Pack212Scouter

The absolute earliest that they could cross as a group would be either December, or six months after the youngest's tenth birthday. Don't rush them though. It sounds like one of your big concerns is needing leaders. This is not a good reason. Needing leaders is a troop issue that needs to be looked into, not a Pack advancement issue. Don't rush these boys because you need their parents, you are almost sure to lose some of them in that case.

Wow...that is a REALLY early bridgeover. We actually had to push ours back to the begining of April this year to make sure they get everything done because we're doing the God and Country program. Keep in mind that they can also do the "Super Achiever" as Webelos. It goes by many names but it's earning all the pins. Our Troop usually waits until they are Web 2's to do alot of the AOL requirements with them. If they are ready, then I would say go for it. I would make sure to schedule it for when you know that they all meet the requirements and have received their AOL.

I could be wrong, and am sure that I will be corrected if I am , but I believe on the Cub Scout level, neckerchiefs are supposed to be the correct level neckerchief for Cubs. Slides can be any slide, including hand made.

Did they say $10,000 for camp?!?!?! I need Ridaline now! Kinda makes that $1600 cost of Jamboree look downright thrifty, doesn't it!

I have long discovered that elemetry grade level kids are very literal when it comes to race. My daughter for instance can't help but refer to someone as "The Mexican girl", or "that black boy". There is nothing racist at all about it. In her mind, a skin color description is no different that of hair color. I am actually kinda sad that I find it neccessary to explain to her how adults may not view it that way. Sadly it is the adults and not the kids that are usually oversensative. My daughter for instance has several black and hispanic close friends. (I appologize to anyone offended here but I refuse to use terms such as African-American, etc. You either are American or your not, your ethnic backgroud has nothing to do with it and terms like this only serve to divide us not unite us.) BTW, hurah to your SPL. I hope that you met with him in private later and told him how exemplary his response was.(This message has been edited by pack212scouter)

Hopefully the CC is fully onboard with this. I have some concerns when you mention that one is the CM's grandson. Even more so that one is the son of a "prominant CO member." The first thing to do is to examine carefully what is precipitating this. Has there been a Cubmasters session with the parents attending? If so, the CC & CM may wish to require a parent to be present at any meeting or event. Otherwise, the CC and COR should consider removal from the program. Because of their position, this could be very sticky, however in the worst case you can always file reports. Another option would be to separate them into different dens if available.

I'm glad to hear that BW. Maybe they finally fixed it. Most of the people that I know are running super systems on broadband and have everything updated. It didn't help them much. I sincerely hope that it has been fixed!

Our incoming Webelos dens pick their patrol emblem as the final thing in their Bear year. It is presented to them at our awards dinner in April. I can't think of any that were not excited about it...kind of a right of passage into Webelos thing for them.

We meet every Monday, and it seems to have the opposite effect. Any time that weeks are skipped, attendance drops off. It seems that people get used to not coming. We retain about 80% of our Tigers into Wolves, and about 90% or more retention into the later ranks. I think it has more to do with program and support than meeting frequency. This year we even picked up some Cubs from other packs because we have a more active program and some of the other pPacks didn't.

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We had six Tiger Dens last year and anticipate that again this year. Starting last year we had an ACM assigned the Tiger rank.

It amaizes me how little many people seem to understand about "oil company profits." True, they are making record profits, but that is because of the high price of crude oil and the sheer size of the busines. Exxon for example made a record profit of $40.6 Billion dollars...OMG right? Wrong. To make that record profit, Exxon had to spend $404.5 Billion! That's right. They had a profit margit of 10%, which is right on the average US manufacturing profit of 9.2% (without auto companies included). Let's break this down a bit more. The REAL profits were $70.4 billion, but Exxon paid $29.8 billion in income taxes. That is a tax rate of 42.3% without any windfal tax! But wait....Exxon actually paid $105.6 billion in taxes all together... 26.1% of GROSS revenue. So one corporation, Exxon, paid as much in taxes as the entire lower 50% of Americans (65,000,000 of them!). Hmmm, I just thought of this. Since corporate expenses are passed onto the consumer, that means that in addition to the .32 to .75 cent per gallon tax we pay, we also got taxed and additional $812 for each person. Oh...and let's not forget. Out of that $40.6 billion, they paid out $7.6 billion in dividends. What is the price of a $4.00 gallon of gas made up of? Crude oil cost - $1.48 Gas Taxes - $0.50 (range is $0.324 to $0.749) Refining costs - $0.75 Disribution & marketing - $0.35 Credit Card fees - $0.12 Gas Station overhead - $0.10 Gas Station payroll - $0.10 Gas station profit - $0.10 Tax on Oil company profit - $0.22 Exploration, capital improvements, etc, by oil co. - $0.10 Left over for oil company? - $0.18(This message has been edited by pack212scouter)

I think your headed in the right direction here. Tigers are the easiest to get and the hardest to keep. Consistancy in meeting days and location will help with that. By decree of our Charter Organization, our entire Pack meets on Monday nights. This amounts to 3 Den meetings and 1 Pack meeting per month. Tigers of course use one of theirs for a Go See It. While it has the potential for wearing some people out, meeting every week seems to provide a consistancy that makes it where people don't forget that there is a meeting. I wouldn't make the Tiger meeting too large. If you truely have 2-3 Tiger dens of 6+ boys, then have them meet in seperate rooms if possible. Too many boys together at this age is a recipe for chaos and makes it difficult to have a quality meeting.

