Armymutt

I try to teach mine to use natural sources of tinder and we use the flame wands to light that. My favorite is reindeer moss, which grows well on the edges of the pine forests here. Our fire rings are very deep and very small, which makes it really awkward trying to use much else to start a fire. Not enough enough room to do decent DO cooking without pulling coals out of the fire ring. Then there was that one dad in another pack we got jammed in with during Cuboree. He had something that looked like an incendiary grenade. I try to teach mine to make small fires.

What are you using, flint and steel? 9V battery and steel wool?

No one has been able to answer the question of why BSA thinks that Scouts today are less capable than their peers 100 years ago. The organization would have died out if the same rules were in place, yet this seems of little consequence. Why can't a patrol go camping? Page 18 of the 9th edition of the Boy Scout Handbook says, "The goal of a patrol should be to be so well trained in camping that it can take off on its own overnights." Why are we assuming youth have become enfeebled in the past 36 years?

I'm hoping that troops like that still exist when my kids are old enough. Lots of new people to the program and are timid about it. I told our chapter chief last night about a game we used to play - star gazers. Sort of a quiet duck duck goose, except the guy walking around had a belt and would drop it into someone hands. They then started whipping the guy to their right, chasing him around the circle. Once he got back, it was repeated.

While working on the two projects I mentioned earlier this semester, I am developing a plan for expanding Scouting into underserved areas. In doing so, I have been reading a lot about youth programs in general and Scouting in particular. One thing stood out to me. Scouting survived WWI because the PLCs took over and ran the units while the adults were off at war. During Desert Storm, my troop was in the same situation. Our adult leaders were fighter pilots or ground crew and deployed. That left me and another 16 y/o to run the troop for 8 months. According to the G2SS, we were not allow

Literally in the Cub Scouts forum.

Yeah, Roundtable is kind of boring. I get boring lectures all day. Don't really want to do it for fun. It's not so much a Man Park. It's a combo in-person and Zoom, and the presenter always is on Zoom. Ever try to sit in a big room and listen to someone lecture from their home computer to a laptop projected on a screen? Shoot me! At this point I go to try to figure out who is in our district so I can put faces with names.

Is this hypothetical unit a Pack or a Troop? A Pack is far more reliant on parental involvement. A Troop can work with very few. For a Troop, I would look at the 1920s. How did it work then? Why the focus on a district? My first Troop as a kid (well, second, but because the first sucked) basically ignored the district and council. It was first chartered in 1933 and ran like a pirate ship. Probably still does. I never attended a camporee or council summer camp with them. Until they bought some land in southern MO in the 60s, they would pack up the boys in a bus, have a parent drive it

If the parent doesn't attend, who takes care of their Cub Scout? We aren't a drop off Pack.

Are permission slips required when parents are attending an event? Seems redundant. I can't imagine a parent taking their Scout someplace and then saying that they are not allowed to be there.

I haven't experienced this issue. About the closest is skipping Scouts for another activity. I caused a bit of an uproar at our University of Scouting. A class was discussion bending the Scouting schedule around everything else in order to retain Scouts. When it was done, I asked why we would sell Scouting as the lowest priority activity. People were shocked. I pointed out that no one in their 40s mentions that they were a high school quarterback. Even the guys who played in college aren't sticking it on their resume 20 years down the line. Eagle Scouts proudly wear t-shirts, tie tacks

I think their communications are in person at the meetings. I'm busy being a Lion parent for my daughter at the same time. When it's not my turn to lead, I try to get over there and find out what is going on. They aren't good about returning emails or text messages either.

Our Webelos den has a campout planned at our church - if they put it on the calendar. I'm not sure if they are having parents attend. For some reason, they don't feel it is necessary to discuss these things with the Cubmaster.

We don't allow drop offs at any rank, unless it's really necessary, like retrieving a sibling from an activity down the road. We had one family who thought Scouts would be a date night for them. When the meeting could last 30 minutes to an hour, you're not going to get much of a date out of it. The best chance would be to run to the gas station and microwave a burrito.

That's the thing. Where do you draw the line between parent observation and parent interaction? If a parent can observe any event, to me that means they would have to not engage with the Scouts, unless there was a problem. I don't know of any parents who would go on a camping trip, stay off by themselves, and not get involved, whether it's helping set up camp, eating dinner with the troop, etc.

