CCbytrickery

I would have done ice cream at the campout, not at the meeting. Reward at the meeting for those who did it, and encourage those who didn't to go finish up so they can be rewarded.

It's...unfair?...to those whose parents weren't able to take them or let them go for whatever reason.

Talking about the campout, sure. Sharing photos or handing out belt loops, sure. There's a big difference between those and ice cream....I wouldn't want my son to feel left out like that, because mom or dad couldn't get off work to take him on the campout.

That's an odd policy.

Our pack goes camping:

In early October, we have our newbie camping. We work on camping skills, Bobcat clinics, etc.

We have Cubaree in early November.

We have a January campout, usually up in Georgia at some cabins.

We have a March campout. This year, we were at the local Military base (they have a campground there) and the boys got a kick out of hearing the big guns go off all day Saturday.

We also have a May thing. This year, it's an overnight at zoo (in another city). In years past, we have camped at a science center, camped at Cape Canaveral, on an old military ship (USS Yorktown, I think), stayed at Seaworld, etc.

Our Web 2's--they camp at least once a month as a den, and at least once a month with the Troop. Twice this year, they were gone every weekend!

Let's see--over the last two years, we've had:

Fake Snakes hidden in the women's cabin

Fake cockroaches and spiders hidden under sandwiches, in napkins, etc at mealtime.

The Web 2's hid a fake spider in the shower head at that campout, and loosened it so barely hanging on. The other Web DL and the ADLs hid in the other stalls, and acted like they were using them when the DL went to go shower. They said he screamed like a little girl......

One mom's stuff (including bed, bags, etc) was taken out of her room in the cabin and set up on the porch.

Same mom had her stuff toilet papered. (It was her 40th birthday, and several groups were pranking her independently.)

Same mom was handed 40 pennies at random times from random people. (I provided the pennies)...by the end of one hike, she was having to hold her pants up because there were so many pennies in her pockets!

That mom toilet papered my clothes (reused her t.p--she even separated and wrapped my socks separately)

My car was toilet papered (with the reused tp)

The Cubmaster feel victim to two pranks this year. First, we strung socks up on rope w/clothespins and strung them in his tent. We did use clean ones only inside, and hung the stinky ones on the door outside. We hung a sign on the door that said "Cub Scouts Don't Wear No Socks".

The second--well, backstory first: last year my daughter was in art class and made this hideous paper mache puppet. It was a giant bird's head (about the size of a basketball), painted green--no eyelids and huge eyes, with a tiny cloth body. It was hideous. It gave me and my husband nightmares--it had become a thing in our house to hide it in rooms and see who it would freak out first. One night, my daughter hung it up on the ceiling fan, and I wasn't able to sleep--it took me 3 days to find the thing.

So, guess what ended up in the CM's sleeping bag, while he was napping?

It now hangs on his dresser at home, and he keeps swearing he's going to bring it and get the ACM with it, but he hasn't yet. The CMs wife--she hates me now.

The CM's birthday was a few weeks ago, and this weekend, his car (the one he isn't taking camping) is being plastic wrapped.

We don't prank the boys, but I figure adults are fair game, and everything has to be easily fixable.

(This message has been edited by CCbyTrickery)

Nothing, because the CM refuses to let anyone else do anything, and disregards the committee's decisions.

I have sent information on the scout campout at the baseball staduim (AAA team, sleep at the stadium after the game), the arena football team game in July (that is buy an adult ticket, get a kid ticket free), and in August, we do our welcome back dinner. These are the items we've agreed upon--as a committee--and the CM insists he will make all the arrangements.

We have one week before the baseball campout is to be registered for--and nothing has gone out to the pack. He hasn't even contacted the guy at with the baseball team to reserve a spot for us (I can't do it, because neither he nor the treasurer would meet with me at the bank, to put me on the account). He has to be involved in everything--can't let ayone run anything without his approval--and won't allow me to help him. (I'm a stay at home mom right now, and could be helping him with soo much, but no--he has to control every little freaking thing.)

