fotoscout

Hi Bob, Sorry I missed this one, but you obviously missed my rely to a similar comment that was made in the other thread. I have no doubt that the boy would not have been humiliated as that was not the intent, nor was it the purpose! For those of you whose minds travel in that direction, I submit that you may need to tame your personal demons. As for the boy, he would not be wearing the same costume two weeks in a row, and would certainly not remember what he was wearing the week before. The point here, as was mentioned in the other thread, was directed at the parent(s) of this particular boy. Additionally, the game of it was intended to be very similar to the uniform inspection done by TwoCub. Someone mentioned warmth, sorry Laurie but I did chuckle at that one, this had nothing to do with warmth. The sweat pants were just a convenient thing for the boy to put on and the parents allowed it. The orange shirt.. yes, many of the boys wear long sleeve shirts under their short sleeve uniform shirts. The long sleeve shirt always compliments the uniform in one way or another. They may be blue or yellow, or even a neutral black or white, but orange? Going back to Bobs original question, how do we promote proper uniforms.The simple answer is of course by example. The more complex answer is by promotion. We conduct uniform inspections, we initiate and maintain a dialog about uniforms, and we recognizing those who are in the proper uniform. Ive said this before and Ill repeat it again because it warrants repeating; no CS ever said I dont want to wear the uniform, the boys love to wear the uniform and are proud of wearing it, the boys are not he target audience here, the parents are!

Knots are always good, even Cub knots! Instead of putting on a show and tell, why dont you just do what you would normally do and let the Webelos join in? Just be careful to plan activities that are appropriate for the younger boys? When I visit a troop with our Webelos I like to see what normally happens within the troop that we are visiting. I dont want to see a highly planned and orchestrated Webelos Welcome Wagon because it is not indicative of the normal and routine troop activity/interaction.

Beaver, No, not the point at all. The boy, all the boys would get a great laugh out of my costume, and I would certainly not single out the one kid. His dad sticks around for all of the meetings and Im sure he would get the point. I talk about uniforms at our parents meeting early in year, and I talk about uniforms with the kids throughout the year. Ill email you with some of how we talk about it.

Saltheart, Im on the verge of doing something similar with my CSs. The parents (I think its the Dad), of one boy insists on sending the boy to meetings in what I can only call a costume. He wears a uniform shirt, and from there its shear creativity. Last week the boy came to a Pack meeting wearing an orange tee shirt under his uniform shirt. The tee shirt sleeves were longer than the sleeves of his uniform shirt. He had on a pair of charcoal grey sweat pants with his CS belt tied around his waist, and of course he was wearing very beat up white sneakers that were not tied. I may very well show up at our next meeting in a similar costume just to put an exclamation point on how foolish this boy looks. By the way, of all the dads in my den, this dad has, by far, the most scouting experience of anyone. I am convinced that this is some sort of rebellious act on the fathers part. My apologies to everyone for the digression.

Bob, I did not know that. In real life does the council have complete autonomy in hiring the SE, or does National and Regional put pressure on the council to hire someone who they have pre selected for the job?

Well, its nice to see that we are not alone in doing less than we should to welcome our new leaders. OGE, Im surprised to see that you had some potential expectation that this function might fall onto the professionals. I would not have thought that this would fall into their scope, however it would be a VERY nice touch. The welcoming letter seems like a great place to start. I think Ill ask our Council Registrar if she could send out a letter to all our new leaders, maybe it could even include a training schedule. Our registrar is a paid staffer in the council office, why the registrar you may ask? She is the first one to see and process all of our new registrations. It seems to make sense, and I think that this could be a very easy computerized function. If not , it would be great upgrade to ScoutNet. Yes Bob, I agree that this is better suited to District and Unit levels, but for reasons that Ill explain, I dont think that in the short term that will happen in our council. For us I think that this might be good first step beyond what the units might be doing! A small digression and explanation Our council has five districts plus a division for Special Needs kids. In the past year we have lost 3 DEs, and they have not been replaced. The SE is a guy who has garnered absolutely no respect from the Executive Board or the vast majority of other volunteers. In fact some believe that National placed this guy with us to implode the council and facilitate the merger of our council with the adjacent one. All of that aside, we continue to provide a quality program at all levels. So when someone here in this forum comments that its the volunteers that make the program, they are without a doubt correct. Going back to the letter for new leaders, as you can guess our district volunteers are up to their eyeballs, another task for them to do would not go over very well.

I've found that our council does not reach out to new leaders within the first month or two of signing up. It seems that the only one talking to these people is the Cubmaster and maybe another Den Leader, and often these guys are very content to work in isolation. Does anyone use a system that lets these new leaders know that they are not alone, and part of something bigger than their own Pack?

It must be that time of year. I had a dad ask me the same question last night. My answer was no! I told him that we might try to set up a flag football game in the spring.

I don't have the book with me but if I remember correctly, the boys need to keep a score sheet as one of the requirements for the bowling pin. A Tiger would not be able to score a bowling game!

