Loomans

Our patrol leaders do make phone calls. Each scout is requested to provide one 'good' phone number for contact. New patrol leaders collect updated information. PLs are instructed to continue attempts until they speak to the scout. That, of course, does not always happen. PLs can also use texts or messaging as appropriate, but the phone number is a troop requirement. With two scouts in different patrols in my household, we are quite used to receiving awkward calls from PLs especially the night before the troop meeting. And just as I promise my own sons, the adult who answer are very helpful, kind and courteous.

My eldest son, in particular, had a good bit of anxiety about using the phone to contact fellow scouts. The practice of calling his patrol mates with a purpose has helped him gain the confidence to call merit badge counselors, make camp reservations, and order pizza for lock-in night. Now he is applying those skills to job interviews and college application questions.

There is such an age span in Boy Scouts. In my area, most 10.5 year olds do not have cell phones, email addresses or social media accounts. The troop can't expect them, either, if because of cost, parental controls or age limits on apps. We've settled on phones as the best option.

I agree, blw2. Spring recruitment brings in Tigers but would be more effective if focused on older boys who can attend district and council camps. Recruitment boy talks always focus on shooting sports and camping, but there are few opportunities to participate in either after fall recruitment.

The average pack size in our district is about 22 boys. I think 35 is a better number, the dens are a good size and there are sufficient adults to share the work.

Our pack is doing both programs. Current Webelos scouts will finish with the old program and plan to be finished mid-fall 2015. New fifth graders will be put in their own den and use the new AOL program.

Adding a den is a little more work but meets everyone's needs in the best way, we've decided. If only one or two new fifth grade scouts join, we may try to cross them over to the troop with the current Webelos. It all depends on the birthdays and the parents.

Question - has BSA committed to keeping the soon to be obsolete pins and belt loops in stock during the transition? I think our DL is planning to stock up on what he thinks he will need for his summer and fall program.

Girl Scouts use a different unit model. IME there are advantages and disadvantages. More flexibility in decisions and activities, less support from other leaders are the two main differences I've found.

We have a local homeschool group that runs Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and American Heritage Girls meetings all at the same time. Sounds chaotic to me, but it seems to work for them. We have a pack meeting next week, we needed more participants so we invited a GS troop to join us. I'm looking forward to it!

First time reading this thread

- For those that are sayin money needs to be paid up front. That is a hard sell for the 99.9% of the scout that you don't run into problems with. I will tell you that if I am a consumer and do not know the scout I have no interest in paying for the product up front without the product. If I am a parent of the scout I am not going to send my scout out to get $1000 worth of orders and then front the money.

 

I am always amused when someone on the internet maintains that it isn't possible to be successful if you do something the way that is already proven in my actual, personal experience to be successful.The vast majority of our scouts sell to customers who know them - friends, familiy, parent work colleagues and neighbors. A good portion of our local population will buy popcorn to support scouts from any scout in uniform. Doing show and sales or neighborhood blitz programs will take care of the rest. Any potential loss of sales is offset by avoiding situations like the one described in the original post.

~~

Our Pack held a raffle each Pack meeting. Someone went to the Dollar store and spent about $10 bucks buying stuff. Tickets were sold to the scouts for $1 or 3 tickets for $2 or some other ratio I don't recall. At end of meeting ticket numbers were called out and prizes awarded. We had 50-60 scouts in the pack and always sold way more than 10 tickets to cover cost of prizes. You will have to adjust according to the pack size.

Certainly not to pick on you, resqman, but I wanted to point out for anyone reading this topic that raffles are specifically mentioned in the BSA Fundraising Policies and Procedures Manual as not permitted:

Gambling

Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America, Article XI, Section 1, Clause 1:

(e) Gambling. Any fundraising project designated to benefit chartered organization units,

districts, local council, or on a national basis which involves games of chance, lotteries, sale

of raffle tickets, bingo, or could be construed as a gambling activity, is not permitted.

We also found that our charter organization also did not permit gambling on their premises.

Seattle, our council does not take any responsibility for bad checks or non-de,ivery. Responsibility lies 100% with the unit.

I agree with those who said to consult the charter org, final decision on any action is theirs. I also agree that the scout should not be punished and that unit policies around popcorn be changed. We ask for payment from customers at the time the order is placed. Popcorn money is turned in with the order forms, before the unit orders from council. We've lost a bit of product here and there from show and sells, but nothing at the $230 level.

