5yearscouter

I do the rechartering for the pack as CC and COR again this year. Since we just did recruiting, it won't be hard. we'll verify who is continuing and take payments for those who owe money. For any leader not trained for their current position, they are not rechartered in that position. if they are minimally trained as a committee member, they may be rechartered in that position. but honestly the den leaders have been very nice about doin their training as needed, they really don't ever give me grief about it cause I tell them it's required so they go and do it. Baloo training or Webelos outdoor leaders skills are sometimes not completed yet since our district keeps cancelling them, but those aren't really required for positions anyway. YPT is always done, and encouraged to be done yearly as a refresher. Now for the Troop I'm membership chair and I will do recharter. This year will be a booger because most did their ypt 2 years ago and are fixing to expire on that. so that will take a LOT of nagging. I tell people they must do troop committee challenge if they are on the committee and they ignore me. The scoutmaster did his SMspecifics and IOLS in 1998 and refused to redo them, and they don't show on his council training records and he doesn't have the cards for proof--so that is a battle that the CC and COR will have to embrace. Ultimate answer for who is rechartered will come from the CC and COR decision. Cause last recharter trying to enforce training with them was a clusterf. They've ignored recommended training for so long--yet have woodbadge trained leaders in high numbers--and they all want to say "oh but I have woodbadge" as if that counts for missing YPT. anyway, the process I use for the troop is a training list for any registered leaders, circling the training titles they need to complete within the next month(this is on my to do list right now). then I have a form for each scout and leader where I check off payment? OA dues? have they updated their med form? have the adults updated their driving info for the tour permit? have they signed the annual parent agreement/permission slip? and again on the adult payment sheet it lists adult needed training to recharter. I have a parent meeting scheduled for Oct 22nd, where those forms will be sorted by family, parents come in, get their packet, check off the forms or complete new ones, hand in training certificates and make payment. Follow up collection of payments is on the next monday, with the plan to turn in the charter by November 1st. We'll see how it goes. Last year we were done in less than 2 weeks except for nagging training issues. hopefully this year the # of nagging training issues will be less.

My family used rubbermaid plastic tubs for years for camping. The stove and lantern go into a separate tub, as does any food items. The pots and pans go into the tub on their side if possible, so the boys can pull out a pot by it's handle, silverware and spatulas standing up in a coffee can. ideally you have your 3 wash pans stacked and they fit in the top of the rubbermaid--mine fit in and stop before they go all the way down as the rubbermaid container gets smaller as it goes down. in the tub is things like matches, clothespins, soap, papertowels, alumninum foil, little clothes line, stuff like that in a smaller mesh tub that fits right inside the wash pans. If you give them less stuff rather than everything possible it may work but will require some effort to maintain. mine just stay on the ground under the table that we put the stove on. Food goes into another rubbermaid, and.or an ice chest. you can actually bungee cord a coleman camp stove to the top and might be able to fit a lantern inside your biggest pot, but that will depend on a lot of variables for what you have for pots and pans.

We charge $50 a year, and they pay it in November for the next calendar year. They can use popcorn sales to offset the cost, and most Webelos 2's understand the value of participating in popcorn sales, so they can usually cover most of their recharter fee. The pack buys them a Boy Scout Book, troop neckerchief, slide and the green tabs, that alone is a big part of what they paid us for recharter. When they crossover we have 3 or 4 troops they might join. each charges a bit different cost. most will charge $1 plus a $4-5 per month troop fee, prorated. The most expensive troop if they join in March, they pay $31--plus the cost of a troop tshirt or if they want the troop hat that nobody wears except at summer camp. I think most can handle paying $31 to join a troop so we don't stress over it too much. the den families usually cover most of the career arrow costs, but the pack gives a little and has some supplies--right now I have enough paint, tape and feathers, plus sinew in the pack pile to handle a few years of crossovers, so they only have to pay for an arrow and arrowhead, maybe some leather string. We have a simpler arrow that the den leaders usually make and a local Bow shop that sells a pretty inexpensive arrow for arrow of light crossovers.

