Fancifulmist

Hi Scoutnut! Again, thanks for the recommendations! Luckily, I had always run the den meetings with the flag ceremony (Pledge, Promise and the Law) and I close with the Living Circle as well ("Akela, we'll do our best!) The boys have been using the printed cards I made to read the Promise and the law during the opening ceremony, but I honestly never thought about using different Tiger/Adult partner teams take turns leading it! Great idea! I will email all the parents about sitting next to their Tiger Cub today and then repeat it at the den meeting next week! I have done all the online training but still have to do my Leader Specific Training (scheduled tomorrow morning) and BALOO (which I will do on 5/1/10). I'd love to do Lord Baden Powell University, just don't have enough money to do so. I am a full-time RN, run a legal nurse consulting business on the side, volunteer at my boys' school and have 4 children under the age of 7!! But, I love Scouting and how this program positively affects boys' lives. I have two cousins (brothers), who are both Eagle Scouts, then West Point grads and are now Lt.Col and Col in the US Army (not to mention avid outdoorsmen and phenomenal civil engineers). They grew up in the worst area of town where I am originally from in upstate NY. Their parents kept them on the right track through Scouting/Church/sports activities. I plan to do the same for my three young boys and Daisy/Brownies/Girl Scouts for my toddler girl when she is of age! Just kind of frustrated dealing with a little parental negativity and lack of involvement with some parents Is this a common occurrence? If so, has any den leader ever successfully converted these parents into being involved.....ever?? Just want to know there is some hope! As far as the advancement goes, ALL of my boys will earn their Tiger badge by the time they graduate to the Wolf den on June 1st and we will have fun doing it! On a positive note, we have already begun planning our camping activities this summer and everybody is excited! BTW, we as a Pack have agreed that all the current den leaders will "follow" their son's den as they advance. So, I will become the Wolf Den leader on June 1st. Do you think this is a good idea?

Hi everyone, Thank you for your responses. To answer some of the questions raised: 1. I have had a Den website that I run in order to keep everybody informed. This includes a calender of events, links to our Council events, what we are planning for the next den meeting and a complete list of the Bobcat requirements listed for everyone on the website. I have a monthly calender that is printed out and distributed at the den meetings along with a schedule of event with a weekly breakdown that lists EXACTLY what will be covered at each den meeting and what Achievements the activity fulfills. 2. Most of the boys from the merged den do not have their handbooks. Out of 7 boys, we have 3 boys who have their handbooks. It is not a question of money, but motivation on the part of the parents to buy it. I have requested them to buy it, I have offered to go purchase the books myself if they will just give me the money to cover the cost of the handbooks all to no avail. I request at each week's den meting for the boys to please bring their handbooks to the next meeting. Aside from purchasing the books on my dime, which I cannot afford to do, there is not much else I can do. We have asked our Cubmaster if we could use some of the money from popcorn sales to help purchase books, but we were told that it would not be fair to purchase individual equipment/supplies for boys when the popcorn sale was accomplished by the pack as a whole. In essence, unless the purchase will benefit the pack as a whole, we will not be given funds to help cover any costs other than arts/crafts supplies for den meetings. Again, I just started as a Tiger Den leader this past Oct/Nov of '09. So, this is all new to me as well. @ Scoutnut: thank you for the suggestion! It would be very worthwhile to discuss just adding the cost to the Pack's budget as I have noticed this problem with MOST of the boys in the Pack, regardless of the den. 3. Until I took over, the Tiger Cubs were being dropped off by their parents. Most parents would leave and return to pick them up at the end of the meeting. I sent out an email reminding parents that Tigers had to have an adult partner present at all times and the parents have been good about staying during the meeting for the past month or two. However, they do not interact with their sons during the meeting for the most part. Some parents are great and are VERY involved which I love. That is the way its supposed to be! I have 3 Tiger parents who are great and help run the meetings/activities. We share as much leadership as possible between the 4 of us. For the young man mentioned in the incident, NOTHING is being done at home, which is why I try and cover everything at the den meetings so he won't fall behind. I feel horribly for him as well and had discussed with him privately how easily we can make sure he earns this award before the next Pack meeting. Emotionally he seemed disappointed, but he did not erupt into tears until his mother spoke out in anger. This young man has some pretty significant aggressive and hyperactive behavioral issues but not anything we leaders can't redirect. His parents have always dropped him off and left until I asked everyone to stay. When they do attend meetings, his mother seems angry that she has to be there so I feel very sorry for the guy 4. @ Scouter: We do the relay race and other games to reinforce all the Bobcat requirements. I even made postcards with the words to the Law, the Promise and the motto printed on it. We use these at the beginning of every meeting to reinforce the concepts. What concerns me is that none of the boys from the merged den know even the 3-word motto and they have been Tiger Cubs since June '09! I'm not sure how the parents completed the YP requirements without handbooks because my den merged with theirs after they had been awarded the Bobcat badges. Sorry for the long-winded replies...just trying to give these boys a good quality program. Thank you so much for the critiques and advice!