After spending a good chunk of my afternoon getting ready for a leadership meeting tonight, I am ready to resign! Our council website promises much, delivers little. Cub camping information hasn't been updated since last year though all the links are still active and pointing to outdated information. There is a Cub Camping Rally coming up, according to my UC, but since it wasn't on the calendar or any of the aforementioned pages, it was tough to find the time and date. I did locate an announcement on a side feed of upcoming events. And trying to find information about facilities and rates for using the council camp for a family campout? Equally obscure. I don't understand the logic behind having online! registration! for your event! as trumpeted on the website when I have to call a person (who didn't pick up, so waiting for a call back) to get real information about availability and fees.

This follows a horrible experience in registering troop scouts for the upcoming merit badge round-up where a new, untested registration system was deployed. Scouts had to be registered individually and any changes processed by phone call or email. Of course, there was no communication on this so a week went by while we waited for someone (anyone!) from council to let us know that the 'edit your registration' button didn't work. All changes had to go through one of two people. While waiting for call backs and emails to be returned, every one of our scouts were closed out of the classes they wanted which only increased the time lag as info went back and forth between the scouts, the troop and the registrar. Then the council contact went on vacation right before registration closed!

And re-charter was another mess. All registered scouters had to have updated records through my.scouting.org and a printout included with the recharter documents. Except it took up to 2 weeks for the records to appear on that system, so the person doing rechartering kept trying to do the training records and freaking out when her changes weren't reflected on the screen. Yet another instance where communication would have made a big difference to a volunteer. Other issues as well, but I find it discouraging to keep typing it out.

I know why I volunteer. I do it for my sons and the other scouts in our unit. The amount of time I end up wasting because BSA and our local council are so incompetent is infuriating. And I am tired of apologizing to parents and scouts for the screw-ups, as well. I won't quit, but I am pulling back and reducing my commitment just to keep the time I devote to scouting manageable. I feel like I've been given no choice.

Is it like this in every council?

My pack meets weekly through the school year, all in the same building. Den meetings are the first three Tuesday nights and last one hour. Pack meetings are the fourth Tuesday and are scheduled for an hour and a half. A consistent and reliable meeting schedule is a strength for our pack, it is a selling point for recruitment and the primary reason we retain so many transfers from other units. Den leaders are free to schedule Go-see-its and the like as needed, of course, but most find that doing so on 'scout night' gives a better turn-out.

I think Basementdweller is from that council, or nearby. Ohio has multiple councils, lots of BSA property, state and local parks for camping. Hocking Hills is beautiful, as stated above. I'm in Ohio but south of Columbus.

I see your point, qwazse, but I have to mention that using FB for parent communication really improved parent participation for our pack. We get a much better response to requests for volunteers on FB, and more parents are willing to look at FB for weather cancellation, meeting reminders, and general info about pack activities. FB is easy to use, parents respond to that.

We do the immediate recognition program, but we don't use the official materials. The Tigers make their own emblems from leather, using purchased arrowhead shapes. We stamp them with the Cub Scout emblem, the pack number and the scout's name, and punch 8 holes along the sides. Four holes for Tiger, four more for Wolf and Bear. Waxed cord and refill packs of beads from the scout shop and we have inexpensive attractive and frustration-free emblems for the scouts to wear for three years of scouting.

The guidelines clearly refer to Scouts and social media. Our pack has a private FB group with no scouts as members, just parents. My council says that this is fine and has similar groups for some activities. The risk isn't with private groups anyway, but with private messaging. I don't think FB is appropriate for Cub or Boy Scout communications as the age in the TOA is 13 years old. I could see a crew using FB effectively, but IME that age group is texting and ignoring FB for the most part.

As an aside, if I do tag photos on FB, scout or otherwise, I tag an area on the photo that doesn't have a person, like a tree. Serves the purpose of directing someone's attention to the photo without identifying the subject, especially group shots.

Foil dinners, as long as you have a campfire or other means to create a bed of coals. At our favorite campsite, I can feed 70 people in about an hour. Nice big fire ring and lots of pre-prepped ingredients to chose from, its popular because everyone gets what they want.

Our second most favorite site has electricity, so we do pulled pork sandwiches (purchased and heated in a slow cooker) along with vegetables with ranch dip.

