ScoutNut

If we can get our Booth Sale time slots filled we would be doing more than fine. It is such a shame when you have to close down a Booth Sale that is going good after only one 2-hr shift. I have had a few boys turn in some of their Take Order sheets. It looks like they are doing well (all over $100, one over $400) and they have not stopped selling yet!

Ummm, nope, I don't think so. This sounds to much like you are checking up on your units, behind their back, and pushing the popcorn sale and District campout. It is also not up to an individual leader (& especially not a new one) to decide on their own weather or not their den participates in the council popcorn sale. Dens can not fundraise on their own (even a council fundraiser), this is a PACK decision. As a UC we have to overcome a bad rep as being council "spies" as it is. Something like this would only make it worse. I would recommend that UC's talk to their unit's CM's and ask if THEY have touched base with their new Scout's families to see if things are going well. I would offer my help doing it, and I would also offer my help with counseling new leaders. However, if my offers were turned down, I sure would not push it, or do it behind the CM's back. At the earliest Committee/Leaders Meeting I would present the unit leadership (old and new) with information on the District Campout and encourage participation in the council popcorn sale.

Individual Councils do have different requirements for when a Local Tout Permit must be filled out. However, BSA, as stipulated in it's BALOO training, states that a Local Tour Permit should be filled out for a Pack Overnighter.

Leader training has nothing to do with the Scout's ability to earn recognitions. Having a Chartered unit does. Your Troop Committee has NO SAY at all about what a Varsity Team does. A Varsity Team is a SEPARATELY CHARTERED UNIT, with it's OWN Team Committee. A member of a Varsity Team has the same rank advancements and requirements as does a Boy Scout. The advancement program in a Team is run by a YOUTH Team member, who is aided by an adult on the Team Committee. Your Troop's Committee has no authority with the Team Talk to the Bishop of your stake about chartering a Varsity Team. However, if you are not following the LDS priesthood program in your LDS chartered BSA units, why go to the trouble of chartering a Varsity Team? Simply form a Venture Patrol for the older Scouts in your Troop, and do high adventure outings as a Patrol.

As a Tiger, he could wear the orange Tiger T-shirt. He will not be able to wear any patches or totems on it however. Something to keep in mind, your son might be small now, but he will have grown a lot even by the end of this school year. Cub Scout blue shirts are worn for at LEAST 3 years, sometimes more. Just tell him that everyone starts with their shirt big, and then grows into it thru their Cub years.

Yes, Tour Permits are required for overnight trips. We fill out a Tour Permit for all of our Pack Family Overnighters. In the transportation section we put "Families Driving Themselves". The Tour Permit and the activity is approved by our council, but it is stipulated on the permit that the transportation is not covered. Families are in charge of their own transportation.

"But, then, do the parents expect the Pack to help them if they have a problem on the road or can't find their way to the event site? If there's no coordination outbound or returning how do you know everyone is back?" All of our families have cell phones, contact numbers for the BALOO leaders, and a map to the location. As a last resort they can always pull into a gas station and ask for directions or help. We are not going into the wilderness. We try to only go about 1 hour away, and we know when everyone is expected at the campsite. We don't hold our families hands. We assume they know how to drive, and what to do if they have a problem on the road. If something very bad happens, there would not be a whole lot anyone in the Pack could do to help at that point anyway.

It is one thing to be transporting a group of Boy Scouts to a campout in a few cars. It is quite another to have complete families driving only themselves to a Pack overnighter. With a Boy Scout Troop, yes everyone meets at the CO, distributes Troop gear, and Scouts into a minimum number of cars and then leaves. Everyone also returns to the CO, puts away Troop gear, and waits for parents to pick up their Scout and his personal gear. SctDad is talking about a PACK overnighter. With entire families driving just themselves, carrying only their own gear, there is no need to require everyone to meet at the CO. There is no Pack gear to distribute, and no Scouts that have been dropped off for transport by other people. Requiring the families to meet at the CO, and leave as a group, and leave camp as a group, and gather at the CO again before being allowed to go home, is unnecessary, and would seriously reduce the number of families attending our Pack camping trips.

"Which is why they say if you're in an open field during a storm to lay flat." Actually, you are supposed to get out of an open field as soon as you hear thunder. If you are caught outside, with no access to a safe building or vehicle, and as an absoultly last resort, you should crouch down on your feet, or sit down on the ground. The point is to make yourself as small as possible, with as little contact with the ground as possible.

