cubmom

I am 47, and I have carried a pocket knife in my purse ever since I was 16. I find it invaluable, and cannot imagine being without it. I will never forget the time my son and I were in Home Depot, and I was buying a length of rope - the poor fella that was attempting to cut the rope was using a pitifully dull knife. I reached into my purse, retrieved my *always sharp* knife, and sliced cleanly thru the rope. The guy was amazed - he said "man that's a sharp knife you got there". I smiled at him and said "What good is it if it's not sharp?" and then took my rope and left. My son never forgot that either. My son has two Swiss Army knives, but only carries them to Scout functions - never anywhere else. He loves to whittle though.

mk9750 - you are right - you DID strike a nerve with me. I get extremely frustrated with many (if not most) parents today that prefer to parent in a "hand's-off" fashion. You know the kind - the *Oh let's buy'em an electric scooter and a game boy and then he will stay busy and leave us alone* type of parenting. I took your reply as criticism of the very thing I work so hard at - ensuring that my son has a very well-balanced and meaningful, fun childhood. My son has had his share of hammered thumbs, believe me. He also has a great memory of carving his initials, with his own knife, into a big ole tree up in the White Mountains of New Hampshire on one of our many hikes. I do believe my "approach" is on target, but I always appreciate hearing ideas from other parents, and if your feeling is that kids are too pampered today, I do agree. I am no perfect parent, but I am dedicated to providing my son with the skills, knowledge, and values he needs to be a happy productive adult. TwoCubDad - wow that sounds like an aweshome shop. I inherited the woodworking bug from my father, but it is a passion that is only occasionally indulged due to lack of space (darn it). My son has a whole crateful of scraps that I keep adding to, for his many "creations" he has come up with, but we are pretty much resticted to working outside - and it's too darn cold here right now! Currently he is working on a tree fort, and quite proud of it too. I offer him tips, when asked, but it is his project - not mine. Of course, he has a hard time believing that Mom, being a *girl*, worked on a tree fort when she was a kid. Hmmmph. :-)

mk9750 - you should know that everyone is not so *blessed* as to have a workshop, a bandsaw, or even a place to PUT a bench vise. Most of us do this work in the kitchen - at least that is the case in MY house. "Sanding and painting isn't going to cause lost digits" - Of course not, and when we are able to any work outside, he does so. He did ALL of the sanding himself. ALL of it. I put on the last coat of paint that went on - *I* sprayed it, and *I* I failed to shake the can, so *I* screwed up the paint job. Also, my son has every one of his derby cars in an honored spot in his bedroom. So don't make so make so many assumptions - you know what they say about making assumptions. And if you think I want memories of my kitchen floor being stained black, or that nick in the cabinet over there from where the saw slipped, you're wrong. You are going a bit overboard here - get off your high horse and come back down. As far as child-rearing, I am completely confident that I have set the bar very high for my son, so you don't even want to go there. This is WAY off topic now, so I'll just close now. Again, thanks for all the advice everyone.

Sounds like you have a good environment for you guys to work in. No way would I let my son use a dremel, in our current setting. I don't have the space to set up a proper "shop", so any work that needs to be done is completed in less-than-adequate conditions, with plenty of room for getting in trouble. If I had a workshop, he could certainly handle more of the actual woodwork himself, with me supervising. Unfortunately most of the work we do takes place on the dining room table. And I LIKE that table.

Yeah kwc57 - yeah - what you said.

mk9750 - I certainly did not *misspeak*. You don't really mean that you let your kids loose with spray paint and saws do you? Obviously my son does as much as he can. But the stuff where he can get into trouble is my responsibility. Personally I wish the rules stated that the cars had to be build by kids alone, with NO help. Obviously the cars would look far inferior, with very simple designs, but it sure would make my life easier!

I did sand the car back down - pretty much to the wood - and started over. I did not use any primer as I just don't have the time now. I sanded it pretty good tho - and the second (very thin) coat is on. I had thought about using a clear coat - but did not see one in the same enamel base that this spray paint is. I figured I'd have to use the same type. Thanks for the advice!

Of course it's for the kids. That's why I'm knocking myself out over it, right? :-) Actually, this is his dad's (my ex) fault. He's a crab and wants nothing to do with the derby. GRRRRRR.....

Anyway - guess I'll try sanding one more time when I get home (sure hope it's dry) and then give it another go.

