Jeffrey H

Agree with ScoutNut -- You don't need to be concerned about signing off on the religious award. Signing off is done by the religious instructor to the Scout. For the Protestant "God and Me" or "God and Family" award for Cub Scouts, this could be the Scout's Pastor or another member in his Church. In general, while any member of his Church can teach the course, it always requires a sign-off by his Pastor/Elder/Bishop (whatever Title they carry) certifying the Scout completed the course. For inquiries, go to www.pray.org

Sounds great and I agree with the previous posts. It's enjoyable to see an older boy take an interest in the Scout program. Good luck and best wishes.

"we only have 5 active Scouts that are 14+ years old. Tells you something or is that normal?" I can't speak for your Troop or give you hard stats, but it's quite common for traditional Boy Scout Troops to begin losing boys after the age of 14. The few that stay on in Scouting are active in Venturing or they are continuing toward their Eagle rank.

If the family is truly under financial duress, one option is to privately take care of fees through private donations (yourself or a combination of you and other adults) or a special scholarship fund through the Pack. Some folks just need our help and charity is the best route. You never mentioned if they needed any help during the year with any Pack activities that require fees (pack campout, outings, etc.). If they are truly strapped, then I'm sure the boys don't show up for any Pack campouts or events that cost $$$. Now, if you strongly sense you are being taking advantage of, then set expectations. It appears from your post that Cub Scouting is a secondary program for the boys after sports. I would not expect the family to get involved, but I would expect the boys to start regular attendance. Find out what keeps them from coming regularly.(This message has been edited by Jeffrey H)(This message has been edited by Jeffrey H)

This sounds like a badly run Cub Scout Pack. The current leadership does not even deserve to wear blue shoulder loops. Why in the heck would anyone want to go for all available merit badges? I know it's been done by a few scouts, but a boy that is focused on nothing but merit badges is not the Scouting way. When I see Scouts that have earned 100+ merit badges, I'm always suspicious of the manner by which they were earned. Assuming there is about 120 MB's, he would have to average 17 per year. Scouting is fun and earning MB's is rewarding (if actually earned), but let's not abuse it and take it beyond it's intended purpose. Boy Scouts is not "Do Your Best", it's complete the requirements as written and be "Be Prepared" for it. Should you stay with the Troop? Go ahead and stay with the Troop and show them the right way to earn MB's.

"The Scoutmaster believed that only 3 of those 5 campouts could count as troop activities..." That's ridiculous. I'm going to surf over to failblog.org so this won't remain as the dumbest thing I've heard today. --I Agree A campout is a troop activity and you can have 10 campouts count as 10 troop activities if you want. TFC only requires that at least 3 of the troop/patrol activities be campouts. If I was writing the requirements, I would require at least 5 campouts for First Class.

As a former Wolf and Bear Den Leader and soon to be Tiger Den Leader, I would discourage completing all of your achievements at home during the summer. We had one boy that did that over the summer and he was completely bored when our den meetings started up in September. He was so bored that he dropped out. We awarded his Bear rank in the Fall because he was finished, but in the end he quit Cub Scouts. It's much more enjoyable for the boys to work on their achievements together and have fun doing it during Den meetings. Sure, some will get a little ahead of the others, but we encourage those that are little behind to get caught up so we can award their rank by February or March.

Tell the campers to go home and go to their church if that is what they need to do and wish them a safe journey home and thank them for participating in the Camporee. The BSA encourages leadership to provide worship opportunities for scouts on Sunday if they are staying through Sunday. Some Troops conduct their own services and other Troops may attend a camp-wide Scount's Own service. In the grand scheme of things, it's really not an issue. Most camporee programs occur on Friday evening and Saturday. Not much happens on Sunday with units packing up Sunday morning after breakfast.

In our Troop, AOL's that crossover to the Troop are re-tested on the Scout Badge requirements. They do all requirements. It's very painless because they are familiar with them (or should be), no one complains, and it reinforces the joining requirements to be a member in a Boy Scout Troop. As someone said earlier, these are joining requiements for the Boy Scouts, not the Cub Scouts.

