RookieScouter

We recently moved to a new Troop a few months ago. Two weeks ago Scoutmaster announced parents and committee members will no longer be able to be in building during meetings. Just the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster with the scouts. I get this is a scout ran program but can they really ban others from being at the meeting? I typically stay outside anyway talking with other parents. But there are some parents that don't find this acceptable and feel that something isn't right. One parent has an autistic scout. Does this go against YPT? 

2 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I do wish we could fully put all responsibilities for stuff like this on our Scouts, and get the great results we are looking for.  But that is not reality.  I always say, "You have to remember who we are dealing with."

We use Scoutbook for communication by email.  Whenever a Scoutbook email goes out to Scouts, all parents are automatically cc'ed.

Best wishes as you pursue the goal of purely "Scout-led"

Thank you! Scoutbook is a great source. But many of our new scouts are not setup to receive emails due to them not having one. Most of the parents use it. But there isn't information besides keeping up with their achievements and money on acct. This is a great idea to bring to the committee. 

I have been in scouting since 2018. Learned quite a lot with both Pack and Troop. I've also completed all training for both units. I'm currently Committee Chair of Pack and Treasurer of Troop. With our Pack I always communicate with parents which I understand is different with the Troop. Troop is a scout lead program. However, with our unit most of our scouts are new which just crossed over. There were only four active scouts before crossover who are 12-13 years old. Six other Scouts Eagled out about a year ago. 

My question, being we mainly have younger scouts who are still learning. Including the four scouts troop already had. How would you arrange communication with parents or how does your unit communicate with parents? Currently our SPL who is 13 and Scoutmaster talks to scouts about events and upcoming meetings. Many scouts do not forward information to their parents. Including my son. This gets very frustrating. Not to mention meeting plans most of the time is not announced until they are at meetings. I have corrected the problem with my son but just a few weeks ago we didn't know he would be working on fitness so he wore in crocs which many scouts do. So therefore SPL would not let him participate in that days activities. Since then I have told my son to wear walking shoes to every meeting. Scoutmaster sends out emails but not very often with details. He is a friend of mine and have told him my concerns a long with many other new parents. However, he tells us it is our scouts responsibility to forward details to us. 

Is this normal with all troops? I get it and agree this teaches them responsibility. But I also feel like parents should know whats going on so we can make sure our scouts are at events, have the materials they need, and arrive on time. I finally understand why we don't have good participation with our troop. 

Our pack is participating in a community event with our council. We chose to do bottle rockets. This was a fun event for our scouts so I would like to share with others. How I made our bottle rockets: 2-liter soda bottle, 3 Tbsp Baking Soda, 2 Cups Vinegar, Duct Tape, 3 Pencils, Construction paper to decorate, One cork, and Paper Towels

1. Assemble and decorate your rocket, using the pencils as feet.

2. Secure them to the bottle using duct tape.

3. Add vinegar to the bottle.

4. Add 3 Tbsp baking soda onto a small square of paper towel.

5. Roll the paper towel tightly enough to fit inside bottle, and so that no baking soda can spill out.

6. With an adult scouts place paper towel full of baking soda inside the bottle and plug with a cork. (We ask that they do not plug too tightly, but don’t allow any liquid to spill out.)

7. Scouts take the bottle to an adult leader. Turn the bottle upside down, place it on it's feet and STAND BACK!

What would you change or recommend material wise to make this easier? Although our scouts loved this activity we ended up with vinegar on us or some bottles took a lot longer to go off. Just looking to improve our bottle rockets and hear what worked for others. 

*I would be interested in changing pencils to something else. 

Our town has invited us to setup a booth at a community event. We are going to have information for our unit and the years calendar with trips, meetings, and events to come. One of our leaders plan to bring their corn hole boards. 

What are some other things we can do that isn't too costly and will add interest to our booth? Our council hasn't yet started popcorn sales. Incase someone suggests that. 

What is Cub Scouts?