Unfortunately, I can't get him to see the light through the trees, and so I've requested they find a new CC by the end of the month. I can't battle with him (or the treasurer, who visits the bank when she feels like it--one parent has outstanding checks from December--or his buddy den leader, who can say what he does and doesn't want to do, and the whole committee must follow his lead or be igored by the CM).

Maybe when DS transfers to a troop, I'll become involved again. Until then, I'll just be DH/DS's den mom, and that's it. I'll help DH have a great year with the boys, and I'm sorry that the dens won't, but I can't fix things--the DE and Charter are in the CMs back pocket, and won't listen to anyone but him.

(Sorry for hijacking. I'm a bit frustrated, can you tell?)

While I am not an atheist, I do not attend any church. Our pack is chartered through a Methodist church. Up until joining the pack, neither my husband nor myself attended church, nor did our children. (I was RC, husband Southern Baptist--yeah, what a combination we are!)

After joining, my son decided that he wanted to try church. My husband and son have started attending the church where the pack is based, and both are happy in their decision. I am struggling, myself, about attending, due to a series of negative events that caused me to leave the RC church many years ago.

Anyways, in our pack, we have quite the mixture of religions--less than 20% of our boys are Methodists. But everyone is respectful to one another.

On our last camp out, I sat and talked with a dad (whom I've rarely had interaction with) about the Jewish faith--learned a lot from him. For my husband's Wolf den, he gave the parents the responsiblity of handling the Faith achievement--we explained to the parents that because Faith is a very personal thing, it's best that the boys ideas of faith and religion come from home, and not from us.

I think you can be involved in scouting without believing in one specific religion. I would rather have a dozen boys who show qualities like honesty and respect yet don't believe in one religion, over one boy who believes in God but doesn't know why or understand how to be a good person.

Shortridge:

So, the song God Bless My Underwear is out also, then?

Talking about alcohol and drugs? But one of the belt loops has that as a requirement.

Singing because you wore a hat into a meal, or because you forgot a tent pole? That can be considered hazing, right?

So the Cake toss thing can be considered wasting food. Ok.

But I think the heart of the problem is that Council (and therefor, Districts), in their ever constant changing PC-ness, keeps changing the rules and they come in conflict with the actions and other portions of BSA guidelines themselves.

The gun issue, for example, is one of those that makes me go "Hmmm?", because at the Cub day camps I've volunteered at, they allowed a water gun fight on the last day (a district run event).

So, what is one to do? I think make the best interpretation that one can, and deal with the consequences if any arise.

What if the rules were that the boy had to come up with the idea of his cake and make it with minimal help from the parent? Is that acceptable?

What if it is optional--that the boy can choose to not smush the cake, that they can take it home or that they can share it with their fellow cubs? Is that acceptable?

What if it raised items for the local food pantry? i.e. if you wanted to throw the cake, you had to bring in a nonperishable food item. Is that acceptable?

There is no hazing--no one is doing anything to any cub scout. The den leaders can choose to not participate. No one is required to do anything, and there is nothing permanent (ok, there might be a little food dye stain for a few days, depending on much is used in the frosting).

The question that was raised was is there something in the guidelines that prohibits such an event. SO, is there anything in the guidelines that say YOU CANNOT HAVE AN EVENT WHERE CAKES ARE THROWN AT ADULTS THAT VOLUNTEER TO HAVE THE CAKES THROWN AT THEM?

I love getting new ideas from parents! sometimes they see things that we can't (because we are too close to the situation).

Now, if it's a truly bad idea (against regulations, usually), I'll let the person know we'll discuss in committee--which we do, and then laugh it off.

Our campouts are more like yours--kid friendly food (spaghetti, chicken fajitas, etc), and we give them free time to just be boys. We added in a pre-Cubaree campout, where our Webelos work with our incoming scouts on their Bobcats (and we give the new parents a small taste of camping)..our Cubaree this year had over 1600 attendees, and it is a bit crazy--so having a laid back campout made things run smoother for the new parents at Cubaree.

