DenZero

Roundups should try to attract all Cub Scout ages, not just Tigers. While it's possible to recruit enough new cubs through roundups to sustain a pack if the competition isn't strong, it's not the most effective recruiting technique, just one of the tools. If the other packs recruiting at the schools where you do roundups are big and strong, roundups will not be successful. Our small pack has had zero success with the last few roundups we've tried. Word of mouth is by far the best recruiting technique. A serious word of mouth campaign should be run year round. The families in your pac

What could our DE do for our unit? At this point, its probably too late. The only thing that the district could do to save packs like ours would be to establish territories for each pack so that large packs cant so easily expand their recruiting range, squashing smaller nearby packs. But this would involve stepping on the toes of the largest pack in the district, and coincidentally the pack with the largest FOS contributions. The futile effort to start new unneeded units took not only a lot of work from the DE, but also from the few commissioners in the district. If it werent for

While reading the thread titled DE Performance, this thought hit me, and I think it belongs in this thread instead. Why is it that District Execs are under such pressure to start new units, while established units are left to die on the vine? In the area served by the district my pack is in, there are probably 2/3 as many units as there were 40 years ago, just as there are about 2/3 as many schools in the area. Long ago it was 3 districts that combined to form one, but other than by combining districts, there has never been a real increase in the number of units. The demographics

Our little pack has been doing its Blue and Gold banquet in late May or early June as a combined B&G and rank graduation. I suppose its been done this way because its easier to do one event than two. In the last few years there hasnt been a theme, just passing out awards and maybe a skit or game. Im thinking of this years theme being The Last Blue and Gold, since it looks like it will be our packs last B&G. Im wondering if I should invite former Cub Scouts and leaders from the pack, and honor those whove kept the pack going for the last 65 years. I dont want to make it too glo

You must get more points for starting a new unit than you lose for closing an old unit. Our DE found a willing chartered org., and spent 3 years trying to start a new pack 1/2 mile from my struggling pack. He spent an awful lot of effort while were screamin for help. He wasnt able to get any takers at the new pack, and eventually gave up. Meanwhile, our old pack is likely to fold this year.

In our city, there is an "Adopt A Street" program, where groups can take on the litter pick-up for a city street. Our pack adopted the most littered street in our neighborhood. As it is a 30 MPH street with parallel parking, it is safer than a highway, and we pick up along the curb and sidewalks. It was an easier job back when there were more boys in the pack, it's getting tough now.

Yes, it has to be continuous. Our pack was started 65 years ago, but because the charter lapsed one year, our recharter form says 55 years (or whatever that is in months), so we wear the 55 year bar. When our charter lapses next year, if anyone restarts the pack, they will start over at one. Not that our scout shop cares, they would sell us 200 year bars if they had them in stock.

Here are my thoughts on how we might maximize benefit from limited commissioner resources. Given that there are not enough commissioners to assign commissioners to all units, and that commissioners may already have too many units assigned, or be suffering from scouting burnout; we need to assign commissioners temporarily where they are needed and capable of helping. I am proposing that councils have units submit a unit health questionnaire at least a couple times a year; at least in autumn and spring. This questionnaire would ask about things like leader training, communication, p

ScoutNut, Im not saying that a normal pack would need to spend anywhere near that much per recruit. The response to our recruiting attemps has been very poor. Our pack is in a desperate situation. We're not talking a huge amount of money. Over the past 2 years weve made signs and posters, done mailings of large packets that took multiple stamps, given away pinewood derby and raingutter regatta kits, rented booths at community festivals, provides snacks at recruiting events and lots of other stuff. During this period, we recruited 6 new boys. The other pack in the area has prob

To clarify a bit further, our small struggling pack has spent the money from this years fundraiser directly on activities for the boys. To keep dues low, we are operating with a negative cash flow. We can engage in deficit spending this year because of surpluses in the past. All of the active boys in the pack have a parent on the committee, and all decisions are by consensus. This is probably the last year of operation for the pack, though we might try one last recruiting drive.

To clarify about high recruiting expenses, our pack is small and struggling. We get a lot of help from the district; otherwise, our expenses would be higher. Our publicity costs are high because the response rate is so low. Fortunately, our pack has a good balance in the treasury from popcorn sales in years past. We could spend it on providing lots of freebies for the boys in the pack, but I dont think it would be fair to the former Cub Scouts who sold popcorn to support the pack. We believe the best thing to do with the packs funds is to spend it trying to build the pack back up. Saving

I didn't see recruiting expenses in your list. For each new boy who comes to check out the pack we spend about $50 on recruiting and publicity.

