ScoutNut

You can't copy - but you can save! At least some of the images. Otherwise you have to print, cut, & paste.(This message has been edited by ScoutNut)

It depends on the resources/facilites that are at, or around, the campground you pick. Will there be a nature center, swimming, boating, horses, bike trails, bouldering, or park rangers? Will there be an open field or a ball field available? Make use of what you have. A campfire program is a must! You might want to bring some copies of songs & skits for the boys & their families to work with. Keep the food simple for your first trip. You really don't want to spend too much time cooking. Allow ample free time for families to explore on their own. Softball or frisbe are great if you have room. Do a flag ceremony each morning & evening. A scavanger hunt using compass directions to find things and/or locations is fun. If you get there early Fri you can figure out your directions & plant things for them to find before anyone else gets there. Have some stations run by different adults. Could be based on Sports & Academics or just various scouting/fun stuff. Knots, slides, silly relay races, games, are a few you could use. Build flexability into what ever schedule you plan. Not everyone will want to do every activity. Some things will take longer or shorter than you thought. If you are in an area where it will be warm consider water games. Make sure you know when all of your families are arriving & leaving so you can figure food and activites based on who will be there. Create kaper charts for chores. Group everyone into patrols & give them silly names. Include ALL family members in your activites & chores. That means you have to take into consideration younger & older sibs. If any families have Boy Scout kids with put them to use! That is a GREAT opportunity! Have your families sign permission slips for their kids (including medical info), even though they will be there too. What happens if the parent gets incapacitated? Check out nearby councils to see if any are having BALOO sooner. You will be getting lots of ideas & helpful forms at BALOO. Don't forget your tour permit!

You can set up a tour thru : http://www.fieldtripfactory.com/ From what I understand they do a nice job & the kids get free goodie bags. The only problem is finding a location that has evening or Sat hours available for tours. I have taken Tigers to local area animal shelters and they have been great.

At least you can find BSA merit badge requirements, rank requirements, the Guide to Safe Scouting, and much, much more on the web. It is also, for the most part, being kept current. GSUSA has copyright protected EVERYTHING. About the only thing you can find online are a few forms. If you want something you need to purchase it from them. Copying is not allowed, multiples must be purchased. Even their Saftey Wise (GS version of G2SS) is not available online & must be purchased.

This might help also: http://www.sageventure.com/history/cub/

I'm with Eamonn. We can't give advise if we don't know what we are advising about. If you are a volunteer at the Troop level the Council has no say in your going or staying. Unless of course there has been a Youth Protection complaint. If you volunteer with your Council in a District or Council wide position, then your Council has the right to "fire" you from what ever Council/District position you hold. But, that would not affect your volunteer position in a Troop, Pack or Crew. If you are a paid Professional Scouter, employed by your Council, the Council again has the right to fire you. And again, loosing your job would not affect any volunteer positions you held. As Semper said, your Council does not pick replacements for Pack, Troop or Crew volunteers. That is up to the Charter Organization Head, Charter Organization Representative & Unit Committee Chair. Also, how would your leaving (or being asked to leave) a volunteer/paid position affect either the boys in a Troop or the charter of that Troop? More information is deffinately needed.

"The previous rank badges are not worn on the tan shirt" Actually they can be. If the scout received the diamond Webelos badge and did not have the Tiger rank he could take all of his "stuff" off of the blue shirt & put it on the tan one. In this case the boy is not getting his tan shirt until summer. He has an oval Webelos badge that he wants to put on his blue shirt. To do that he has to remove all of his previous rank badges and arrowpoints. He then centers the webelos badge on the left shirt pocket. Seems to me it would be a LOT easier to simply buy the tan shirt now, instead of waiting until summer. But then I HATE sewing!

It sounds like the old Tiger's Adult Partner is pretty much a no-show. Will there be a Den for this new guy or are his Partner & him pretty much on their own? If the 2 Tigers (& their Partners) are going to be a Den together then they should work on things together. There are plenty of ways the Den activites & Go-See-It's can be repeated differently. They can also work on the Bobcat requirements as they go. I would also have the new Tiger Team work at home on all of the achievements. The new Tiger should have no problems (if they work on it) earning both his Tiger & Bobcat ranks by the end of May. Even if the new Tiger doesn't make his rank he can still graduate to Wolf. And if Tiger & Partner still want to work towards Tiger rank on their own over the summer that's fine too. Just make sure they understand that they can't work on both Tiger & Wolf at the same time. He has to finish up one before he can work on another. The only rank that can be worked on while working on another rank is Bobcat. BTW - Does the new Tiger's Adult Partner realize that he/she is the defacto Den Leader? Now that there are 2 Tigers they will need their own meeting time/place.

