ScoutNut

The question t158sm was asked was "Why would a women want to be a Scoutmaster?" NOT "Why should a women be a Scoutmaster?". Big difference - Different perspective. Why would a women want to be a Scoutmaster? For the same reasons that a man would want to be a Scoutmaster. She was asked by the committee, she believes strongly in the BSA program & she wants to help the boys develop into ethical, caring, competent young men who will be the leaders of tommorrow. Who wouldn't want to be a Scoutmaster?

You can easily avoid all (or most) of the drama of to award or not to award duplicate beltloops to Webelos Scouts. There is only ONE beltloop that MUST be earned. Earning the Citizenship beltloop is required in order to earn the Webelos Citizen Activity Pin. The Citizen Activity Pin is required to earn the Webelos Rank. ALL other beltloops are OPTIONAL requirements. If you feel that the boys have already "been there, done that" with the beltloops, simply do different requirements.

Don't wait until things are a done deal, get trained now so you will have an idea of what is coming. Your council/district are most likely holding leader trainings this month & next. If you have not already, take New Leader Essentials. Then take the Leader Specific for the position you think you will most likely be in (Cubmaster or Wolf Leader) next year. If you can swing it, take the other Specific course also. Training is like money, you can never have to much! It certainly will not be wasted, & it will give you a good base no matter what you end up doing.

I would contact your Unit Commissioner & your DE. They should be able to help you talk to the church & help them see what is involved in being a CO for a BSA unit. You said that over half of the Pack belongs to the other church, are the rest members of the CO? Do you have anyone in the Pack at all who is active in your CO? If you do, perhaps they could help communicate with the CO. It sounds like you need a new COR. Someone involved in both the church AND the Pack would be ideal.

VISTA = Volunteer Information Support and Training Areas As of April 1, my council merged 45 SU's into 15 VISTAs. This was done as part of GSUSAs Strategic Priorities for Governance and Organizational Structuring and is being used as a pilot by GSUSA. When the bugs have been worked out, it (or something similar) will be implemented nationwide. The new Realignment map will be approved by the National Board in August of this year. The Early Adopters, like Tami's council, are starting to work on the merging process now.

Is the loss permanent? What is your CO doing to help? One of their responsibilities as a CO is to provide a meeting space. You can always hold your Pack meetings at local parks. I would make sure there is a good sized covered pavilion in case the weather turns.

At least your council is letting their volunteers know what is going on. Many councils are not. Some volunteers are still under the impression that the only councils that will be merged are the ones in financial trouble. There are more changes coming down the pike too. My council is the trial council for VISTAs. National is planning on doing to Service Units / Neighborhoods what it is doing to councils. They will be merged into large VISTAs that follow the United Way boundaries. The VISTA manager will even be called the United Way Ambassador. I see the whole thing getting more & more impersonal. I just hope that, with the consolidation of assets & properties, we don't end up with more girls & less facilities.

Sponge, it sounds to me like you & your Tigers need to look for a "real" Cub Scout Pack to join! If this Pack's leadership is so casual that they do not recognize boy's on a monthly basis, it will not matter if your CO is broke or not, staying there will not ensure a good program for your Tigers.

The Tiger Motto going & Bobcat moving before Tiger rank are NOT just rumors. Both are documented in the current version of the "Cub Scout Leader Book". Also, BSA's new Tiger Cub Den Leader Fast Start, on BSA's new Online Learning Center (which BSA now has featured on their home page), has the Tigers learning the Cub Scout Promise & the CUB SCOUT Motto. It does NOT mention the existence of a Tiger Cub Motto at all. It also SPECIFICALLY mentions that the boys earn Bobcat FIRST, before Tiger rank. Everything else about the Tiger program seems to be the same on the new Fast Start. When I went thru the Fast Starts for the other levels, they looked the same as this year.

"When I get what the changes will be, I will try and post them on here to clarify it for all of you." Do you mean that there are MORE changes to the Tiger program than Bobcat first & no more Tiger Motto?

Trust me, when putting this together you WILL have accidents (have plenty of extras on hand). Those little glass viles are VERY fragile, they have to be in order to break when the stick is bent. The worst problem I have ever had is that my fingers & towels glowed for a while. It is safe for Cubs. I would however use a container that can be sealed & make sure that the parent takes charge of it at the end of the ceremony. That way your meeting place, & every Cub in it, will not be glowing.

The boys usually listen to their own music. Most of them bring headphones for the ride there & back.

"Some of the people I have talked to about this have not seen the 2005 book, and that is where the disaggreement is coming in." I'm not sure what disagreement you are referring to. Is it when Tigers can earn Bobcat? The 2005 Tiger Handbook is pretty much the same as the other Tiger Handbooks. The Tigers on the cover are in orange, it has the Immediate Recognition emblem for the belt, not the shirt, it has the Tiger Motto, & it has the Bobcat requirements at the back of the book as the next trail available to the boys. Ever since BSA created the Tiger rank 5 years ago, Tigers have been able to earn their Bobcat AFTER they earned their Tiger rank. This is not new. The thing to keep in mind concerning when you award the Tigers their Bobcat rank is that once they have officially become Bobcats, they can NO LONGER earn any more Tiger electives because they are NO LONGER TIGERS. BSA rules are that awards can only be earned in one level at a time. My Pack has always done our Bobcat ceremony in September. This way the Tigers have been able to continue to add up their Tiger Tracks for electives thru May. The September Bobcat ceremony would include the former Tigers & any brand new Cubs. This coming September's ceremony will have new Tigers included too.