For our Pack campouts every family drives themselves, with their own gear. We do not travel, either to, or from, the campsite as a group. As a matter of fact, everyone will usually arrive at different times/days, depending on their own families schedule. We will not always leave at the same time either. Many will also come only for the day. We do ask that they let us know when they will be arriving, and departing, so that we can put our schedule together, and know who to expect, when, for food and activities. So, to gather everyone at our CO before leaving, and on returning, is impractical for us.

Have they called the families to ask them why? The best way that I know to keep the Cubs in the Pack is to give them a good Scout program. If they are having fun, they will stay. If the Pack/den is disorganized, boring, and does not deliver the program promised, the families will go elsewhere.

The BSA rules are simple enough, in order to be a LEADER you MUST be at least 21 years old. ASSISTANTS may be 18 years old. Nothing at all "off" here. BSA wants the leader in charge to be a full-fledged, legal adult. Before you go and sign this fellow up, make sure he knows EXACTLY what his responsibilities, and his time commitment, will be. This is a difficult age (possibly why BSA does not want them in leader positions!). Their time can be VERY limited, and VERY inconsistent. School schedules, and thus available time, changes every few months. Work schedules are also inconsistent. My son was an Assistant Bear Leader last year, but found that between school and work, he was missing more meetings than not. He had to step down as Asst DL, but still keeps active by helping out with some Pack events, staffing at Day and Summer Camps, and helping out at some trainings. Also, if either the boy or the Aunt is the Tiger Partner, and they do not live at the same address as the Tiger, they must fill out an Adult Registration form.

So, let me get this straight - Instead of talking to the 2 people involved, you went to the man's wife instead?? What was the purpose of that? Did you talk to the "other" woman's husband too? If "all" of the families in this Troop were up in arms over the behavior of these two people, why is it that no one (including you) had the guts to talk to either of them face to face about it? And then you blame it all on BSA??? Sheesh!

Bureaucracy. The same reason BSA was telling everyone all about the wonderful new Cub Leader Specific Training, then did not actually release it until almost a year later, and still messed it up! That, combined with so much being in a state of flux, gives you a pretty good mess to deal with. Contacting your council and asking what the heck they are up to is the best way to start.

If you use Fast Tracks you are supposed to use it EXACTLY. BSA still his it in the "development" stage and the only way to compare apples with apples and not coconuts is to use it as written. That said, it moves all responsibility for completing requirements from the family, to the den leader. Yes, it lays out the meetings for you, but then so does Program Helps. However it lacks flexibility. I have looked at it, and I don't particularly like the concept of taking the family out of the mix. Earning awards is NOT (yet) the ONLY purpose of Cub Scouting.

Some reasons behind your problems with Daisy Troops and training - The GSUSA Scout year runs from Oct 1st to Sept 30. So, for those brand new Daisy Scouts, they technically are not officially registered Scouts until October 1st. Just like with a Tiger Den, getting a new parent to step up as a Leader as soon as (or before) they have filled out a registration form for their daughter can be VERY iffy. Unlike BSA, which will let an untrained leader start running the den right off the bat, many GSUSA councils require the leader take training before the Troop can meet. Here is where the real sticky part is. GSUSA is undergoing a massive reshuffling. Councils are being combined, Troop levels are being rearranged, and programs are being changed. Even though the new programing has started to be offered, not every council (or even very many) have any training it place for it. I'm not sure if GSUSA even has any available yet. Councils do not want new leaders to take "old" training because it will not gel with the new program levels or the new level programing. As a result, in many cases you get a Catch 22 situation. You have to have training to start meeting as a den, but you can't take current training because it is outdated, new training is not out yet, so you will have to start meeting before you can take the training, BUT you can not meet before you take the training. Many councils are doing an equivalent of Fast Start, just to get the leaders the basics, until the "real" training comes down the pipe. For those waiting to start Daisies, I would call your Council and make noise. Remember the squeaky wheel and good luck.

It looks like the wonderful BSA proofreaders have struck again. The MyScouting site states you have to be at least 18 before the Jamboree. It seems the date cut off to be at least 18, but not yet 21, should be July 1, 2010. This would make it consistent with the dates for the other Adult Leader positions.