If they are absent at the COH, we call their name and recognize their accomplishment. We present their badges and cards to them at the next Troop meeting.

In our Troop, 2/3's of the proceeds from fundraisers go directly into a Scout's account. This encourages the Scout to build up money to fund future campouts, summer camps, etc. In the end, however, it's the generosity of parents, FOS, and scout volunteers that provide the opportunities and encouragement for Scouts to pay their own way.

"Do your Cubs wear uniforms to den & pack meetings?" Yes. Required. At a minimum -- shirt, belt, and neckerchief. We encourage uniforms pants/shorts, but don't require it. Pack T-Shirts are worn in place of uniform shirts if the Den activity requires it. Adult leadership is encouraged to be fully uniformed and lead by example. Do we impose a penalty for not being in uniform? No, but we use positive reinforcement for those scouts that are in uniform. i.e., surprise uniform inspections with surprise gifts for those that are in uniform.

The summer camp we attended really fouled up the attendance records and completion records on the merit badges and TFC class. They showed "partials" and "absences" for some of our most dedicated Scouts. We knew something was wrong. Upon interviewing the Scouts after we got back home, it was obvious that they completed and their requirements. We enjoyed the camp overall and the overall program they offered, but the level of incompetence or indifference among the camp staff in regards to recordkeeping was very disappointing. We've attended camps inside and outside the our council with similar issues, but this camp was the worst I've seen.

The requirement to attend the Jamboree should only be based on a Scout's ability to pay for the event and transportation to get there. It's an honor and privilege to attend Jambo, but all Scouts are entitled to attend if they pay the $$$, follow Jambo rules, and conduct themselves with Scout Spirit (the scout oath and law). National needs people to come to the event to make it successful. They are not going to shoulder unrealistic prerequisities on Scouts that will end up lowering the attendance numbers. It only happens every 4 years and most Scouts and Adult Leaders will never attend during their lifetime. If you have an opportunity to go, then go.

Thanks for the good advice from everyone. I'm an ASM with the troop and having a good time, but it's been frustrating watching some of our opportunities vanish. I'm not the official events/activities guy, but I want to suggest positive feedback to Troop leadership and step in and help where needed.

Successful Troop? Plan well ahead for your campouts so they don't get cancelled because of late reservations(e.g., campsites or facilities are full and the Troop can't get in). Our Troop seems to be falling into this pattern and we are not the campout/outdoors Troop we should be. We have good intentions, but poor follow-through. Our Troop is boy-led and our PLC plans the campouts and events calendar. However, the boys become discouraged when the Adult Leadership falls down on the reservations side of the planning. Reservation planning is led by one of our Troop Committee members with input from our Scoutmaster. It's not working well. In the last 6 months, we have had to cancel 2 trips and make a major site change on another because we waited too late.

I have the standard blue and gold Cub Scout neckerchief slide and the standard Cub Scout Leader neckerchief that I wear to all Cub Scout Meetings. The only exception was when I was a Webelos DL, I wore the the Webelos Neckerchief and Slide. It's up to your Pack, but leaders should have leeway in their choice of neckerchiefs and slides. If makes it more fun and adds a little variety while we are in uniform. Back "in the day" when neckerchiefs were more common in Boy Scout Troops, it was very common for Scouts to wear indiviualized slides.

If you've earned the knots, you can wear them or choose not to wear them. I respect those that wear them and do not judge their motivation for wearing all of the knots they have earned. I do think that more than six knots on the shirt is enough, but that is my preference. Not to be disrespectful to veteran Scouters, but I think having more than 6 knots looks a little silly for appearances sake. Personally, I don't like alot clutter on my shirt and my shirt actually looked better when I first started as a leader with just the basic insignia. I currently have two knots on my uniform (DL and WDL) and I wear them to show appreciation to those that awarded them to me. With my lack of time and motivation to attend Training, I'm certainly not worried about having too many LOL. The SM that I respect the most has no knots on his shirt, has served his Troop for 20 years, and is extremely knowlegable in Scoutcraft and outdoor skills. He is Woodbadge trained, but only wears his beads on ceremonial occassions. His experience speaks volumes.