The easiest way would be to attend your monthly District Roundtables. You could then talk to the Scoutmasters of your District Troops personally and ask them to pass the request along to their Eagle Scouts. If your Roundtable turnout is low, you can get a list of the District's Troops, Scoutmasters & contact info from your DE. Your DE might even be able to get you a listing of the number of Eagles per Troop for the last 1-3 years. That way you would not waste your time calling new Troops or Troops without current Eagles.

National has recently done a great job of updating the Cub end of their site. The information is under Uniforms in the Adult Leaders section of Cub Scouting - http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/uniform/webelos.html

From the BSA National website - "Webelos Scouts may choose to wear either the blue Webelos uniform based on the Cub Scout uniform or the tan/olive uniform similar to the one Boy Scouts wear." From the Uniform Inspection form - "Olive/Tan Webelos Scout Uniform. Webelos Scouts electing this option wear blue shoulder loops, Webelos neckerchief, and Webelos cap. Blue (preferred) or olive belt may be worn. Academics and Sports belt loops will fit only on the blue belt. BADGE PLACEMENT IS THE SAME AS FOR BLUE UNIFORM." From the Uniform Inspection form on badge placement - "Webelos Scouts wear only current badge of rank(Bobcat,Wolf, Bear, or Webelos badge) centered on pocket. Option: Webelos Scouts who have not earned the Tiger Cub rank may wear all rank badges earned with diamond-shaped Webelos badge." The above means that the Webelos can pick either the tan or blue uniform & can wear the oval or the diamond on either uniform.

Having the girls each buy their own, or a couple of families who regularly camp on their own, each loaning a large family tent, might be a better way to go for you. You have to remember you are talking GSUSA here NOT BSA. In GSUSA, the council owns the Troop, lock, stock, money & equipment. So, your TROOP will NOT own these tents, your COUNCIL will. Unless you plan on keeping the Troop going for at least the next 10-15 years, to get the full value out of the tents, you will just be giving them to your Council when you disband.

From what I understand, Varsity Teams started as an in Troop program for older boys. This was changed to a Venture Patrol & Varsity became a separate program. Then Venturing Crews were created & that took the boys away from Varsity. Now, Varsity Teams are chartered almost exclusively by the LDS community. Varsity is used as their program level before Venturing.

Back to the original questions - "Do wqe wait until the next season and speak to the parents?" No, that is how you got into this predicament in the first place. What you need to do NOW is talk to the parents ASAP! Tell them exactly what is going on & ask for their input & help correcting the situation. "Do we tell the parents that their boy is not allowed back into the Scouting program?" Without ever having talked to them about a problem with their son before? Absolutely NOT! Since we very rarely get the full (or unbiased) picture on these forums, our advise could be WAY off base. However, from your post, it sounds like it is not JUST this boy that has caused this problem. The Pack leadership has a lot to do with it by not facing, and dealing with, this problem back when the very first incident occurred. BTW - Why only 1 meeting left? Why is "this seasons Scouting program" over already? I have 5-7 more Den meetings, 2 more Pack meetings, 1 Pack campout & various Pack/Den outings, to go before June 1. Then we have 1-3 activities per month for June thru August, before we start up weekly again in September.

My council holds our Scouting for Food in conjunction with the Letter Carriers Food Drive in May. The Pack I work with does not participate. We do our annual Haunted House "Foodraiser" in Oct, a Thanksgiving food collection & a school food drive in Feb for Scout Week. The food all goes to the Food Pantry at our church.

A No (or low) Light Hike is always good. They don't realize just how much they can really see in the dark once their eyes get accustomed. Night Sounds - For this you have to walk quietly so that you can hear, & identify, the night's sounds. If it is a clear night - hike to an open (or clear raised) area & identify things in the sky (planets vs stars, satellites, Milky Way, constellations, etc) If you want a game instead of a hike, how about Flashlight Tag?

Different states have different laws. What I would advise is to give your local police a call today & ask them what you should do in a situation like you described. Don't name names, just ask as an FYI because you are in charge of a youth group & want to be prepared for different emergencies.

Contact whoever it was at your council that was in charge of the Pow Wow. They should be able to give you the contact info for the course instructor. If you attended the session why don't you have the info? I'm confused!

All of our boys receive a PWD display stand made by our 5th grade Webelos as their final Craftsman project. They also all receive a PWD ribbon & a certificate stating that their car has been awarded the "title" of ___________. The certificate is filled out during the race based on what the car looks like and/or does. One of our boys based his car on the flying car from the Harry Potter series. His car was titled the "Highest Flying". Another car kept jumping the track, so he was named the "Daredevil"! I usually make up a different certificate each year. This year's came out real nice. I found a great racing car background to use. The top 3 boys also get the BSA's red, white, & blue pins for 1st, 2nd & 3rd place. We write the date & place on the pin.

I'm with TheScout. Ask the boys.