Not only that, but it works terrible. It took me five or six attempts to make it all the way through. Our Cubmaster is now on his sixth attempt to complete it without it crashing. This is ridiculous!

That is so sad Trevorum, especially from people that are supposedly part of the "progressive" party. I vote conservative, and I would have absolutely no issues voting for a black, or any other, candidate that held my values.

Felt, I would not recommend. It wears poorly, especially if used outdoors. It also soaks up water and will become heavy and off color. Canvas, I'd go with a lighter material. It can get heavy if young Scouts carry it. This is probably the best material for painting and sewing to. Be aware that paint will run and you should use paint that is more of an ink than paint, so that it does not dry and crack in storage. Plastic, I wouldn't use. Vinyl is what you want to look for here. It does not retain water and can be sewn on a limited basis, especially with large items. Don't use caulk or hot glue. Adhesive Vinyl letters and stickers stay on well, but wipe down the surface with alcohol first to remove any contaminants. Vinyl is pretty much the sign industry standard for banners, as it is easy to use and wears well. Permanant marker usually works reasonably well on it. If your attaching patches, etc, I would use one of the high strength bond double sided tapes.

"half the religions recognized with religious emblems would like to permanently do in the other half." That is so incorrect. Most of the religions do not share all the beliefs of others, however "do in" is not the aim of most of them.

BTW...my father-in-law owns a sign shop, so I have some experience in it. If you do buy or make a banner with vinyl adheared to it, make sure that the pack knows to roll the banner with the vinyl to the outside; this will help keep it from bubbling or seperating.

While I much prefer the traditional method, I think that the reality is that this is the way it will go. Den leaders now days are busier than ever and this will help them to plan their Den. Additionally, I think the work at home method best achieves the means of Cub Scouts, but once more reality exists. I see a significant number of Cubs that I get the feeling haven't really done their requirements, the parent either just signs off on it, or they do it half-way. At least by doing most of them in the Dens, you know that they are actually being covered.

Come on GW...I know you can annylize better than that. Issue: Storm with high winds. Solution 1: Get in car and drive 30-40 minutes home, most likely in front of it all. Get terrified kid in his bed. Solution 2: Sit in a glass walled dining all with 300 other people and trees all around. Hope that nothing falls on it or breaks windows. Watch wide eyed kids be scared to death. I personally may have stuck it out. But A) the parent needs to decide. B) While options were limited, I'm not so sure that the dining hall was the best idea around. In the case of a tornado sure...your inside...with shards of glass from 40 2x6 foot windows swirling about at 100 mph.

Banners can range from the kind you make yourself, to printed ones. You can buy lengths of banner material and place vinyl stickers on them, or you can have a sign shop make them. Prices vary, but if purchasing one I'd expect between $60 & $100. They can also be color printed. A local sign shop donated 3 to our Pack, one of which was full color. We simply provided the prepared artwork for it and he loaded it up and printed it our. It came out great. I'd find a sign shop...especially a smaller local one and see if they might even donate. If it is donated and your packs artwork, I don't think that there would be any BSA image copyright problems. (It's not making them money and the Pack has the rights to use the images).

As others have said... 1) Electives can be worked on concurrently with achievements. Arrow points and elective beads may only be worn however, after the rank requirements are completed. 2) Many feel that the camping requirement is a grey area, however it is not. Translated into plain English, ALL Cub Scout camping on the Tiger/Wolf/Bear level is Family Camping. A family member or person responsible for the Scout must attend the campout which may only be a Pack, District, or Council Level Campout. Webelos may camp as a Den. Recreational Camping is when a family goes out to the state park to camp with their Scout son. Many will try to say "we are just a group going to a campground", but if anything did happen, that wouldn't fly.

I get a feeling this is another "paper" charter organization. I may be wrong though. As for qualifications, I think a CM should preferably have one year of Scouting under their belt so that they kinda have the lay of it, but it's not necessary. Definitely enthusiasm over background. It takes alot of energy to complete the job well. The Committee Chair has all the overhead to handle, the CM is mostly there to HELP plan and to keep things motivated. Something else, your pack needs to get succession working if it is going to get out of that rut. There should be an ACM that can take over that not only wants the job, but is enthused by it. It may even be a system such as ACM for one year, CM for the next. I've heard of alot of Packs (ok COs, but lets face reallity, a good number of COs don't care or don't want to know. I wish it was different) that just let a CM carry the position for years, even long ofter their son moved up, and once the CM decided it was enough and finally left, the Pack took a nosedive. Our own Pack has established a 2+2 program for CM & CC. About 1-2 years as assistant, learning the ropes and helping out, and then 2 years as a CM or CC (usually their son's Webelos years).

As others have said, the boys progress in rank at the end of their school year. Some Packs wait until the beginning of the school year, but even though it is a little grey, that still isn't the way it should be. Also by waiting until the end of summer to move up, you are shorting your Webelos on advancement time and opportunities. I tend to look at it from the Webelos side, since this is the area that is most demanding and has the most to accomplish.(This message has been edited by pack212scouter)

I have had a bad back since I was a young teen. Usually I get at least some moderate back pain on a hike. Suprisingly I have discovered that carrying a pack of moderate weight has actually impoved my back issues. The pack tends to force you into a better posture during the hike. You may be pleasantly suprised.