ScoutNut

You can find the requirements for the Cub Scout Academics and Sports program, along with a number of other awards, on the BSA National Web site here - http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/CubScouts/Leaders/Awards.aspx Keep in mind that the boys have 5 years in which to earn belt loops and pins. There is no need to do a lot of them in their very first year. If you are looking for additional, filler type things your Tiger Teams can do, I would suggest doing Tiger Elective activities. They are fun, age appropriate, and will earn them Tiger Track beads. You can find information on, and the requirements for, the Electives in the back of your Tiger Handbook. As the den leader you really need your own Handbook. It is really inconvenient to have to share your son's. Good luck, and have FUN!

Ahhhhh! Action songs and audience participation! Those we do!

Just wondering. I could not picture holding our Pack meetings in our church, or even wanting to. We hold ours in the Parish/School hall/gym. Plenty of room for games, and other fun stuff. We don't dance however. Picturing everyone up and doing a line (ballroom?) dance is just too funny!

Actually, I believe the problem is that there has not been a REVISION of the Webelos Handbook for some time. They do a REPRINT every year or so, but that does not incorporate any changes as they are simply printing what they already have out there.

A Pack flag is supposed to be used by the Pack. That is what it is for. Just wondering - If you hold your Pack meetings in the church itself, where do you have the space for games and activities? It seems to me it would be a bit off to be holding a race down the aisles between the pews.

My sister swears by the Bounce dryer sheets. She claims that only the Bounce brand works well. I can not verify, as I have not tried this out.

WRONG. The Webelos Handbook you are looking at is an old edition. When the Tiger Cub program became integrated into the Cub Scout Pack in 2001, Tigers earned Bobcat AFTER they earned their Tiger rank award. They would earn Bobcat at the END of 1st grade, before earning their Wolf rank award. As of June 1, 2006, the Tiger Motto, and Promise, were eliminated, and Tigers, like all other Cub Scouts, were required to earn the Bobcat rank award first, BEFORE earning their Tiger rank.

You will find the same plastic laces on the Wolf/Bear Immediate Recognition Totem. There is a trick to keeping the beads on the slippery plastic laces. After putting the beads on, do not tie a knot in the lace below the last bead. Instead, take the last bead, slip it on the lace, then take the end of the lace, coming out of the bottom of the bead, and bring it around the bead and back into the hole in the top of the bead. Pull the lace tight, and if you have left about 1-2 inches of lace hanging below the bead, the bead will not slip off of the lace (without help that is!).

Why are you making your own Tiger Totem? The cost is comparable. The BSA Totem might even come out cheaper because you get the beads with it. That said, my Pack did our own combined Tiger/Wolf/Bear totem a few years back when the BSA Wolf/Bear totem was recalled. I purchased a large sized leather arrowhead shape for the totem. Using a leather punch, I punched holes along the sides and bottom edges for the lanyards and beads. I also punched a hole at the top, and attached a loop to hang it from their pocket button. Final touch was to stamp Pack ### on the face of the arrowhead.

As jhankins noted, public bake sales in front of a business can be tricky when your local health codes come into play. Check out your son's "Boy's Life" magazine, or your "Scouting" magazine for lots of ideas for "selling" type of money earning projects. How about a car wash? Whatever you do, remember that you MUST get it approved by your council before you start. Here is the application, pay close attention to the guidelines on page 2 - http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34427.pdf You must also get approval from your council's Scout Executive to be able to wear the BSA uniform at these money-earning activities. About the cost of your council's popcorn, I suggest sending a note to your Council Popcorn Chair with your feedback from the sale.

BSA has this Pack newsletter template - http://scouting.org/filestore/xls/13-288nws.xls For a den newsletter I never got real fancy. I put the name and date of the newsletter at the top of a Word sheet. Then did different paragraphs for each of the upcoming activities, with each activity name and date in bold at the head of the paragraph. Then my contact info at the end.

