BSA Policy regarding Packs

[runswithscissors 10]

Does anyone know where I can find information on the BSA policy on how many Cub Scout Packs can reside in a school.

 

Thanks

[Basementdweller 608]

There is none.....

 

Far as school assignments for recruiting is simply a gentleman agreement...

 

We had a couple of neighboring Packs battle for survival when a couple of schools consolidated.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

You'd have to be more clear with your question.

 

 

I'm supposing that two Cub Packs want to do recruiting at one school, and someone is objecting to that and dragging the District Executive into the issue. But your question isn't clear enough to know if that guess might be correct.

[runswithscissors 10]

The situation is we are an existing pack of 40 years at our school. A den left to start their new pack and was told that they were to go some place else and start their new pack. Now they want to recruit, flag ceremonies, ect. at our school and compete with us and are complaining to the District and Regional that we have to let them have access to our school. I just wanted to know if there is anything official that states that they can not/should not compete with a existing pack that has been established at their current location.

 

 

Thank you for any help

 

[ScoutNut 147]

Public schools cannot charter BSA units.

 

Usually the Charter Organization is the school Parent Association, or some other school organization.

 

It is very rare (and in my opinion unnecessary) for a Charter Organization to charter 2 of the SAME BSA units.

 

As Basement stated, if you are talking about recruiting, there are usually "gentleman's agreements", among area units as to who recruits from where.

 

However, boys are free to join any BSA unit (Pack/Troop/Team/Crew/Ship) they like. They are not REQUIRED to join ONLY a specifically designated unit because of the school they attend.

 

[ScoutNut 147]

Who is your Charter Organization?

 

Who is the other Charter Organization?

 

Bottom line is that the school is not "yours". All of the boys attend.

 

I suggest that you play nice with the new Pack in town. It will not do your Pack any good to be seen as "bullying" the new guys.

 

This might encourage your Pack to step up it's game, and provide an even better program that it already does. Parents will usually go where they perceive there child will receive a better program. Show them that is you.

 

[Eagle92 110]

Sounds like there is some history.

 

As stated there is no policy. But I can tell you that I've found that competition can sometimes improve units that have challenges, and sometimes it's not competition as they meet on one nite and you meet on another. ( In my neck of the woods, all dens in a pack meet at the CO at the same time and day.)

 

Don't be like my coworker who went nuts when I scheduled a round up at "his school" despite being told by our boss to do it. Long story short, one school had folks from 2 districts going to it. Man did he go ape.

[BS-87 30]

Odds are if your Pack hasn't been putting as much effort into recruiting as this new Pack is, your DE is very unlikely to tell the other Pack that they should let you guys do the primary school recruiting.

 

However, it doesn't sound like you're slacking on recruiting, so the the best thing might be to have a group meeting where it's made clear one of the Packs should focus on recruiting in the community and let someone exclusively recruit in the school to reduce confusion.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

If you make a big enough stink about it the school will probably refuse to let either pack recruit at the school.

 

 

>

 

 

Ummm. Who told them that?

 

 

As the District Membership Chair, the District Executive and I aim to avoid turf wars of this kind. I'd be looking for other schools the new pack can recruit from, and suggest they look at those possibilities.

 

The council doesn't really have the POWER to enforce such recommendations, unless the council wishes to refuse to make recruiting materials available or yank a unit's charter.

 

What other schools are available in the area which could be used for an expanded recruiting campaign by someone?

 

 

[Scoutfish 16]

I think it's great that they are doing it!

 

We have 3 schools within a 5 mile ( or so ) stretch. We have 3 different packs within a 1/2 mile drive, and two more that are 1 1/2 miles away and 7 miles away from our pack.

 

All the boys attend the same 3 schools. These 3 schools serve my side of the county which is fairly rural in nature.

 

So here's why it is great! Because the parents and boys can choose which pack they like. They can choose the one that fits their own personality the best. Each of our 5 packs meet on a different night . That was actually just random and not planned that way, but still, it is also a deciding factor to the parents.

 

So, here's some of what parents and scouts can look at to help them decide IF they want to join, and WHICH pack they will join:

 

Distance to pack.

Night the pack meets for den and pack meetings.

Personality of the pack - determined by members and participants attitudes and personalities

Which pack their friends/schoolmates go to.

What the pack does

It's community image

Camping trips - how far, how long, how many

 

I do a couple Roundup for or DE when he is over scheduled. One of the things parents ask me at roundup is : What if I join your pack , but decide I should go to a different one?"