So, if you're supposed to wear the most recent Quality Unit Award for your unit, can you order, for example, 1998 Quality Unit Award patches for the unit to wear? I guess you can find them on Ebay, if you just need a few.

The Lane Brain uses photocells in holes in the track with a light bar above. A reflective car should not affect it. Ours will trigger falsely if the photocells are not straight and level, and if the light bar is not straight and square above the track at an optimal height. It works best with the tubular bulbs. I suspect that it would be easily confused by strong ambient light.

If someone is not doing their job, and there is someone willing and able to take over, don't wait any longer. In our pack, the former Cubmaster was not able to do his responsibilities, but did anyone who wasnt happy try to replace him? No, they all left the pack. The pack was never able to recover, and will likely fold. If someone had come to him offering to take over, he would have welcomed it, as he was totally overwhelmed.

This is probably beyond the scope of the original thread, but I have some thoughts about Cub Scout Basic Leader Training. Im wondering if it would make sense to combine the break-out sessions. Yes, it would make the training take longer, but there is probably still some overlap, and something else might be able to be shortened. When I took it, everyone had to choose a break out session for a specific position: den leader, cubmaster, or committee. The problem is that within a few months, a good portion of the people in each subgroup had switched to different positions in their packs. Unles

I've given up trying to contact my Unit Commissioner. I got quite a bit of help from my UC last year, but this school year I have yet to have an e-mail replied to or a phone message returned. There have been sightings, however. The District Exec. saw the UC at a meeting, and a mom in the pack saw the UC at a supermarket. So the UC is still alive.

If you use partial perfect n instead of double elimination, the number of heats will be the same regardless of the number of lanes, as every car has to run in every lane. I recommend using PPN, as it is generally more fair, and keeps the interest level up. Having more lanes keeps more boys in the race at any given time, making the race more interesting. Talk to your District Executive and see if he can put you in touch with the packs that didnt recharter this year. They probably have tracks that someone is tired of storing, and would be glad to give it to you.

We did this last year by asking the scoutmaster of the affiliated troop if he could get a couple of the experienced scouts to do this with us. They used the Webelos book as a guide, and it went quite well. The cubs liked having the older boys doing it. We went over the requirements at the next den meeting and picked up a couple of things that got missed.

Ill reinforce what most of the others have said, but from a different perspective, in the form of a cautionary tale. When my son joined Cub Scouts, I knew nothing about how a pack was supposed to be run. The cubmaster should have, since he had taken basic leader training. The pack was small but was growing again, and no one asked me to take on a position in the pack. So all I did was set up a pack web site and help with an occasional den meeting. On the surface, it looked like the pack was improving, but what it lacked was a pack committee. What I found out later was that the cubmast

I think that one of the most important things is to be willing to communicate with the units. Our packs UC, who is also ADC, was quite helpful last year, but this year, when the pack is in worse shape, and likely to fold, I cant get our UC to return e-mails or phone messages. I wouldnt mind a call saying the UC is overwhelmed, but its frustrating being ignored. So as a first order of business, call back the Cubmasters asking for advice and offer a bit of sympathy.

I did the RGR single handedly for the last two years (If we had a bigger pack I would try to get someone else to cook the hotdogs). Be sure to check out where you are holding it well in advance, figure out how you will support the gutters. Don't try to hold it indoors unless you want a big mess. Be sure to bring blocks of wood to use to level out the gutters. Make sure that there is a source of water. Be prepared for rain and wind (My first one it poured, the second it was sunny, but we nearly blew away). I used the 2 lane version of the partial perfect n charts similar to what I used fo

Did you list your unit in the net roster? If you put an e-mail address in there, it will be searchable by spambots. I used an e-mail address there that is not used anywhere else in machine readable form, and I've been getting spam that I never got before I listed it. After I added my unit, I realized that the address was openly readable, but I couldn't figure out how to edit my listing and remove it.

Since you're short on den leaders, I would sign him up as an assistant den leader, and use that as leverage to get one of the parents to take the main den leader position, explaining that it will be easy with an experienced assistant.

I've been using Netscape Composer for several years. It's pretty basic, and generates clean code that can be optimized by hand if you desire. It's now part of the free Seamonkey download from Mozilla. I've played with Front Page and Page Mill and a couple of others, but keep coming back to Composer. Of course until about 10 years ago, I edited my web page using vi. By keeping the HTML simple, it makes it easier to transfer maintenance of the site to someone else, if you should ever be that lucky.