christineka

I would think you would need two adult leaders from the pack to attend the troop outing. Both would need to have OWLS and BALOO training as well.

Oh, and to make my planning a bit more complicated- it had been arranged for our boys to go to 11 year old scouts with the neighboring troop. I asked the bishop if that's what our webelos would do. (I think it's a bit crazy to send them off to another troop for one year and then come back, but the bishop's in charge.) He said, "yes", they will go to the other troop. (In the "D" wad.) That was before the latest information on combining cub scouts with a different pack. (In the "C" ward.) So, I asked, if the cub scouts go to the "C" ward, then shouldn't they then go on to 11 year old boy scouts in the "c" ward, too? Yes, if they go that way, then that's the troop they'll join. I talked to the scout master today and he is pushing for combining regular (12+) boy scouts with another ward as well because they don't have numbers either and are also suffering from lack of enthusiasm in leadership. (Scout Master is very enthusiastic and was put in to fix the mess.) The boys are doing their outdoor activity with our ward's boy scouts this week and I have arranged for them to visit ward "D"'s ll year old scouts next month. If we end up combining with ward "C", we'll do the third meeting and scoutmaster's conference over there. It's crazy! I hope it all gets sorted out soon. The first boy graduates to boy scouts in January.

I don't know if you all love the juicy saga of my cub pack, but thought I'd update you. We had a meeting tonight. (Was supposed to be last week, but committee member emailed us the day of- on a Sunday, when many of us aren't online. Several of us told her we need at least a day's notice, so she did this time.)

The Primary president came to our meeting. (This is lds scouts.) I like it when she comes. She's a sensible person. I got permission to spend money on craftsman. Woohoo! We've made tangrams and a frame. We need to do one more wood project and three not-wood projects. (We have them planned.)

Unfortunately, there uncertainty about the future of the pack. We were going to combine with another, then told we weren't and to just recruit (who would we recruit?). The committee member was still saying that- and she likes it best this way anyway because her son gets personal attention. (He's the boy in two packs.) I came home to find from my husband, who is "in the know" that we are going to combine with another pack. It will happen because the stake president has said that he wants it to happen. (I might have communicated with him and he apparently cares.) The only thing up in the air is that we aren't sure with which pack we will combine. Another ward is deliberating right now.

The bad news is that even though we have only 2 wolves and 2 bears, they absolutely refuse to combine together (Even just have their meetings at the same place, but separate just so they have 2 deep leadership.) and the wolf leader isn't doing anything. She has no plans. Probably won't do anything at all. We have two brand new wolves. I've been forbidden to run the wolf meeting. (Because the cub master doesn't want me to go looney.) Hopefully we'll get someone else to come do wolves or combine before these new boys are lost from the program.

By book work stuff also mean all the crafts. I don't have as big an issue with Webelos as they are getting older and can do more on their own. Although Citizenship was pretty dry, but hey we have lots more of that in BS. And yes, if you don't do it in a den meeting it probably didn't get done at home. Wolf, #12, 7, the bike safety quiz, food pyramid, job charting, read books about important people. All important stuff and certainly a building block for the schoolwork MBs. But where is the fun and adventure ? Bear 5,8, emergency phone numbers AGAIN (are there really communities without 911 ? ) 11 be ready AGAIN, 13 spending, chart chart chart, bike safety AGAIN, 17 they do this at school, 18 jot it down, school, 19 -24 ok now this fun. Go to a library ? Seriously. They do that every week at school. Part of my point is this is not the stuff we sold them on. We sold them on PWD, camping and games not charting, books and scissors and glue. Planning for and gathering all these crafting supplies is also a pain. At least in BS advancement is an option, with Cubs it is the program. PWD, yeah those pre made kits and CNC axels are something else. Down and Derby was a great movie.

I'm not real good with the book work stuff. I try to get it done at scouts because boys either don't do it at home, or don't do it thoroughly. (Yeah, kinda the "wink wink". I just had a boy bring me his book, which his mom signed off everything he supposedly did. We didn't have any den campouts, so I don't know how he could have possibly helped cook one of our den's meals. He had also supposedly given a 3 minute talk to the den. That makes me wonder if he really did talk to a librarian about the dewey decimal system.) I like to give the boys something to do with their hands, while we talk about "boring stuff". Talk while carving soap, modeling with clay, or making frames out of craft sticks. We also use playing charades as a time to have themed scenerarios and talk between turns.

