ScoutNut

Please, check out the opening posters other posts. Anyone connected with either BSA, or GSUSA (or for that matter most anyone) knows that they are separate organizations with no ties what so ever. This is not a genuine request for information or help.

Why are you so ready to punish every boy in the Troop for an incident that happened a month ago? And one that you have absolutely no knowledge of at all. Is it because as a member of the CO you felt that the Scouts had embarrassed you personally? Does the Troop leadership know who - exactly - was involved? If this was at a Troop meeting then the Troop's leadership was there and must have know about it. What did they do about it at the time? Since this was a month ago, there is EVERY possibility that the incident was dealt with before you ever came on board. If so, then you should not now be imposing additional consequences.

"they want to pull these 2 boys out" "They" who? The joining requirements for Boy Scouts are not new. The decision of where to put boys who meet both the joining requirements for Boy Scouts and Webelos (no such thing as a Webelo) is ONLY with the parents. NOT with council, Pack, or Troop. This whole thing could have been avoided is the parents had been up front with you, and if your Troop had a knowledge the BSA joining requirements.

They do not have to memorize the Law of the Pack. All they have to do is SAY it. This can be as simple as repeating after their Akela ONE TIME. They also have to tell what it means. As discussion with Akela will cover this. The motions to accompany the Law are interesting, and possibly fun for the boys, but are not necessary.

Repition is the key for learning anything. More so for a 1st grader. As Tiger Partner / Akela, it is your job to work with your Tiger on EVERYTHING. The only performance requirement for ANY level of Cub Scout (Tiger thru Webelos) is Do Your Best. As your Tiger's Akela, if you feel he has done his best to complete the requirement, then it is completed and you should sign off on it in his handbook. The Bobcat requirements are - LEARN and say the CUB SCOUT PROMISE SAY the LAW OF THE PACK. Tell what it means. TELL what WEBELOS means SHOW the CUB SCOUT SIGN. Tell what it means. SHOW the CUB SCOUT HANDSHAKE SAY the CUB SCOUT MOTTO. GIVE the CUB SCOUT SALUTE. Tell what it means. They also have to do the Honesty Character Connection and the YP excercises. Most of the requirements involve repeating something and discussing it's meaning. Learning the Promise is the biggest thing. If you go over 1 Bobcate requirement with him each day, and have him repeat the Promise after you at least once each day, he should have no problem finishing in one month. The Sign, Salute, and Promise are all a part of our opening each week. The Sign and Motto are part of our closing. Since it's been a month, I will change up our closing to do the Handshake instead of a Living Circle for a while. You could practice the Handshake with your Tiger as part of his bedtime ritual, or when you drop him off at school. Talk about what the LAW means as a part of the Family Talk requirement #4F.

Yes - Definately a Troll

So - This is about you, and the fact that every Pack in the area wants you? You are not registered with this Pack YET. You are not a Pack leader YET. Right now you are simply a Tiger Partner, and a Pack meeting is to show off your SON's accomplishments, not yours. Why not simply sit back, at this one meeting, be a parent, and enjoy, and support, your son's excitement when he receives his recognitions?

If you are a SM at a B&G, it is most likely because you were invited because you ARE the SM. You are there in the position of SM. As a Tiger Partner, CNYScouter can wear the Adult orange Tiger t-shirt or sweat shirt. If you feel strongly about it, wear your Venturing uniform. However, I would NOT wear a generic BSA uniform with no badges and blue loops. Personally, I think that would be tacky and could be seen to be meant to focus attention on you, rather than where the attention SHOULD be focused at a Pack meeting, on your son, the Tiger Cub Scout.

You are going to the Pack meeting as your son's parent. That, currently, is the only position you have with the Pack, and the one that you should be concentrating on tonight. Do not wear any uniform.

Welcome and thanks for taking on the FUN of being a Tiger den leader!! Being in a room with available "toys" can be a chalenge. Throwing balls at one another is soooo much more enticing than sitting. You need to set some ground rules and let them know that the classroom equipment is off limits. Have some coloring pages, mazes, word searches, etc ready for them to do as a gathering activity. See if you can get an older sibling, or Boy Scout, to come and help with gathering, games, songs, etc. Have an "official" opening and closing ceremony that defines the meeting. I do a simple flag ceremony to open the meeting. When the flag comes out the boys know it is time to stop running amok and start the meeting. I use the Living Circle (with everyone present including siblings) to end the meeting. They know that when I call for clean-up, it is not time to just run out the door. There is a formal ending to the meeting after which they are free to leave. Make sure to use Shared Leadership, and include your Adult Partners in everything their Tiger does. They are a TEAM, and joined at the hip for a year! Have you taken the online training yet? BSA has Cub Scout Fast Start training and Youth Protection training at - http://olc.scouting.org/ It looks like your council has New Leader Essentials and Cub Scout Specific trainings coming up this month. Sign up for them as soon as you can.

If the Walk-a-thon was done after the boy was registered as a Scout then I would have no problem with recognising him, and spending Pack funds, or mine, doing it. Printman, considering the number of Scouts that have gone thru my den in the last 13 years that have stayed, and grown, in Scouting, and the number of adults I have trained, and worked well with, I would hazard that I am at LEAST a 1/2 decent leader. Perhaps even 1/2 again as decent as some others.

You are an ASM. You do not have the authority to create forms and impose more paperwork on the Troop. You do not have the authority to fire your SM. You can refuse to have visitors, who do not chip in for gas, ride with you in your car. You can, and should, bring the subject up at the next Troop Committee meeting.

The joining requirements for Boy Scouts are - "completed the fifth grade AND is at least 10 years old - OR is age 11 - OR has earned the Arrow of Light Award AND is at least 10 years old, but has not reached age 18." The 5th grader has until the end of the 5th grade to work toward Webelos and AOL - If HE wishes. Talk to the boy and his parents.

