ScoutNut

You have a Tiger meeting this week, get there early and talk to the DL. Let him know what is going on with you and the CM. Blindsiding him with "Sorry we are splitting the den, your den is down to X # of boys, I have the other Y # in my den" is not the way to go. Once you explain, he may just admit that he is way to busy to handle the den. Ask the Tiger families to stay a bit after the den meeting for a parent meeting. Get this straightened out ASAP. Dens (& Packs) should have a consistent meeting day and time (mine is every Sat from 9-10AM). Otherwise families are way to likely to forget.

While it is the DE's job to add new units, that is not really what is happening here. You already have a unit, and a CO. It is YOUR Troop's decision to find a new CO. To state that it is the DE's job, and that all you should have to do is call the DE and tell him to do all of the work and to simply let you know when he finds you a new CO is not fair at all. It is especially unfair if you follow scoutldr's suggestion and tell the DE you will dis-band the Troop if he does not find you a new CO. Your CC, SM, and other Troop leaders, should work TOGETHER with your DE to find a CO that suits YOUR Troops needs.

Ooops!(This message has been edited by scoutnut)

My Council's training calendar for the year is set before August. We are already taking registations for NLE in February and March, and I can't see canceling the last few Spring trainings on the off chance there will be an online training offered. Hopfully, BSA will have the kinks out, and the training online, before we have to do our 2009-2010 training schedule!

Most of the leader knots are training awards. The progress records, with the requirements, for these awards can be found under the BSA National forms - http://www.scouting.org/Media/forms.aspx The BSA Insignia Guide gives a list of most of the available knots (there are a few new ones not listed) - http://www.scouting.org/media/insigniaguide/10K.aspx

A CC can "fire" a leader - with the consent of the Charter Org (COR). The CO has the final word. There are no closed, or secret, meetings in BSA. There is no reason to do so. Contact your COR.

From the BSA National Web site - The new online training course This is Scouting will soon replace New Leader Essentials. However, the development time has taken longer than anticipated and it will not be on the Online Learning Center until the middle of March.

"I agree it just does not look real good if they get to a District Eagle BOR and their parent is MBC for a majority of their badges." And just HOW is the District (or any other) EBOR going to know this? BSA does NOT ask for the name of the Merit Badge Counselor on any official form. The only place the Counselor's name might be, is on the "Blue Card". However, BSA specifically states that it is NOT mandatory to use a "Blue Card", and many units/councils do not. Although some BOR's require a Scout to bring all "Blue Cards" with him to a BOR, this is NOT a BSA requirement for advancement or a BOR, and can be considered adding to requirements if a Scout is denied advancement simply because of this. VCREW66, you are a registered MB Counselor (you did not state if you have taken MBC training). Despite what others say, BSA policy allows you to counsel your own son. BSA does NOT require Merit Badges to be worked on as a group. It DOES require that the Scout have a "buddy" with him, however, the buddy does not have to be another Scout. There is also no BSA restrictions on where a Merit badge is taught. Teaching at home is fine. I do not think there should be a problem with YP and the buddy system in this instance. However, if you want to go by the book, then have your wife, or another family member, sit in on the MB sessions.

"I have a couple parents who are completely uninvolved to the point that they send their son to meetings with another parent. Or the child doesn't show up. Even the pack meetings and go see its." When these families joined Cub Scouts, they should have had it explained to them that Cub Scouting is FAMILY oriented. They should also have had it explained to them that, as TIGER PARTNER, they MUST be with their son AT ALL TIMES! At my very first Tiger den meeting of the school year, I always explain to my Tiger Teams that they will be "joined at the hip" for the entire year. The adults do everything WITH their Scout, including learning the Bobcat items, songs, games, crafts, etc. The only time they are allowed to have another Tiger Partner bring their Tiger to a meeting is in a one-time emergency situation. It is just not fair to another parent to expect them to share their time between their own son and someone else's every week. While you might feel bad for the boys who don't receive awards along with the rest of the den, the thing you must remember is - It is NOT YOUR fault! Now is a good time to send out notes (e, snail mail, or both) to every Tiger family in your den. Itemize what THEY still need to do WITH their son to earn Bobcat, and/or, Tiger. Remind them that THEY are responsible for working with their son to finish these items. I have told my Tiger Teams that we will work on some alternate activities and outings to cover what some have missed. However, it come down to THEM working with THEIR son. Let's face it - The Tiger requirements are not exactly rocket science. They can even be adjusted to fit what is available to the family. Then it is simply Do Your Best. How hard is that? Sit down with each of your slacker families separately and explain the program to them slowly, and carefully! Don't let them pull out the "Not Enough Time" card at all. Just nip that off as soon as they start. Maybe they will FINALLY get it.

