CPAMom

On basic awards, I estimate between $25 and $30 per scout.

My perception is that many Cub Scouts drop out because the parents are not motivated to get them to the meetings. If parents perceive that meetings accomplish advancement, I think they will be more motivated to get their sons to the meetings. My husband led Bears by going thru the book and pulling out achievements that worked well for den meetings. He just could not relate to the monthly themes and busy activities. The parents commented that they liked his approach. The kids all seemed happy. We have one scout who seems to strategically attend. If his mom knows we are workin

Your Pack sold $5000 in popcorn ($2500 for SS + $2500 for TO), and your councils portion was $2000? That means your Pack earned a 60% profit of $3000, and you are complaining about it? No - Trails End received 1/3; our portion was about $2000. I know other packs that sell candy bars and have other fundraisers that cut Council out of the profits entirely. We don't do that. We put a huge effort into popcorn and have no more fundraisers the rest of the year. We had 34 scouts in the fall, 24 sold popcorn. Dividing $2000 by 34, we contributed $59 per Cub Scout to Council. We

Not offended - You ask a good question. Yep, our pack of 24 selling scouts contributed almost $2000 to camps. Seems like a lot to me. The part I feel bad about is asking people who are struggling financially themselves to pay a big bucks for popcorn. I see plenty of packs just don't participate in popcorn selling and have come up with other income-producing ventures that cut Council out of the money.

One more thing that I hate, hate, hate. On School Night in our area, you can join BSA for a few dollars. So, some people join that end up marginally participating or never showing up. Then recharter is in January (a very inconvenient time to hit people with any bill). I spent a lot of time pestering them for dues. Council put out announcements to hit them up for the dues at the Christmas party. Right, "Merry Christmas, please pay us $27." I wish I had just sent a kind letter to owing scout parents on January 2nd requesting money to be paid by a deadline or lose your membership. I

What we did this year - We had around 24 scouts in the fall. We did show & sells for 3 weekends - Very time consuming on my part. One parent took over 1 of the 3 weekends, and I did the other 2. I was constantly moving and counting inventory. (However, my son was a huge help and loved it.) We did not fill all the show & sell slots. The boys who should have been there (with financial needs) weren't, for the most part. The pack sold $2500 at Show & Sell, and $2500 on take order. The other benefit of Show & Sell was that people will give donations, 100% profit. It is a

http://jott.org/ for more information. Scouts worldwide will be hiking on Saturday, May 8, 2010. Commemorative patches are available thru the above website.

The 4th & 5th graders were in 2 different dens; however, my understanding was that they did combine their efforts on some things. There was no Webelos II den this year for last year's 4th graders. AOL communicated, "You're done with Webelos." I think the Webelos I leader was burned out. And I do see AOL at the end of 4th grade as rushed. She had served as a leader in Cub Scouts for 8 years, between her 3 boys. For that matter, the Webelos II leader was also burned out. A few of the boys were just obviously not very interested in Boy Scouts. We are nearing the end of W

Last year somewhere between 12 and 16 boys earned AOL, which was awarded in May, and should be in Boy Scouts. Of those, only 2 are in the local Boy Scout troop. One problem: Half of those boys were 4th graders. To my knowledge, none of them made it into the troop, which does not surprise me. The troop appears to be competent and has good leadership. My husband, Webelos I leader, plans to have several visits with this troop between now and next February, when we hope to cross boys over. In reading the Cub Scout leader book, the thing to do is make visits both to meetings and events

This is a very easy & free craft that our boys will do. Get a thick, dead tree branch cut into flat round slices. Hot glue them onto slices of PVC pipe to make neckerchief slides. Boys can decorate the flat surface either with objects or use markers. It is such the 2 minute craft. But the prep work is minimal, and the boys will have a nice souvenir that they can wear as a pack in the future.

Thanks! The reason I ask - Yes, we are looking to camp at an approved council site. However, the particular group campsites that we plan to use - Well, the portajons and water pump situation exists. The detailed listing from Council does not exclude these sites. Funny thing - There are some KOAs in our council area that are not on the approved list. I wonder why. Their bathroom and water situation is great.