Sticks and young boys go together.like oil and water. We try to control the stick thing from the very beginning. If we hike, they can pick up a walking stick. If the stick get raised above the waistthen goodbye stick. They get the idea very quickly. Sword play with the stick..goodbye stick. Rocket play with the stick..goodbye stick. Etc etc etc. By the time we get to the campfire, the boys have a pretty good idea of what behaviors allow them to keep their sticks. After that we only have to deal with the running thing! You said that the mom found another stick for the boy. When I have situations like this, especilly when safety issues are involved, I speak to the parent immediatly. If they don't or won't understand I will ask them to go home. I have not yet had to send anyone home, but I have spoken to a few of them. Many parents simply don't understand that this is not your family camping trip. They need to be made aware of the rules under which a CS camping trip happens.

We use a regulation flag with streamers on it. I have the boys make a streamer with their name and the year they join. If they joined as a Tiger the streamer is orange, if they joined as a Wolf the streamer is blue, Bear yellow gold. Im not quite sure what Ill do if they join as a Webelos. The streamers are all the same size. We make a big thing out of adding the streamers to the den flag. The boy, his parent(s), and the rest of the den are all involved. Then I tell them that they have to return the streamer to me when they make Eagle. If youre anything like the boys, youre wondering, what is he going to do with the streamer when I make Eagle. The answer is, I dont know yet but I have a few years to think of something.

Ill be getting my beads in a few months, Since Im a Cubber, I through that Id have my bead ceremony at Pack night. Its been suggested that the ceremony would be lost on the parents and kids, and, that it would displace any other activity that was planned for that meeting. Instead, there was a suggestion that the ceremony be done a Roundtable, and that I can bring my kids and their parents to Roundtable so that they can watch, (or be a part of) the ceremony. Any comments or suggestions ? foto

I should eat my words...... Check out this site, they have lots of molds for CS and BS. http://www.andale.com/stores/sf_itemHome.jsp?foo=bar&sid=10209&cid=938406&lid=20379143&mode=1 Then search for Cub Scouts(This message has been edited by fotoscout)

Thanks Pam, I am aware of the Den Chief Handwork, one of the boys already has one and the other will have a copy very soon. The Boys have not yet been to Den Chief Training, but will go to training in early December. I am looking for input on what the Den Leader can do to help this process be successful for everyone.

Hello Everyone, Ive made arrangements to have two Den Chiefs this year. Does anyone have any suggestions to help make the most of this, for both my Bears and the Den Chiefs?

A comment about the Candle... We meet in our school. Open flames are not allowed in the school, or on school property. If you are not meeting in a private home, you will need to get approval before lighting a candle !

Been there, done that. The Scout Shops dont have them anymore. I tried to track down the manufacturer via the national supply office and came up blank. I did search for, and find one generic CS mold, but it was very large and VERY expensive. There are generic CS (and BS)candy molds available from a number of sources. Try this one http://www.gostatues.com/noname41.html Good Luck.

The Ball Cap Buddy is a frame that you place the hat into, then place the frame into the dishwasher. It works very well!! We do it all the time and the hats come out like new. I am sure that there are many of these things available by different names. You can find them in your local 5&10 or dollar store. They are also sold in some of the mail order catalogs like Lillian Vernon.

School Night was, of course, the night the hurricane was support to hit us. Fortunately the weather wasnt all that bad here, but Im sure it kept some people home. However, my Pack gained 10 boys. 4 Tigers, 4 Wolves, and 2 Bears. This isnt to bad for us, some years we gain 20 or more, and some years less than 10. It seems to be very inconsistent. We dont yet have a good count on who is not returning this year, but I suspect that this will keep us at our total number of just over 60 boys. Across the district I understand that it has not been a good year so far. The numbers appear to be down, but no one knows how much the storm plays into it. By the end of October we will have a better idea of where we stand.

Ok, yes its a rather strong word when referring to kids. But if I understand this correctly, we are talking about a yearly activity, not a monthly outing. I would be concerned about the speed with which the boys threw up this roadblock. Where did their thought process stem from?

Sounds like you have a very chauvinistic group of boys. There is a tremendous learning opportunity here!!

Next time you go to the Scout Shop pick up an Advancement Chart. Post it on the wall at each meeting. The boys and the parents will get the message when they see that only the boys with books are moving forward in the program.

It seems like youre looking for a standardized, scripted, and etched in stone type of opening. There is none! For Cubs, an opening should include, The Pledge of Allegiance, the Promise, Law of the Pack, and some inspirational words, and if you like, maybe even a prayer. How you form up for your opening is up to you and can be adapted to your location. There are many ideas in the BSA literature, and in the on-line resources. One of the Bear achievements includes being part of a color guard, so you might want to make this a part of your openings. Have the boys form a color guard and march in with your flags. Good Luck

Hi Laurie, I use Packmaster and its a very good program. You can simply edit the den assignments screen to be any name you would like. Just highlight the field and change it. The nice thing is that if you like to add clarification to your den names you can identify a den by number and rank, and then change the rank next year. For example, you may want to identify a den as follows.. Den 1 Wolves. Next year, you can change the den definition to . Den 1 Bears. No other change will take place within the program except for the new definition of Den 1. I define our dens by number, rank, and leader. As someone else pointed out, den numbers do not change each year. The boys get a den number and it stays with them until they move to Boy Scouts. Patrol names for Webelos are a fun thing for the boys to associated with, but they are still a den and must have a number. I tried some of the different programs that are out there. Packmaster is by far the most user friendly, and the easiest to work with. Good Luck (This message has been edited by fotoscout)(This message has been edited by fotoscout)

LEFTY