The above form is for the Cub Scout award, and is not an official BSA form. That site does have a form for the Boy Scout award - http://www.boyscouttrail.com/docs/formworldconservationboy.pdf Or the Advancement Chair could simply keep track of the merit badges, and when the required merit badges have been earned, add the World Conservation award to the list to be purchased.

SMT224, what I am questioning is why you are being so deliberatly troll-like in your comments. I SPECIFICALLY QUOTED the comment of yours I was referring to, and it was NOT the question of where the money comes from. It was the wildly inappropriate suggestion that BSA National FORCED any individual council to log their camps.

"Were Councils forced to log their summer camps to pay for Roy's 1.5 million retirement package?" You can't really be serious with this question? Summer Camps are OWNED by the individual COUNCILS. What the COUNCIL does with THEIR camps is THEIR CHOICE. It is usually determined by a committee of VOLUNTEERS from the COUNCIL. National can't "force" individual councils to do anything with their own land. Mr Williams compensation package, and the rest of National's budget, comes from a variety of sources. The $10 annual National membership fee (which is the same as, or lower, that that of other similar youth organizations) is one source. National also charges each council an annual fee which is based on the amount of money that council spends on salaries. National also receives money from subscriptions to their publications, and sales from National Supply (ScoutStuff). National also funds itself thru corporate, and individual, contributions, grants, and earnings on investments. Most of your FOS $ stays in your HOME COUNCIL. Those $, along with popcorn (or whatever product sale) $, United Way $, corporate contributions, bequests, investment earnings, & yes even logging profits, etc, all pay for ALL of your LOCAL HOME COUNCIL'S total expenses. These expenses include rent/mortgage on all buildings and land, vehicles, salaries/benefits, electric, phone, internet, water, insurance, upkeep of land and buildings, any major improvements/repairs to land/buildings, office materials, program materials/equipment, training expenses, expenses involved in providing programing for the Scouts in their council, etc, etc. Councils, at least those that are run decently, also should have enough monies put into a fund to allow them to pay their bills for a specific number of months, in case of an emergency. If you don't donate thru FOS, if your unit does not sell popcorn (or whatever your council sells), if you do not designate where your United Way donation goes, if you get local business to donate to YOUR UNIT instead of to your council, then why are you surprised when your council has to get creative in order to make enough money to pay its bills?

I have never heard of ANY Pack that refused to allow SM's to bring along their SPL, or any other of their boy leaders (although they might have a number limit based on the fire occupancy of the meeting facility). If the Pack that Stosh was involved with did that, then that Pack has more problems then simply ignoring the Patrol Method (which is NOT a CUB SCOUT method). In the one or two visits to a Troop that a Webelos makes prior to crossover, they are not usually put into the Patrols that they would be in IF, by some chance, they ended up registering with that Troop. So they are NOT getting to personally know their Patrol mates. They are getting an OVERALL feeling for the Troop and it's boys. A Webelos Crossover ceremony is PRIMARILY a CUB SCOUT ceremony. The Pack might work with the Troop, but it is the Pack that makes the decisions on the ceremony. The SM represents the entire Troop, not just one Patrol. The SM's, ALONG WITH their SPL's, of the Troops that the Webelos will be moving into should be there to welcome the new Scouts, and their families, into their Troops.

"I not saying take away all his compensation, but simply to consider what the BSA didnt do because that 1.5 million went to Roy and not into Scouting Programs." What kind of Scouting programs should/could have BSA National office done?

"I'm still waiting for ScoutNut, John-in-KC, Eagle92, & BadenP to explain what Roy did to deserve the millions WE paid him!" You may be waiting, but you obvioulsy are not reading. I believe I have made my position very clear. I do NOT work at the National level. I am NOT a volunteer on the National Board. I have no knowledge of everything that falls under Mr Williams's job description. I have no knowledge of what EXACTLY he did during his 30+ years as an employee of BSA. Given all of that, how can I possibly make a determination on weather he deserves his compensation/retirement package or not? However, the BSA National Volunteers who set his compensation seem to think he deserves what they gave him. I trust that they know the facts better than me. You keep stating that his salary and retirement benefits should be taken away and used for something else. What else should it be used for?

My point is - So what? If BSA National feels that Roy Williams is worth his salary then good for them. I have no say so in the matter, and, since I have no idea what his job performance is, I can not possibly have an opinoin on weather he is over compensated or not. Obviously BSA National does not think so, and has the money to be able to pay it. National registration will still cost me $10 per year, weather Roy Williams has his salary doubled, or cut in half. Cutting Roy Williams salary will not help a local Scouting family "struggling with fiscal issues". My Scouts are NOT paying Roy Williams salary. They ARE helping to pay for OUR Council's salaries, and expenses, and THAT'S something I DO care about!

