Eagle1993

They were on our local news last night (canned national story). Lead into the story was “BSA admits they errored” but when you listen to the story it only said that BSA stated there was confusion. It could easily been taken that Logan’s parents miss understood the message. Who know but I’m not sure why this is still national news. This lawyer seems to be milking this for as much fame as he can get. I think he is probably disappointed the BSA didn’t fight.

@glider90 That is how we handle it. We have a leader (or multiple) help ensure safe operation. The parents pump up the rocket and we keep the pressure to ~40psi or so. Model rockets we allow the scouts to launch it at the full extension of the Estes launch cable. Note that our DE has been present at both activities so I never thought it was an issue. We even had a parent who created some sort of air cannon that launched candy 40 feet in the air. Not sure what rules that falls under (he operates it himself and the scouts are down a hill ~30 yards away) but it is a blast watching

Agreed with the above. We have used both model rockets and water rockets for an August activity and join scouts night. We do not see this as a shooting sport unless you aim them horizontal (intentionally).

I just want through our Pack inventory and have a bunch of old patches. I was thinking of simply throwing them out but thought I would first ask if anyone had previously thought of creative uses for old patches.

I think the question right now are your options. Assuming this is the only local pack then first try sitting down with the Committee chair and cub master. If that doesn’t work you could talk with leaders of the Charter Organization. If they also push back on your boy friend you could try to reach out to the council (district executive) for support, but as he is not the parent then I’m not sure they would get involved. This completely changes with his own son. Is the boy’s mom in the picture? If not, then banning the boy’s father essentially bans the boy as well. I think the council w

I didn’t say it did. @perdidochas stated speeding isn’t a crime. It can be at certain speeds and in certain states. That statement was wrong. I would be much more concerned about a parent in my Pack who systematically has current speeding tickets than a 40 year old parent who sold some pot to a friend when he was 17. I have no idea who this person is, what they did or if they are “good” or “bad”. I tend to think it best to limit judgement of people you don’t know the details on. I’m not sure judging this person is even needed to answer the questions posed.

Depends on how fast you are going and which state.

So, my wife just completed the annual GSUSA survey. This is the first year my daughter is is GSUSA so I’m not sure if any of these questions are new. One question was if my daughter was in another scouting organization. We answered yes and then another question popped up asking which organization (from a list that included BSA). We selected BSA. Then a series of questions appeared asking us to compare the programs (leaders, activities, impact on community, etc.). For most we answered the programs were equal but a couple my wife stated preference for BSA. Again, not sure if thi

@Jameson76 Does JTE reflect an “ideal” Troop? If not, then BSA should address the gaps and emphasize the true key metics. At that point, they should have their District Commissioners (hopefully retired from the best Troops) work with units who don’t score well to identify the gaps and work to improve. I think some of the framework is there, but not sure if they are driving the right attributes and commissioners are hit or miss from my experience.

I understand that this is out of necessity, but that can drive innovation and solutions we can learn from. Perhaps we (my pack) underutilized the Den Chief model. I know they don’t run the meeting, but t having Den Chiefs come in and assist could be a great help to overworked den leaders and also give Cub Scouts a older peer mentor. While what you stated could be extreme I think there could be lessons there.

@Eagledad I agree with the summary above.

This actually sounds pretty cool. I would love to see more older scouts get involved with the Cub Scout program. I’m not sure if it would work but it sounds like a great idea. We see this with soccer camps and teams here where high school students help coach youngsters and are the primary resources at camps. That said, I do think you can burn out as SPL and PL. I was ASPL at 14 and SPL and Eagle at 15 in a “Boy led” Troop. At 16 with three varsity sports, NHS, etc. I had no desire to also teach 11 year olds to tie their shoes. I wanted HA outings and mentor the new SPL. Most of

Not necessarily true. If scouts have to deal with 11 year olds when they are 16-17 then they could burn out as well. Just because 14 yo scouts start dropping doesn’t mean they aren’t running the Troop. Perhaps that is why the UK breaks this group up, but not sure that is the answer either.

There is a lot of shade being thrown at Tigers and Lions; however, I’ve seen these at net positives for my pack. 1 - My den leaders when first starting are green and are essentially learning (along with the parents) on the job. Yes there is training and materials they use but for the most part they are absorbing everything that Cub Scouts offers. So, by the time they are Wolf den leaders they are strong den leaders with two years of experience. Any bad den leaders can be rooted out. If my den leaders only started out with the Wolf den they I don’t see them hitting their stride until

I think hockey and the fact that Dallas stole their team.

This is somewhat like our Pack and was started probably 10-15 years ago. The Troop we feed keeps the majority of the scouts we transfer and many of those achieve Eagle. While it “works” I don’t agree that ranks in Cub Scouts should just be handed out to all scouts each year. The issue I’ve had is with the previous leadership who does not agree. “Cub Scouts is for fun with families and Boy Scouts is about boy led patrols and earning rank.” So, as you say, the kids understand and it doesn’t negatively impact the Troop. (The current Troop leadership was the ones who started the Cub Scout ra

Keep watching for more options for girls this summer. In my council, there are only 2-3 packs that are early adopters and accepted girls. However, I know many Packs planning on adding girls for 2018-2019. So, I would expect you should see options starting this summer. If financial issues prevent you from joining you should reach out to the council or even the Pack leadership. I know for our Pack we would never want financial issues preventing participation and we actively tell parents if the charges are an issue we will work with them.

I thought girls wouldn’t be in OA until 2020 but was told that Explorer and Venturing would start OA elections next year. Has anyone else heard of that change?

My father was a shop teacher in the 70s-80s. One day a teacher came in with a towel on his hand asking my father if he could watch his class while the other teacher went to the nurse. My dad said sure and went to the classroom. The kids were all silent and pale. My dad asked what’s wrong and one of the practical joking students said ... Mr. XYZ ‘s finger is over here. My dad said “well why don’t you bring it up and leave it on the desk” (thinking it was a joke). He did, it wasn’t. I’ve always tried to be careful with saws after hearing that story.

The new books are printing as we speak. They should hit the shelves in June. I’m glad to see the requirement updates integrated. It will also be nice to see the gender updates for those of us with girls in our pack.

We had our annual Bear carnival with the boy and girl dens combining forces. It was by far the best Bear carnival we had in years. The scouts were having fun but in control. Both girl and boy cub scouts were working and playing together... no issues. It was the first meeting (Pack or den) since adding girls that I felt comfortable that it was no longer “special”... it just was. Our next Pack outing is our overnight (cabin) camping. We have a cabin reserved just for the girls and several for the boys. I’m brushing up on G2SS and YPT before this one.

No idea what this will be, but thought I provide the link.

The online systems works ok overall for new scouts; however, we ran into a couple of issues. - The system seems to only work ok with certain browsers and parents have stated they had to try multiple times to enroll. - There were issues with the credit card system early this year that led to multiple parents being charged 2-3x for the same app. It took well over a month to get credits back from BSA. - Some parents who were confused accidentally registered existing scouts (the system should flag someone if it notices the same name/birthdate/Pack for a scout app). It doesn’t, an

Our Wolf neckerchiefs are yellow. Lions will now get the yellow neckerchief and Wolfs will go red. That makes sense as the badge is already red.