Armymutt

From the Army perspective, you have to be performing your normal duties at the camp. That knocks out most of the people, other than medical types. I'm a veterinarian, so I could possibly use the food safety angle. The reality is that I'll be retired before my oldest is a Tenderfoot, so won't really matter at that point.

That's what I figured. It's funny that they say 500 hours and or 3 years, then cite a suicide hotline worker or Scout leader. I think a Scout leader would rack up more hours quickly vs a hotline operator.

We live in a military community and I have a Soldier for a DL and I want to make sure he is recognized both within Scouting and at work. When calculating hours toward the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, how do you count camping trips? He is volunteering the entire time, right? If it's a Cuboree, that's 38 hours easily.

Wow, where was this? We're in North Carolina and our Pack is chartered to a Catholic church. One of my concerns is that people will see that and not come to us. Never witnessed any overt anti-Catholicism, but that's not saying it doesn't exist. The husband of one of the ladies in the parish office was told to remove his high school jacket at a local college because it was from a Catholic school. That was years ago though.

We held an Open House with the PWD track and some cars, stomp rockets, and other activities set up. CC had a table with information for parents. I made a flyer in Power Point and blasted it on every local social media site I could find, starting 6 weeks out. We got a last minute spot at a local school that was having an open house the week before. Spent the hours before it getting flyers printed at council and then meeting our DE two towns away to get the flyers. A DL and myself, along with our 4 kids went to the school, found an empty table and set cute aggressive kids to talk to every person that walked into the school. Handed out 75 flyers. We had 6 kids come to the open house from all of that. Two came back last week, ready to join. We also picked up 4 kids due to military moves. Over all, our pack went from 9 kids to 14 in a week. We may lose 1 next week when I explain to his mom that either she is the Bear DL or he doesn't have one - only Bear we have. From the new parents, I have a Pack Secretary, an ACM, and a Tiger DL who might have to miss meeting due to Army work and Tiger ADL who doesn't want an official title, but is willing to be really involved. I'll take it. Now to start assigning other roles to other parents - like B&G planner and PWD Planner.

That was my experience circa '82. I was really confused by the changes when we returned almost 40 years later. Dens by grade rather than by geography? No more arrow points? What about the little plastic thing with beads hanging from your right pocket? Our pack does keep the same den number as the kids progress, but no one sews it on their shirt. They already have an identifying feature - all the same grade.

The hat is produced by BSA as a uniform part. So dropping it is unlikely. If BSA produced one Cub Scout hat for all ranks, like they have one Scouts BSA hat for all ranks, it wouldn't be a big deal. Look at all the imagery - a properly attired Cub Scout wears a hat.

We conducted a hastily planned recruiting event at a local elementary school last week. I talked to several parents and one of the recurring themes was cost. It got me thinking about our programs. Cub Scouts is more expensive than Scouts BSA when it comes to the basics. A fully uniformed Cub Scout has to buy a new hat, neckerchief, slide, and book every year. A Boy Scout can use the same 4 items for their entire career. Why do we have this? It's been 40 years, but I don't recall changing hats, neckerchiefs, or slides until Webelos. I know we tell parents that they really just need a shirt, but it creates a system where economic circumstances are more evident. Right now, I'm considering proposing a Pack neckerchief and possibly a slide. We could probably get custom hats made for less than the cost of 4 hats.

The problem is that "equity" is a loaded term. It is focused on equal outcomes, not equal resources. Therefore, someone is likely to get more than their equal share of whatever resource, which potentially means a reduction in the potential outcome of the person better able to utilize those resources. The current government policy on masks is a perfect example. Some people chose to get vaccinated while others didn't. The outcome is that everyone still has to wear a mask in certain settings.

Our dens do the Adventures together, so there's no real stragglers. In the 80s it was different than today.

There's a difference between "expert" and having the "skills and education" as required. I'm a veterinarian, but far from an expert. I'm still qualified to be a MBC for Veterinary Medicine, even if I haven't touched an animal in 2 years. For the 6 you listed, 3 are hobbies, 1 is a basic adult skill, one is a common profession, and the last would probably require a bit of extra study on the part of the counselor. I look at my paltry 22 MBs and 2 were taught by legally qualified people (Vet Science and Aviation), 2 were taught by folks in those fields (finger printing by a cop and firemanship by a fire fighter). The rest were taught by people who learned it the best they could with the resources of the time period.