We are now moving into the line of "everyone has a job in the pack" mode...doesn't matter if they teach the Tigers to carry the flag correctly, run the PWD raffle or make the Web 2's arrows for the AoL ceremony. Everyone gets a job.

All these suggestions came from parents, and we listened, took what we needed from them, and implemented them.

As CC, it is my job to make sure everyone has the correct--and needed--information. When I started last year, I had no idea what we were doing, what was needed, who was who...and I was completly overwhelmed. So, I make sure I'm able to answer questions via phone, email or face-to-face; that I have the paperwork they need or know who is who.

As CC, it is my job to try to get parents involved. I do the usual "chain emails" so that everyone has an idea of what is coming, and then if no one bites, I go to the face-to-face "your scout needs you to be involved with this" speech. I very rarely get a no with that tactic. Next year, I'm moving us into the "every one gets a job" group...I don't care if you work with the den on a skit, teach the pack sign language or donate a new PWD track..everyone has to do something. (this may take me a year or two, but I have 3 left, so by the time I leave, it should be in full play...and will make things easier for the incoming CC).

All I can say is that you need to sit down with parents--one or two at a time-- and tell them that if they don't come to help, you may have to cancel the baseball camping--and their scout is really looking forward to it, so can they please not disappoint their scout?

We have specific roles for each den in our pack. One does set up, one does flags, one handles (and provides) snack, and the last cleans up. If you aren't cleaning up, you are either leaving with your adult, or you are standing in one specific area, waiting for your adult to finish what they are doing.

the DLs boys are usually there 30-45 minutes after the meeting, while we're cleaning up/doing a quick recap or whatever needs to be handled then. They can play around, but it's only a few of them (some go home with their other parent while one stays to get things done).

You need to sit down with your CC and lay out the problem.

Then you both need to sit down with the parents and the Scout, and explain the way of the world to them. If they don't like it, or give you grief, then they can move to another pack. We had 2 boys in our pack (1 Webs1, and 1 Tiger) who couldn't behave if their lives depended on it, and the parents were bad bad bad. They changed packs when the dad didn't get a DL position (and I told them why he wasn't getting the position--if he couldn't control his 2 scouts, how can he control 14?)

My husband is the wolf DL for our pack, and he has had several of "those boys". He tells all his parents at the beginning of the year that he expects a certain level of behavior and respect from his boys, and if they choose to not rise to that level, then the den is choosing to not do the "fun things". He has sat boys down for a small amount of time, until they were able to control themselves and be able to rejoin the den in their activity (most of the time, the parents just sit there and ignore the behavior, so he takes control...we do have some parents that handle their boys, and that's fine too--as long as everyone is consistent, life becomes easier!)

He had a problem with one boy, regarding bullying tendancies and disrespect, and he sat the boy down with his mom and told him that behavior wasn't going to fly--change it or be gone. Boy has improved, not quite there yet, but is trying his best. He's at a point where he has to sit down with a parent and the CM, not about the scout, but about the sibling--who is a pita 2 year old and the mom doesn't try to control him at all. But disrepecting? yelling? That doesn't fly in this den at all. Or the pack for that matter. Our CM has been seen taking scouts down a peg or two for being rude to parents.

Oh, and our campouts? we make a meal and you can eat part or all of it...but we don't cater to picky eaters. My son isn't a big chili fan, so he ate just plain spaghetti the night we made cinninati chili..and when we have eggs and sausage for breakfast, he skips the sausage. Only time we allow different food is if it is medically required or religious exemption. And those parents have to come up with a way to cook it, because they can't bring their own equipment or use ours (due to cross contamination).

We are doing our summer calendar this weekend.

In June, we will start planning next year. We'll map out pack meeting days and committee meeting days; if we have the school schedules for next year (for 3 different districts), we'll use those to plan. We also make sure we have our open positions filled (the only one we usually get a late start with is the Tiger DL, and this year, we are trying to hold a "come see what scouting is about" event during June, to introduce scouting to incoming 1st graders.

