Jackdaws

You are most welcome!

Looks like Lander University is in the Blue Ridge Council. Sadly not many of their Beascout.org pins are updated but this is the closest Venturing crew for the zip code. Crew 2175 Our Lady of the Lords www.scouting.org Contact: 551 - Blue Ridge Council for more information... 864-233-8363 1 Park Plz Greenville, SC 29607

A true southerner will like KK. I like KK way better than DD as I feel that DD is a drier more cake like doughnut. KK when they are hot and fresh will do down like butter. When we lived up north all we could get was DD. My mom hated it. I try to stay away from doughnuts as I feel like such crap after I eat some(well that and that I am overweight). But that being said my husband bought 2 dozen for 3 people in my house. Geez. Those are going to go bad before they all get ate. I may have to down one or two of them(when I have time to feel crappy). I asked him why he bought so mu

I would definitely make sure the scout participated in any kind of fundraisers the troop holds. And see if he can do extra jobs like others have mentioned. Is there a reason your unit only does one fundraiser a year? Why not have a car wash or a spaghetti dinner? Those one off fundraisers could be enough for whatever he may need and then some surplus for anything the troop needs or even a fun trip one weekend. Is there a Scout Reach division in your council/district? Are there scholarships available thru the council for things like a uniform and some fees associated with scouting?

As a female, I don't see a problem with it. I thought they were sufficiently covered. Were the shorts too short? Not really, you can go to Walmart on any given day and see much more skin from a lot of people who really shouldn't be showing that amount of skin. I am willing to bet that these Mom's who complained, never ever volunteer for anything in the pack or council. They are probably the ones who are sitting in the back on their phones... Susan

I hate that you are faced with this situation. Like the others have said, I would push for further explanation from the council. It seems rather odd that he gets to stay but you are the one asked to leave when he is the one who had the outburst and was arrested. As a parent, I would have something to say to the pack leadership about that if I had witnessed it. I would ask the council/unit leadership why couldn't they let him go and have you step up to be the full time leader? If you were an assistant anyways I don't see where the transition would have been hard for anyone so that e

Stosh, I like that idea! We may need to try that at round up (sorry sign up night). Susan

It's serious. The remaining leadership needs to get with the Charter Org. rep and appoint a new chair and Cubmaster as soon as possible. At this point in the year, packs should be planning for the upcoming year. Without the proper leaders in place the pack will not be able to function properly. Sure you maybe able to limp along but when it comes down to making decisions and resolving issues you need to have that committee chair in place. Can I ask why they left? Did they crossover? Susan

I think parents today maybe are not seeing the value in scouting. Ideally we are instilling values in them that will serve them to be better men. It may not be something immediate you can see but the seed is planted there and with proper commitment it will grow and flourish. Parents balk at any kind of work that needs to be done at home. Why is that? How is it any different if your child plays a sport and you have to go to practices before the game. Its the same thing if you ask me. There are always those people who seek fame and fortune/making a quick buck over hard work. My s

I have been kind of pinching the top side of the belt loop and then slide the loop onto the card. Its not an ideal solution but it works. I initially put all of the awards for each scout in their own Ziploc bag but I want that bag back so the den leaders lay them out on a table and gingerly hand them off to boys during the ceremony. Most boys want to put on the loop as soon as possible. For those who don't its best to hand them to Mom and hope she doesn't lose them. Some kind of slotted card would be what I am thinking is needed. Maybe an index card to put the loops onto. Then you

As I am not a den leader anymore I can't give the best answer but as general observer for each den it seemed like there was a lot more planning and prep required for each requirement especially for the den leader. Each rank/den has 9 boys in it and its a lot for one person. Parent participation is something we are going to press much more next year. I would almost like to say "enforce". Take the Grin and Bear it for the Bears. My sons den spent over a month on the whole thing. They had to figure out what games they wanted to present (that was one meeting) then the den leader spent w

I will undoubtedly have my son in something next summer no matter what. He is already signed up to attend our district day camp at the end of June. Lord its going to be hot as heck here in Florida. I prefer an earlier camp but it is what it is. Next year we may attend the webelos resident camp @ Camp Shands. They have a new aquatics center that everyone is excited about. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vq4pIjTEO2o They may try a pilot district to see how it goes. Susan

Last night at our district committee meeting, the D.E. said that other people at the council are kicking around the idea of doing 4-5 Saturday activities in lieu of a week long all day long camp. And they would allow you to pay as you go=each Saturday. Obviously from a volunteer stand point you should get more help since adults probably wont need to take a week off of work. But I have some reservations/questions: I don't know if it will prepare the boys well enough for boy scout resident camp. I know day camp is not the same as a resident camp, but I am thinking of the boys doing

