semperfiscouter

Thanks to everyone who's put forth their opinions, there def seems like there are two different camps of thought. I'm inclined to go with a simplistic, KISS, approach and have enough covered to provide more or less an SOP, guess we'll see how it works out shortly. Beavah - btw, what does ARC and LNT stand for? I'm familiar with the others. Also, what are some other useful org's or groups that you've dealt with in regards to Scouting? Just looking to get the most broad experience for the boys and have them exposed to different stuff than the status quo.... anyways - thanks again to everyone for providing their opinion! YIS Semperfiscouter

Thanks - and it looks like there are two different approaches. Unfortunately this person has done it in the past, and again this year. This person was upset at the time. The CC did speak with the person, however, this is part of his identity and personality and apparently he revels in the fact that he's an a...... I like the suggestion by CalicoPenn that the person needs to be dealt with. Thanks again for your timely advice and suggestions!

Good morning! Our Pack is going to be reviewing an existing set of bylaws used by another pack, and deciding how we want to implement it in our pack. The "normal" stuff is in there, but do any of you have anything in particular that you would suggest be written or added? I also wanted to ask how some of your packs may have dealt with a leader who has laid their hands on a scout. We have one person, who's placed a firm grip on a scout and at a different time, onto a sibling of which seemed hurt at the time. There are other issues; aren't their always; but this, and the over attitude towards fellow leaders and scouts is rather poor to say the least. Council is aware of this person, but nothing has been done - has anyone had the unfortunate experience of having a leader kicked out, or otherwise barred from the Pack?

Thanks everyone! I'm going to keep my registration etc as DL in order to focus my energy on the upcoming Bear year and in general to KISS. I'll be signing up to committees and contributing in that fashion. Thanks again everyone!!! *In St.Charles, MO

Thanks for the info Eagle, I suppose then I'm going to remain a DL since it's something I really enjoy and instead take on some committee positions to help turn my pack around...

Good morning, I was wondering if you can be an Assistant Cub Master and Den Leader at the same time? I'm currently a Den Leader but am volunteering to be an ACM as well, the reason being is that there needs to be additional help at that level yet I don't want to give up being a DL for my son and his friends in his Den. I've been told conflicting view points, but wanted to see if there was anything official one way or the other. Thanks!

Good point on the charging aspect, I was thinking it would include some tickets to the refreshments at face value. I like charging entry fees to the outlaw division, that would certainly help things out. Also, in my Pack, each year, the Bears are responsible for it and modifying rules/staffing/judging/volunteering/setup/tear down/etc etc etc. Does any other Pack rotate these functions, or is there PW committee that stays the same throughout the years they are present, and as transition time to Boy Scouts occurs a new group is brought on? I'll look through the older posts for future questions - thanks!

That sounds pretty good, and similar to what we have going on: Each rank races, at the end there is a final between all the winners, although, the fastest car of all entries is the one that receives the grand trophy - which is kind of strange considering I would think it would be fastest car of all the winners. Initially each Scout receives a car kit free of charge from the Pack (is this normal, suggestions?) and everyone else that's in the Pack family can buy one at $5/kit and race it. I like the idea of a $2 entry as it would help offset the cost of handing out cars etc. We also sell coffee/donuts in the morning and pizza/drinks in the afternoon. We're not trying to make it into a total fundraiser, but enough to offset costs of cars and trophies and pins. Right now, there are three leader judges, regardless if their son races and there's a question (point of contention already rises), a race committee to determine if something is ineligible etc. I would like to see more participation of the Cub's otherwise they turn their car in, and wait for it to race and that's it. Not sure of a happy medium if one exists in PW! Does anyone have a good set of rules and guidelines, or, have tried an outlaw division? I was thinking for outlaw: no liquid propellants, no rocket engines and the car needs to be same width, length can be whatever and hopefully this would be the one the dad's build cars for and leave kids to their own. I thought about having a one day shop where leaders/parents would bring equipment, saws, sanders etc to school or elsewhere and scouts can use the time to build something they would normally not be able to if their parents don't have access to all the tools and saws - has anyone tried that?

Good morning! I'm relatively new to the forums, and I've searched through them but I haven't found anything that covered Pinewood Derby. I'm a Wolf Leader, and have attended two of our Pack's PWD's. The last one was a fiasco, rules were changed last minute, cars were accepted into races then later questioned - implied cheating, and mostly more about Dad's cars then involving the Cub's and it being about them. Anyways, i have a list of suggested improvements such as bringing in the Boy Scouts to officiate and help out and be the judges in case a dispute, When, a dispute arises etc. Also considering having an outlaw division where almost anything goes, as well as turning it into a school outreach and open to the school members but charge a higher cost for the car to dove tail off it to bring in some much needed revenue. Do any of you have a good working set of best practices that works well for Pinewood?

I really like the idea of incorporation some of the (future) bear requirements into a Halloween event, and COMPLETELY agree that "meetings" are not good names for the events, and I for one, after sitting through 5hrs of meetings every day sure don't want any more As far as the Halloween function, how did you pull it off, planning wise, expense, stations, volunteers etc? I'll check your home page shortly to see what other good ideas there might be. I'm in the works of doing research for stuff as I know that if something is brought up without a plan it won't get done. As far as Pinewood - does anyone have a tried and true method for hosting it, the one I've been to the past couple years is entirely about the dad's, the leaders run it, officiate it, place cars etc...I'm thinking about asking for the Boy Scouts to come and volunteer to officiate it, and run it and get some of the more hard-core leader/dad/pinewood participant out of the mix... If you keep most of the business out of the Pack events, what do you all do with the boys prior to the BS's showing up towards closing? Games, guests?

Good morning everyone! I'm currently a Wolf Den Leader and looking to get more involved in some of the leadership roles open within my Pack. Some of the problems I'm experiencing; and voiced by many others within the Pack; is that we seem stuck in a rut of doing the same events every year with little, if no change to the line up. This is already boring and tiresome hence my interest in shaking a few things up to get out of the rut. I'm curious as to what other Cub Scout Packs do during their Scouting year? We do, in no certain order: rain gutter regatta, ONE camping trip in the fall, a fishing derby, PINEWOOD!, a swim event, Popcorn of course (that's a whole other issue), SFF, and really not much else... The Pack meetings are mostly awards to Dens and informational purposes for attendees and that's about it. If you could please let me know what YOUR Pack's do throughout the year I would really appreciate it as we really need some change. Thanks in advance!