ScoutNut

Depends on the rain. Heavy thunderstorms, with tornado warnings/watches, no way. Even all day downpours, nope. With Cubs you are trying to spark an interest in camping in folks who, for the most part, are not campers. Your purpose is to make the experience as pleasant as possible so that they get hooked, and want to come back.

Do you have a school coordinator? If you have no one between your Troop and the Service Area Director, then contact the director and have a talk about the issue. Even if the director is already aware there is a problem, she might not be aware of the fact the waters are anything but "smooth", and getting less so all the time. You need the director to back up any action you take. Get the director to attend a friendly talk between the Troop Leader, and this parent/leader. The mom needs to see that there is a problem, and to be given the opportunity to assist in correcting it, before the mom

Everything Short said, plus encourage boys, AND their parents, to talk up what a great thing Cub Scouts is to all of their buddies (adult and boy). Fliers going home get lost in backpacks with the rest of the junk in there. Advertising, fliers, etc, should all be repeated multiple times before the event itself. If you can get your boy talk done the day of the event (or the day before if roundup will be on a Saturday), have stickers to put on all boys with the event info. Some Packs do real well with Spring recruiting, some not so good. We have traditionally seen that even families wh

Just a note - The Cub Handbooks have not been re-written (yet) to reflect the new 2010 delivery method. They are written to reflect the "old" method of utilizing the Cub Scout Method of Family Involvement by having the family responsible for working with their son on many/most of the requirements.

While Cub Scouts is mainly grade based, and June 1 is the official BSA graduation date, BSA also allows Cub Scouts to work past that if they wish to finish up earning their rank award. Note - It is for the rank award only. Not electives, or other optional awards. Also, BSA does not allow Cubs to work in two levels at the same time. If your Wolf Cubs are still working on their Wolf rank award over the summer, they can not also be working on, or getting credit for, any Bear stuff at all. Give them a choice - work to finish up their Wolf rank award, or accept they will not earn tha

>>"Be very clear that anyone turning in for MORE than that must pay for it themselves, AND provide AMPLE proof that they did the requirements."

If you filled out the Tour Plan then you knew there was a 2-year expiration on those trainings. It states it clearly, and requires you to enter the expiration date for each training, for each adult. To find a complete list of what expires when read through the "Training" section on the BSA National Website. There is a current list in the Spring 2011 Training Updates. http://scouting.org/training/trainingupdates.aspx

Are you an adult, or a youth, with this Troop? If you are an adult, what is your position?

>>"I'm interested in what resource those use when stating "June 1st" as the cross-over date so to speak."

Your district should not be including Bears in their April Webelos Woods. Bears can not earn Webelos awards, and they are not Webelos until the end of the school year/June 1st. They can do it as a visit only event, with Bears doing Bear level activities, as most councils do with Webelos at Boy Scout Camporee's.

Yes, Cubs can go sailing. However, it is restricted to adult operated, at council/district events. BSA programs are not geared to what one individual youth does, or is capable of doing, on his own time. The BSA Scout program is age appropriate, and progressive, for the skills, and capabilities of the majority of it's youth members.

A note on in-person trainings from your council/district - By this time of the year most councils/districts are done with the majority of their in-person trainings. They are gearing up their facilities, and resources for Summer Camps. Come July/August most councils will have published their calendars (including training) for the new Scouting year. I suggest attending District Roundtables, checking your council and district web sites, and signing up to receive your council and district newsletters, to get current/up-coming information.

>>"Sailing, Archery, Guns"

They can definitely pull his BSA registration, and prevent him from ever registering, or being a leader in any capacity with the BSA again - ever. However, they really can not stop him from attending events, as a parent, with his son. From the Guide to Safe Scouting - "All aspects of the Scouting program are open to observation by parents and leaders." If your Charter Org does not want him attending any Scout activities at all they might have to kick his son out of the Pack to accomplish it.