It all depends on what you have to work with and the manpower you have to pull it off.

It's an ongoing problem. I feel that as a den leader, if I've communicated to a parent throughout the year about advancements, noted specifically what their scout needs to do for an advancement, and given them access to scout track and other advancement resources, they cannot look to me when their scout does not receive an award. We generally do advancement work in our den meetings and expect the scout to work at home if it is missed.

On the other hand, I've been generous about giving an award to a scout who was missing a requirement because the adults messed up. We've had the occasion or two where a requirement was thought to be done and wasn't, with no time to do it before B&G so the award is given and the requirement met after the fact.

I do advancements for our pack and our troop. We use Scout Track and find it very helpful. My favorite feature is the interface with Internet Advancements. Each time I upload new advancements, the two sets of data are synced and reconciled so our unofficial record mirrors the official record. Scout Track also gives everyone an overview on individual requirements. This is helpful for the cubmaster to track how dens are doing, parents for how their scouts are doing, and the scoutmaster/ASMs for planning outings and activities. Scout Net doesn't offer that kind of detail. We've tried it both ways and like using a web-based program better than ScoutNet alone. Of course it is only as good as the data entered, so there needs to be a commitment from the unit to make it work.

I've done it pretty much as you've outlined with a similar size group. It works and it is popular. There might be a few scouts who want to run around, but there always are. The races generally go fast, the track isn't that long. Sometimes we set up a wading pool so the scouts can test concepts before racing. I also like to have permanent markers for the artistic types to decorate their boats.

We are doing a raingutter regatta next week. Our pack prefers using foam noodles as the basic boat with skewer masts and foam sheet sails. The scouts will build their boats, race them, and refine their design. We've also found that the scouts like racing against a stopwatch better than multiple heats.

I was told to work with my district training chair to fix training records, and that it was a 'Scout's Honor' situation. YPT is the exception, but with re-training needed every two years it is also likely to not be the problem. We did have the records corrected for one of our more experienced leaders.

Adding to what SM bob said, the Institutional Head is the person who signs off on the charter document as a whole. In addition, the Cubmaster also has to sign off on the charter document. If the CC is playing around with who's who on the charter, these are the people to review and approve it. The first person, the IH, also signs off on every adult leader position that requires an membership application. These are all checks and balances to keep one person from running the entire show without any oversight. If you can't ask the CC who your IH is, your District Executive will know. Your DE will also know which units in the area are healthy and thriving or who could use more willing families and who follow good BSA practices.

For the last few years, the pack has been making their own (cheap) boats with foam pool noodles cut into sections, then in half, plus some sort of mast and sail, like a dowel rod and a piece of foam sheet. Better example of engineering than the kits and can be decorated with Sharpie marker for the creative type. Works well with the inflatable track sold by the scout shop.

Our council camp offers IOLS and SM/ASM training at the council camp all summer long. And it's available free of charge to any registered leader in the council. Of course, this info isn't advertised at all except by word of mouth so many new leaders don't know about it. Still, it's a good thing. Wish the cub camp would follow the example, getting BALOO or Webelos leader training is difficult as the council offers it only once a year and the districts generally not at all.

Evilleramsfan, your CC has written a fine piece of fiction for tent camping. I feel that you are very lucky that this gentleman is on the committee and is not on the scoutmaster team. I think your real question is whether he should remain as head of the committee when, despite his training, he doesn't seem to understand his role in the troop nor how a troop strives to achieve the aims of scouting.

Boy' date=' you guys work with a tough crowd. 52 weekends in a year, and people complain about giving up one day in each of two of them?[/quote']

 

After spending at least one weekend every month camping, additional weekend days doing fundraising, recruitment, and service projects; plus spending a WHOLE WEEK at camp, I can see why some people might complain about giving up one weekend day on either end of a week at camp. Notice I didn't even include the hour a week to work with the scouts at troop meetings.

 

I think it makes the most sense for the program to end at the Friday night campfire, with troops having the option to leave after the campfire or spend the night and bug out on Saturday morning with a bag breakfast. Seems to meet the most needs, including scouts who have religious obligations on Saturday.

 

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to pass this off to the scoutmaster with your thoughts. My intent isn't to nitpick the work, I'm trying to become more familiar with the MBs and our advancement program and as a former regulatory person, these kind of discrepancies jump out at me. Appreciate your responses.