"Do you seriously believe that the salaries of BSA executives would be impacted by a Scouting volunteer bringing the issue with a local council?" The salaries of BSA Executives are CREATED BY SCOUTING VOLUNTEERS. I would call that an impact. I personally have no problem with what the SE in my council is being paid. She is the CEO of a small corporation, and has been for quite a long while. The corporation is fiscally sound, and hopefully will stay that way. That is a good thing. Is the council perfect? No, it has it's problems. However, few things in this life are perfect, and it's imperfections are things that I can deal with. I am also glad to hear our SE has a decent pension package. In this economy, she will need it when she decides to retire.

National does not pay for DE's salaries, not do they run council camps. As National tried to state a number of times, it is VOLUNTEERS on various boards, at both the National, and individual council, level, who set executive saleries. If you think our professionals are paid to much, or are not handling their council camps properly, then get on your council's boards/committees and change it. Pressure your COR's to do their jobs and represent their units on your council's boards/committees.

(This message has been edited by scoutnut)

I am a bit confused about what you want. What does your DE, the state of your District's Roundtable, or a badly run Klondike have to due with you changing Packs? You say you want to change to a new Pack, but you don't want the DE to know (why?). Then you state that you have already looked at all of the Packs in your area and don't like any of them. You further state that the Packs in the neighboring Districts are to far away. So which do you want? Do you want to find a new Pack? Or do you simply want to vent about the lack of a Pack to transfer to, and use that as a reason to pull your son out of scouts altogether? If you are serious about finding a new Pack, talk to your DE. Or give your Council registrar a call. Or, if, for whatever reason, you don't want to go thru your council, look at the Pack Finder at - http://www.joincubscouting.org/ It will give you the Pack number and CO of most (not necessarily the newest) of the Pack's in your town, and surrounding towns, by simply putting in your zip code. You can then contact the CO's for Pack contact info. You can always start up a new Pack. You can help to fix the den/Pack you are in now. Go around the den leader and organize your current den. Talk to the other Tiger Teams, and come up with a rotating meeting schedule with every Tiger family taking turns putting together, and running meetings (this is called Shared Leadership). Let your den leader know when/where the meetings will be. In the meantime, you can also work with your Tiger at home to complete his Tiger rank requirements. Or, you can pull your Tiger out of BSA. It is up to you.

We use the Parish School Hall of our CO. This is where we have our Pack meetings. We are not charged for the space. We cater the meal from a local VFW. Cheapest deal around, and tons of food. We charge a minimal amount ($7, under 5 free) per person. Our aim is to come as close to breaking even for the evening as possible.

First, it's STEARNS METHOD, not streams. Why are you so fixated on 2 lanes? Even with 20 boys, it takes longer, so the boys end up racing less. And hopefully you will not stay at 20 boys. Next year you could have 30, or 40. That number of boys would take an unaccceptable amount of time to race on just 2 lanes. A 3, or 4, lane track makes much better sense for the long haul. And why do you feel you need to do this? If you do a quick Google search on pinewood derby program you get 1,050,000 hits. There are a lot of good programs already out there, and they are free. Why do you need a new one? Also, I thought your Pack did not want to pay for a new track this year, and the Pack you borrow from runs the derby for you using all their own equipment and software?

"One door toward the latrine, the other toward the coffee pot." Now that's an answer I like!

I have never seen a plastic/PVC PWD track. I would think there would be strength and stability issues with that kind of design. You stated that making that kind of track, with 2 lanes, would cost about $200, but that you can't get the CM (where is the CC?) to agree. Perhaps the problem is that the $200 your track would cost is not in this year's budget. I would try bringing up the matter of a new track at next month's committee/leaders meeting. Perhaps it is something that can be highlighted as a goal for next year's popcorn sale. Or, the Pack could discuss a separate money-earning activity earmarked specifically for a new track. You said that you have been accused of trying to sabotage the PWD. How? By lobbying for a new track? By not wanting families to reuse old cars? By encouraging boy made cars? I am not sure I understand this one. You also said - " I suspect that the CM wants a wood track so that he can race his car again as his son's car." Not sure I understand this one either. What difference does the composition of, or number of lanes in, a track have to do with what car someone races? If an adult is going to make his son's car for him, how will running the race on a plastic 2-lane track change that? There are tons of web sites out there that give all sorts of hints on how to get the fastest car. Why not simply send out a list of the sites, along with your Pack PWD rules, to every family in the Pack (including the CM)? Then it is up to the boys and their families how they want to build their cars. BTW - I agree with DenZero, Partial Perfect N is the way to go for maximum races and fun.

OK - What about if you have 2 doors?