We have a mandatory parent meeting right after recruiting, the next week. We go over the basic outline of positions in a pack and explain what positions need to be filled. We usually get someone who steps up if we need a cubmaster or assistant cubmaster usually a dad who used to be a scout. If not we recruit someone to help with finding some ceremonies and making some decorations for pack meetings, someone to help lead games for pack meetings and someone to help lead songs and skits/run ons, etc. Those people usually end up as an assistant cubmaster after they try it for a month or so. the committee positions are the hardest to fill. We go over our calendar of events, and try to get someone from each den involved for each event. Some things are simpler like who can call and set up a visit to the firestation for the tigers? Then we break down some committee jobs into small pieces. it may be newsletter, email list, who can go to the scout shop and buy awards once a month and who in each den can help with popcorn sales, etc? we try to get one person per den to want to help out with these sorts of things. we let everyone know that every event is put on by us. there are no magic fairies that will come do it if we don't do it. We bribe them with snacks and drinks, and we talk about other things besides scouting, and we make sure everyone knows all the fun that can be had. and somehow, just like every other pack we end up short handed, but get a core group of extra hardworking parents. we try to have someone (scout parent unit coordinator?) touch base with uninvolved parents to explain what we need provided, paid for, done behind the scenes, or need their help for one meeting to do. And they do usually comply once they know what is needed and a bit of help identifying what it is that they can do around their busy schedule. cause it seems everyone is super overscheduled nowadays.

I've tried to break down the pack fees based on using the national excel document. It's not as easy as it should be. Most of the time you just don't know, especially as a new pack, what things will cost. For instance you can do a blue and gold for $1 per scout for a few paper plates and everything else it donated or pot luck. or you can do a blue and gold where the pack pays up to $5 per boy and the parents pick up the difference. Or you can run a derby and give everyone a patch and a paper printed certificate, or you can give out the fancy car medals or trophies and the cost will vary exponentially. And new people really don't know what to put into their budget for awards. You assume every boy will get bobcat, a tiger totem, cub fob with beads or webelos colors, and all will earn rank, need a card and a parent pin. But how many boys will earn the summertime pack award, the Outdoor activity award, Leave no trace and world conservation? and then you hit belt loop costs, how much will that run you? will every boy earn every award? You'd like to have the money for that, but is it right to charge parents for everything? We know from our history of the pack that one or two boys per den earn close to every award (sometimes it's the leader kid going nuts or the hover parent thinking the person with the most award wins) but most will earn the minimum. I have a chart where I've been collecting data for 7 years for our small-medium back to small sized pack so we can closely estimate awards. Tigers average $3 a month, Wolves $4 a month and Bears and Webelos $5 a month. Bears and Webelos come in at higher due to Bears getting a small scout knife when they earn whittling chip, and webelos get a webelos pin every month plus the average number of belt loops and bonus awards. So our pack budgets $5 a month for 10 months awards per scout (June, July, Aug are lower due to lower den activities those months). $5 a month covers a couple belt loops and something else every month, or rank award, etc. anyway, the short answer is we charge $40 in August for registration, insurance, boy's life for scout, registration and insurance for one parent, starting rank book, covers the cost of bobcat and first month of awards if they quit before they participate in popcorn. Then we vote after popcorn sales adjusting the amount to charge based on how we do in sales. So for recharter this year the estimate due in November is $50 per scout. That covers registration, insurance and boy's life per scout, registration and insurance for 1/2 of a leader, derby car, rank award and it covers a little bonus for the pack to run. If we do well on popcorn, the boys can get up to $25 of registration covered by the pack, so basically they pay their registration and most of boy's life and the popcorn funds cover the rest. Each den can charge monthly den dues to cover the cost of their supplies for crafts or campouts, etc. We suggest $5 a month for tigers and wolves. sometime in the bear year we suggest they move to $10 and have that for webelos. They are suggested that if they don't use all the funds on supplies and crafts, to use the $ from the den to help offset the cost of a family campout or summer day camp. This works out well for webelos if they charge $10 a month and are able to get leather or woodworking stuff donated, then they have the $ to register for a webelos overnighter in the fall, winter and spring with the parents just covering some food and a little more.