Talking to a parent I can go on about what Cub Scouts is. However, I'm putting together a PowerPoint for new families gearing towards my audience being children. This PowerPoint will be sent to our two schools from Council for recruitment night. I personally wanted to do this myself being I know my Pack better then anyone and can give reliable information about what we have done and what we have planned. 

So my question is how would you break down what Cub Scouts is to a child in simplest form. But also keeping it exciting. 

Everything I keep putting together sounds like I'm talking to a parent. 

We try to plan an event once a month on a Saturday outside of Den and Pack Meetings. What are some ideas we can do? This year we did a Flag retirement ceremony and it was very cold. So we decided for the future to save this event for warmer months.

1 minute ago, Eagledad said:

I once did a Tim the Tool Man Taylor skit for a pinewood derby announcement. Tim tries to show Al how to make a pinewood derby but uses all the wrong tools (chainsaw) and makes a mess. The skit was just to make a boring announcement fun and was not a how-to of making a pinewood derby. We did that on a Saturday. That was 25 years ago, so I don't remember much of it, but you could do something like that with a clumsy character trying to show how to set up a tent with a straight person fixing the mess.

Barry

Love it.... That is an awesome idea. I think I may have two leaders who would fit perfect to do this for our scouts. 

8 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

1. Have a handout with a list of gear AS WELL AS a list of household items you can substitute.

2. Have someone bring gear as well as household items to substitute.

3. Talk about what to look for if purchasing gear.

4. EMPASIZE THAT HOUSEHOLD ITEMS CAN BE USED IF THEY CANNOT AFFORD CAMPING GEAR.  Major emphasis. I had someone bring all their latest greatest gear, and it was scaring some of the parents. Had to tell him to emphasize he has been camping for several years and accrued this stuff over time. I had to show the how to use household items.

5. Tents. Set up a tent to demonstrate. BUT emphasize each tents is different and you need to borrow or buy one in advance to set up in advance and make sure you have everything.

6. MAKE IT FUN!

 

 

 

I thought about bringing our Pack trailer and getting some items out of it to show to the Scouts. Our Parents are good and ready to go. Just got to encourage some of the younger scouts that this will be a fun experience. Looking for fun ideas to share with them.

2 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

Very cool.

Have you done a camping trip with a pack? It's not like camping in a troop. 90% of the campers either have never camped or have very little experience. Most will have to borrow any gear they bring. And meals are easier done for the whole pack because finding gear and cooks for smaller groups is a challenge. I'm a big believer in freed time, but cub age families really need more planned activities, even for free time. Those Tigers are as cute as can be, but they are slippery little devils if they are busy.

As for how to present it; the presentation needs to be fun, funny and entertaining. or you will find yourself spending more time trying to quiet down the scouts.

I will work on some ideas.

Barry

With the group we have now we have not gone camping with them yet. But will at the end of March. We have some scouts who are nervous about camping. Last year we did a similar pack meeting letting them practice putting tents up and showing them items needed to go camping letting them answer questions about what they think they should bring. Basically I went through each rank finding things to talk about. It was a small group but to me it seemed very boring for them. This year I want to give them some different ideas since we have a lively bunch. Keeping them still listening to us talk isn't going to cut it. We have 39 scouts and this is our first big group since 2018. 

I'm looking for some hands on activities they may can do or other ideas. 

For our March Pack meeting we will be working on Camping Preparedness. We have many new scouts and families who have never been camping. What are some ideas you would do to keep it not only informational/learning but also fun? 

We are starting our planning for popcorn sales and looking ways to get more participation and fun for our scouts. Do any units set a goal and if scouts go over that goal you may do something low cost that's fun. Maybe like pie a leader or silly string a leader? What are some other ideas we could do that's free or low cost that would get our scouts more involved and excited? 

Since March and after several virtual meetings before May. Emails and texts throughout summer I've only heard from about 4 scouts out of 25. Now I'm ready to get things started again. 

