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You will have separate dens on paper and co-ed dens in real life.  The reality is even if a pack wanted to keep them separate, some meeting places are not big enough to accommodate 10-12 separate den meetings at a time.  The pack we were in already takes up all available rooms with 2 dens sharing the cafeteria area at times.  

Our troop invites the Webelos from packs in the area to a meet the troop night every fall.  The boys this year plan on a brief meeting, a game of capture the flag and cooking s'mores.  The troop also lets packs know that Webelos can visit at anytime to see a normal meeting.  The boys have also made it known to  packs that they are willing to join the pack on family campouts or other events to help.  This year they helped with pack, that we get several cubs from, with their Join Scouting night. There are also 5 scouts camping this weekend at a pack family camp.   We are slowing getting roads into new packs which helps encourage the cubs to consider the troop when it is time to join a troop.  They remember how nice the Boy Scouts were and feel they have friends already in the troop.

I have a hard time with the idea of a feeder pack.  No cub scout has an obligation to join a specific troop just because they are located in the same town or have the same CO.  When my older son was ready to cross-over he visited 3 troops, one was the only troop in our town.  The pack in our town was considered a feeder pack to the only troop in town. The pack wasn't encouraged to visit other troops, cubs were just expected to cross over into the troop.  This created a troop that wasn't welcoming to new scouts and didn't seek to scouts to join the troop. When my older son's den was getting ready to cross over, I had them visit 3 troops.  The local troop invited us on a camp out, but had nothing planned.  My son's comment to me as we were leaving the camp out was " Well that was a wasted weekend."  My son  picked  a troop in the neighboring town, as that troop made him feel welcomed.  For the next several years, the Webelos from the pack would visit at least 3 troops to visit.  Every year the same feedback was received when visiting the troop in our town: "They don't want us. They don't include us in anything, just work around us.  This was for events they invited the cubs to attend.  The feedback was given to the Scoutmaster, but the attitude of the boys never improved.  As a result, the troop folded, because they were not getting any new boys.

Our troop does a high adventure trip every other year.  They start planning the next one about 6 months after they return from one.  They invite all boys who will be eligible for the adventure to a meeting to decide what they want to do, as far as backpacking, cycling or canoeing.  Our only restriction is that they must be 1^st class, but reserve the right to exclude anyone who does not attend the shake down trips or fails to complete them. We do a min. of 3 shake-down trips to make sure check the boys readiness, make sure their gear works for them. Once they decide that they are asked to go home a research where they might want to go.  The next meeting is then used to determine a location and elect a SPL for the adventure.    My boys have gone on 2 high adventures with the troop.  The first was to South Dakota, they hiked the Centennial Trial, went to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, stayed in the Badlands and did a couple of other things on the way out and back from MI.  The cost per person for the 10 day  trip was $200, to cover travel, camping, food and entrance fees.  They boys were responsible for their own personal gear.  We are lucky in that most of our adults are into backpacking and could supply the stoves and water filters needed from of their own personal gear.   This past summer they took a group of 20 two Isle Royale for 8 days. Restrictions on the island, made it so that they had to split into 2 groups because you can only travel in groups of no more than 10 on the island.  This trip cost each person $250, approximately $100 of which was for the ferry to the island.   Our troop tries to keep the cost down; due to the fact, we are in an area with high poverty rates and most of our families can’t afford to spend large amounts of money on the trip. 

Tips for keeping the cost down, reach out to others in your scouting community and family and friends of members of your troop and your charter organization.  On both trips our troop was provided a free place to stay on the way out and or back from the trip due to connections that someone had.  They have stayed at a pastor’s farm, a family vacation cabin, and a campground owned by an eagle scout.  If backpacking, learn to dehydrate your own food, buying the prepackaged meals is expensive for a large group.  Check with the places you plan to attend and see if they offer discounts for scouts.  I believe they could get into Mt. Rushmore for free if they were in uniform.

The committee will help with fundraising ideas and arrangements, but it is up to the boys attending on the trip to do the work of the fundraiser.  The committee doesn’t put a restriction on where the boys can go or how much is spent.  That is up to the adults in charge of the trip, the boys and their families. 

If this is something you troop plans to make an ongoing event, keep records of cost, where they went and what was done on each trip.  We just had a long time assistant scoutmaster turn in his records of previous high adventure trips the troop had done.  While some of them are 20 plus years old, it gives the boys some fresh ideas of what can be done.

In our troop it is up to the scout to request a BOR once they have completed the SMC.  They are responsible for asking the advancement chair for a BOR, normally it takes place during the next troop meeting.  If it is during the summer and the troop is not having weekly meetings, the advancement chair will work with the scout and the committee to get a BOR set up as soon as possible.  Normally, even the summer ones will take place within a week of the scout's request.

We do not allow parents or thSM to make the request.  The scout needs to learn to approach adults and make the request.  If it is a younger or shy scout a parent or the SM might approach the advancement chair with the scout, but the scout is expected to make the actual request.

Some additional information. The scout office in Ann Arbor, does have a scout shop attached to it so scouts do shop there.  However because of where this scout shop is located, in an industrial park, most  youth are accompanied by and adult.  An industrial park is a better location for a medial marijuana dispensary than a scout shop. 

I am not sure where other scout offices/shops are located.  But to compare this one to a church or school is a stretch.  It is located in an industrial park away from homes and shopping.  It does not have a large meeting room and is not used for meetings or trainings. When you think of a church or school they are typically very involved in the neighborhood/community they serve and typically have several meetings and gatherings a month and have a lot of youth that attend those meetings.  While scouting is important and involved in the community this scout office is not where meetings or gatherings are held.  Those are typically held at churches, schools and other facilities in the community. 

At this time council plans on keeping the endowment money and the oil rights regardless of who gets the camp. 

Friends of Camp Teetonkah is working hard to get the camp and save it as a youth camp.  They have the support of the community and several local non-profits.  If you would like to learn more about Friends of Camp
Teetonkah go to www.friendsofcampteetonkah.org.

I have heard from a couple of different people that there is talk of merging four or five councils in Northeast Ohio into one large council.  I haven't heard anything official, but a couple of different people who are not in the same circle saying this has me somewhat concerned.

Encourage those in your area to look at the Michigan Crossroads Council.  All of the councils in lower Michigan combined several years ago and it has not gone well.  By the end of the year more than half of the camps they started with will have been closed.  Council promised that the merger would result in more boots on the ground to help with programming, that also has not happened.  The larger council has made it harder to get answers and left many scouters feeling like they have no say in the local scouting program.