Fehler

Who decided on which Cubs to split into which den, and what logic did they use? How small is your Den? If a parent has a problem with the way the Den works, they should talk with the Den Leader. If there is a problem with the Den Leader, it should be brought to the Cubmaster (who technically is supposed to help select the Den Leaders), but is often brought to the Committee Chair (the real power of deciding who the adult leaders are going to be, usually). Small Dens (6 or less) can be a boon for troubled kids, it gives the leader a chance to work with each kid individually, its easier to direct, and its easier to start projects. There is less "talking over the Din of Chaos" going on. 18 is an insane number, even a 50% split (9) leaves two dens that are starting to tip the scales. 6-8 is the recommended size.

For the love of Scouting, please don't anyone tell GeorgiaMom about ISAs and the tax implications and laws regarding non-profit fundraising for individual benefit. Her head will explode.

Another Northern Star Pack here. We tried heavily to get Lions the last three years going. First year was just the younger brother of another scout. The second year we had two Lions, one skipped out early, the other was from a family closely connected to our COR. This year, we had an actual recruiting class of seven new Lions at the start of the school year. We recruited a Den Leader, tried to do regular, once-monthly "Den Meetings", and moved the Pack Meetings earlier (6:30 rather then 7:00 start). But by the end of December, ended up with only two left (one was a younger sibling, the other was a closely-connected family). This Fall, I hope to get another group (and maybe convince some of the no-shows to try again). Rather then recruit a new Den Leader from their parents, I'm going to get one of our returning parents to lead for the first half of the year. And no monthly Den Meetings in the evening, stick with the "Grand Adventures" theme and try something different. Kids at this age vary widely as to what they can do. I have twin girls starting Kindergarten this fall, one is almost reading full books (and will, I'm sure, once we get her newly-perscribed glasses), the other has to be reminded to use words rather then grunts to communicate. Finding activities will be a challenge. All-age inclusive activities with older Cub Scouts are great for some (the siblings and the connected families), but very intimidating for many other scouts.

Lets start by removing the tax advantage to employers for providing medical insurance in the first place. If the medical insurance isn't comprehensive, then there shouldn't be a tax advantage in providing it.

If the COR isn't stepping in, then the CC is running the show. Get over it, take some time off, and find a new Pack. There's nothing more that can be done. Getting police/lawyers involved? Forget it. You did your best, and if this "new leadership" is going to steal from the Pack's account, the only group that should care about it is the Elks. And if anyone threatened me with lawyers/police, I wouldn't want them around me or my kids, either. Get some help, and I don't mean going to the Council or BSA National

No, the requirement is hold the Position of Responsibility for 6 months, OR carry out the Scoutmaster-assigned leadership project. The leadership project need not be 6 months in duration (my interpretation, I do not have a "Guide to Advancement" handy.)

Non-standard tasks that are usually reserved for adults, such as being in charge of a fundraiser for the troop, or an intensive summer/fall recruiting project in coordination with a local Cub Scout Pack. Put in charge of a renovation/cleaning/reorganizing of a troop trailer/supply closet. Since we're talking about a 16-17 year old, this may be more at their level. Maybe see if the local District needs tasks done.

Never bothered, not sure what the purpose is. We had a poster of the advancements (ror Bear), with each boy's name, so at the end of the meeting we could mark off what we did for everyone there.

My daughter has her Pinewood Derby patch on the back of her Daisy uniform, and no one said anything about it. Of course, its in the closet now that she's a Brownie.

Do they still carry the old-style yellow and blue skirt and blouse set? I remember one of my old, very small den leaders wearing that way back in the day.

There are DE's out there who will sign up short-haired girls if no one was looking, just to get their recruitment numbers up.

The problem with the erasure plan is you get "Ah, the Pinewood Derby is no big whup." If the Blue and Gold wasn't fun last year, no one will care if its cancelled this year. So, get one good year of fun activities, make sure the kids enjoyed it, and then threaten the whiteboard.

Give the e-mail thing a rest. E-mail is for announcements, not for discussion. The Scoutmaster should have a very limited role at both the committee, and on the PLC, so I don't see how scheduling the two meetings congruently would be a problem. Unless you haven't confessed to insisting on being there for everything. Give some trust to your committee. Figure out if the campout or the fundraiser weekend can be switched. Make sure future scheduled events are agreed upon by both groups. And accept the things you can't change.

Some carriers use e-mail to SMS, like and address of phonenumber@carrier.com. So if you blast simple e-mail reminders in text format, it works.

How about: a 15" dowel/arrow, with 12 notches in it, for each boy in the den. A board with hooks with their names, so they can "hang" their arrow at the beginning of the meeting. rubber bands in four different colors for God, Country, Family, and Self, and add a rubber band to the arrow for each achievement completed. Start this in the Wolf year, and you only need one rubber band color (or 12). There's not much needed for Webelos, they already have a "pin" system.

With respect, TroopLedger was probably fairly decent back in 2005 when he wrote his post about it.

Was going to have an ice fishing derby. But the weekend we picked it got very, very warm and rainy leading up to it, and the city closed the lake on us.

As for Archery, do electrical circuits. Get a simple/cheap flashlight, some alligator clip wires from Radio Shack, aluminum foil and wax paper. Set up the circuit in front of the archery target (with the flashlight on top of the target), two sheets of foil with an insulator sheet between them, so (hopefully) when an arrow pierces the three sheets, the flashlight lights up. Hopefully, of course. I've never tried this before.

Eye dominance. The dominate eye is the side you hold the gun on (so do the diamond test for eye dominance). So maybe add a couple other "tricks" that explain how your eyes work together. A very quick blind spot test (very cool). Look at the Webelos Scientist requirement 12: "Show in three different ways how your eyes work together and show what is meant by an optical illusion." And now that they know the importance of having two functioning eyes, they'll understand the importance of wearing those safety goggles.

In my opinion, the transition from Tigers-Wolves is the toughest. We go from 1 Den Meeting and 1 Pack meeting a month, to 2 Den Meetings with 1 Pack meeting. That's a large hurdle, and causes quite some burnout. At 14, I wouldn't force a split. Maybe once it gets to 20, and the split will be into two "full" dens rather then two dens that will drift between 8 and 4 members, or less. We started a year with 13 Tigers, so I split them into two dens of 8 and 5 (the 8 den were all younger brothers of the Bears, or went to the same school). At the end of that year, the den of 5 had only 3, and we lost the Den Leader over the summer. The den of 8 usually had only 6 show up, so it was fairly strong and steady. We merged them Wolf year, and the leaders switched off Den Leading, and usually had 10-12 attend at a time.

For a Den Leader, try this: get a keychain ring or one of those climbing/release-hooks. Have each boy in the den decorate a thin leather strip, attach them to the ring. Then the leader can attach this to a backpack or something, and maybe the boys will see it at campouts as they get older.

We reimburse supplies, and I announce it every so often to Den Leaders. We budget $25 a year for Tigers, $50 for Wolf-Bear-Webelos. Mostly, the leaders keep it on the cheap, and a few have never asked for reimbursement. I wouldn't try the dues method, seems like too much hassle.

Are there any incidents where an "Active Shooter Event", outside of a school, was stopped by someone with a concealed weapon? If it never happens outside of a school, why would we think it would happen inside of a school. And are we to require businesses and workplaces to allow guns on their private property?

Ultimate Frisbee! (or frisbee golf).

Two words: Pumpkin Catapult. Heck, its a Webelos Engineering requirement, right?