What you listed are RESPONSIBILITIES, or DUTIES, that a Scout must preform once he is in the position of Den Chief - NOT - REQUIREMENTS needed to obtain the position. Big difference. You seem to really have a bug about Den Chiefs. The BSA rule that you keep mentioning, as quoted from the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures book, is as follows - "No council, district, unit, or individual has the authority to add to or subtract from advancement requirements." The actual advancement requirement is as follows - "While a XYZ Scout, serve actively for # months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility (or carry out a Scoutmaster-assigned leadership project to help the troop): Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, Venture patrol leader, troop guide, Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian, historian, quartermaster, bugler, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain aide, instructor, troop Webmaster, or Leave No Trace trainer." This means that it is against the rules for a council, district, unit, or individual to state that the position of Den Chief can not be used to fulfill this requirement. It is also against the rules to require that a Scout serve for a complete year, in order to get advancement credit for the POR of Den Chief, or any other POR. There is nothing, in writing, from BSA, that states that a SM MUST allow any Scout, of any rank, to hold the position of Den Chief, or any other POR. There is nothing, in writing, from the BSA, that states a SM can NOT restrict the position of Den Chief to First Class and above Scouts. BSA does state that a Den Chief is an "older Scout". However, BSA leaves the definition of "older Scout" COMPLETELY up to the discretion of the SPL and SM. Also, your position that restricting the POR of Den Chief to First Class Scouts is changing advancement requirements is, not to put to fine a point on it, baloney. IT WILL NOT AFFECT ADVANCEMENT IN ANY WAY. A POR, Den chief or any other, held by a Tenderfoot, or Second Class Scout, does NOT count toward any BSA rank requirement at all. Do I agree with a blanket unit requirement that Den Chiefs be First Class Scouts? Nope. However I do acknowledge that a unit is well within the BSA rules to have such a requirement in place. BTW - A Den Chief CAN, and often DOES volunteer for the position. His SPL, SM, the Pack's CM, and the den leader he will be working with, all have to agree to it however.

Engineer, just because the MB does not interest you, does not mean that the Scouts in the Troop are not interested. Since the SCOUTS decided to earn this badge I would say that they must be at least a little interested in it. As others have noted, the Tracking MB is NOT "practically impossible" in your area. It might take a bit more work, and research, on the BOYS part (YOU are not the one looking for any of these animals) but it is possible. The entire point of these MB's is to experience a bit of what a Scout would have done 100 years ago, and to see how it translates into the present. It is meant to be a CHALLENGE to the boys.

>>"Sharky's original comment stated: "He has not been diagnosed with any behavioral problems, he's just extremely immature." and I'm assuming if there is any serious problems that need to be addressed, the parents, teachers, counselors, etc. along the way would have tried them by the time he's 14 years old."

You state that you have a full committee. With a full, working, committee, there is absolutely no reason for the Cubmaster to do everything. Membership, and recruiting, is the job of the committee. The decision to not recruit more than 80 boys is not yours to make on your own. There is no reason to cancel a Roundup because you can't be there. Talk to your Committee Chair. The CC, and/or the Membership Committee Member should be the ones to attend. If you have no working CC, or Membership Chair, then the COR and the Asst CM can do it.

Wingnut, working with Tigers is the absolutely the BEST job around! Especially for an experienced Scouter. You get to share your love of Scouting, and to inspire that same love in brand new families. Nothing beats the look in the eyes of a Tiger and his Partner as they discover what they can accomplish together. As I have said before - Tigers are G-R-R-R-R-R-E-A-T !!!

>>"So, a couple of bucks negates everything he did."

Cleto, all any of us here have to go by is the rather short, incomplete, story you posted. We are left to try to figure out the back story in our imaginations. NOWHERE in your original post did you say that Scouts were complaining about this ASM - NOWHERE. So this ASM told a PARENT that he was holding secret discussions with the scouts. Not sure why you seem to feel this is worse than if he had told a Troop leader. However, I am curious about how this parent reacted. It does not seem that the parent dressed this ASM down in any way. More back story we have to piece together blindly. To me it says that there is a LOT of back story here that we know nothing about. Also not sure why you (big boy or not) are getting these e-mails from the Scouts, and their families, and not the SM. However, if Scouts are complaining, this should have been brought to the attention of the SM, and/or the CC, as soon as you found out. I would recommend that you do that IMMEDIATELY.

