mean multiple night campouts are not allowed?For any age? I'm more confused now than I was before I started looking!

Hello! I'm a regular reader around here, but I don't post often. I joined the forum when my son started as a Tiger, and now he's a Bear, soon to become a Webelos scout. My husband and I are co-den leaders, and we have another parent we consider an assistant den leader. We are backpackers, and we've tossed around the idea of backpacking with our Webelos den. Our assistant leader is keen on the idea, as well. I know that Webelos dens are allowed to camp on their own, not only with the pack, but I've been coming up empty on finding answers as to whether they can go backpacking. We'd obviously kee

I'm coming to this thread late, but I am a leader in a FG troop that another Cub Scout Mom and I started, while also being a Bear den leader. We do not run the two programs concurrently, however we do often combine events, like movie nights and allowing our FG to join in Pinewood Derby and the like. It's working out very well for us so far, hopefully it will run as smoothly for you, @@Cubmaster Pete.

I think the best way to retain the older boys is helping them to focus on the moving to Boy Scouts aspect. I know with our pack, when boys become Webelos, they start that summer doing things more like Boy Scouts, planning their own campouts that aren't the usual family camp outs, and things like that. By December, our Webelos 1s are already starting to visit troops and join them for actives. By the Webelos 2 (Arrow of Light) year, the boys spend more of their time visiting troops and functioning as a "patrol" than as a den. When the Webelos years roll around, the boys start getting much more

I think being Biblically based means exactly that. Their creed is based on the fruits of the spirit from the Bible, but it isn't a direct Bible verse. So, being biblically based and teaching love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control doesn't exclude Muslim girls or Jewish girls, or Buddhist girls. It just means that the program was written from the perspective of the Bible. As far as sharing requirements with other scouting programs, it's working out really well for us. All of the leadership in our brand new troop are parents of female sibli

From Wikipedia; "The term Judeo-Christian groups Judaism and Christianity, either in reference to their common origin in Late Antiquity or due to perceived parallels or commonalities shared between the two traditions." I wasn't saying that Judeo-Christian values are 1) not controversial, or 2) the only values or belief system that is valid. I was saying that the group is based on Judeo-Christian values, and therefore the basis of their idea of "controversial" would stem from that place. As far as I know, Muslim girls would be welcome. There are references to God in their program, much

You won't find a badge for breastfeeding, or gender identity studies. They are founded on Judeo-Christian values, and that's what their basis of controversial is going to be on. Believe it or not, the adult leaders I've associated with since beginning this journey have been absolutely drama free, including the FB group they run.

This probably isn't terribly on topic, but I've found an alternative to GSUSA that is run pretty similarly to the BSA in terms of the youth programming; Frontier Girls. They are a merit badge based scouting program, with emphasis on patriotism, service, and skills based knowledge. I, along with a friend whose son is a Cub in my sons pack, have started the process of forming a troop locally. So if any of you, or your wives, are tired of GSUSA, maybe look into Frontier Girls as an alternative.

In our council, Cub day camp and resident camp is offered from Tigers to Web II, but it's suggested that Tigers attend day camp, Wolves and Beats attend a 3 day, 2 night resident camp, and Webelos attend a 5 day, 4 night resident camp. Our pack, however, keeps Wolves at day camp, and Web I with the Bears at the 3 day, 2 night camp, and only the Web II boys go to the longer resident camp. For my family, Saturday "camps" wouldn't work, and I can't imagine too many people wanting to devote several Saturday's of the summer solely to day camps. Carving out a week seems reasonable enough, but l

I apologize if this has been discussed recently, but I browsed and bit and did a forum search and came up with nothing. Did the online leader specific training for Cub Scout den leaders disappear with the new program starting? I found a sort of downloadable training, but it was just for den leaders in general, not each den specifically. I want to be sure I'm up to date with what's available before reading through this training bit.

We don't have a den chief.

I'm fluent in sarcasm, so I do understand the gist of your response, and I do agree with you. I will note, however, that we have three (of seven) boys who loathe public speaking. It's worse than pulling teeth to get them to take part in a skit or song. They're otherwise well rounded, happy Cubs, ready to participate, so it's not something we feel a real concern about, but my husband's line of thinking is the fewer skits they are required to participate in, the better. To this point, we've tried hard to help them either think of something they're comfortable with doing in the skit, like a

In planning out the years meetings coming up, and also reviewing requirements completed at day camp, I've noticed at least one instance of repeat requirements for Wolf. Call of the Wild adventure calls for a den skit or song of some sort to be performed at a campfire program. Then later in the book, Howling at the Moon adventure also calls for a skit to be performed. Does one skit count for both requirements? My husband and I, co-den leaders, disagree on this. He thinks that one skit should count for both, I think that technically that might meet the most basic sense of the requirement, it's n

Yes, we're Den 1; the Bulldozers. Our boys aren't having any luck coming up with ideas. The adults are pooling their creative juices and not coming up with much either. My googling hasn't turned up anything that really interested the boys.

I'm not particularly creative, and am having some trouble coming up with ideas for our den yell for camp. Our den will be the bulldozers, so that has to be incorporated in some fashion. The boys are all Wolfs and Tigers and only two have been to camp before, so they're having trouble coming up with anything as well. Creative minds out there with some cool ideas? So far we're going with the old stand by "everywhere we go, pleople wanna know, who we are" one, but most of the boys think it's too common to use. I'm stuck and I need help!

My son is currently a Tiger, and joined in the spring last year. He attended day camp with the boys who were Tigers/becoming Wolves. We had three Tigers go, obviously a parent accompanied each boy. It was fine. My son had a great time, and I know the other two boys did as well. They had no trouble keeping up with the other boys in most activities (they did have trouble with knot tying) and weren't any more tired than the other exhausted boys there. We were one of the few packs though that did bring Tigers.