Basementdweller

According to the age specific guidelines Cubs and Weebs are not supposed to winter camp. Bottom line in the outdoor skills section. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/ageguides.pdf Unless National has changed that and not updated the documentation. So to answer your question......I imagine they cannot earn polar bear patches.

It has been done, but the results are poor for everyone, including yourself. You believe one year is not that big a deal. The average tiger cannot read yet. wolves can. Big difference in motor control. Tigers should have their partner with them and engaged at the meeting. Tigers have go and sees.....are you going to take the entire den. How long before the wolves get bored with it and start causing problems? So how are you going to manage dues collection, two different crafts and two different achievement activities?????? Just saying it is a lot harder putting on a quality program for two different groups at the same time. If you are going to do it any way. I would recommend moving one den 1/2 hour earlier in the evening and the other a half an hour later. so the tigers start at 6:30 ending at 7:30.....the wolves starting at 7:30 ending at 8:30.

Based on the post. We all know that the poster has not been Baloo trained or the training was of poor quality. Asking what to do on a camp out????? That was pretty telling. It was covered in the training and hand outs. Cub Camping is Family camping. Baloo is required for the Tour permit, Other wise your permit will be not get signed. Do you understand the tour permit? Is your camp site a Council approved Campsite?

gotta chuckle out of that. It is amazing what people come up with. Had a ScoutMaster tell a boy that he will never get his leave no trace award till he knows how to be quiet on a hike. The boy likes to talk and will talk your ear off. Never heard the quiet requirement.

nds......he got the answer he wanted from eamon on the first page. He thanked him.... An entire forum screaming nooooooo. He picks the one that makes his son gifted and special and set the expectation that the DE will do bend the rules for this gifted boy.

Momma......These were not boys I knew other than seeing them at District events. The Troop was disruptive at district events, but again I have no idea if this was the last straw or not.

I don't remember the 3 year age difference thing either. For me that would be a proud moment, the patrol strikes out on their own. I love it, It would probably bring a tear to my eye too.(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

A local troop just removed a young man from the roster. While on a weekend Camp out on Private property several scouts snuck off and vandalized the owners building to the tune of about $1600. Destroyed mens and womens bathroom and destroyed a soda machine. Two of the three told the exact same story and the third, who did the damage told another. My understanding is his boot prints matched the ones on the wall and on the kicked in doors and on the destroyed stall dividers. Needless to say scouts, all scouts are no longer allowed to camp on that site. I just don't understand, why boys do this sort of thing.

Relax, it is just a scout patch. I assume this is your son your worried about. There are actual requirements to receive it, you just don't receive it by joining. His PL should sign off when the requirements are completed. Here is a link to the requirements. http://www.usscouts.org/advance/boyscout/bsrank1.asp A board of review for the Scout Patch would be fantastic opportunity for him to get used to the system. As mentioned not a requirement but an opportunity. Remember Boy Scouts is not about the rank advancement, but the experience. You will hear about the Patrol Method and Boy Led Advancement is a natural in a well planned program.

Here is a link to a document that does a nice job of describing the board of review. http://www.boyscouting.com/forms/BoardofReviewConcepts.pdf If you are short staffed do not hesitate to ask you DE or neighboring SM's to help out. If my son was involved in the BOR I would stay as far away as possible from it.

Jersey Sounds like you are part of a great program. There is nothing wrong with not going to merit badge camp. Everyone should experience BS resident camp at least once. But they are not all equal. The best resident camp I had attended had a great program but the table chats and singing in the dining hall were fantastic.

We spend about $100 per scout a year. With that we provide the Book, registation fees with boys life, pinewood and raingutter regatta kits. All awards, we have free advancement, but the belt loops are way to expensive, the 4 council activities are also included. Camp outs are addition as is museum or sport team visits. We do the popcorn sale, a couple of bake sales a year and the spring candy bar sale.

$3000 in the Pack account. That is absolutely insane. It is an unusual gift from the Pack for sure. Some food for thought. The Weeblos crossing over did contribute to it over the maximum of 5 years as a cub scout. NONE of the new cub's have done anything to earn it. Let him take his $1000 and end the issue. As pointed out that leaves you with 2 grand. Out Pack account has never seen $1,000 let alone $3,000. IMHO there is no reason to have that much $$$$$$ in a Pack account. If your account build to that point you need to reduce dues or increase your spending per scout. The committee needs to decide how the program should be run and funds spent. Whether outings and everything is included in the fee and dues or they are extras to be paid for on an as need basis.

I would not take the pins on the uniform as definitive proof of his earning them. Pins and uniforms are available at garage sales and ebay. Heck you can walk into the scout shop and buy what ever you want, Had a parent do that. Met an adult leader with an Ebay Philmont Arrowhead, he spent his week there hauling his 150 pound pack to the top of baldy and camped up on top in the Pine scrubs on top. My response was wow. Still chuckling about it.