How do you get your parents involved? Make sure that they ARE involved. Don't have them sitting on the other side of the room watching their boys. They should be right next to their sons. A TEAM in EVERYTHING they do. That includes, crafts, singing, learning the Promise, playing games, and acting silly! You explain the concept of Shared Leadership to them - clearly. Then you pass around a calendar and tell them that they each need to sign up for a meeting before they leave. You make copies of Program Helps and give it to each Team. You make sure everyone has your contact info so they can ask you for help (and everyone else's too so they can contact the other Tiger Teams). Make sure they understand that as the Tiger Team in charge of the meeting, they are responsible for providing all needed supplies for that meeting. Supplies for Tiger stuff does not really come up to a whole lot. A lot of it can be recycled stuff. Don't go on expensive outings. Do mostly free, or cheap things. You tell them - Work on Bobcat Requirement #__ and Family Requirement #__ this week and bring in your signed book to the next meeting. Why do you "only get 2 hours a month with the boys"? You should be meeting weekly. 3 Tiger meetings and 1 Pack meeting each month. "I need to have all of them to Tigers by Feburary. For the Blue and Gold." WHY??? Will they quit Scouting otherwise? Will the Pack kick you out? Will the Sun explode? They have until the end of the school year to earn their Tiger rank and Elective awards. Earning by Blue and Gold is nice, but not necessary. BTW - Have they all finished Bobcat?

OK, if you give a boy a patch for something he did before he joined BSA, how far back do you go? 2 months? 4 months? What about 6 months? 1 year? 2 years or more? Why stop at service? Why not include things done years before he is a registered Scout, and give him credit toward award requirements? Heck, I know little brothers in pre-school who participated with their older siblings & family in an all night Relay for Life. Little brothers do the Crop Walk with big brothers and sisters. Heck, I had one little guy at a popcorn booth sale last month who sold way more popcorn than either of his Scout brothers. Should those little brothers get patches for it when they finally become registered Cub Scouts? There are many ways to encourage volunteerism and service.

Sorry, but things done before he became a Scout are not Scout activities, and recognitions for it should not be paid for out of Pack funds.

Did these 2 visitors interfere with the Scouts and their program for the weekend? Where/how did they camp? Where/how did they eat? Did they bring their own food and equipment? Did they use food and equipment from the Scout's patrols? Did the Troop pay for any of their expenses? Did they contribute anything at all to the Troops weekend program? Or, were they just there as camping buddies for the SM?

There are no Cub Scout awards that involve this type of service. If you are thinking of Good Turn for America, it is not a Cub Scout award, it is a National incentive to provide volunteer opportunities to help "fight hunger, provide shelter, and teach the habits of healthy living." There is a patch that can be earned each year for doing service projects. The group doing the project logs the hours of the participants and purchases the patches. In order for his BSA Pack to log in hours he has to have been a registered member of BSA when he did his service. I believe it also has to be a group (den/Pack) project. Perhaps his family can check with the organization who ran the Walk-a-thon, to see if they are participating in Good Turn for America.

Actually, 6 months from June 1, would be December 1.

WOW! All I can say is that I sure hope you are not teaching those old sayings to the young children entrusted to your care.

What did you say to the CC when she told you how to withdraw money from your bank? Did you tell HER any of the things you have told US? Has anyone in the Pack let her know what she is doing and how she is making the leaders feel? If no one has told her otherwise, she might just feel that the way she is doing things is fine.

Wow ! "Basket of nail polish"??? Is this camping or Camp Beverly Hills? Nothing says you have to cater to idiocy either. I camped with my girls for 11 years and NEVER brought a basket of nail polish along. I did bring stuff to help them work on badges, cards, board games, crafts, songs and other things. If we were really desperate we could always - gasp! - talk! Makeup and electronics were never allowed on campouts. What's the point?

It depends on how your council does it. You might look in your popcorn paperwork or ask your District Popcorn Chair. My council does not do separate Scout paperwork for Show & Sell and Take Order. At the end of the entire sale we fill out the forms showing how much each Scout sold, prizes earned, etc. We can also return unsold Show & Sell corn. We will order enough Show & Sell popcorn to cover both Show & Sell and Take Order. What we do not sell at Booth Sales we will use to fill the boys Take Orders. This way the boys can get their popcorn early if they need to, or if they have filled up a sheet. The boys get credit toward prizes and Pack goals for both Booth Sale shifts worked and for Take Orders on the sheet. I log it all. When it comes time to return unsold Show & Sell corn and put in the order for popcorn sold as Take Order, we usually only need to take back a few things, and can pick up any extras we still need from the returns that day. It works out well for us. As I said, the best way to get accurate information on how your council does the popcorn is to give your council a call.

We might have to see if we can get MORE cheese tins! The bigger tins usually don't sell real well at Booth Sales, however we will sell some. Since you sold out, does that mean that the only thing you have to sell at your next 2 Booth Sales is the cheese tins? I don't think that will work well. Since you can't return leftover S&S corn, how about using it for Take Orders? That is where we are selling most of our cheese tins.

Wow, sorry you are having such a hard time getting helpers. Does each District hold its own popcorn kickoff? With no help from Council? That is no fun. We do one Council wide popcorn kickoff. The DE's work with the District Popcorn Chairs and the popcorn company representative to put it on together. Council does all of the publicizing of the kickoff, the popcorn pick-up, and the due dates thru it's e-newsletter, and roundtables. Between Popcorn Chairs, DE's, Boy Scouts looking for service hours, and volunteers, we always have plenty of folks working at our popcorn pick-up and return. My council is not perfect by a long shot, but hearing the problems others have to put up with sure makes me grateful for what we do have!