Ed, what you are describing is a raffle, not a real auction. Anything that includes people buying tickets for a chance to win something is a raffle, and against BSA policy. Folks should take care when putting together an auction, or any other type of fundraiser, that it does not contain any element of a raffle. It would also help if the Unit Money-Earning Application were used.

You can do both your recharter, and advancement, online in ScoutNet, without using a program like Troopmaster. It just takes a bit more time to enter.

First you state he is a "young adult leader". Could this mean that he is a former youth of the Troop who has aged out, and has become an adult leader in his Troop? Often young ASM's, of 18-21 years old, who are former youth members, have a hard time separating the youth they were from the adult they are now considered to be. These are boys they know, and have played with. Some they might even be buddies with outside of Scouts. It can be a difficult transition. It sounds like he is not really hiding this. He mentioned to "a person" that he was talking to the Scouts about things "they wouldn't want parents to know". That can cover a lot of ground, from relationships to dumb stuff like who you dislike in the Troop. Did this "person" talk to the ASM about these discussions? It seems that after this "person" told the SM, the SM did have a talk to the ASM. Cleto, I must say, it seems to me that it is very possible that you have a personal bone to pick with this ASM (suspect leader, really?). Were you by any chance on his list of folks he would like to see removed from the Troop? Could it be your son the ASM does not care for? Talking trash with the Scouts does not make him a predator, just young, and real dumb. It sounds like the SM needs to have another, stronger, face-to-face with his young ASM. The ASM should re-do the BSA Youth Protection training as well.

And part of the "game of Scouting" is to help the boys. This is NOT "normal" behavior. This has been going on for at least 3 years, and these "good parents in a stable home", and his leaders in his Troop don't seem to have grasped that fact. Instead they keep punishing him, even though that has not made a dent in the behavior in at least 3 years. Before we simply kick this kid to the curb, some attempt to actually help him would be Scoutlike, don't you think? At the MINIMUM this boy needs a medical evaluation, and counseling. Sharky, you stated that the dad is a very good friend of yours. I would sit him down, as a friend, and discuss this with him. Try to get him to see that his son needs help.

I would suggest sitting down with BOTH the Scout and his parents, and explain his behavior is just not acceptable, and he needs to start learning some self control. With his parents, come up with consequences for the tantrums. Since his father is an ASM, and at every activity with his son, some consequences I would recommend would be are - At the first tantrum, dad takes him by the arm to an out of the way area, and leaves him there. Dad can stay within a distance to keep an eye on him, but just let him alone until he calms down. If there is a second tantrum dad takes him home immediately. You should make sure you have enough adults at the activity to cover the 2-deep without dad. If he goes an entire activity with no tantrum, make sure to praise him highly. Positive reinforcement often works better than negative. I do have some questions about his behavior however. Does this behavior happen only at campouts, or at Troop meetings, and other Troop activities also? Does it occur at home also? How about at school? Does this usually happen at a specific time of day (afternoons, first thing in the morning, evening, etc)? Is this a new behavior (or relatively new), or has he been doing this his entire life? Is he on any medications? My daughter had night terrors when she was young. She would wake in the middle of the night. You could not even touch her or she would start screaming so she could be heard 2 states away. Making sure she was not exhausted when she went to bed helped. She finally just out grew them. My son had tantrums when he was a child. Any "no" would see him flopped on his tummy kicking and screaming. He outgrew them way before he started pre-school. This boy is in 8-9th grade. This is not normal behavior for that age.

Ever since the recall of all Immediate Recognition totems a few years back, we have made our own out of leather for the Pack. They have room so that the Scouts can show off their beads for Tiger, Wolf, and Bear, all on the same totem.

Auctions, silent or otherwise, are NOT gambling. ONLY the person who purchases the item pays any money. They get something of value for what they feel it is worth to them. In gambling, everyone pays for just a chance (hence game of chance) to receive the item. The people who do not receive the item, get nothing at all in return for their money.