I was tring to get a nice smooth finish on my son's car. We used the gloss spray enamel, and I was sanding between each coat. Unfortunately I guess we did not sand well enough initially, and these darn grooves kept reappearing with each coat. I said the heck with it and decided that one last coat would be it, but now I have a terrible mess (maybe I didn't shake the can enough - don't know what happened but it came out all bumpy) I tried to wipe off the last coat, off course now I have to sand again and repaint. I think maybe I have TOO many coats on it now - if I want to strip the paint off and start with primer (like I should have done to begin with!!) what is the quickest way to do this? It's just a small (7" x 2") pine car, but the derby is getting close and we are running out of time!! I can only work on it at night after work, so I just don't have time for all this drying between coats darn it. But we really wanted it shiny and smooth....any advice?? I am definitely no expert when it comes to paint!

Well I have presented the idea of dens using the dues for fund their activities. Actually, since we have dues paid in 2 payments of $25 each, I suggested that the den take the frist payment and the pack take the second. But one of the leaders brought up a good point...if I let the den leaders collect the money, then I have no way to account for that money...and no way to show that $25 expense. I am still going to have to manage these darn dues (and fighting THAT battle again does not appeal to me at all!) this year...no way around it. But...I will turn over the payments to the dens, expense the $25, and let them manage their own expenses. That will ease some of the burden, at least.

Thanks all. I did find the list - and it is 40 "emblems" (not patches - excuse me). So we will simply use a creative name for one of them. Thanks.

I was informed today that there is an official list of patrol names somewhere that the boys need to choose from. The reasoning is that there are patches that are already available for those names, and if you decide to use an "original" name, then you must pay to have a patch designed. Good grief - does it really get this complicated? I was under the impression that the boys could come up with their own name - and I didn't even know they had to have a matching patch. Does anyone know the answer to this?

Yaworski - yes there is an option to forgo the prizes - you get an additional percentage of profits - I forget what the number is - but it goes into your Scout store account.

Scoutnut - yes you understood me corrrectly. I think this is the 4th (maybe 5th) year of our pack, and then this past summer several of the leaders decided to create a troop - but I never understood it to be a completely separate entity. There was some discussion - a couple of the leaders thought that we should take some of the pack funds to set up the troop (and I actually posted a thread about that because I had no idea how that should be done) but nothing was ever decided - as usual - so they have been operating out of the same account. At this point I have no idea what to do, and I doubt the committee will have any "meeting of the minds" on it anytime soon. Oh well.

ScoutNut, and Yaworski - the reason we do our own prizes is that somewhere along the way we decided that we could get more "bang for the buck" if we took the additional percentage by forgoing the traditional prizes, and did our own. I do think the boys like our choices better.

Eagle74 - thanks for all the info. I agree that the committee should not leave these decision to me - I keep trying to push for them to make the decisions - but I do think it is appropriate for me to provide some guidance, and I thank all of your for your most helpful replies! I very much like the idea of the dens collecting their own dues to provide them their funding - that is the best idea yet.

Whoah - thanks for opening my eyes on the Pack vs. Troop. Boy do I feel stupid. Somehow I never got that from all the conversations we had in our pack. Well, that is even more interesting then...I am managing one bank account, but I guess I am NOT tracking expenses correctly. Great. This is getting to be a great big headache!

Rooster7 - all those costs you mentioned were included in the budget - absolutely. This problem is more with UNBUDGETED expenditures that occur within the dens, without approval. And the budget is approved each year (in reality, this is only the 2nd year we have had a budget) and I guess we are in the process of approving one for this year. We included a small amount last year, for the whole pack, for den activity/supplies. Obviously we overspent that by a great deal. So I like the idea of the $/den or $/boy limit. I will suggest that. Also I agree on the snacks - I don't know where the idea came from to start purchasing snacks for every meeting...I hope we can squash that. I just don't want people getting pissed off at me (and it always falls to me) when I tell them that they have overspent their limit.

James - we do have a budget - I spend a considerable amount of time on it each year. But we are a fairly new pack (4 years) and quite small, and still have many problems with parental involvment, communication, and organization. Everyone gets a copy of the budget, and I inform everyone periodically of how we are doing, but no one really pays attention I don't think. Bob - $25 a year for crafts for each den would probably have our leaders balking. I agree that most activities should be free or low-cost, but it seems like the leaders just do what they want, and don't worry about the cost. How do we get from here to there? I know there is a program helps book - to be honest I haven't looked at it much since I don't plan the activities. Are most of the ideas in there "dollar-friendly"?