I am also facing this issue with my Tiger Cub den. In January, our small pack merged with another local pack. In our Tiger den (even before we merged), I was covering ALL requirements during the den meetings. When our two packs merged, I was suddenly faced with picking-up 3 boys from the other pack who had obtained their Bobcat badge without knowledge of ANY of the requirements!! These boys could not state the motto, promise,law or demonstrate the handshake, salute etc. We are getting them up-to-speed through weekly repetition of these things but it is apparent that most parents don't reinforce or review anything with their sons. We had a Pack meeting last night in which MOST of the boys (5 out of 7) earned their Wildlife Conservation belt loop. The two who didn't earn the award hadn't attended the last den meeting where we reviewed ALL of the requirements and had fun doing it! While I was awarding the 5 boys, the mother of one of the boys who hadn't earned the award hollered out angrily in front of the entire audience, "What about MY son, ____?" I was embarrassed, her son was humiliated. I explained that I simply could not give any child an award if they had not earned it through attendance and participation at the weekly den meetings. After the award ceremony, this mother angrily confronted me in front of my den again and stated, "This is kind of late to find out about this now! He went to the go-see-it! Why didn't he also get this award?" At this point her son burst into tears. I explained that the go-see-it didn't pertain to this award and this award had been earned through participation at the last den meeting. I explained that the requirements could be easily met at home before the next den meeting, where I would discuss what he had learned and that he would then be awarded the belt loop at the next Pack meeting. She stalked away and then confronted me angrily AGAIN near the end of our dinner. Once I was home (emotionally spent), I emailed LENGTHY letters to ALL of the parents detailing each and every achievement that each boy had to complete before earning their Tiger Cub Badge and how to complete them. Most of my boys don't have their books even at this date! I then offered my email and cell phone number (as I do with every Den emailing) and asked people to contact me with any questions. In reply I received a nastily toned letter AGAIN re: her anger. At this point, I so frustrated at having to repeat things nine million times to a person who doesn't seem to listen or care until her son doesn't get a badge! Any suggestions?

Thank you so much, Spiney Norman and Prof! We are very glad to be here!

My son is a new Tiger Cub. As such, when I purchased his uniform a couple of weeks ago I was automatically given this patch and was shown where to place it, etc... I completely agree that this patch is extremely difficult to sew onto the shirt! However, it looks really nice. Maybe my problem is that I had to sew on ALL of his patches at once, including this one! By the time I was finished, my index finger was starting to bleed! My friend was much more intelligent and hired a seamstress to sew everything on for $5.00. Next time, I may try that!

Thanks ScoutNut! Very glad to be here and looking forward to helping out. I have already completed many of the online training components, just looking for training that I can fit into my work schedule. As an RN, I work every Fri-Sat-Sun from 7P-7A. Thank you for the warm welcome. My son is so excited to be a Cub Scout that he memorized everything needed for his Bobcat badge already, except for the Law of the Pack, on which he is working! We're very proud of him!

Hi, my family is new to Scouting and we just started our 7 year old son in a Tiger Cubs den. We also recruited his best friend to also join the den with him. We had our first den meeting this past Thursday and the boys loved it! My husband and I are excited to introduce him to scouting. We also have three younger children (4 year old boy, 3 year old boy and a 2 year old girl). The 4 yr old went to the Scout store with us to buy his brother's uniform and he left in tears when he found out he was too young to join the Cub Scouts. I felt awful for him but we've explained that his time will come soon and that we will be doing alot of the Tiger Cub activities together as a family anyway Looking forward to next summer and introducing camping to the kids!