We don't award the BL again. They redo the requirements as Webelos. I try to see if we can get the pin.

I am sure you have see this paragraph from the GTSS posted before "A Webelos Scout may participate in overnight den camping when supervised by an adult. In most cases, the Webelos Scout will be under the supervision of his parent or guardian. It is essential that each Webelos Scout be under the supervision of a parent-approved adult. Joint Webelos den/troop campouts including the parents of the Webelos Scouts are encouraged to strengthen ties between the pack and troop. Den leaders, pack leaders, and parents are expected to accompany the boys on approved trips." But as others have said, orienteering is fun, I wouldn't miss it. I thought you were looking forward to Boy Scouts.

The boy scouts meet every other week or two times a month or something like that. I think. I should look into this! I don't know what boy scouts do. When I was a kid, I went to boy scouts with my dad sometimes. I remember them playing a lot of dodge ball and not much else.

Okay, so does this sound crazy to anyone else? The boys graduate to boy scouts and go to another troop for 1 year (to the other ward), then when they are 12 they transfer back to our ward's boy scouts. Should I urge for a change? It just sounds weird to send my son to another troop (even if it is just the 11 year old patrol) for only a year. He'd have a different scoutmaster.

With that in mind, should I then be contacting, whoever does 11 year old scouts in the other ward for the boys to visit?

We don't award the BL again. They redo the requirements as Webelos. I try to see if we can get the pin.

christineka, if the CERT course is offered at another time, I strongly recommend you attend so that you can see the boy scouts in action and what the goal of the Webelos program is.

You will have a chance to talk to the adult leaders of the troop and learn more about what awaits your Webelos on the other side of the bridge.

I am sure you have see this paragraph from the GTSS posted before "A Webelos Scout may participate in overnight den camping when supervised by an adult. In most cases, the Webelos Scout will be under the supervision of his parent or guardian. It is essential that each Webelos Scout be under the supervision of a parent-approved adult. Joint Webelos den/troop campouts including the parents of the Webelos Scouts are encouraged to strengthen ties between the pack and troop. Den leaders, pack leaders, and parents are expected to accompany the boys on approved trips." But as others have said, orienteering is fun, I wouldn't miss it. I thought you were looking forward to Boy Scouts.

I've arranged for my webelos den to join with the boy scout troop next week for an outdoor activity. (Orienteering) Do I have to go?

What is this card you speak of? Does it have to be purchased? Our boys are awarded belt loops and.or pins, but no card. As for the answer to the question, I don't see the need to have duplicate belt loops. The boy can re-earn the belt loop as a webelos, but doesn't need to be given another.

My boys do OA ceremonies for AOL.

Some packs done give anything money wise, but they usually invite the boys to eat with them, esp since the ceremonies are often along with the Blue and Gold banquet. or to have cake and ice cream with the pack after the crossover.

Some packs realize that there is some cost involved, aside from regalia and drums, but also firewood, fire starting supplies, maybe oil for the smudge pots, or gas for the vehicle. Our OA ceremonies boys usually go for ice cream after the ceremonies esp if no food is offered to them. So $20 would be a small token amount to consider but talk to the ceremonies team adviser to see what is recommended or if they have an expense or if there is something you can provide (like firewood if they do a ceremonial fire) that would cut down on cost for them.

 

 

Definitely call and get your date on the calendar and be alittle flexible if something else is already in your spot. Our team likes to avoid monday nights so they don't miss their own troop meetings. and of course any ordeal weekends, or camporee weekends, and stuff like that the OA is often busy those weekends so you may need to choose something else.

 

 

You should provide your own arrows. Notify the scoutmaster of troops your body are crossing into to be there to accept them when they cross over the bridge. be sure to talk to the OA that they will do an arrow of light ceremony for all who receive aol, but a few might not get it done and still want/need to bridge over to boy scouts. as well as the OA will usually do a bridging ceremony (an short add on to the aol ceremony usually) and you need to be sure you know what will happen with any boy who doesn't want to cross to boy scouts. we had an incident where a boy wanted to cross the bridge but was still deciding between 2 different troops, and that became a bit of a mess. the ideal is that they should have just had both scoutmasters welcome him to the other side of the bridge and invite him to come visit them to make up his final decision asap. with LDS I'd imagine your boys mostly will continue in boy scouting, and the unit may sort of already be decided for him, so that might not be any issue to worry about.