I wish we had 2 per chapter. At our Fall Fellowship, we were lucky to assemble 3 pre-Ordeal teams and 2 Ordeal teams. One was chapter pure, the other was a mix of 3. They each did three Ordeal ceremonies that night. We were all exhausted by the third one, and the quality suffered. At this point, I have one ceremonialist who shows up at chapter meetings, but he's a senior. I'm recruiting hard, but no one is biting. They don't seem to understand that if there are no ceremonialists, there are no ceremonies, and thus, no inductions.

I'm on the fence about WB. What put me on the fence was having a beading ceremony during our den meetings night that took about 30 minutes. The kids - K through 3rd grade - had no idea what was going on, other than some adult stranger was giving a den leader a neckerchief and talking a lot. They were bored. Violated the Keep it Fun principle. If I did WB, I would do the ceremony at an adult event. I like to keep the program youth focused. About the only thing I would want to do related to adults is to hand out square knots with a quick round of applause at the end of an awards ceremony.

I don't know how we looked in 2019. We joined in October 2020. After crossover and moving season (Army area), we had 3 active Cubs and 4 semi- to inactive Cubs by August. We now have 20 currently registered and I'm waiting on applications for 2 more. Our Webelos den has 7, Bear has 1 inactive and probably won't recharter, Wolf has 7 with 2 on the way, Tiger has 3, and Lion has 2. One of the kids was a transfer from another pack - he moved across town. The rest came from FB bombardment, 1 elementary school visit, recruiting/badgering my wife's friend, and the rest - no idea.

We talk a lot about youth protection from the adult side and how it isn't as good as it could be, but I think on the youth side, it's pretty good. I've watched the Lion and Tiger version so far, and the videos do a good job of sensitizing kids to what is bad. Just like the rest of Scouting, it's going to take parental involvement in reinforcing the idea that it is ok to tell on an adult for doing something bad or that makes a kid uncomfortable. We review the difference between secrets and surprises, and do our best to use the terms appropriately. Between this and the fact that my kids are

We have a Den Leader who is chartered as a committee member due to our size. Would he be eligible for the DL knot, or will he need to be on the charter in that position?

When I was a kid in England, we had a version of the Klondike derby with a pioneer theme. Each patrol in the district - probably 10 troops total - made a covered wagon of sorts. Our troop had the best by far - actual wooden boxes with bows and tarps. The wooden wheels weren't the best, but oh well. We were given a packing list and when we showed up, there was a list of events. Each event had one competitor from the patrol and we moved as a troop. I remember that they were timed events - like tying a series of knots, starting a fire, chopping wood, making a tent stake, etc. It was a roun

This is essentially what we do. Everyone has an equal share to pay in the running of the pack - charter fees, adult fees, B&G facility fees. Everyone also gets charged for the requirements for rank, and a pack t-shirt. Your dues pay for all of that. Any electives are not included in the dues and are paid for out of pocket. Fundraising shares essentially go to your pocket for the year. Anything left at the end goes to the Pack pocket. For example, if a Scout sells enough to earn $300 in commission, then they can pay their share of the fees, their rank advancement requirements, t-shir

I agree it is for the pack, but everyone needs to contribute to the wellbeing of the pack. How is it fair for one Scout to work hard selling the product we ordered, while another does nothing? Our pack fund get used to buy items of use to the entire pack, not just individuals. For example, we need a new flag. We also have no pack cooking equipment or loaner tents. With the exception of 2 families, our entire pack is either active duty military, former military, or worked with the military for a long time. Our organizational culture is that Scouts pay their own way. Right now, we are reb

Schedules - the location was exclusive to us. If a parent's schedule doesn't allow them to spend some time with their kid between 0600 and 2000 M,W,Th, F, S, or S, I don't know what else I can do. No one I know works 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. Tues night is our meeting, but they could sell on Tuesday day. Further, all someone had to do was ask for popcorn to sell and it would be delivered - we didn't require anyone to come all the way out to our house to get popcorn, the table, or banner. I live the furthest out from our selling location, so that's not a valid excuse. There were no f

You don't have to sell popcorn. You just don't get the benefits from the work of others either. The first part of a Scout's commission goes toward fees and dues. Anything left can be used toward camp, activities, uniforms, books, camping gear, etc - stuff needed for Scouting. At the end of the year, the balance reverts to the Pack fund. We made it quite clear prior to popcorn sales that this is how it would be. Parents were given ample opportunity to sign up for shifts - only 19% were claimed. We aren't trying to establish a huge pack fund. We ordered enough popcorn to give everyone en