Does anyone use the meeting plans posted here: https://www.scouting.org/programs/cub-scouts/pack-meeting-resources/pack-meeting-plans/ They all have a section for rank advancement. We do rank advancement at the end of the year. These seem like they are more like Scouts BSA where Scouts earn rank asynchronously.

That's the thing. There's so much light, it's perfect for meeting. We meet in the dead of winter when it's dark before we arrive. Why not enjoy the sunshine?

I just found out that our pack doesn't meet in the summer. I'm not sure why. Seems like a great way to lose members. I seem to remember Scouting being a year-round activity. We've overcome so much sluggishness to start building the pack, and then we're going to waste it?

We're a year-round Pack - at least we are now. We've had some scouts join us as late as two weeks ago. I'd like to give them every opportunity to earn their badge for their grade. How do we manage the transition? On Saturday, we award the completed rank badges and they start working on the next rank. Do we keep them with their cohort and they can work toward their current goal, or do we move them into the den working toward the same rank and move them back after they complete it or the next school year begins?

Anyone got one to share? Google is pulling up nothing but stuff from the time of individual advancement, beads, and mixed Dens.

That's cool. Probably a bit much for our 8-Cub pack, but probably a good one for older kids. Wonder if we could do the same thing with pine straw here in NC.

Tell us more. This probably beats popcorn

Just to follow up in case someone else gets in a jam. I had the kids play Ga Ga ball as a gathering activity. We then came together and I had 1 den lead the Pledge and the other lead the Scout Oath and Law. I then asked who enjoyed the Cuboree, favorite activities, and pumped them up for future camping trips. After that, I had them play sharks and minnows as a team-building game. We had a family join a few weeks ago, so I'm trying to help their Tiger and Bear get as many requirements knocked out as possible. After a couple of rounds, the kids were tired - possible ulterior motive from a parent standpoint - so we came back to the gathering spot. We discussed team work and how it was easier to catch the minnows when there were more sharks, and what other activities are made easier with teams. Finally, we awarded belt loops. The 2 new Scouts were supposed to be awarded their Bobcat, but their dad had to work and I knew he wanted to be there for it. I'm pretty sure he flew over us, because 5 minutes after he was supposed to take off, a couple of UH-60s flew over at the minimum allowed altitude, and fairly slow. Once we were done, I released them to go play until their parents were ready to leave.

They aren't part of my unit yet. That was a different unit down the road and around the corner. He can't join our unit, but he's buddy buddy with the Scouting mafia families in this district.

Cubmaster had an emergency pop up with his move and hasn't had time to plan. I'm the assistant. Need some idea for a Pack Meeting tomorrow night (Thursday). We have a very small pack - 2 Tigers, 2 Bears, and maybe 1 Webelos. One of my tasks is to have an annual plan by July, but for now, I need some ideas. We usually open with GaGa ball as a gathering activity. No time for dens to plan skits. We have some awards to give out, including 2 Bobcats. We can review our recent campout, and maybe discuss our next one, but beyond that, I have no ideas. I'm rusty on the Cub Scout thing - much more comfortable as a Scouts BSA leader.

That's the hard part - never took place to my knowledge because the women were creeped out and left the unit.

It apparently was reported to the district exec and the council exec. Nothing was done. The guy is pretty popular in the district. This literally is why we have YPT now and are looking at significant damage to the movement.

I got a bit more detail on the situation. The committee chair noticed that a lot of Scouts with single moms started dropping out. She contacted them and found out that they were having the same experience she was. The individual, who is married, was proposing a three-some with the consent of his wife on camping trips.

I'm guessing the non-supervised stick fights we had as kids are a non-go. Used to be fun. You find a stick and smack it against someone else. If yours breaks, you retire and find another. on second thought, technically, you aren't striking other participants. You are striking their stick. Maybe we were following the guide even in the 80s.