 

 

Oh also talk to the ceremony team about if they have any rules about LDS units that you should know about. I mean that for a time our team was getting called out every month or so to do a crossover for another boy, since it's all by birthdate. They felt 1. it was a lot of trips to the same place, 2. seeing the ceremony so very often, the boys in the pack were getting kind of bored with the whole ceremony thing. so they decided to limit each unit to one ceremony a year, maybe 2. what that would mean is you'd wait, they'd get the fancy ceremony a few boys together at the same time.

I have read that you can ask the Order of the Arrow to come do an Arrow of light ceremony. Is that correct? Do they typically charge for the service? How far in advance should we ask about this? We're planning for a December ceremony. I've been to two ceremony's put on by the pack and they are really, really lame, but maybe that's the way they are supposed to be?

Someone is selling a bunch of merit badge books and I want to know if it's a good deal. Do you normally have to purchase the merit badge book for each badge? Or can they be lent out and borrowed around the troop? Is there a list somewhere, stating the year of the last update to the merit badge? (I don't want to purchase out of date books.)

Hate to say it, but in my neck of the woods, LDS units do not recruit as their youth are automatically signed up to the unit.

I was advised to have the boys do aquanaut with their families on their own time, so as not have to deal with the cub scout safety precautions. My son didn't do the boat part because we just went to the local indoor swimming pool.

A Row boat is different from a canoe. Row boats are less tippy. The aquanaut badge specifically says to use a rowboat for the achievement. I don't know how that could be interpreted as "canoe".

I still don't understand why your group can't be combined with a larger pack drawing from the same neighborhood.

I still don't understand why your group can't be combined with a larger pack drawing from the same neighborhood.

The wards were split and boundaries drawn during a housing boom. Our ward was created with the expectation that all the land slated for houses was going to actually have houses. One fourth of our ward is a field. 70% of the LDS people within our boundaries are not active members. (Only one of those families has an 8-10 year old boy.)

Packs of any CO can be of any size. Yes, your starting small. Great. It's for the Youth, so go!

 

As to recruiting...Ask each Scout to name 7 friends from Church that they would like to have them join the Pack with them. Ask them who they think for Bears & Wolves would be interested in joining. Then, pick up the phone and dial the parents. Invite them to a Pack Outing that is filled with fun and games. You can get some of the 11 year old Scouts since they are still in the Primary and maybe even some older boys...Eagles to help play games and teach them things.

 

While that is happening, get the parents together and talk to them about Cubscouts and how it relates to their Church. You could get an Elder or the Young Men's President to help deliver the message. https://www.lds.org/callings/primary/leader-resources/scouting-in-primary?lang=eng

 

Main thing is your going to get people who are in your Ward. If multiple Wards are in the church you go to, then you could combine to make one Pack.

The only boys we have left to recruit are not LDS and we only know of 3 of them. One is a cub scout in our pack, one boy used to come, but doesn't want to anymore (his brother earned arrow of light, then quit), and a third, whose family is not interested.

Since the whole joining up with another pack didn't pan out, we were advised (by a higher up lds cub scout person) to recruit boys to ours. We currently have almost 2 wolves (1 boy joins in a couple weeks), 2 bears, and 5 webelos, except one hasn't been to a meeting since May. We have always had non LDS boys in our pack and they aren't scared off by prayers. They've even offered to say prayers. LDS units are divided up by geographical region. Ours consists of 3 streets, 3 blocks. We know of one boy in our area, who is cub age, but the family has made it very clear that they are not interested. So, what do we do now to recruit? Should we make flyers and pass them out at every home that we don't already know has no cub scout aged kid? Is there any way to recruit?

I think I'll also apply for traffic safety. As a certified child passenger safety technician, I am quite the expert on vehicle safety.

The guy responded. I just have to turn in my application and then I can be a counselor. There will be a training meeting at the end of the month. Would merit badge counselor training be included in this?