Colorado_Penguin

Just went through this with my son. Locking types were a bit tough on the small fingers. So, a non-locking seemed to be better.

I'll warn ya now, just make sure you have some butterfly bandages and first aid kit. Had to use ours last week, just days after working on completing the Whittlin Chip. Yep, he cut himself closing the blade.

However, taught him a lesson. Keep that finger along the side, just like a firearm. And not curled over so the blage will get ya.

I'm one of the first ones that went to a "Year Around" school here in the US. This was in the late 70's, and it was a new HS in California. We were on the 45-15 schedule, and I loved it. It was like you had several mini vacations all year long.

It does have its plus & minus.

A big plus for me was that I graduated from HS a year early. On those "off" periods, you were allowed to take classes. Most places wont let you do that now, since they need 4 years of standardized test on ya for $$$. But for me, I figured, why stay in HS a whole year when I only needed 2-3 months. Year round allowed me to move on quicker.

As a parent now, I still think year round has a place, but it should be "parent's choice". There are some kids that would benefit by not having the long break, and others, that need that break.

One benefit would be, allowing families to plan vacations during the year instead of the summer. If your family wants to plan a long holiday, unless it during the summer, the schools get upset since they need kids for testing (Don't even think of planning a trip when state standarization tests are planned.)

As pointed out, the minus is that kids in the same family may have different schedules. It does cost more for school districts. (However, the reason we went year round was that the school only had 2/3rds of the students in house at any one time. This allowed for more students in less school space. (A cost savings))

But the main concept that the president wants the US kids to stay in school longer is wrong. School is not daycare. Get rid of the social engineering classes, and get back to basics. Example, my son does not have to have the right math answer... it's... how did you come to that answer? Hello!! As a rocket scientist here, if I tell my employer, ya know Mars, Saturn, Mercury... Hey, I got ya to one of them, thats good enough. Oh, and I "feel good" about where we sent the probe. I'm out the door!!!

As a Den Leader, I have some stuff that is done in the Den, and other stuff that is done at home. Specifically, those items that are "Family" items or religious related.

I might have some of the boys share what "Family" stuff they have done so others can have ideas. Plus, the boys always love talking about themselves.

The main thing I have with my parents/scouts is that they need to look at the handbooks and not just set it aside until the next meeting. Most of the time, they realize that oh.... we do this, and this, and that, and oh this too. Before they realize it, they've done a bunch of stuff, they just didn't know it was stuff that could be taken credit for towards advancements. This is where the Den Leader comes in and does point this out as a friendly reminder.

I just received an email from our Council that come 2010, mandatory training is required before ANY youth contact.

As a fairly new Cub Scout Parent/Den Leader (This will be my third year), I was motivated enough to go get trained and actually had YPT done before me and my son was even signed up for Cub Scouts. However, some of our adult leaders just have YPT. My ADL is a good example. I have a den of 6 maybe 8 this year. I lost two because the kids are getting into other activities, and their families can't make the commitment. And my other families are just as busy.

We just did our recuiting this week, and it looks like we may have 4 TC & 2 new Wolves. So, can someone explain to me how that TC Den is going to meet if we have that mandatory training issue?

It's all great to require training and put a deadline when you are getting paid and it's your job. But I'm pretty sure most folks here are volunteers. It's hard enough to get parents to help with normal pack/den activities. And if you are lucky to get someone to want to be a Den Leader, or Committee person, you now say... oh... take some of your free time and get trained.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that getting trained is not a bad thing. But, BSA is putting another barrier up for some packs/troops and adding more commitment to the adult leadership folks might be enough that some drop and packs/troops drop. And the worst part is, the boys are losing out.

Just my .02

I've looked into the program. And I think it is pretty worthwhile. I'll have my son work on some of the items. Maybe even get my daughter to look into it.

As a Den Leader, I'll present the info, but leave it up to the cubs and thier families if they wish to work on it. We have enough stuff in our den to keep us busy.

I'm sure BSA would like to make sure it is very seperate, so, I can at least help out the boys that might be interested.

Although I didn't do everything in the Program Helps, it did provide me with ideas for the Den meeting. It was a great help for a new Den Leader.

I can see maybe dropping them out of the Scouting Mag, and have the Den Leader be provided them by the Pack Committee, but to drop them all is silly.

And as a new Bear Den Leader, I looked at what we need to do next year, and the way the Den is set up, I will not be doing very many Acheivements at our meetings. Since Bears are setup to decide on the things they want to work on? I've already tasked my son with, which ones do YOU want to do? I'm sure my other boys will likely want to do different items.

For the last two years (Tigers/Wolf), I've always tried to get some Achievment/Elective stuff done. Since the parents didn't always work with the boys, and I wanted to make sure they made rank. I can see if Fast Track is to push that idea, then at least Bear Achievements need to be set, unless BSA wants all the Achievements done?

It only applies to the "Classic" Khaki scout uniform. I was going to get a new cubscout shirt & switchback for my son, but noticed the code would not work. It did work if I was ordering Khaki Leader shirt/pants.

I guess the cub scout uniform is not "Classic" enough. LOL

Our Pack has that rule. It kinda works. There is still a small core of folks that do all the work. But, part of that is they don't let go and have been doing stuff for years. However,next year, since most are moving on to Boy Scout, we will see if other parents step up to the challenge.

The biggest motivator has been, if parents don't step up, certain things wont get done. Like Pine Wood Derby and other labor intensive activities that the boys love.

It's kind of hit and miss, but when a parent is pressed to help, they usually do help.

As a previous Tiger, Wolf, and now Bear Den Leader, my advise to you is that you wont be able to please everyone. Keep smaller dens, and sadly, there may be boys that drop out.

Case in point, earlier this year, we had some new boys that wanted to join as Wolves. No problem. But since we were up to 12 wolves, as the Den Leader, I told the parents we need to split the den and I'd help, but I can't run two dens. Some couldn't make it on our regularly scheduled night, so I offered to support another night and they could take that Den with CC approval. Only one other scout besides my son showed up for that night. It didn't look like any night would work, no matter what day of the week. The result is, I still have my core 6-7 boys and the others just dropped.

However, our Tigers this year needed to split into two dens of 3, because of Church and Sport/School activities conflicts. That worked out, and it looks like all will be returning in the Fall as Wolves.

With young boys, you really need smaller groups. There is a night and day difference between what my wifes GS/Brownie troop was like compared to my cub scouts. Now I know why cub scouts start at 1st grade and not Kindergarden.

We just had a large discussion at our last roundtable about numbers on uniforms.

It's easy. Cub Scouts are still red (Note: This includes Webelos). This is both cubbies & leaders. And for both Webelos and leaders, red is the numbers for both the old & new shirts.

For Boy Scouts. It's the new green numbers.