Putting age limits on merit badges is not BSA policy and it does add to the requirements. However, it is common for Troops to make some in-house rules about when they will allow their scouts to begin work on certain merit badges. My Troop does not put a minimum age on any merit badge, but we discourage work on Eagle required merit badges before the rank of First Class. We make exceptions for Swimming and First Aid Merit Badges since these complement the swimming and first aid requirements for trail to first class. We also make exceptions for Eagle-required merit badges that can be earned at Summer Camp. The common reason for our policy is to make sure they are focused on their trail to first class requirements and not distracted by working on too many merit badges that do not help them advance. As you know, a boy can theoretically have 20 merit badges and still be a Tenderfoot.

I say "yea" to nondenominational as long as it's Christian based. I don't even mind one that uses Old Testament only if there are Jewish Scouts present. That said, I prefer to keep to Scout's Own Services within my Troop. My big objection, for me personally, are services where various "gods" are being addressed by using various prayers in so-called inter-faith services. I went to one Scout's Own service that was like that and I vowed "never again." Yuck.

We have this rule in our Troop that everyone traveling to and from our destination must wear their Field Uniforms (aka Class A). The typical reason given is so we will be covered by BSA Insurance. HmmmIve never really bought into that answer and Im assuming that Scout Leaders are being over-cautious about insurance coverage. Its hard for me to believe that the BSA would not provide insurance coverage to Registered Scouts and Scouters because we were not wearing our uniforms when an injury occurred. I think its good to wear our uniforms when we travel to clearly identify ourselves as members of the BSA, but I think we are misguided when we assume its for insurance purposes. Right or Wrong?

My Troop encourages full uniforming but does not enforce it. At a minimum, we require uniform shirt and belt at Troop meetings and usually we don't have any problems. Our focus is providing a quality outdoor program, advancement opportunites, and community service projects. We don't make an issue of it when a Scout shows up out of uniform occassionally. We stress the importance of uniforming, but we don't fight unnecessary battles over uniforming that take away from more important issues within our Troop. If the Scout does not have uniform pants, then we ask that they wear jeans to provide some measure of uniformity. My statements will make the "uniform police" cringe, but please save your arguments for another time. I know the arguments for full uniforming and agree with them, but we don't live in a perfect world, do we? By the way, our Troop is growing.

The badge of rank on a Scout is not an indicator of his knowledge; its only an indicator that he completed the written requirements sometime in the past. The requirements he uses will stay with him and the others will be forgotten. I personally believe that re-testing of the fundamentals is needed to advance beyond First Class. This should not be hard, but should function as refresher. First Class is supposed to reflect a Scouts basic proficiency in outdoor skills and those are skills that he should maintain and grow from. Since the BSA Program does not allow for re-testing for rank advancement, its not our place to add or take away from the requirements, however I did like jblake47s idea that re-testing is done for Scouts in preparation for high-adventure outings.

Practice makes perfect. Its reasonable to expect a Star or Life Scout to forget how to do some lashings or some knots if he never has the need to use those periodically. The knots and lashings that he learned to do on his way to First Class are quickly forgotten if he only learned to do them only once in order to meet a trail to first class requirement. However, it is reasonable to expect a Star or Life Scout to maintain a knowledge of basic fundamental knots that are used frequently on campouts. We have some Star and Life Scouts in our Troop that have trouble starting campfires. Why? In the area that I live in, burn bans are a frequent occurrence and we have to depend on our campstoves to prepare meals. They have good outdoor skills overall, but building a campfire is not one of their strengths because they rarely get to practice it.

Our school district has "open houses" at the beginning of each school year and that's when we do our formal recruiting. Alot of traffic of people coming and going. We have had some success with it. "Join Scouting Night" is a waste of time and not an effective method to reach prospects in our schools. Very few, if any, show up and the ones that show up were the ones that were invited to show up. At the end of the day, simply inviting your friends to join is the best recruiting tool. Saves time, saves money, and saves on unnecessary planning.