Very interesting - So portajon is ok. And bringing water in is ok.

Please tell me the bathroom requirements and water requirements for Family Campouts at the pack level.

Well, we have the situation in our pack of a kid who is homeschooled with a December birthday being placed a grade ahead by his mom, starting Tigers a year early. No one told her he could not start then. He learned to read when he was 4, thus the logic of jumping him a year. The computer did funny things at re-charter time, but ultimately accepted the fact that he is a Wolf, even though his age would put him to be a Tiger. It's the Cubmaster's son, so I want to not hack them off. The kid is really not exceptional in anything for his age. I think he's going to run into problems down t

Good job! We have had our own growing pains this year. Last year, the Wolves were nonexistent, and at the end of the year Webelos I & II earned AOL, so our two oldest groups and their leaders left the pack. This year we've had strong Wolves & Webelos I, but struggling Tigers & Bears with poor DLs. All of the PC jobs got done by CM, Wolves DL (which is CM wife), Wolves ADL, Webelos DL and his wife(myself). For pack events, CM wife was not organized in asking for assistance, so every event was a crisis that I got pulled into. We have 22 active scouts, mostly in Wolves & Web

We were able to get some American Legion guys to do flag stuff with the boys. They went all out for us. It was a great way to tie into the community. I did a little article for the newspaper. They printed it with a couple pictures. (Note: Very small town.) The Legion guys were thrilled to do this.

Yes, love these "safety" rules. There is not a mention of what to do if you get lost. Seems to me that would be the most important thing of all to teach. Is there some reason that it is left off while "don't litter" is listed as a safety rule?

Thanks, everyone, especially Eagle92 who saved me a trip to the Scout store to buy the Academics & Sports Book. I'm going to put these on index cards, pass them out and have the boys read them before we hike.

The hiking belt loop requires the scout to explain "the hiking safety rules." Are these neatly spelled out anywhere? I can't find them. Also, hiking attire and equipment - Is there an explanation for this somewhere? Thanks!

One more thing - The Webelos approach of doing activity badges during meetings led me to believe that boys would do merit badges during meetings with parents as counselors.

Thanks Everyone! As for the other troops to consider, I do see ways to expand our horizons to other possibilities. But I have information on some troops that makes me want to stay away from them. I think the adults leading the badges in Troop B are MB counselors. They have several very talented adult leaders. As for Classroom approach - Our Council has MB College at least twice per year. Both troops have boys that use it. I am pretty sure that Troop A only meets once a month. I have insider info. that often their outings are cancelled due to not enough people who can

My son is currently in Webelos and looking to join Boy Scouts next fall when he will finish AOL. He and we are considering 2 very different troops. Troop A: I think they only meet once a month. A small troop, less than 10 active scouts. Meeting led by patrol leader. The only thing they did was established a camping date and decided who would handle food. A few announcements. Troop B: We have not visited a meeting yet but are good friends with a family with scouts in this troop. They work on merit badges during weekly meetings. They have 2 patrols. The boys do have power on

The figure stated at our B & G by DE was $250 per scout. Maybe I misunderstood her - could have been $215. I was hacked that the Cubmaster's wife let her come. We sold over $5K in popcorn, so our unit is a FOS. Many parents are unemployed or struggling financially.

I've been thinking it would be wise to abolish the Tiger level. I have not yet seen that level run very well. I think it could serve the useful purpose of training parents to help, but I've only seen disorganized leaders who barely kept things together. A kindergarten level would not be an improvement. I know this is not today's thinking, but might it be better to have boys long for the day that they can join Cub Scouts, that day being when they have enough attention span left after the school day to accomplish something? I do realize, however badly it's running, Tigers are he

My husband and I have led Webelos I this year, focusing first on then Citizenship badge, then encouraging the Fitness badge (most requirements to be done at home), and Craftsman. This year there was no Webelos II group, so 2 new scouts in 5th grade were in our den. (They dropped out.) Our plan next year is to provide opportunities for this group to earn AOL by Blue & Gold at the latest and conclude Webelos II. What is normally done with new scouts who are 5th graders? Are they put in Webelos I since they have not earned the Webelos badge? If they are in Webelos II, what a