puppy30

I was on the committee and a den leader for my middle son. The leaders in positions of cubmaster, committee chair thought they were doing a great job. While I didn't really want to leave the pack, my oldest would be leaving at the same time as the current cubmasters son and committee chairs son. I agree that sometimes you have to start the ball rolling in changing things, there are also times when you have to fall back and rethink things. The "click" if you want to call it that ran the show and didn't want to hear about anything else. There were enough in leader positions to vote anything out they didn't want. I spent several years trying to work on changing things. I am not going to apologize to anyone for switching. This new packs not perfect either, but committee meetings are held once a month in stead of twice a year, news letters are more informative and they ask for parents help.

When I was in High School, my scout troop was raising money to go to the summer olympics in Montreal, Canada. I remember that I had geography class right after lunch. One of our fundraisers was selling chocolate bars. My teacher, Mr. Guillani was real cool about me selling them and letting the kids eat during his class. The one stipulation was I had to tell everyone who I was selling the candy for and why. I got razzed as soon as I said it was for scouts. But once I told everyone why, their mouths just stood open. I told them of other things we did, hiking at West Point, camping at Assitegue (sp?) every year, horseback riding in Wyoming, winter camping, canoing etc. While it didn't entice a lot of people to join, scouting was no longer uncool. (By the way, this was girl scouting) The one kid who was the loudest about it not being cool, was quickly put in place when everyone found out that his sister (most popular in school) was a scout. At least until I graduated from High School, scouting was looked at in a different light. I went on to be a brownie leader for many years to give back what I had gotten, now I have three sons, a second year Webelos and a Wolf. The youngest can't wait. I don't know about the older guys and the wearing of their uniforms, but right now my guys love to wear it. They get a lot of comments about their arrow points and the pins on their hats and the loops on their belts. I hope it continues.

One thing that we do with the cub scouts is have a candle at the meetings. The candle is lit at the beginning of the meeting. Who ever gets rowdy and doesnt' follow the rules, etc. has to blow the candle out. It doesn't get lit again until the next meeting. When the candle finally gets all the way down, the boys get either a pizza party or ice cream (it depends on what time of the year the candle is finished!) Since this is something the boys look forward to, it doesn't take long before the boys check themselves on their behavior. No one wants to be the one to blow out the candle! I don't know if this would work with the older guys. But it might! Good luck

One of the major reasons we left the pack we did was because we felt they weren't really there for the boys. For example: November is scouting for food. Takes 1 to 2 hours on two consecutive Saturdays. It is also popcorn drive pick up. There were NO den meetings for my Webelo that month because it was felt that there was already too many things going on. One meeting was held in September and one in October. Sorry....this was unacceptable. Too many times if it was convinient for all parties there was nothing. Summer time pack events? A baseball game and that was it. While I realize that it is run by volunteers, ( I am a den leader), I always thought scouting was for the boys. Yes communication is a two way street, but enough is enough. My boys wanted to do things. They are happier now and plan on continuing in scouting. Information was not passed on by the committee chair nor the cubmaster. Information was gotten at roundtable and if anyone in the pack participated (and it had not been announced at a pack meeting) the cubmaster and committee chair were not happy. I have learned that there you need to pick your fights and when you are in a losing situation, know when to fold. It's not the same for everyone, but there are times when switching packs is the best thing to do.

We also switched our sons to another pack. My guys had been in a pack associated with their school. They go to Catholic School so we originally had them with their class mates. When my oldest (now a second year webelo) was complaining about lack of meetings and fun things to do, we looked at a couple of local neighberhood packs. At first we weren't sure that we should switch, they wouldn't know the new kids. But we did switch. It was the best thing we could have done. My wolf (then tiger) knew one of the boys in his den from daycare and a couple of the boys from the other tiger den from karate. My oldest quickly made friends with his patrol. Communication is very important. If it's not there, then look for another pack. If you can't find it locally, then think about starting your own with some other parents that feel the same way. It will take work and dedication, but this is for the boys! My guys thank me every week for making the tough decision.