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 working on a Web badge that her son already has or one that is not critical, he may not show up.

I think this will ease the burden for parents of what has to happen at home if they consistently have their scouts at meetings.

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 were the top selling pack in the district. My guess is that $59 is far above the average amount that a Cub Scout family supports Council. Council was appreciative. They treated our top sellers to a special party and had great prizes there. We got an extra 3% because we exceeded last years sales by more than 10%.

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. It would have saved discussions with a den leader who waffled on cutting people off.

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 against BSA policy to solicit donations, but you are not barred from accepting those offered.

We had an earnings scale. I think the magic amount was $350 to earn recharter dues and Boys Life. If you didn't sell that amount, you had to pay those items at recharter time in January. If I could go back and change it, I would set it up so that most of the profit over $500 would go to the scout who sold that much. I only gave $10 per $100 sold at those levels. Only 3 real hard working boys & parents (including my son) did this.

My estimate was that we needed around $50 per scout for awards and supplies.

I really hate popcorn selling. I think it is over-priced and we're giving a lot of profit to Council. However, the profit per buying customer is great. And boys can be involved in the raising money.

Funny thing - The boys who didn't sell much in popcorn ended up dropping at recharter time or have been marginal scouts, not earning belt loops and awards.

I don't like the idea of a dinner fundraiser. I think that would be a lot of work falling on a few parents. However, other posters here make that work.

We are considering a buyout option for parents next year. Even if we let some people off from paying, it would communicate that scouting is not a free activity. Also, I can understand that some parents would just rather write the check.

Some more info. - The pack just charges for things that charge us. We did pay for scouts who sold popcorn to go to the local Nature Center; other scouts paid the $4 fee and $7 for a parent. We charged $1 per person for the main dish for Blue & Gold. Each family was to bring a side dish.

I will revisit this post when we consider the earnings scale for next year.

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 Webelos I. I hope we can interact multiple times with the local troop so that there is plenty of opportunity for building relationships ahead of cross-over.

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 as much as possible before crossover.

Anyone know what the problem is? Is this a typical drop out rate? I do think you can push a kid thru the Cub level but probably can't push thru the Boy Scout ranks. Another guess - The dads were not behind these boys in scouting.

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 the road, due to his immaturity.

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 & Webelos I.

A new couple moved from another state who were very good leaders in their previous well run, large pack. They are leading the way in encouraging us to form a PC. Positions are outlined in the Cub Scout Leader Book. Monday, I presented a summary of where we are and a summary of what next year will look like. Big change: Pack Committee and Leaders' Meeting Monthly, a time & place to request help. I presented a sheet of paper with all the PC and leader positions listed. It has become clear to me that this sheet of paper needs to be presented multiple times. Not all positions will be filled, but the needs are listed. Also, we are setting the stage that the pack needs parental help.

I got the list of PC positions from the Cub Scout Leader guide. I will add the Event Coordinators for specific yearly events on the next go-round.

It has taken a lot to change the course of the ship which was CM & DL do everything. I expect that the pack will grow if we have a good leadership team in place.

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 make it. I am wondering if we team up with the insider and scout (who would like a more active group) if we can change the tide there.

You guys are great. My perspective has been to hop on board with Troop B because they accomplish things. (Note: a CPAMom, not scout, perspective at work here.) I clearly see your point that this approach cancels out the boy-led aspect.

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 saying yay or nay about working on badges. Either a parent or an outside knowledgable person leads the merit badges. My understanding is that the patrol leaders conduct the meetings.

I like the fact that Troop B has the boys earn merit badges as a group. Is this somehow bad?

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 here to stay. It would be too hard to get rid of it.

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 are we obligated to provide for them that would be different that Webelos II?