In July, we'll finalize the calendar (but we do stay flexible, because councils dates always come up after ours--and usually mean a quick date change for us).

We do. At our pack meetings, we try to have some special event and theme. One month was on emergency prepardness/safety; at another, we had the local zoo come in with some exotic animals.

Usually our themes are:

August is our "welcome back pack" dinner.

Sept starts off popcorn

Oct is for Cubaree

Nov is for ?

Dec, we have Santa visit

Jan is ?

Feb is PWD

March is crossover/camp cards

April is ?

May is Cake Bake

Then we try to have our pack meetings June/July.

We do something (last year, we only managed one meeting, at a minor league baseball game...bad planning on our part). This year, we are doing baseball again, and then either ice or roller skating or bowling for the other.

Firefox, on a PC, no Java enabled, slowed to a snail's pace, and only half the boards are loading. This is what it was like on IE--I switched to FF so I could get on here. Now it's not working (and I am not getting Chrome--we had it and it crashed the computer.)

This story doesn't have to do with camping, or even Boy Scouts for that matter (since the boys involved are Cubs) but I think that it lends itself to my thought process.

We have a young Wolf in my husband's den, who is on medication for ADD. Gets very--rambuctious--if his meds wear off or if he forgets to take them. He likes to bully the other scouts--and his little sister gets bullied as well. Dad and mom are divorced, split time (each has the kids 3 or 4 days a week), but dad is pretty useless--no discipline ever, and mom is busy partying it up.

My husband finally had enough of the boy's behavior, and sat him down during a campout (after being rude and disrespectful to his mother and DH and some bullying behavior to the other Wolf scouts) and told him that his behavior was going to change. There was no excuse for his bullying his sister or other kids, and certainly no excuse for his rudeness to mom. The boy gave the "but I have a problem" whine--and DH said yeah--your problem is you are a bully and rude. Flat out told the kid that either he stopped the bullying and the attitude with mom, or that during meetings, he would sit and watch (not participate) until such time he could show a positive scout attitude. He also let me know he knew that the scout could--and would--do better, and all left the meeting feeling like something was accomplished.

So far, 2 months later, the boy is improving---not there yet, but he's trying. His sister takes great delight in telling DH (she comes to most meetings) when the scout is misbehaving at home--but that he's being "much nicer" to her and "sharing more" (this week's report). DH is constantly watching him, and as soon as he shows the bullying behavior, he's pulled aside and reminded about playing fair. It's happening less and less during meetings, and I think that's awesome.

I think that somewhere along the way, someone in that other troop missed seeing what was really going on--and 17 is now past the point of simple intervention. Those adults need to be "called on the carpet" for not noticing. There are adult leaders for a reason--kids make stupid choices all the time, and need to be guided in the right direction. Kids need to have a safe person to talk to--to report these kinds of incidents to, and it sounds like they might have been missing that for awhile.

Would I send my scout off to camp without 17? Absolutely. I would have a very long talk with my son, before he goes, about the necessity to report any bullying behavior immediately, and that if the adults involved don't take it seriously, to call home--or the police if it is extreme. But I would first have another chat with the troop leaders--and tell them that they had best be on top of this boy, because the first sign of bullying, I'd haul my butt out there with the sheriff on my heels.

Would I send my scout off to camp with 17, when he returns? Possibly. I might force a meeting with 17's parents, before it happens.

Camp pranks are ok. At our last campout, there was a bed w/belongings place on the porch of the cabin (adult mom), tp'd anothers bunk; that tp ended up wrapping up my clothing in my bag; another mom got pine cones in her sleeping bag--and the very realistic looking fake cockroaches that ended up under some leaders plates during meals--all in good fun. Taping others, and tying them to the bed--not pranks.

Our theme changes yearly. Last year was "litter to glitter"--centerpieces the boys made from recycled materials, kid friendly food (chicken nuggets, mozzarella sticks), etc.