As treasurer of our pack (and now, troop) it seems to be falling to me to provide guidelines on who should spend $, how much $ and for what. We overspent out budget last year, mostly in the categories of 1)food, and 2)den supplies/projects. Here's what happens: Tiger leader spends $25 on "snacks"...turns in receipts. Wolf leader leader turns in receipts for $25 for materials for a project, some leaders want to spend $ for every den meeting. Is this typcial? I've only been doing this a couple of years, and we've gone from being extremly frugal, to anything goes. How do other packs handle this? We have a leader that wants to take his boys to a $4/head event. Are these types of expenditures typcial? As hard as it is to collect dues, and get the kids and parents to participate in fundraisers, it amazes me how easily they can spend money. We had an enormously successful popcorn sale last year, so that is another reason we got a bit loose with the money I think. I know that I'm naturally tight-fisted, so I want to make sure we have fair rules in place. I would appreciate your opinions.

Not sure I understand - you say that the Pack boys get 10% and the Troop boys get 6%...isnt't the Pack part of the Troop? Do you mean Cub Scouts vs. Boy Scouts? Sorry - probably my ignorance at work here. Since we just created our Troop, we only have about 6 or seven Boy Scouts. So are you saying that the Boy Scouts get a smaller commission than the Cub Scouts?

We don't give cash prizes, we actually create a tiered level of prizes (tents, lanterns, boom boxes, etc.) and let the boys see samples of them at out "kickoff". Then at the end, they can choose among the levels of prizes based on their total sales. It's a lot of work though....cash would be easier, but I don't know if it would be as much incentive --- they like to work towards those prizes.

Our pack wants to devise a formula to place a portion of the popcorn money into each boys account (which we don't even have yet). How do the rest of you handle that? And what about the kids that raise 1 or 2 k - does it make sense to use a percentange if 5 kids are making most of the money???

No. On a long car trip....maybe, but not even sure about that. Personally, I have such a strong dislike for them, my son doesn't even have one. And we don't have any nintendo or gamecube stuff either. We have a computer, and that is plenty. Good grief where do kids find the time to play with all that stuff anyway??? We are just too busy doing the old-fashioned stuff I guess.

I guess maybe I'm in the minority here, but we just LOVE the popcorn. I like the microwave pc better that any other I've had. And the chocolate stuff is wonderful!! I just wish that they'd offer up the cheese flavor that is sold in the big triple tin as a separate item.

evmori - I see what you are saying, but I don't have a "balance" for each boy. All I know is that Jimmy S. sold 900.00 worth of popcorn last fall. That's it. All "events" have been paid for by the pack, but there have been no camps yet this summer.

Bob White-

"The pack cannot "decide" to start a troop. If you mean that the charter organization that has the pack is starting a troop that's different".

Technically, we parents are the "chartering" organization. We started the pack ourselves - and yes we are legal - I guess we actually formed our own organization somehow - I don't know the details. So we are in charge, and it really is our decision as a group. Which makes it hard since this part is new to us, and that is why I came to this forum.

"the only money I would transfer is the $$ the Webelos have earned from their fundraisers that wasn't used for camp"

All our funds go into one account, and we don't track individual accounts, but I do know how much each boy raised in popcorn - that's the only thing we track by boy. Do you mean that we should take out the money that those boys raised and sent to the new troop? That doesn't seem quite right as those boys have benefitted from that money all thru the year. We also purchased our own derby track and timer - and that was no small change. We have not yet had resident camp this summer - that is still upcoming. The troop wants the scouts camps paid for, as well as some "seed money". Is that the way it is usually handled?

Twice a month?? Good grief. I can't even manage once a month during the summer. It does sound like your boys will have fun, but it certainly requires a lot of effort and organization on the leaders. Frankly, I look forward to the break each time that summer arrives. I am a single mom, and with tons of yardwork and working full time - I need a break.

Our cub scout pack has just finished its 3rd year. After much discussion, the pack decided to form a Troop for our graduating Webelos (I preferred to send them to another troop). As treasurer, I have been asked to come up with a formula with which to determine an the proper amount of "seed money" for the new Troop, which will have it's own account. The thought was to use months active, popcorn $ raised, and fundraiser participation as factors. Is this an acceptable method? Anyone have suggestions on percentages? How is this normally handled? Most of the high popcorn sellers are the boys that are crossing over. Also, our pack has started a habit (one I am not happy with) of reimbursing anyone with a receipt, for snacks, misc. project supplies, whatever. I feel that these are not items that should be paid by the pack, but instead contributed. I have voiced my opinion, but nothing changes. We currently do not use individual accounts for our cubs, but I understand that it is the norm to do that for Boy Scouts. Lord help me if it is me handling it. I am running out of time as it is now as I am constantly besieged by folks looking for me to write them a check. And then I go home and spend two hours loading up Quicken and running reports that nobody looks at anyway. Any advice? I know I've really got two topics in here, sorry about that...