JAYMEDINC

I have been asked to put together a little Outdoor Activity Award Ceremony, to follow the Tiger and Wolf Badge Ceremonies. Does anyone know of a ceremony for this award, that I could use? Or is it just typically something where you hand out the patch to the recipients and say "Good Job", or something like that?

Our pack is about 6 years old, and I am pretty sure this is the first time we have earned it. I'm in my first year (Asst Tiger Den Leader), and I know we didn't have the 2007 award. Thanks for the input.

My Cub Scout Pack was just awarded the 2008 Centennial Quality Unit Award. Where does it go on the uniform? I was told it goes on the right pocket. But that just doesn't look correct. If anyone has an image of where to put this award, I would like to email it to the others in my pack.

I have been talking with the Committe Chair about this, and we are going to discuss it at the Pack Committee Meeting on Monday. We aren't going to discuss BSA endorsing a babysitting program. What we are talking about is the parents continuing to run their own babysitting program and enforcing the rules that the Church has already set in place. It turns out the Church was aware, and has established rules. We want to discuss our situation with the Council to make sure they are aware, as well as the Chartered Organization. But what it all amounts to, is having the parents better aware of the Church's rules that have been in place, and strictly enforcing them. After all, none of this is BSA's responsibility or liability. So the parents must take care of the situation, within the scope of the Church's rules.

We meet the first and third Monday of the month, year round. The first Monday is the pack meeting, but after the awards and announcements, the Cubs go to their respective Dens. Just like the other Monday that they come in. Yes, we are talking about 13 year old sitters, not 17. The mother of the main sitter is a registered leader on the committee. She does supervise the babysitting, but she can't be there at all times. And like has been posted, non of the people in that room are covered by BSA insurance. I think after my wife brought up the issue this week, maybe things will happen differently in the near future. Only time will tell. We are new to Cub Scouts this year and I really have been clueless about what goes on outside the Tiger Den, since I can't ever leave. I just started attending Pack committe & district meetings last month. Although, I have gone to all the training for Tiger Den Leader & Cubmaster. However I didn't recall anything ever being mentioned about this situation and I wasn't aware there was a problem, so I never asked. Until now.

The Chartered Organization is the homeschool group that started the Pack about 6 years ago. And the Pack has just started becoming a formal organization, no longer flying by the seat of it's pants. Thanks to the new Commitee Chair (who is leaving at the end of the year). So things are growing and the leaders have more interest in getting things done right. I believe this homeschool group is affiliated with the church in some manner. These are things that I will also have to find out in more detail.

Yes, in my opinion this babysitter is overwhelmed with kids. Although she does have some help from another teen, I believe. Not sure if they are trained. I will have to find out. The reason we have too many kids, isn't because they are getting dropped off. It is because we have approximately 26 Cubs and 14 leaders. Nearly all the parents are registered leaders in some aspect, which is a great thing. But the siblings just run around and have a good ol' time while the parents are busy with the meetings and tending to the business end of things. I must admit, my daughter is a major reason for this being brought up. My wife is a nursing student at night time, and is never there. I am the Asst. Tiger Den Leader and can't leave my Tiger. Well, my wife got out of school early and stopped by and was horrified that my daughter was just playing with her friends outside of the baby-sitting room. She talked with me about it and I recommended she bring this up to the Committee Chair and the mother of the babysitter. Both of whom are her friends and fellow board members in a non-profit homeschooling board, so they have a good relationship. (all these cubs and siblings are homeschooled) Now my daughter has been instructed by her mother and myself, to follow the guidelines that we are enforcing for her. But I want it to be enforced for all the kids. To make it easier on my daughter, the babysitter and anyone who could get in trouble or hurt because of an unsupervised child.

We meet at a church and we have a babysitting room. A teen daughter of one of the Den Leaders watches the siblings there, while we have our Cub Scout Meetings. She has very little control over some of the kids and they wander around the church. This seems like a big can of worms for me, when I take over as Cubmaster in May. I'd like to plant the seed now, to get it fixed, before I am the Cubmaster. That way it will be much easier to enforce, when I take over. What are the BSA rules that apply to babysitting siblings at the events?

I didn't say playing the game of marbles is silly. I said the belt loop for it is silly. My opinion.

I believe everyone should be aware that clothes can be used as a floatation device. But unless you are a sailor, actually practicing this isn't very practical. In the instances like you mention, where it is practical, maybe it should be practiced there.

I'd like to re-iterate the fact that using your clothes as a floatation device is tought (and often used) as a lifesving method in the Navy. However, I am not sure what relevance it has in Boy Scouts. Do Boy Scouts go out in the open water, and have the possibility of falling overboard without being noticed? Maybe Sea Scouts? (I'm not familiar with Sea Scouts) But swimming in a pool or lake, you sure don't need to take your pants off to help float and wait for rescue. Oh yeah, I don't think keeping your soaking wet clothes on or taking them off, while in the water, has any bearing on hypothermia. I do agree that a few of my son's cub scout requirements/electives are old fashioned. How about the marbles belt loop? Who plays that any more? Sure, we can keep it to try to keep the game alive. But to have a belt loop for it. That is silly in my opinion.

Yesterday my Tiger Den went on a "Go See It" at a fire station. One of the fire fighters reminded us about changing the batteries in our alarms, because we moved the clocks back last week. They also went over our fire escape plans. So, this brought me to the Tiger Track Trail (elective). After I realized this at home, I emailed the Den to remind them to have their Tiger participate in the battery changing and to do a fire drill for the Tiger Trail. This "Go See It" ended up getting us more signitures than I was expecting. 1. Go to a Fire Station 2. Go to work (one of the Akelas works there) 3. Practice a fire drill 4. Change the fire alarm batteries (or test the electric alarms) Don't forget to tend to your alarms with your Cub & practice the fire drill, if you haven't already.

Sounds like your Cub should be recruiting those kids into his Den. So they can learn some good morals, if nothing else. I'm not advocating in this thread who should've voted for who, but his classmates have some lousy reasons for the choice they probably learned from bad influences. And I am sure they could benefit in the Pack. At least your son was able to do a mock election. Maybe that satisfies the requirement closely enough???

I'm glad I did, because I just noticed one of the Citizenship Pin requirements is going to the Polls with an Akela and talking about the vote. So I just emailed my Tiger Den to see if I can sign any of the other Tigers off. I also tell them to go to Scouttrack themselves to record this kind of stuff, but they rarely do.

I recommend sending an email the day before the meeting announcing what the plan is. And then an email afterwards letting everyone know what was accomplished. I don't recommend spending too much time helping them catch up if they weren't there. Put that on the parents. If you use Scouttracks or something similar, put the pressure on the parents, to keep their Tigers up to date. I also recommend being very diligent in making sure those who show up, get every single elective signed off. This way they receive a ton of awards. That also serves as a great incentive for those who didn't get quite so many. But in many cases, just showing up and participating will earn the beads. So if your record keeping is in line, everybody will be getting something, nearly every month.