This year, we have a birthday party theme--balloons, streamers, a balloon making guy, games like pin the tail, fishing for goodies, things like that. After dinner, we are holding the rank ceremony (Bobcat, Tiger, Wolf and Bear all move up in rank, and the Webes get the AoL--Crossover will be in March at our campout). Dinner is BBQ and cake.

Our cake bake is done in May--the boys bake the cakes and either take them home, share them for snack, or pay a canned good and smash the cake on the den leader or cubmaster! Guess which one is most popular, lol!

Edited to add: We do our FoS at the March pack meeting.(This message has been edited by CCbytrickery)

Our AC (new this year) has finally set down a policy with the leaders: everything gets entered into Packmaster by xx date (usually the week before our pack meeting). Once that date hits, they cannot enter anything else until after the pack meeting, and the ONLY things that get handed out are the items put in before the xx date.

Also, DLs have to email her the day of the report (which she does around 9pm, so they have plenty of time to enter in if they fail to do so earlier) by 9am, saying they did their job entering the information. IF not, she sends them an email. They have until 5pm to respond, either by text, email or phone, to let her know what's going on. At 5pm, if she hasn't had a response, a 2nd email goes out, to the CM and the DL both. They have until 8pm to get the info in. Otherwise, the boys don't get their awards that month, and any complaints or questions are referred back to the offending DL.

Our AC does not talk to any of our parents (except in the Tiger den, where she is a temporary ADL)--but she usually asks them to see me or the DL before coming to her anyways.

We do have a small stock of things (specifically items boys have qualified for but never returned to receive for whatever reason). And she does do one thing I really like--every month, starting over the summer, she starts gathering advancement patches. Our shop monitors the belt loops and pins pretty well, but they go "meh" over patches. She'll get Bobcats in July, Tiger in August, etc. That way, she only needs to get a few (if any) due to new boys later when other packs are scrambling. She did the same with our PWD stuff, picked it up as soon as it hit the shelves.

They are big for the size. I just use the button thingy on the inside waistband.

Word of warning: WASH THE LEG PARTS EVERYTIME YOU WASH THE SHORT PART! Otherwise you will end up with a faded blue pair of shorts with the dark bright blue legs!

My son loves his though. I get him 2 pair whenever the legs get too short w/o a hem (skinny little thing that he is, but he has long legs), and he wears them to school and everywhere. He would rather wear them than his jeans, because he can make them shorts in the afternoon (when mean old mom makes him wear pants because it's 37 out in the morning, but 65 when he comes home from school).

Our RT CS commish is one of our pack's former Webelos leaders, so I have an inside track on things (mwahahaha). The assistant commish is also from our troop, the assistant leader from our 2nd Webes den.

They are both very organized, very communicative, very over the top. In a good way.

Communication is very important--we can only give information out to our DLs and parents if we have it ourselves. She themes each month around a specific topic (like Seattle does); this past meeting was about Blue & Gold, with different themes and ideas.

She brings in examples of things that they have done. Good speakers (loved the old Eagle Scout who told us how to get people working in the pack!); lots of handouts available (crafting stuff, songs, ideas).

They also make it fun for us. Well, I don't like the whole singing bit, but I'm not a singer but I've learned from it! Drawings for items they get from the district, etc.

Our Wolf den does snack, since we meet from 7-8 pm and the snack serves as their dessert for the night. (I'm married to the DL, and we have a Wolf scout.) We have 15 active boys and 6 more registered but not active in this den alone. We do this at the end of the meeting, to calm them down and give the DL a chance to speak to the parents and scouts.

We charge $1 a meeting, which covers the snack and part of the expense for other items (crafts or things we need for them); we don't buy everything--for example, the scouts needed to either purchase or give us the money to purchase a wooden craft project from the Scout shop (BTW--No instructions, didn't fit together right--very disappointing).