That puts a bit of a different spin on things. From BSA Jamboree Web site - http://www.bsajamboree.org/register-scoutmaster.html The requirements to register as a Third Assistant Scoutmaster for the 2010 Jamboree are - "Third Assistant Scoutmaster - Be at least 18 years of age (but not yet 21) by September 1, 2010. - Have served actively in a troop leadership position. - Complete the appropriate leader specific training. - Have participated in the prejamboree training experience. - Have filed a Personal Health and Medical Record, Class 3, No. 67- 34412, before the prejamboree training with the council jamboree committee. - Complete the 60-minute Youth Protection training. - Be approved by the local council. - Be able to serve as a role model of physical fitness." Will you turn 21 before 09/01/10? That might be where the problem lies.

There are different Cub Scout Position specific Trainings for Tiger DL, Cub Scout (Wolf & Bear) DL, Webelos DL, Cubmaster & ACM, and Pack Committee. Since these are all run as breakouts at the same time, if you wanted to cover each one, you would have to register for 5 different training dates. Since one District does not usually have that many of the same kind of trainings one right after the other, you will be traveling all over your council, in a very short period of time. If your council is offering 5 different dates for Cub Scout Specific Training, if you are able to register for each one (openings available), and, if you have the time available to devote to doing this, then the choice is entirely up to you. Extra training certainly will not hurt you. I would however get fully trained for your Cubmaster position FIRST. If you decide to do this, you should plan on attending the training WITH the specific den's actual new leader. Offer to drive and bring the new leader along with you. One word of warning - Do not use the training as a means to micro manage the dens. Do not use the trainings as an excuse to do ALL of the work yourself because you are the only one trained. Work with your CC to get leaders for ALL of the dens, and then to get all of those leaders trained.

The adult Application has the joining requirements. BSA does NOT have different joining requirements for adult males and females. From the BSA Adult Application - "Leadership Requirements The applicant must possess the moral, educational, and emotional qualities that the Boy Scouts of America deems necessary to afford positive leadership to youth. The applicant must also be the correct age, and subscribe to the precepts of the Declaration of Religious Principle, and abide by the Scout Oath or Promise, and the Scout Law." On the "correct age", the Adult Application has this to say - "All leaders must be 21 years of age or older, except assistant Scoutmasters, assistant den leaders, assistant Cubmasters, assistant Webelos den leaders, and assistant Varsity Scout coaches, who must be 18 or older." HOWEVER - All of that being true, a Charter Organization may make stricter rules for who IT ALLOWS to be a leader in ITS UNITS. It is possible that the "rule" that female ASM's must be 21 years of age, is strictly a CO rule. Who is your CO? Who is telling you that you must be 21? If you really want to push it, you can go to the head of the Charter Organization (CO) and ask about the policy.

We don't have "pre-camp meetings" for all participants. We make sure every family has a copy of the agenda for the weekend, a packing list, and a list of contact cell numbers. The agenda and outdoor essentials templates can be found in your BALOO packet. Also make sure they all have a list of any items that they are supposed to be bringing (sports/craft equipment, food, cooking equipment, etc) for use by the group. At this point, you should know if any of the families attending need to borrow equipment. You can contact them individually with info on where and how to get these items. Since you are going to be stopping for activities on the way to camp, make sure you know when/where each family will join the group so you are not waiting for someone who is not going to show up.

Girlguiding UK is also a member of WAGGGS, but not of WOSM.

GSUSA is a member of WAGGGS not WOSM(This message has been edited by ScoutNut)

Between cookies and popcorn, I have been setting up booth sales for 17 years now. In all of that time I have never run into a store manager who did NOT keep a schedule of who was selling when. You call and ask if such & such a date is available. They say yep it's ok, or no we have another group selling that day. One local grocery will not let any group sell after a certain date because that's when the SA Bellringers start. Don't rail at the units, your District, or your Council when it is the store managers who are messing everything up! If the stores are not willing to keep a simple calendar (sheesh-they must enjoy popcorn wars at their door!), the only way to clear this up is to get a volunteer or 2, for each District, to work with the District Popcorn Chair, and be responsible for all booth sale signups. ALL requests for a booth sale have to go thru this person, first come, first serve. The stores have only one person calling setting up all the sales, and if the unit does not have a printed approval from the Booth Sale Chair for a particular time and place, they are out of luck. We all know how easy it is to get volunteers! However, if enough units but heads (or popcorn tables) over this, maybe a few folks will step up.

ROFL!! Glad it is working! Just make sure they don't have to wait to long for their first reward point! Keep in mind you can keep it cheap, as long as it is silly and fun for the boys. Happy Scouting!