If you have teeth of the zipper missing the kit and repairs won't work and you need new zippers. google for some directions for what the zipper is doing. sometimes the pull is not tight enough against the teeth and you can use plyers to squish the pull edges so they are tigher and that will force the teeth to go back together appropriately. Or the pull may need to be replaced, which you can do yourself fairly easily if you can get to the end of the zipper. you may need to undo some stitching, but if you can find the right size pull to replace, you just slide it in place and redo the stitching right at the end. also check your local sewing store. Then Get a product like this http://www.joann.com/universal-zipper-repair-kit/prd28089/ there is a version for heavy duty zippers like are on tents or heavy winter coats. I've fixed several winter coats with a new pull and sleeping bags. I have one tent that needs a zipper repair but I believe it has a tooth missing, which means all new zipper or all new tent.

If a scout comes into a boy scout troop with a bunch of existing skills and could feasibly actually EARN 1st class in only a handful or 2 of months, why would you ask why they are in Boy Scouts if they already know it all and have the skillz? I would hope they are in your troop because your troop camps and hikes and backpacks and canoes, and makes campfires and does all sorts of things that the young man can do with boys his age instead of always doing it with his family going out hunting or whatever. Why would you not be jumping for joy that you have a young boy with skillz that your troop could put to good use? You know boy led and boys teaching other boys scout skillz?? That seems like a perfect place to put that young man--teaching his patrol mates, challenging him to bring all of his patrol up to that level, no man left behind kind of thinking. And yes, that is where my own boys are. They would have had the scout skillz even if they weren't scouts. They enjoy learning, teaching, practicing, guiding other young men that wouldn't have gotten that outdoors stuff without Boy Scouts. They enjoy having their patrol earn the golden spoon and outcook the adults. and be able to tie knots around the adult scoutmaster and ASM's. And they enjoy the OA ceremonial team and the national jamboree and the merit badges that aren't required for eagle and a chance to go out to the nuclear power plant. Just like the scouts who earn rank slowly, some of them get a good scouting education even if they earn rak fast. It's possible to get a lousy scout education either way--amount of time it takes is only one small part of the equation. Go too slowly and test and retest always setting the bar higher has some negative consequences too. You get young men who came into the troop being about to outcook the adults on a campfire or campstove always feeling like they can't cook well enough to get their book signed no matter what they do until that magical 1 year point is past. so why bother? or go so slowly thru the stuff that if the boy had any knowledge of the stuff going into the program, you've lost all the spark and enthusiasm and they've forgotten half of what they already knew. Finding a balance between too fast and too slow, and accomodating speed to the interests and ability of the scout, and seeing that a boy advances at his own pace. Don't put up artificial roadblocks of needing to see a perfectly smooth cheese sauce before you'll sign off the cooking requirements. Don't get ridiculous about it.

Well my sons have been cooking since they were little, and have been cooking on campouts since they were Bear aged. So it depends on how strenuous you want the cook over a campfire and cook on a campstove testing to be. Usually I'd think it would take 2 campouts, just cause the boys tend to do only 1 or 2 cooked meals on most campouts, with a lot of grab and go foods for breakfasts and lunches. When it's summer hot in AZ you don't want a hot breakfast or lunch, so that's 6 months of the year. If a boy comes from a pack that camps and Webelos who cook their own meals instead of having the grown ups do the work (like my pack) then when they come in they know how to make a campfire and cook over it (may be dogs or burgers, may be baked potatoes in the coals, or dutch oven something depending on your definition of cooking over a fire). And they've been making things like pancakes,eggs and sausage, grilled cheeses and soups, as well as simple stews and chili on campstoves for 18 months of webelos. Showing it to the Boy Scouts if fairly simple. A couple of really good first year type campouts could get a bunch of the requirements for 1st class whown and tested and signed off. My youngest got his first class in about 10 months. And he can teach all those things--but as you have heard from most parents my kid is better than most I find, however, that most boys who get first class in short number of months invariably have a mom pushing the requirements asking "so does attending the eagle project and the eagle court of honor both count? is the troop fundraiser a troop activity, can we count patrol activities even if it's a half hour meeting?" And then they start to stretch it to see if they can count the hike the boy did with the boy scouts before he joined the troop or how bout the crossover to boy scouts, and can we count each day of a campout as a separate activity if one day is primarily fishing and one day is primarily hiking?