 

And I tell them to sign up, pay the fees, and come to a meeting, if they are not sure they like us, go to a different packs meeting and see if they like it better. If they do, pay a dollar and transfer.

 

The point to remember here is that it's not my pack against their pack.

 

Matter of fact, it's not about me at all.

 

It's about the boys and delivering a great program.

 

The point is to get them in scouting wether it's at my pack, your pack or somebody else's pack

 

I'd rather lose a boy to another pack and he keeps scouting,than have him just not like scouting and quit.

 

Competition is what weeds out the deadwood, keeps leaders on their toes and keeps the program fresh for the scouts.

 

Now, just a friendly piece of advice: Public image can make or break you. A bad reputation is hard to get rid of.

 

Too much "this is our turf and these student belong to us".....and you might end up losing a bunch of future prospects as well as a bunch of who you have now. These are community members, not a personal supply.

 

Sounds like too much ego and bullying and not enough scout like behavior.

[5yearscouter 52]

In our area, we kind of divide up recruiting at certain schools to certain packs. Even when 3 packs recruit from the same area, there tend to be different schools that the packs are primary to recruit at. Usually if a pack spins off of another pack, we have a meeting between unit commissioner(s), unit leaders and maybe the DE to come to an agreement of how to do it without fighting. If there are enough scouts to sustain 2 packs, then there is usually enough schools.

 

Alternatively, you could request to do a join recruiting night this first year, and each unit gets up on stage and does their speak about the pack, hands out info, talks about their upcoming events, and then the other pack does the same. This tends to be boring, so see if both units can run a booth or two of activities for the boys to do and determine which unit to join.

 

For new parents it tends to come down to night of the week and cost.

if they undermine you on costs, make sure you note which things you'll be paying for from their registration fees and suggest that the parents check what the lower registration fee will cover. often a new pack will charge less, and then have to charge for each individual event, charge higher monthly dues, or have a fundraising quota, in order to come up with the funds for things like a pinewood derby track, etc.

 

good luck figuring it out. try to take the high road. you'll sleep better at night.

 

We recruit from 13 schools and have about 15 other schools that we get calls from(most are too far from us but there aren't any packs in those areas except LDS units). You want one of my schools to recruit from? unfortunately, we average about 3 scouts per school

 

[Papadaddy 121]

Waiting for more answers to the questions above...but the bottom line is, as long as youth applications with checks attached are being sent in to the Council office, the Council is going to be happy and probably won't interfere. I'm curious about the statement, "they want access to OUR school". Normally, the Pack leaders don't get a vote in who gets access. That's a school decision.

[ForTheBoys 13]

I can relate to your situation. Our CO has 2 Cub Scout Packs and both recruit boys from the same elementary school. There used to be 3 Packs. The Packs have discussed combining but we come to the conclusion that the resulting Pack would be too big.

 

There are some differences between the Packs, but the main difference is the meeting nights. We have adopted the concept that as long as a boy joins one of the Packs, Scouting in general is better off.

 

RunsWithScissors, it sounds like you have the established Pack and most likely you have the more complete program to offer potential new Cub Scouts. If your 1 school or neighborhood can successfully support 2 Packs, then the Scout program is working! If you really think that the other Pack is somehow going to deplete your Pack into extinction, then talk to your DE as soon as possible.

[Oak Tree 15]

It is very rare (and in my opinion unnecessary) for a Charter Organization to charter 2 of the SAME BSA units.

 

I've seen it done with a large Catholic church in our district. They had more than enough boys for one pack, so they sponsored two, which met on different nights. It made sense, but they did run into competition for resources (like using the fellowship hall for the Pinewood Derby on a given date).

[Crew21_Adv 25]

Run,

 

Greetings!

 

Yep.. Agree with Basement and fellow Scouters. There is no policy. Its a "Gentlemen's" or "Handshake" agreement not to infringe upon what is preceived as "traditional" territory; but nothing prohibiting it.

 

On another topic. It is too bad that a Den left. Hopefully there was too much of a population of boys and your Pack was far to overpopulated, that would be the problem everyone would love to have.

 

But sometimes a den or parents may leave because of disagreements, which is too bad if it cannot be resolved within a unit, because after all "its for the boys". Sometimes "I'm taking my boys and leaving" is the quick response that parents may select, rather than even attempting to resolve turmoil.

 

Good Luck with recruiting and your annual events!

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv