OneHour

That's why I love the name! One thing though, it's one hour/week/scout for those who care, such as many of the folks on this forum as well as in your troop, district, and council! Otherwise, it's truly one hour a week! That's why folks like you inspire me from time to time when I feel that what I'm doing is not worth it. By the way, Steve, great blog! Congrats on the great scouting adventure! YIS, 1Hour

stevjb ... a scout is trustworthy ... so 1 hour a week is not a lie ... it's just that we never let them finish their sentence. I found out that the whole sentence actually reads: It only takes 1 hour a week ....... for each scout! 1Hour

The same glue-on binding that didn't work 30 years ago when I was a Tenderfoot, still doesn't work today! The spiral bind version was the way to go! Now, my son can actually put the book down in front of him and look at the illustration on the knots and try it, instead of putting one knee on the book while trying to stabilize himself and work at the knot! The only problem is that the spiral bound costs $15 more!!!!!! As for a collector's item, the hardbound is still very good! FScouter, there are handbooks that actually stay together? Of all of the glue-on binding handbooks in our troop, not a single one stayed together no matter how careful the scout is! Trev, I tried to submit my 2 cents but it will not allow me!

Done, Elizabeth! All of our positive recruiting vibes are being transmitted to you all! You will definitely have a best recruiting season tonight! BEST WISHES and LUCK! Break a leg! (not literally) 1Hour

I just laid out my youngest son's Tiger den schedule for the year. The first month, we'd work on our Bob Cat requirements. Each of the next 5 months is dedicated to 1 Tiger requirement. I'd have them do 15-20 minutes on the "den" portion of the requirements. The rest of the den meeting, we play, sing, and play some more! One den meeting is dedicated to "go and see it." Each tiger is responsible to do the family portion at home. As for the last three months: I would pick out several of the electives for them to work on. The very last den meeting, we have a party! This worked for my two older sons' dens when they were tigers. It doesn't bore them. Sometimes, we get do a go and see it just for fun! For example, Home Depot or Lowes has a Saturday craft deal that my boys love it. Mixing these den meetings in with a fantastic/fun Pack meeting and Pack event for each month, our tigers are kept very busy. As in any rank, concentrating most on advance will bore the boys! They sat in their classroom for 8 hours. They don't want to be lectured again at night. My suggestion is to mix in there a lot of games, songs, and silliness! Good luck and welcome to cubscout! 1Hour

Your Bears start to work on their Webelos requirements once they got their bear rank advancement. Webelos year was meant to be a 1.5 year program. There is a minimum required age/grade level/ and/or arrow of light before they can join a troop. I can see a Webelos II den transition to boyscout in December of their 2nd year, but most will transition in the Spring of their Webelos 2 year. If your den happens to finish the required activity pins early as well as the other requirements, then work on getting all 20 pins and visit as many troops as you can. As for finishing the Webelos badge, in our Pack, on an average our Webelos dens start their "clock" for the 3 months requirements at the start of school since that's when we start to meet regularly eventhough we do have summer activities. When all else fails, Do Your Best. 1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)

Our CM just confirmed it. We got 48 signed up with a few to follow up. Phewwww! Let the fun begins.

By now, most packs are fully underway with their rally night. How did your do? I'm very excited and happy to report in. I'll start with ours. This will be my third term as a Tiger Den Leader! My youngest son's den picked up a total of 9 tigers. Our pack, on the other hand, faired well too! We picked up about 51 boys, unofficially (all apps have not come back yet)! Adding to our current 63 boys, we are now back to 114 boys strong! Wow! we picked up an equivalent of an entire pack! 2 tiger dens, 1 wolf den, 1 bear den, and 6 Webelos. This brings our average to about 35.1 boys recruited per year for the last 7 years! I just couldn't figure out where that .1 boy came from! A great haul nevertheless! It only means one thing ... a lot of work awaits us. 1Hour

One thing that I did when my sons went through their Bear Year, for Tall Tales, we had a Den night at the movie. I showed them Disney's American Legends that has Paul Bunyans, John Henry, Johny Appleseed, and Brave Engineer. With a boatload of scout popcorn, we had a blast! It was about 1 hour long which was perfect for a Den meeting! We discussed it at the following meeting. 1Hour

This hits close to home. We had a new scout with Asbergers Syndrome in this past recruiting effort. His parents were very concerned with his interaction with the other boys. He made it through cub scout and transitioned into boyscout. The key to his successful cub scouting years is his parents' full participation. His parents had a talk with us and expressed their concerns. They felt that he will not fit in the troop. We (the scoutmasters) persuaded them to give the scout a chance to try it out, after all our SM's older son has Asbergers Syndrome and is a fully participating Life scout. After two troop meetings, we all that this scout was a handful, meaning we have to dedicate one asm to watch after him. Sometimes, he would wander off by himself. At other times, he would try to climb on or hit another scout. At times, he would simply cry out. All scoutmasters agreed that we need to talk to the parents asking them to have at least one parent needs to accompany the scout on outings. At night, we felt that we cannot safely keep an eye on the scout. We all agreed that we cannot dedicate one adult leader to monitor this one scout to keep him safe. We did this for 2 campouts after which they withdrew from the troop. The reason was not clear. Requiring a parent of a special needs child to accompany the child is not an outrageous request. A lot of times, it's for the scout's safety. Who would know how best to take care of their child than the parents? As previously mentioned, this is an organization of volunteers. If it is beyond the capability of the volunteers then it is incumbent upon the parents to provide the supports for the special needs child. If it were my child, I would have been there at all times without being asked. Besides, it is not fair to the other scouts when the adults have to dedicate themselves to one scout. Before people attack me or us for being insensitive, in our troop, currently, we have two scouts who have Asbergers Syndrome. Six scouts have to take a variety number of drugs for severe ADHD, ADD, and depression. Every campout, it takes the "medicine" man at least 20 minutes to finish the medicine distribution. We as volunteers do the best that we can to accommodate; however, sometimes we do need help!

All right, let's look at the other side of the gloom and doom. Instead of a group of parents banding together to charter the units, what about their companies? Is there one that is willing to charter the units? One of the troops in our area was chartered by a car repair shop where one of the fathers owned. Our pack is chartered by the community association after a particular fear of lawsuit got the local elementary to drop our charter. Parent and Teacher Org is also another source of charter; however, they closely tie to the school so chances are not that good to get them to charter you. A private school is also a good charter. Any entity that does not have governmental ties is a good charter. All you have to do is to talk to them over breakfast, cup of coffee, or other venues that are appropriate. You would want to shy away from tying the charter to a person or a family. As was mentioned, it will doom the unit if the person/family decides to quit, crossover to boyscout, or lose interest. As for meeting place, you can rent a meeting room at the church or school. That is what we are doing. Our charter org doesn't have a large enough space for 100 boys Pack to meet. We rent the cafeteria from the elementary that dropped our charter. We became just another orgarnization paying for a service. Good luck, 1Hour (This message has been edited by OneHour)

oooooh, it sounds as if your troop is experiencing a coup d'etat. This calls for the intervention of the COR and the CC (and the former scoutmaster). If the commmittee does not have enough time to recruit a new SM and the former excellent SM is stepping aside for new blood, then why can't he stay on until another Scoutmaster is sought? This is the most sensible way while allowing the committee to do its job of finding the right person. Of course care should be taken with this one renegade parent who self-proclaimed himself as the heir-apparent SM! He could splinter the troop. If it were our situation, I would ask that the former scoutmaster to stay on until the situation subsides and participates in promoting, searching, whatever it takes to find the right person for the position. I would have the CC, COR, and SM sit this man down and explain to him the BSA search process and the way that the troop should be run. If he is the right person, then interview him for the job as with others. By-laws? I have yet to find any reference to by-laws that the troop has to have in G2SS, Scout Laws, Scout Oath, Scout Motto, or Scout Slogan. Now, there exist the bylaws at the national level, namely the Charter and Bylaws and Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America. I do not think that your troop is a separate organization than the BSA? If it is not, then a troop by-law is not needed. Good luck, 1Hour

This is interesting discussion for it is not at all strange to me. We have several scouts who are athletes and love scouting at the same time. We advise the parents to let the boys choose their paths. If the boy doesn't like sport, he'll let you know. If he doesn't like scouting, he'll show it. It is very unproductive to force a boy to do what he does not like to do; as a matter of fact, he will repel and he will make it miserable for all who are involved. As for our scouts who are athletes, two dropped out and devoted themselves to baseball and football. The remaining athletes, they continued to come as much as they can. Three of them are 1st Class, one is still 2nd class, and 2 are Star scouts! It takes longer for them earn their ranks, but who is in a hurry anyway? They have up to 18 to earn their Eagle ranking! Bottom line, if they enjoy both, then why not let them choose or do both! Side note, our troop can afford it since we have 70+ boys and if a few don't show up, we are not at a lost for lack of boys. I'm not sure if I can say the same for troops that have 20 or fewer boys. Good luck, 1Hour

We are assuming that you are the SM. As previously mentioned, send him/ her off to BSA school! If the classes are not readily available, as Venividi indicated, have a talk with him/her about how the troop is supposed to run (I'm assuming that your troop is a classic, well-oiled and tuned, boy-run troop) and see where he/she fits. Let him/her see the New Leader Training tape and have him/her thumbs through the Scoutmaster Handbook ... then send them to class! As a Scoutmaster, you do have a definite area that you would like this person to help with, right? If not, find one before you have the talk and tell him/her exactly what the position entails and where the boundaries (responsibilities) are with respect to the boys and other scoutmasters. If you are the CC, ditto on the committee side. It should work since we have the same problem and continue to have inspired parents after every recruiting season. The great thing about these over-zealous parents is that they are great helpers after they know exactly where they stand and what their duties are! Case-in-point, we have a father who was our CM from one of the packs. He was thinking that he would be an ASM after his son joins the troop. Having witnessed his interactions with the cubs before, we decided that he best fits in the committee role and chairing one of our fundraisers. It works out great! Good luck. 1Hour

gwd-scouter ... your house will be clean ... when you are about to move out of it! We are in the process of moving to a slightly bigger house (to store more of my scouting stuffs ... and sons' of course). The boss made me clean house! I had to get rid several tons of stuffs! Right now, the house looks great uncluttered! My boss made a comment. She said, "I have never realized how beautiful your den looks until now!" There is a compliment in there somewhere! (This message has been edited by OneHour)

Our annual recharter is $35. That covers natl dues, ins, Boy's Life, and troop expenses such as awards, badges, and supplementing a little of the camping cost. The $75 is a one-time cost to cover for tent, cooking gear, troop gear, troop's materials for district/council activities (camporees, first aid meets, merit badge day, Scout Fair etc), troop t-shirts, and continuing paying off our trailer. The tents get abused and are being retired after 3-4 years of service. For our new scouts patrol, they get new tents and cooking gear. As you can see we don't do very well with fundraiser. It's not a lot, but it's an incentive to keep going with scouting. 1Hour

Chippewa29, Of course there is the other side of the coin. Two years ago, we had two Webelos who do not think that they'd like boy scout. They hated cubbing and only made it through webelos kicking and screaming. I talked to them and asked them to give it a try. They did. They are currently Star scouts. It seems that what changed their minds was their first campout with the troop. To me cub scouting is too long. The boys get burn out by the time the get into boy scout. Their den leaders sold it as boy scouting; as a result, most of them (and parents) think that boy scout is just another extension of the arts and crafts and it doesn't matter what you do to convince them, but this is another thread for another time. In our troop we have a one-time $75 equipment fee. This in itself is an incentive to stick it through the first year. We can't make them stay nor should their parents. If they stay and they are miserable, they will pass their miseries onto other boys. They will be more rebellious. The key to high retention rate is a good ole program! We are fortunate enough for the past 4 years to have an average retention rate of 70%, going from a troop of 23 to a troop of 72 registered scouts. What I noticed as well is that if the troop can make it fun for the parents (ie. keep them busied, involved, and imformed), the likelyhood of their sons to continue with scouting is much higher Good luck, 1Hour

wildhog, ASMs are there to assist the SM in carrying the various functions that the SM feels the need to have oversight. It is the SM who recruits the ASM. It is the SM who delegates the task. It is the SM who is the boss. It is the SM who can terminate the membership (in addition to the COR). If you are the SM, are you willing to step him aside and hit the reality 2x4 on his head? As for his son, you will have to coach the SPL on how to deal with the situation and let him handle it. As for advancement, if he pushes his son to advance, that's his perrogative; however, I would have a hard time if he actually signs off his son's requirements. Good luck, 1Hour ps: Yes ... recently, we have the same man showed up at our troop. I had a post on this sometimes in July. By the way, I couldn't do anything other than talk to the SM and CC about it. To date, I have no clues whether or not they have a talk with the gentleman. My feeling (knowing that our SM and our CC are non-confrontational) is that nothing was done.

CNYScouter, Besides the BSA's prescribed recruiting procedures, usually we look for the following qualities in a CC and I do believe that the same exist in any type of unit (other may object to the list, but this is what we were looking for when we had to find a replacement for our CC): 1) Someone who subscribes to the BSA ideals, namely participating with his/her son in many troop/pack/crew's activities and is willing to take and provide all the training necessary to provide the unit with support effeciently. 1.a) Someone who is willing to allow the scoutmasters and the junior leaders to run the troop as it best fits. 2) Someone who is organized, keeping a unit going requires a lot of organization! (from budget to logistics). 3) Someone who is outgoing and can interface with other adults of similar or different interests. He/she will need to communicate and convince parents to volunteer, donate, work, help, etc. 4) Someone who is a strong natural leader (experience is not required). To command an army of volunteers takes a strong leader who can get even the most reluctant parent to help. He/she has to be a strong leader without being obnoxious. 5) Someone who is caring and trusting. 6) Someone who is resourceful, finding ways and resources to accomodate the scouts chosen activity in addition to recruit the correct people for the right job. 7) Someone who is willing to devote the necessary time to do the job right! 8) Someone who is willing to just take on the position. Just to name a few. If you can find someone like this, clone him/her and send us a copy. We'll pay for the shipping! Sometimes, the best that we could settle for is #8 and hope for the best. Cheers, 1Hour ps: We are fortunate to have found a gentleman who has 6 out of the 8 qualities(This message has been edited by OneHour)

Life after SM is a long list of "honey do's"! Right now and until I quit, scouting is a great excuse for me!

The parents in our troop usually pony up close to $1500 - $2000 of FOS. Personally, I'm getting tired of paying $200 for the Council hat. I'm just going to have to add $50 more to get that coffe mug as well! We're not rich. We just believe in scouting! I don't participate in United Way any more. Instead, I focus my donation (which would have gone to United Way and pointed to BSA) to our Council FOS effort. As for fundraiser, our Council gets the cut with whatever popcorn or scout fair ticket/raffle that our troop sells. As for our Pack, on an average, we usually sell about $8000 worth of popcorn. That's $3200 to the Council in addition to about $1000-$1200 worth of FOS. We have done our portion of helping our Council on the Cub Scout side! Yes, we could do more, but resources are lacking and not very forthcoming.

Why, yes, I do. PM me with your email address and I will forward them to you, the picture, the scoring sheet, and the instruction that I gave to our Camporee Chair. The most popular was the Tomahawk throw! Go figure!

This event is what we held and was the second most popular: Lashing a washbowl stand - I precut 4 sets of four 4' poles, three 3' poles and ten sets 15' 3/8" ropes. Each team would elect a patrol leader if they don't already have one. I share the picture of the washbowl and the installation instruction with the patrol leader and then talk to the rest of the patrol about the scoring system. The catch is that the patrol leader is the only one who gets to hold the picture. He is to instruct the patrol on how to build it and has no actual participation in the construction of it. This forces the patrol leader to communicate and the patrol to listen. The scoring is different from conventional scoring. The event is timed and is as followed: - total start out points = time it took to finish x 5 - for each correct lashing = deduct 5 points - resembling the washbowl stand - deduct 5 points - washbowl stands upright = deduct 10 points - washbowl stands upright with 1 gallon of water in the bowl = deduct 10 points - cleanup and place everything back the way it was = deduct 5 points; however, if they don't clean up = add 10 points! - patrol spirit = deduct 1 - 5 maximum (only subjective portion of the grading and entirely up to the judge) The patrol with the lowest points win! They really come out with a lot of creative ways to make the stand!(This message has been edited by OneHour)

Our sincere condolences and our prayers to you and your family. Best, 1Hour

Dinning hall is my preferred ideal. Not all summer camps have the activities close together. After a lengthy walk to and fro each of the 4-6 merit badge classes under the hot sun, the boys (and the adults) are quite exhausted to cook. We cooked our dinner one day during this past summer camp. It took over 2.5 hours for the boys to finish preparing and cooking silver turtles (the easiest of all meals). We were short of ingredient because as pointed earlier, the camp mis-counted. We had boxed breakfast and that was not full-filling at all. A muffin, a cup of milk, and an apple or orange is not my cup of tea for a full-filling breakfast. Patrol cooking is great if the troop is small and the meals are sufficiently provided. One other thing, patrol cooking is great if you are doing in council summer camp where it is close and you can actually pull your trailer with the full compliment of chuck boxes and cooking gear (and you can get into the car/van to go to the store to get missing items). Our troop tends to go out-of-council in rental vans or chartered buses. There is no such luxury to pull our trailer. So ... to us ... eating in dinning hall is the way to go. 1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)