You know we had a parent meeting when we were that small and made some harsh discussions about who was going to do the work and that it wasn't going to just be me. With a little poking all parents agree that the pack policy would be that each scout had to have one parent fill out a leader application and take a leader position of some kind. It was the only way to make it work. when we got more parents than we had leader positions (actual positions like den leader and assistant) everyone else was committee with each one in charge of an event, fundraiser, secy, treasurer, advancement, campout, newletter, website. of course we were self chartered, so if the parents didn't make our pack go we wouldn't have gonne anywhere fast.

We find we get better participation and HELP make the pack GO from parents if we require them to attend the first few meetings to find out what is going on and get to know the den and the den leadership. After that, for wolf on up, if a parent is not going to stay for the meeting they have to check with the den leader after bringing the boy into the meeting room and come back for ending announcements. Lots of time parents are sooo busy that getting them to do family things at home is difficult--so for instanct den leaders may have family game night at the den meeting, and need each scout to have family present to make that work. Parents also need to SEE what you are doing in the den meeting, so they know if they are asked to do something at home it's because the den meetings are so full they just can't fit everything into the den meetings. we also are not babysitters of america. Our pack everyone meets on the same night, so in dens with parents "getting in the way" there is always some pack stuff being done in the hallway that the parents are encouraged to come help with. whether stuffing goodie bags for the halloween party, cutting out craft stuff for the tiger den, helping come up with ideas for the games to play at the campout or sorting newsletters for each den, or helping to write up awards cards for 20 new bobcats, or helpin to monitor the gaggle of siblings that showed up and started to interfere with the den meetings and now are running back and forth down the hall and stuffing too much toilet paper in the school bathroom. There is always stuff that can be done.

We encourage all parents to participate in popcorn with some incentives (like cheaper registration and summer camp to those boys who sell popcorn) and incentives to the boys of prizes and throw a pie into the cubmaster's face kind of thing. But the fundraising dollars that go to the pack are there to make the pack go. All the dollars belong to the pack, the money is there to help all the scouts, not just those whose parents buy into the whole fundraising thing. Those who sell popcorn get a bit of benefit extra than those who don't sell popcorn, but EVERY scout gets their awards no matter what. It's a foundation principle, that I am doing scouting with my son and taking a lot of other boys along for the ride even if their parents aren't as involved as I am. Similarly for money, the fundraiser is there to offset the cost to the families by spreading the cost of scouting to the community, even if not every boy can participate in selling popcorn. It's about as fair as possible. Some kids are goin to have a parent who can take the popcorn paper to work with them and sell $1000's. And some kids have 2 parents who work opposite shifts at the local gas station and with watching siblings and juggling life struggle to get the kid to the popcorn sales table at the grocery store(where a parent has to stay) and seriously struggles to just take the kid to the neighbors to sell 1 thing. Both families are putting in effort, but I see the 2nd type as trying even harder but sometimes just failing to get it all coordinated. and that's ok. We usually do get 100% of the boys to sell one item of popcorn by offering them a raffle ticket for some popcorn prizes if they sell at least 1 item. That way we at least get something out of every family.