I would caution just handing them the requirements, because the following week you receive them all back filled out and signed. Had it happen. After a pack meeting that we handed a few out, had a tiger parent come in with the entire sports and activity book filled out for ALL the Belt loops. Clearly he didn't do some of them, He never presented his collections or posters or drawings to his den. So what do you do? Belt loops are a money pit too. I will suggest working on them at the meeting and camp. That way everyone has a chance, even the boys who don't have support at home.

So what your saying it is OK for an unwed, under age teen age boy and girl to have sex, bring a child into the world and then still live out their remaining childhood. My point about the outing is, they should be too busy working or being a parent to go on any. It is called responsibility. When my children were baby's my life changed pretty dramatically. You life stops being your own. Time to grow up. Chai....Boy scouting is different than Girl Scouting.....

Obviously with a young man it is physically different. We do not know if he impregnated a young lady unless some one tells on him. The young lady will be showing soon enough. Your question is perfectly fair. In the circumstance you provided. They show up for his first meeting with us and announces, unsolicited that his girl friend is pregnant and he is the father. I would have no problem to tell him and his parents to keep moving. A long time troop member, would be a tougher decision. It would be up to the committee and the parents. Obviously not living up to the scout law. He would not be going on any trip with the troop even if he stays. It is my opinion that when you bring a baby into the world your childhood ends welcome to parenthood. IMHO there is far too many grandparents raising their children's children.

Not disputing the national website.. I earned my bobcat in 73, wolf 74, bear 75 and aol in 76 with eagle in 81.

Seems I have hurt twils feelings. Sorry not my intent You post a question on an internet forum, give us zero background and get upset when we ask questions before we post an answer? I am not going to give an incomplete or inaccurate answer without additional information. I supplied what the GSS said complete with a link to back what I told you.

So a Troop parent teaching astronomy is better than a person who is a Hobbyist astronomer as merit badge counselor? In our District we have a SM who is signing off all of his Grand sons Merit badges and advancement requirements. Yes I have seen the Merit badge cards first hand. I am very interested to see what the Eagle District Board of Review does with it.

Well sorry to hear that. I still stand by my suggestion. Go or call the school yourself and make arrangements to get in. We have some schools that will not let us do boy talks, but will let us put flyers in the teacher mail boxes for distribution. Then we hold the actual event on the lawn in front of the school.

Canoeing many times????? Did you happen to get a tour permit? has anyone in your group taken the Safety afloat course. http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/ageguides.pdf According to the age specific guide lines I hope it was at a district or council event on flat water.

I sounds like you are assigned schools for recruiting night. It isn't like the went in and recruited from the schools you were assigned right????? Stop whining. Call the School and Schedule with them Does your DE do boy talks or does one of your Pack members? Get it arranged. Print your own flyers and go recruit some Cub Scouts. Have your Fall recruiting. Empower yourself and stop being the victim. Sometimes adults need tough love too.

Brent not trying to start a fight BUT....... I became a believer in the NO TROOP Merit Badge councilors when having a fantastic discussion with some 40 year + scouters. I was a troop merit badge councilor guy, after all it is easier for everyone. His points were Eagle is one of the first things that make a resume stand out from the hordes. WHY? The first point were the scout laws. His second point was Scouting teaches team work. Third point is people skills. He believes that these skills are developed by a scouts thru constant interaction with new people. He said that a scout should interact with no less than 100 individual adults on his trip to eagle. 21 of should be individual merit badge councilors. So when you think of Eagle what do you think of easy? Think scout laws. Easy isn't one of them. I ask everyone who participated in the thread. What is more important The Rank or the Experience? Remember Advancement is a natural occurrence in a well run program. Remember the boys also have 6 years to earn an eagle too. There is far too much focus on Getting eagle by age 14 or 15 and then everyone wonders why the boys leave? They leave when they need scoutings guidance the most.

Scouting and trust are pretty thin when it comes to recruiting and fund raising. I never understood why leaders are so heck bent on high recruiting numbers? Well that's not true it is an ego thing. First off, I would never TRUST another Pack to do anything for our Pack, especially something as important as recruiting. Would you trust another Pack to manage your popcorn sale? I would hope no. Go camping with another pack ok, loan our pinewood track, ok, But Cub Scouting is very different than Boy scouting in that it is run by well meaning Adults who don't really have any previous scouting experience. Scouting does weird things to normally reasonable adults. I have seen normal, decent women turned into a fire breathing tyrant as a Cub Committee Chair. I have seen a soft spoken mild manner fellow transformed into Vlad the impaler the second they put on the uniform. Rant off We have printed our own flyers since I have become involved in scouting again. I would never trust a DE to provide me anything. I have been let down by Professional Scouters too many times. As Scout nut suggested..... The Fall recruiting is a district or council thing. We run spring/summer recruiting event and a Christmas/New Year Recruiting drive.