The Pinewood Derby should NOT end. However, like any other Pack or Den activity, if the boys are not having fun and the event causes more problems than benefits, then you need to re-think what you are doing. The Den or Pack should either adjust the activity so the boys ARE having fun or, if they can't or won't fix it, dump it altogether. We went from a double elimination, crazy, cutthroat competition race, which had at least a couple of boys in tears & their parents fuming each year, to a race where all the boys race the whole evening & the emphasis is on fun not winning. It worked. No crying boys, no mad dads, no frustrated leaders. Our PWD is now what any Scout activity should be - FUN!

No matter how many different Troops our Webelos are going to we only do 1 ceremony. We will group the boys together according to the Troop they are going to and the SM/ASM of that Troop will welcome them as they "cross over" in their own fashion. Also, this will be the first time in 10 years that the Boy Scouts put together the crossover ceremony for the Webelos (they are all going to the same Troop). Usually the Pack comes up with the ceremony.

Talk to your new Pack's CM & advancement person. Will you be going to their B&G this month? Show the new CM your sons book so he can verify he has all of his requirements signed off for Wolf. Then explain your situation & ask if they can award him his rank. Has your son received the other badges/patches/loops/pins he earned? Did they award the Bobcat rank yet? The rank badges can usually (some councils are different) only be purchased with the proper documentation from the unit. Any other awards can be purchased by anyone. If the new CM agrees to purchase & award your son (& any others transfering from your den) any missing rank badges, you can buy the other things yourself. Not the perfect solution, I know, your current Pack should get off their bottoms. However, that way you will not have to wait until the end of March to transfer. Since you already paid for the March event you can always go back just for that.

All I can say is Program & Leaders. Your program should be fun (& flexible). Your leaders should be trained and committed. Our year is not as packed as OneHour's, but we do try. We have special Pack outings/activites every few months & at least 1 Pack outing a month in the summer months. The dens also try to keep the boys advancing & having fun. I have found that with the Tigers you have to make it VERY clear from the get-go that the Tiger Partner is joined at the hip with his Tiger for all things, including games & crafts. You also have to make sure that shared leadership is utilized. It gets the families involved & having fun with their scout from the start. I have also found that I need to be very flexible with my guys. I have one Tiger who has a doctor appt at the same time as our meetings. I also have Tigers in basketball, ti kwan do, & other stuff. All right around our meeting time. So I try to vary our times so that we get the most boys. I also encourage them to attend the things that they can and to work on the den & outing things that they have missed at home along with the family stuff. You have to make the families feel welcome (& missed) no matter what. Keep them involved & wanting to come. Our Pack & our Dens aren't perfect, but we are always trying to improve, trying to find more ways to make things fun. I usually have 100% of my Tigers go into a Wolf den. Sometimes 1 or 2 might drop off in Wolf for various reasons, but not to often. Try getting a couple of experienced Pack people to take on the Tiger Leader positions. That way you don't get the "shell-shocked" new leader who gets lost & quits. By March or April they should be able to tell which of the Tiger parents would be able to handle the leadership when they go to Wolf. It has worked for us. Keep "doing your best"!

I think that you should talk to your Unit Commissioner. I also think that you should take your council's training. It would have helped you to figure out what to do with your den. BTW - Since all of your Tiger families should be running meetings too, there is no need for you to pay for everything. Let the families buy the things they need for the meetings they are running.

When you say you lost 50% of your Tigers last year and more than that this year, what exactly do you mean. Do you mean that you signed up 50% less boys than the year before? Or do you mean that from the time you sign them up in Aug or Sept until now, 50%+ of your boys have dropped out of Scouting. Or, is it that less than 50% of the prior year's Tigers return to the Pack as Wolves? If it is #1 then recruiting in May & making sure the new boys have a fun summer with the Pack might work. I would do a fall recruitment also. If it is #2 or #3 than it probably has more to do with your program than your recruiting.