I do the shopping, and buy packaged, single serve snacks and bring a jug of kool-aid or lemonade (they bring their own cups or they can drink from the water fountain--I'm trying to do be enviromentally friendly--if I could figure out a way for the parents to not freak out over big packages of snacks, I'd go that route as well.)

Last year, we relied on the parents to bring the snacks, and it was a disaster. Bob wouldn't come (on his snack night) or Timmy would show up and forget it was his...and one of the other parents would step up and run to the store (for the 3rd time in a row). Same with craft supplies. Some parents would step up and bring everything, and others wouldn't even save their tp rolls for the recycling theme of the B&G banquet. /shakes head

We also do snacks at teh pack meetings, but those run 7-8:30, so again, it serves as a dessert. Those rotate between the dens.

We were under a tornado warning and severe thunderstorm warning this weekend. We had just finished with our campfire program Saturday night at camp, and were sending boys off to bed, when it hit. We were sleeping in cabins (but very rugged cabins) and had everyone in the bathhouses, tucked into the shower stalls.

You can fit 14 boys and 4 adults into 3 shower stalls, btw.

Only a few boys really panicked and only 1 mom and 1 grandma freaked out. It ended quickly, and safely, with only a good amount of rain and wind hitting us.

Last year, at our B&G, they had a "kid friendly" menu. I'm all for it, but frozen chicken nuggets and corn dog nuggets (barely warmed) and frozen mozzarella sticks (not warm at all) just isn't cutting it. The salad would have been fine, had it not been just iceberg lettuce--not a carrot or celery or even a romaine leaf in site.

This year, my DH (WDL) is in charge, and he has a plan. Yes, it will be kid friendly, but kid friendly doesn't have to mean frozen nuggets or fish sticks.

Why not compromise, and have that Boston butt, but also have grilled chicken or even hot dogs available? Why not BBQ potatoes and mac-n-cheese? If it's in the budget, then go for it!

Our campouts are well attended, partially because of the food. We have done spaghetti, and chili, scrambled eggs and sausages, salad or finger veggies always; next weekend we're making chicken fajitas (marinated chicken breasts, peppers, onions, all the fixin's), pancakes for breakfast, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato or chicken soups for lunch. Kid friendly, we don't mix the peppers or onions or chicken, so if someone doesn't like onions, they don't have to have them.

Our son isn't a super picky eater, but doesn't like chili or heat. He'll eat sushi (real stuff, not just California rolls), French onion soup, and Pho.

Our district roundtable has a general session, where both boy and cub adults get information from district, on things like PWD, popcorn sales, etc. They do raffles, get paperwork done, etc.

Then we break out, Cubs to one room, Boys to another. In our Cub sessions, we talk about Cub specific things. Also, our chair has a table she has designated as "the sharing table", where you can bring in things your pack has done or things you have found and used. She does handouts on various items, emails regularly, and is always available to answer questions. (She is our former CC, and her assistant chair is a former DL.)

We don't publicize what each pack is doing, specifically, but we do discuss things that we do--I've gotten a lot of great ideas from other packs this way.

Our pack just started a Scout closet and Scholarship program this year. Our rules are pretty simple: the family must apply (questions like why do you need this and are you willing to do fundraising/be on committees--nothing financial or requiring documentation). Then they must meet with their DL, the CM and at least one of other Scholarship committee members, who then make the decision.

We are willing to help with recharter fees, pack dues, uniform shirts (we give out neckers/slides/books to new boys), camp fees for the scout and one adult. In return, the scout must attend meetings (and participate) weekly, as well as participate in all fundraisers (right now, just popcorn and camp cards). An adult from the family must work on at least one subcommittee (B&G, Pinewood, a camping trip, whatever).

The scout closet is free, but we ask that if they can, to either donate an item they aren't using or to donate so we can buy more items. We're hoping to expand this into items for camping as well, like tents their family may have outgrown, but may be perfect for a single parent/child.

We will set up payment plans for pack dues, but they must follow through with them. If not, then we will require payment in full for any camping trips; if they do, we can work with them on those as well.