I would stick with Bobcat stuff, and Electives. You will most likely be getting more Tigers in your Fall Round-up, and you do not want this Spring group to get bored re-doing requirements in the Fall that they have completed now. Some Tiger Electives that they can do - 17) Make a Model - Make different kinds of paper airplanes, see which fly better, have an airplane race. 32) Make a bird feeder - Check out the Cub Leader How To Book for ideas. 33) Play Cleanup Treasure Hunt - Pick up litter around your meeting place. 35) Play a game outdoors - Relay games are always fu

rtullier - Since the race has just been done, the place for you to give feedback on it is at the next Pack Leaders/Committee meeting. As a den leader (hopefully registered and trained) you should be attending these monthly meetings. This is where the planning goes on for Pack events, and there should be a "roses/thorns" discussion about any activities (such as the PWD race) that have happened since the last month's meeting. Personally, if you are having a lot of cars being damaged, that is where I would start a discussion on how to prevent that so the Scouts are able to race more, an

It looks like the combined Outdoor training for Webelos, Boy Scouts, and Venturing, has been put on hold until BSA figures out what it really wants to do with it. From the Spring 2011 Training Updates on the BSA National site - Outdoor Skills Training A new Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills was announced a couple of months ago. It was designed to be a course that covered outdoor program from Cub Scouting to Venturing. We want to let you know we have backed off on the combined course, at least for now. We are now working with Outdoor Adventures to use their subject m

Packs do not need "permission" to run a Pinewood Derby(PWD). It is simply part of their unit program. Any "reporting" of an "unfair" race will simply look/sound like sour grapes because you son(s) did not win. I agree with Twocubdad, a much better solution would be to talk to your Pack's Committee Chair(CC), and offer to be the PWD Chair next year. Once you are Chair, or even on the the Committee of the PWD, you will be in a much better place from which to make improvements.

Cub Scouts are not independent like Boy Scouts are. There are no patrols in Cub Scouts. Cub Scouts is family oriented, and camping is family camping. If this is a campout for just your Pack, then I recommend that you talk to the Pack person in charge of the campout for specifics. Prior to the actual campout they should provide the families with a list of equipment/supplies they need to bring. There should be some kind of information on what to expect during the campout in the way of activities/program. If this is a campout put on by your council/district for all area Packs, the

As I said, the training is only as good as the trainers. According to the BALOO syllabus I have, the entire Campfire segment should last no more than 60 minutes. That includes planning, and the Campfire demo itself. Spending 3 hours on the Campfire program is ridiculous. That means that 2 hours worth of other segments of the training were not done. If you cut out all breaks, cut back every other training segment, including lunch, by 5-10 minutes, and started 20-30 minutes early, you might pull that off, but it sure messes up the training, and there is no need for it. Shame on yo

As many here have shown, while the BALOO syllabus is used nationwide, and while if followed, it does a pretty good job of covering many of the issues you all have brought up here, training, particularly one as segmented as BALOO, is only as good as the trainers delivering it. Course Directors, you need to talk to your staff, and make sure that they understand the concepts they are teaching, and the audience they are teaching them to. You need to make sure that your staff has the needed props/equipment. Encourage them to provide their own, additional, handouts on the subjects they are cove

BS-87 - It does not matter that they are living at camp. They are not bunking in with the youth campers. Adult staffers have their own quarters. As unlikely it is that they exist, if the camp has restrictions on what their employees can do on their time off, that is the only time there could be a problem. As long as the adult staffers are not doing anything illegal on their evenings/days off, the time is their own.

BS-87 - If they are all legal drinking age, on their own time, and there is no camp rule against it, I do not see any problem. If the camp has rules requiring the staff to be onsite at all times, or has rules specifying what staffers can, and can not, do on their off hours, these should be followed. If any staffer comes back to camp snockered he/she should be dealt with by the Camp Director. BTW - you first state that only those who go into town on their nights off know what is happening, yet obviously you know. You then state that the younger staffers know because they "are no

sgk8102 - You stated - "The men seemed to have gone to the bar for a few "quick ones" and "They were not in uniform. When they returned, they were not overtly intoxicated or impaired. Those of us who remained at camp would have no reason to suspect that they had gone drinking, but for the fact that they felt the need to tell us." Your comment "seemed", along with the fact you did not smell any liquor on their breath when they returned, leads me to wonder if what they did in fact do was just simply find a great bar. It could have been next to the store they went to for the supp

Just a reminder - OA Advisor is an adult - over 21 - position. While we know how you feel about age requirements, this one can not be altered, or ignored. In the OA you are still a youth member until 21. BTW, just curious - With the OA being very much youth run, at all levels, if you are active in the OA, why did you never try for local/regional/national leadership positions?