It sounds like your CM has gone over the edge. As has been mentioned, money & leaders are not his job. The Cub Scout program is his job and as such PROBLEMS in a den would fall to him to correct. Your den is having no problems. There can only be one (1) registered Den Leader at a time. BSA's system does not allow for multiples. Other registered adults in a Den can be Assistant Den Leaders, but NOT Den Leaders. Not that it should matter all that much. You should both be working TOGETHER for the boys. Sit this new Den Leader down and get him with the program. If he was just "appointed" odds are he has taken zero training. Grab a Webelos Handbook, the leader, & a calendar and go over with him EXACTLY what still has to be accomplished before the boys can crossover to a Boy Scout Troop. Have your CC talk to the CM. The CM is taking some of the CC's and Treasurer's job on himself. This needs to be addressed by the CC, and ASAP. Do NOT give the CM any of your Den dues until such time as this has been sorted out. If he asks, tell him he needs to talk to the CC, period. Do not get drawn into any other discussion with him. Good Luck & hang in there.

Boy, I must say, after reading all of these different PWD posts, I am REALLY glad we don't have a District or Council PWD. It seems to up the ante considerably and make the majority of the boys (& their parents) miserable! Our PWD's are fun! Sure, someone has to come in 1st, 2nd, & 3rd, but that is NOT the major reason for the event. Our boys have fun building their car with their folks. Then they have fun racing it all night long. Then they put it on their Webelos made car stand & have fun looking & remembering the race long after they are supposed to be asleep for the night! We do have rules that are there to insure an even playing field. We inspect each car as a part of the weigh in & have asked that some cars get "adjusted", but they are few, far between, and mostly weight issues. Pinewood Derbies should be fun. If they are NOT fun, why have them at all?

Service projects take a LOT of time & effort at the Pack level. The Den Leaders really have to push & remind their parents & even then many will forget. My Pack leaves "Scouting For Food" to the Boy Scout Troops. We do something FUN instead. We HAUNT For Food! In Oct the Pack puts together a Haunted House. Each Den gets to decorate & haunt their own area. Parents & siblings are encouraged to join in. Our admission price is canned food, paper products, toiletries, etc for the local Food Pantry. We also have a bake sale so the people in line can have a snack to munch on, with the proceeds going to the Food Pantry as well. We usually have 100% participation, or pretty near to it. The families do a LOT of work, but have a great time. Best of all, at the end of the night we have a nice contribution for the Food Pantry!

Here is the Sterns Method for PWD rotation: http://www.wtrfrd.com/pack339/339stern.htm This explains it pretty well and includes the download of the dos program & also some spreadsheet programs. You put in the # of lanes, # of boys, & the time of the race in hours & it spits out a shedule of what car (or boat) races in what lane. Have fun!

I am confused. The Pack purchased the rank award for your son, presented it to him in a ceremony, & now will not let him wear it? Sew it on his pocket. He earned it, he should wear it. The concept of immediate recognition is in every Cub training course & in the Cub Scout Leader book. I believe that it even mentions it in each Cub's handbook. I don't care how new the Cubmaster is, this is just plain wrong.

Den Chiefs are members of their Boy Scout Troop, not of the Cub Scout Pack they work with. They would not be able to wear a patch issued to the Cub Pack.

I would think you would have to discuss this with his current Den Leader & then the Den Leader of the Den he will be "visiting". If your Den Leader ok's having the other Den Leaders sign off in your son's handbook for any things he finishes, then IMO, there should not be a problem. Just remember to keep in touch with your Pack & Den so you do not miss any activites. One thought, if your son is going to miss the Pack meeting where he would be presented his Webelos rank badge with the rest of his Den, maybe you could talk to his tutor & see about switching for just that one night. Most tutors are pretty good about things like that.

Rather than try different chemicals to remove what is probably unremoveable and then possibaly harming the shirt, why not just cover up the spots again? Whatever the number of your son's new Troop, it is most likely has at least as many numerals as his Pack's had. Just put the new numbers directly over where the old ones were. This should work until he out grows his shirt.

Brown lunch sacks or craft sticks with pictures stuck to both sides would work for puppets. For the story line use your Cub Scout Handbooks & the book by Kipling.

Look in the 2004-05 Planning Helps for February, in the Pack meeting section. There are a few things that you could use. Picture of Cub Scouting can be expanded for any number of boys. The Scouting Shows closing ceremony can also be adapted. If you don't want to purchase the Program Helps, and are a registered Cub Leader, find your copy of "Scouting" magazine for Nov-Dec 2004. The Program Helps for Feb & March are in the middle.

*whatever they're calling it where you are* ROFLMBO !! Pretty dang silly isn't it! B