Cubmaster Jerry

First of all, Semp is right. The fact that he forged someone's name is a huge red flag with bright blinking lights and a siren. Clearly this guy does not understand his responsibilities, or at least doesn't want to work within them. How does the rest of the Committee feel? It is the committee's responsibility (usually through delegative authority from the CO) to maintain quality leadership, including the Cubmaster. If the committee feels that he is not doing his job or otherwise hampering the program, they have the right to fire him. If you choose to do this, understand t

I didn't even think about doing one for my New Leader Orientation meeting. However, I think it would set a nice tone with the new leaders. With your cards, any of your ideas sound fine. I would probably only do one or two, not all three but that is just me. Good Luck! Jerry

You have to do what's best for the entire Pack. If the Pack can no longer put on a quality program without charging dues then make the change. In your situation, yes, I would certainly notify all parents that payment of Pack dues is forthcoming. Having a boy drop out of scouts is easily the last thing that any leader wants to happen. However, you can't run a program with no money. You can't do much about the parents who will take their son out if they have to pay, no matter what the amount is. However, I am sure you have some that will find it financially difficult. Some ideas

The simple answer to your question is "it depends". It depends on what that $40 is paying for. If those boys joined my Pack, they would find a similar situation. We charge $41.50 for annual Pack dues. This does not include uniforms, den dues, fees for outings, and belt loops. But it DOES include nearly everything else - registration, boys life, book, rank badges, arrow points, Webelos pins, totems, Webelos colors, approx 8 activity patches, & PWD car. Parents also don't pay for (or bring food for) B&G or Crossover meals and we don't charge a PWD entry fee. Also, keep in mi

Bingo! EagleinKY hit it on the head. If it is Pack dues you are referring to, be very careful if you do not charge them for "inactivity". Most, if not all, packs who charge Pack dues, use that expected income to plan their annual program. If you start allowing parents to pay-as-they-go, you will run into problems. As ScoutNut so correctly noted, there will always be conficts. What if a boy missed a Pack activity and a Pack meeting for one particular month for whatever reason. Do you not charge them for that month because they didn't participate? Do you offer refunds if they have

Good advice so far - games, skits, songs, getting involved, etc. Don't accept that because it is the first meeting, it should lack the excitement and entertainment of subsequent ones. As far as the uniforms go, I will add this - it is one of my pet peeves. However, we do something that works well. At each Pack Meeting, as each boy enters the cafeteria (where we hold our pack meetings) we do a uniform inspection. A boy can earn 4 points if they are properly wearing their shirts, have a neckerchief and slide, their uniform is clean and they are clean (face, hair combed, hands). They ge

A scouting program for kindergartners? Sounds like a daycare program to me. Some Tigers have problems handling the limited structure of their program. What type of program could they offer that is a step below Tigers and still be scouting oriented?

Unfortunately, written policies are necessary sometimes, as Greg notes. And as far as whether they legitimately completed the requirements for ANY award/badge, I am with Greg on that as well. Except don't present it as a "quiz" or "test". Present it from the point of view of them telling you about their experience in working the requirements. Unfortunately, that is necessary also. But it is also a good opportunty for the boy to practice communication skills such as recalling information and speaking in front of others.

Jeopardy is a great game for many memorization requirements. I use it for all of my AOL requirements. I have a big board with about 40-50 questions broken down into related categories. My W2 dens could spend a whole meeting every month or so playing. Learning while having fun!! That's the key!

Any ideas on what to do at my first Pack Meeting that will include 130+ boys? I'll have a few patches from Summertime activities. No den skits as they are just getting in gear so the ACM and I will probably do one, probably a run-on skit that requires a couple of shots to get through it. A game? For 130 boys? Jerry

I don't know if I'd say "lacking" but you're right. The instruction aspect of scouting can get boring for the boys. I tell everyone of my leaders that the key to a successful program is making those topics fun. Make games out of the memorization stuff, have a den skit to get across things like effects of alcohol, instead of "telling how to retire a flag - do it! It is not necessary to follow the requirements word for word. Just be sure that you realize the intent of the requirement and get that across in a fun way.

One of the reasons training appears to fall short is that the trainee has expectations greater than what the training course is designed for. FScouter, I couldn't agree more. And I hope that my comments weren't taken to mean that I was knocking those training classes. They ARE very important. But in reading many of our comments in these boards, the answer of "get trained" is thrown around freely and gives the impression to many that it is the answer to many of our problems. And it's not. Additional help from those of us who know and doing those things you mention increase their chance

Ok, I get to be the first to ask. What are the two boys working on who are W2 and not new to scouting while the others are starting from Day 1? Certainly they have already done all that the other 16 boys are working on. It seems as if you have already solved your problem, just in a round-about way. My suggestion would be to do exactly what you suggest - have your ADL essentially become a DL for the second Patrol. Also, even though the new W2s are at the same starting point as the W1s, they can still earn their AOL in one year. They have to work harder but it can be done and man

Great ideas already. I will add this: Work to separate the group. It doesn't sound like either you or your DL has much faith in him handling the group of 11. Gather the five new parents together for their first Den meeting. Have another DL, the CC, or other registered leader run the meeting with the boys (because it IS important that they get started now) while you speak to the parents. There are three main reasons that parents don't want to step up and be leaders. 1. They don't care and see the BSA as Baby Sitters of America 2. They don't THINK they have the time.