My absolute favorite was the year we had a CM or ACM from each of the 5 rank levels. So we put on a big celebration of America Blue and gold. Just normal burgers and hot dogs american picnic style. Kids came up and sang the abc's of america song and my kid puked and went home early. (that part was NOT THE BEST as my dh took him home, and I washed off my feet (luckily I had on a green scout skort) and wore a borrowed pair of flip flops for the rest of the night. anyway. the cubmasters got together with some parents and surprised me by hiding behind the curtain at the school once the kids started singing, and then they pulled back the curtain and lip synced to Celebration. And then the fun started. then CM came out on stage dressed as Abe Lincoln with a black leather coat and did a 4 months and many weeks ago a cub scout and his parent joined our pack and called the tigers up on stage. so then Uncle Sam ACM with a huge long beard(naturally) and a big red and blue top hat came on stage and said his "I want YOU" thing to call up the wolves on stage. And we had the statue of liberty ACM with his long blonde hair dressed in a green sheet and torch came out and gave out the bear awards. Betsy ross ACM woman 5th grade teacher who had the costume came out and did the webelos badges and then they all did some patriotic thingy and gave out the arrow of light awards (crossove was the next week with campfire) The amount of laughing, joking, good quality fun, how many pictures were taken, videos(which I never got a copy of) and guess what EVERYBODY PAID ATTENTION!!! I have a few others like that. The Luau with the cubmaster in a coconut bra and grass skirt(and shirt) dancing the hula. The volcano launched the rank awards out a bit of a high velocity but then the kids started running around everywhere laughing their heads off. oh the chinese new year pack meeting. I made a fake chinese dragon from directions on familyfun.com to make a crocodile. I had it sitting on stage on a bar stool backed up to the curtain. we did some stuff and then my older son a boy scout snuck up on stage and got into the chinese dragon and started dancing around with one of his friends behind him underneath the red plastic tablecloth. we had hidden awards in the mouth of the dragon and the dragon danced around and then went up to the cubmaster and spit awards out. it was kind of silly but went over great! so I'd say silly unexpectedness. This year's blue and gold is a pirate theme. wonder if award cannons will be shot out of a fake pirate ship on stage while the cubmaster is dressed as captain jack sparrow? I do have a lot of experience with just plain simple things that went over, but I loved the cubmasters I've had that wanted to dress up and be silly. The first one to do that started out simple, he wore his bathrobe and a crown to the knights in shining armor pack meeting and dubbed all the couts with one of the scout laws (johnny the brave etc) with a fake wooden sword as he gave out their awards. he went and got his boat for the raingutter regatta pack meeting and it was a "full size" wearable cardboard boat with pretend motor on the back and wore a captain's hat. the kids were on the edges of their seats waiting to see what was goin to happen next month.

Well the way I believe it should be done is that the pack works up a budget of what awards, and pinewood derby cars, events(even just pack meetings at the local school often costs something for craft or game materials), leader materials, printing, patches for special events, etc. Then figure out what that costs per scout for their part of it, add in their yearly registration fee, insurance, boy's life magazine. You then know what a year of scouting costs per boy. Then figure out how much of that you expect from history or best guess to be covered per boy from the fundraiser(s). Then charge the rest as recharter fee to the boys. If you do better on fundraisers, lower the recharter fee, if you don't do as well, raise your recharter fee. adjust accordingly. we keep scout accounts only to cover summer camp costs. the pack takes their % of the fundraiser to cover the awards. that way we set aside enough $ for the boys to get their stuff even if their parents can't afford to, or they don't participate in the fundraiser for some reason. Cause in cub scouts it's really not so great to not have the money for awards. We budget $5 per scout per month for awards. We cover most of that straight from our fundraisers. That's our goal. Fundraisers cover awards as first priority, leader materials and registration second, events as third--as we can pass on a fee to cover pinewood derby or a campout and parents will pay it, but parents don't want to buy awards or leader materials. As we've worked upwards in our budget so we have more discretionary funds, we cover more out of the pack budget and keep the cost to parents low. Right now when you join our pack you pay the boy's life, registration, insurance (for August thru Dec), and leader fee for your parent(for that background check), your first rank award(Bobcat)and your first book--rounded up to the nearest multiple of $20 so the change is easier for everyone to grab $ a the ATM. That comes in at $40 for August. That gives us a little bit extra to cover awards until after popcorn sales and we get some $ in from you and your family's efforts. Every year after popcorn sales we vote on recharter fee, right now set at $50 a year. That covers registration, boy's life, insurance for scout for the year ($28.20) plus a pinewood derby car, a rank book in May, a rank award at blue and gold and something toward adult yearly fee or other awards. The fundraisers cover the rest. Then advancement chair or cubmaster does the internet advancement forms and go buy the awards to be awarded at virtually every pack meeting or pack event(campout)etc.