Ah welcome to the "joys" of being a den leader. I am a former den leader and am now on the committee. I transitioned over just before the new program started. So I feel your pain about parent participation or lack there of. My son is also a Bear so I can relate to what you are trying to cover during the den meetings. Your den parents need to be reading thru the handbook with their boys to understand the requirements. Take for instance the "Paws for Action" requirement. Learn about 2 Americans and share what you learn. The learning portion needs to be done at home. Our den lea

We started the year with the everyone has their ranks by February goal. We realized in December that wasn't really going to happen. December is pretty much a wash for our pack. We meet once for a regular den meeting and then another time for our Christmas party and then won't meet back up until after the new year. We just had our rank ceremony last Tuesday. We still have a few stragglers who still need to earn theirs due to still needing to camp or they started late in the year. Had 2 join in late February alone. They are working hard to catch up. February is also a big wa

I am the sign up night/recruiting chair for my district membership team. Is your unit attached to a particular school? I would get in contact with your D.E. before you do any boys talks at schools. There is usually a plan in place with the district membership team that coordinates with the D.E. to handle those. You have to be careful of going to more than one school as some units may be upset that you are encroaching their territory. Our pack has 2 other packs w/in a 5 mile radius of us. In that radius there is a library and a large outdoor shopping center I stuck a sign up night sign ou

Not much advice but man oh man I wish our council still did these. They called it Scout/Cub World here. With membership numbers way down I really think this is something to jump start people's interest in scouting. I was told by the council that they stopped having them due to insurance reasons and lack of volunteers. I suggested that our district run one for the troops for boys crossing over to see what all is out there so they don't feel they have to go into the feeder troop. Got a couple blank stares. Oh well.

I am on the district committee and at 36, I am the youngest person on the committee. The average age on the committee is at least 65. I think its great that people whose children are long gone from scouting still want to volunteer but we need to realize that a 65-70 year old person is not going to be able to relate that well with someone who is 25-28 years old. I keep hearing in those meetings "It used to be" or "long time ago" and that I believe that is the crux of the current scouters to potential volunteers. Granted there are some current scouters who can adapt and work with the youn

No need to go all the way to Philmont and cough up $500.00 when if you Google "Millennial's Boy Scouts of America" the BSA already has several pdf's and power point presentations with information on the millennial demographic and what they supposedly are into. According to their studies, these parents "want to be involved and want to volunteer". I personally would love to know where to find these people because if you look around at our den meetings, the parents are not really involved and are off somewhere in the sanctuary or outside on their phones or pads. I almost want to see if we

Thanks everyone for the replies. I know we will probably never go paperless but I need something/somewhere as the awards chair to see everything as a whole. I am the one who goes and buys the awards and makes out the cards to award them. We are backwards in our pack as we don't really do immediate recognition. I can't/don't want to have to carry around a massive bag of awards each week to the den meetings so we just award them at the pack meeting. So far I haven't anyone say anything or notice that we don't do the immediate recognition. Each month I am still relying on the den lead

I realize this should be in the internet section but since I am looking for input from fellow Cub Scouters, I am posting it here. What online tracking software/websites do you use? Our pack has used Scout Manager for the past 2 years. I personally don't have a problem with it other than the way it configures some of the awards reports. As the awards chair its kind of frustrating. I also still rely on the den leaders to send me an actual list of what they show each boy has earned to double check against what Scout Manager shows. One of the main complaints we have received is the tim

I should add that the woman who had day camp dumped in her lap did the best she could with what she had. Things are not always going to go the way we want or plan for them to. That's a important leader skill, being able to adapt. I appreciate what she tried to do. Susan

Do you think it is something that you can help organize and help run remotely? See if you can recruit a person to be the actual director and to be there on site and you help organize the activities and recruit volunteers. This way it doesn't die completely and you do not have to take off any time from work. My first experience with day camp wasn't that great. My son went 2 years ago and the person who was supposed to run it (DE) got transferred up to Ohio right before it started so another lady took over and did the best she could. She only had about 3 other full time volunteers other

Well I have been waiting several days to be able to respond I saved what I typed up the other day As a female I will chime in. I don't think girls should be allowed into Cub Scouts/Boy Scouts. If the girls are so dissatisfied with what the GS offers then they should push to make the change. Obviously some girls now days are more outgoing and adventure seeking and are not content making pottery, learning to cook and making jewelry. That's great. I was a GS for over 3 years and never once went camping, went on a hike once. We even had a lock in one time, it was pretty lame. So

I should add that in the 3 years of my being involved with scouting we are on our 3rd DE. Is this pretty common?