Sounds to me like you did quite well considering the pool from which you recruit from. Congrats! How did my Pack do? As you may have seen in one of my other posts, my Pack's problems isn't so much recruitment as it is retention. Here's to another great Scouting year for all of us! I wish you well. Jerry

I am trying to figure out how to do all awards at Pack meetings. I would really like to do that. In the past one den was chosen a month to be presented their awards to at the Pack meeting. the other den's awards were left to the den leaders to hand out. It is still possible to keep the meeting around an hour to an hour fifteen and include a song, a skit and some other form of entertainment. This pack used to not even do advancement ceremonies at Pack meetings. I did their first Bobcat ceremony (to my knowledge) last spring. 19 Bobcats. They loved that one and every other advancem

Man, I owe that dude or dudette a lot of money! I like it!

I will only add that it is important to have a sound and positive relationship with your CO regardless of whether or not they know their place in the scouting food chain. As was correctly stated, they OWN everything that belongs to the Pack. We invite our COR to many of our functions as an "honored guest". Now our COR has very little specific info regarding our unit. He doesn't do anything except attend our B&G, provides an annual financial contribution to the Pack (he's an old scouter himself and the only reason we have his organization as our CO), and signs our paperwork. I don't th

Yes, I realize that the DE's love to form new units. However, I am the one that presented this to her. I see where you are going though. I have seen where new units are created just to make numbers look good from a Council perspective and then little support is provided to those new units. I know that my UC has devoted a lot of time to that new unit in the adjacent town. Hopefully that will take off. CM Mike, as far as numbers go, we have 131 boys in 19 Dens.

Cary, that is precisely what we were thinking was the best way to go. We will have to see how it plays out this year. We managed to fill 5 of my 7 leader positions tonight! Woo Hoo!! We really do have a great program. They had their problems some years ago but a good group of leaders (before my time) stepped up and really did a great job resurrecting it from the coals. I wouldn't mind being a UC or at least moving to that level. I just signed up to be on my district's training staff.

Bob, it would be foolish to not address both of them at the same time. What happens when (not if) the efforts to fix the retention problems pay off and we have another 50+ new boys next year? I have 23 Webelos 2 that will graduate this year. Even with an attrition rate of 10%, I will be around 100 boys next May and come fall recruitment could have 10% more boys than I do this year. My Pack's fall recruitment drives have brought in 53, 51, & 68 boys each of the last three years. Another 50+ is not out of the question. Cary, not sure that adding a few more dens would be the ans

In a nutshell, the CC handles all of the admin duties of the Pack. If it deals with recruiting and handling of the leaders or scheduling Pack activities, the CC is the person. As mbscoutmom correctly states, delegation is a key to the CC's success. The CM deals with the program on the level of the boys. Among the obvious task of planning the agenda for and running the Pack Meeting, the CM interacts with the Dens to make sure the program is being followed and the boys are moving toward advancement. The CM also runs (not necessarily schedules) Pack outings and special events such as PWD

There have been attempts in the last few years to start up a new Pack, but that Pack pulls from a different school and is in an adjacent town. I suppose that the failure of those efforts can infer a possible failure of a new Pack in my town. I suppose we could push boys from our area and recruitment drives to them. However, as I understand it, the failure is a result of not necessarily too few boys (although they do have a much smaller base to recruit from) but ineffective leadership in that (those) Pack. I don't know all of the details of those efforts but could create another thread as t

Ok, looking for some ideas here. I spoke with my DE tonight at RT and suggested looking in to splitting up my Pack. I live in a "booming" area which is evident by my 53 new scouts that we signed up (and collected payment from) last week at School Night For Scouting (SNFS). I already have a dozen more that are waiting in the proverbial line to sign up and pay and can see the final total of new scouts this year reaching 70. This will double our roster size. My Pack has had roster sizes around 100 after previous SNFS but we have also experienced serious attrition rates of close to 25-30%

We hand out participation certificates for all, while I would agree with those who feel that boys should "learn to lose" these are young boys and like to at least leave with something. We group the racers by rank and race that way. We hand out 1st - 3rd ribbons for each rank and then trophies for 1st - 3rd overall. With PWD we also include category awards (certificates). However, with 100+ boys, we don't do overall because it would be too much to have everyone in attendance the entire time. We race one rank at a time then present the awards for that rank then move on to the next.