What's works? 

How do I get parents involved?

More participation? 

Our scouting never ended just the participation. I had 75% of pack not complete rank for last year. I encourage parents to work with their scouts at home and even gave June, July, and August activities to do for the summer participating pin. I basically came up for a plan for each rank and gave details of how to do them. But responses were low.

So my question is, What does returning to scouting look like for you and how do you plan to get more participantion? 

My considerations:

1. Two dens meet weekly.

2. Temp checks and required face coverings. (Younger scouts maybe more difficult.)

3. Keep scouts 6ft apart a long with adults.

4. Outside activities.

5. Sent home activities to complete and bring back to next meeting. 

What does this mean for Pack Meetings? 

1. Maybe hold them outside.

2. Temp checks and face coverings.

We still have to award our scouts for the ones who had completed their rank. 

We have been doing virtual meetings for about a month now and have had very little participation. Maybe seven scouts out of twenty four. As leaders we are still trying to figure the whole virtual meetings setting out ourselves. Our first meeting was suppose to be for the parents but none wanted to show up so we only had our scouts. So we did a welcome back and talk about what everyone has been up to and check in on each scout to see if they have questions about any of their adventures. Our second meeting we had each scout choose one adventure or requirement in their handbooks they would like to share with other scouts. Last week we played a scavenger hunt. My question is how do you run your meetings? Do each of your den leaders run a meeting with just their den or do you have all scouts join together? What kind of activities do you do during your meetings? Do you give your scouts weekly activities? Any advice is greatly appreciated. A year ago we had only four scouts. To have twenty four now we are very excited to have the group we do now and don't want to see anyone loose interest due to this pandemic. 

December went by quick and I lost track of time. What is a good easy to get together Pack meeting idea we could do? 

23 hours ago, mrkstvns said:

How about an award to scouts who can catch and remove invasive species?

If you check with your local parks department or fish & wildlife department, you might find that there are some surprising invasive species in your local lakes and streams.

Last year, our troop did a fishing activity as part of working on Nature merit badge. The park sent out an angling instructor who showed the boys pictures of the kinds of fish found in the lake we were fishing.  He also told the boys that fishermen had recently pulled out some tilapia and armored catfish --- neither of which are native to this region.  (And that if they caught those fish, they should definitely NOT "catch and release".) 

Given how common the problem of invasive species is these days, I wouldn't be surprised if your local waterways had a few of 'em too...

We will be fishing at our councils camp. They only stock bass, brim, and catfish. 

23 hours ago, Eagledad said:

This is a really good idea. I'm not sure there is a more more pure outdoor adventure on this earth than fishing. One of the committee members of our pack suggested we do a fishing breakfast for Tiger age families thinking of joining scouts. So we set up a cook stove on the shore of a neighborhood pond and handed poles to dads and sons as they showed up that early cool fall Saturday  morning. There wasn't any order to how we were doing things, we were just making it up as we went along and handed plates of pancakes, coffee and orange juice to dads and sons between casting and baiting. Oh we talked about the program a little, but we found ourselves quietly standing back and enjoying the excited moments of most of these tigers first fishing trip with dad. I don't remember how many of those families joined in 1993, but I will never forget the smiles on the backdrop of the early morning sun.

There are some days you've just gotta love this scouting stuff.

Barry

That is a great idea to do with our new lion and tiger families. We did a fishing trip last year with our pack letting our Cubs catch their fish and then we showed them how to clean and cook them. They loved it... I enjoyed seeing their excitement as they got to do the whole process of catching, cleaning, and cooking them. 

23 hours ago, Jameson76 said:

The possibilities are endless:

• Prettiest Fish caught
• Cutest fish caught
• Slimiest Fish caught
• Most fish dropped on the ground
• Falling in the lake award
• Dropping rod and reel in the lake award
• Most hooks in your clothes award
• Most worms/bait lost to fish 
• Furthest cast
• Shortest cast

 

These are all awesome ideas. Thank you!

We are planning a fishing derby with our scouts and I am looking for ideas to put on certificates so that each one of our scouts get their own award. We have about 15 scouts attending. Three will receive a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd place medal. 

Scouts will have two hours to catch and many fish as they can. Bass and brim are stocked in pond we will be going to. 

What are your ideas to put on certificates? I'm short by 8 certificates.

Has anyone tried the Country Meats fundraiser? I have been looking into it but it doesn't seem like it would go to well and take up so much more time to make as much as other fundraisers. 

What have you done to make this fundraiser event worth doing being they are very cheap and you have to give a portion back to the bsa.

We are looking for more ways to earn money to upgrade camping gear in our pack trailer and to continue to award our scouts with their patches, pins, belt loops ect.... 

We started off with 5 scouts in August and now have 35 after round up at events and schools. What is the best way to go about asking new parents to help with leadership? We have asked everyone but being they are new to scouting you can tell they dont want to at the moment. 

Our meeting place is also very small for the number of scouts we now have. We meet in a community building they hold parties that isnt very big and only has one room. So during meetings it is hard to hear what the other one is saying. Outside is an option but being gnats in our area are bad at the moment we opted out of that at last meeting. Then meeting at different nights is out because they have other things going on other nights at building. What would you suggest to make meetings a little bit better?

20 minutes ago, mrkstvns said:

Sounds to me like you're on the right track...

Activities would, of course, be the best draw for kids, but if space limits what you can do, perhaps a good video loop showing kids really doing fun things might be the ticket.

A pack info sheet is a good idea, but I think having it be short and compact is good with lots of pictures and few words, but with pointers to a pack web site where more complete info can be found.  A URL for sure, a QR code might be nice for the folks who know how to use 'em on their smart phones.  Make sure some kind of pointer to your pack (like URL) is on all the hand-outs. 

Enthusiastic scouts at the booth can work wonders.

When my son was in cubs, the parent night was probably THE most important outreach effort. The pack was chartered by the PTO and while we had a couple kids who were home-schooled or in private schools, the vast bulk of the pack were students in the chartering school.

Good luck!

A website sounds like a great idea. However, we dont have a lot of funding and dont see how we can afford a subscription. My husband and I just took over leadership and still working through the bumps on getting things straightened back up. I'm also working with the schools. For years our pack wasn't involved. We have a scout night next month. I like the idea of a video showing all the things we do. I tend to take too many pictures at events. Lol.... When I put posters together it's hard to just choose a few pictures. 

What items do you put at your information booth. Recently we participated in school orientation night and our table seemed a bit boring and had not many stop by or seemed interested. 

Items I had on table: Pack information sheet packet, mini boys life, pencils, wrist bands with our pack name on them, posters with pictures of past events, our pack banner, and a few items our scouts have made or earned throughout their activities this past year. 

I felt like our booth wasnt very interesting and didnt catch anyone's attention. In the next couple weeks we have been given the opportunity to setup a booth at a fall festival. We have limited space to do any activities. 

What would you suggest doing different or what should we add to our booth? I would love to do activities but feel like we wont have enough space as our space is limited.

We have changed things up a bit this year since starting last January. This year we decided to meet every 1st and 2nd week of the month for den meetings. Every 2nd week of the month meet for a pack meeting. Then committee meeting every 4th week of the month. If there happens to be an extra week in the month we will use that as a den meeting. 

Last year we were so small we met every other week for pack/committee meeting and den meetings were decided by den leaders. Usually meeting at their home. With five active scouts as the time that seemed fine. Now with 17 we are making it the way we think it should be.

However, we are getting feedback from returning and new parents we do too much. We meet once a week and now almost every weekend for show and sell for trails end. What is your opinion? Are we doing too much? Not all scouts have participated in den and pack meetings. Show and sell we only have four scouts participating. 

This would be for Cubs and spaces are very small that are provided. I believe spaces are 10x10.