Lots and lots of ideas. I have so many ideas that we voted on the ones we wanted this year and were a bit bummed we had to take some off the list. we'll put as many into den stuff as possible, and save some new ones for next year. Standard things to include on your calendar recruiting night(s) Blue and Gold pinewood derby re-charter dates fundraising dates be sure to put in some committee/leader meeting dates campouts 1-3 a year hikes w/ campfire programs (at campout or instead of campouts if you can't do 3 campouts). pencil in crossover dates make a list of things you might not include but may be of interest: district and council events (like if webelos camps, resident camps, day camps, but also district pinewood derby, etc). local community things (parades you might want to walk in, community fairs to have a booth/activity/recruiting or sell popcorn), fire safety day[we get to sit in the trailer that fills with smoke and try to escape and try to put out a fake fire with the fire hose-- quite memorable], memorial day flags at veteran's cemeteries in the area, zoo special events or free weekends at the science museum etc) Make sure you don't schedule againt school vacations and big holidays as competition--someone always tries to put a spring campout on easter weekend for some reason. then make a list of service project things you could do: Something for your chartered organization, caroling for an old folk's home, scouting for food, socks for the homeless(sock wars), etc. then the list of all the rest that you could plug in. look at tiger go see its and other rank required or recommended outings and see if it's something the whole pack would be interested in. that would give you things like trip to the local tv station get locked up at the police station work at a historical house decorating it for the holidays *make models and model stands--which gives you things like raingutter regatta(we always make our own cheaper than the kits) this year our blue and gold is a pirate theme and we'll have raingutter pirate boat races. but also train races--there are wooden train kits online for cheap, glue them together, be careful with the wheels and they can race in the middle of the pinewood derby track lanes. that was a blast! Pack wide sports/olympics never seems to come off so well, but a bike rodeo/ride seems to work great. start by having a local bike shop check the boy's bikes and do tune ups and then go to a safe neighborhood for a ride. We had a morning of fishing and afternoon at the pool then evening pizza and campfire program that was great. see if you have a close ski lift that will do rides during the summer. the kids loved goin to the top of the big mountain in the ski lift. And schedule some just "plain" pack meetings with fun stuff happening as a game as gathering or at the end. Kids don't care if they are racing across the floor sliding on paper to pretend they are skiing as long as it's a competition and there may be snacks available. check out games in the cub scout how to book for ideas. a big hit has been indoor volleyball with a big playground ball as gathering this year cause boys can join no matter what time they ge there. can't seem to get the kids to not play it, someone always seems to bring a ball every month.

Definitely packs need to change things up for the years, new themes, new activities, or just activities where the Webelos are in charge of something rather than just participating the same way they always have. Like the Webelos for the Derby sell pizza, sodas/water and snacks to keep people occupied while they race, because by their 5th pinewood derby they really aren't all that into racing and building a car anymore. or at the christmas parade, they make something cool and different out of wood and lights (it's a nighttime light parade). And one year we have a halloween party, and another year we have a spooky halloween campfire. some years we do the council family camp and some years our pack campout on our own. we even alternate things like the tiger's first go see it that the whole pack seems to always go on so it's police station visit one year, firestation visit another year, sheriff's office ambulance bay, etc. We don't go to the same outings or do the same activities year after year after year. Now every troop should have a webelos support/crossover/recruitment coordinator. someone who meets the webelos den leaders their first year,offers loans of troop equipment if possible, tells them some local places that are good to take webelos camping, and tries to get them a den chief. Den chiefs for webelos are more important than den chiefs for any other rank IMHO. especially by the fall of the 2nd year of webelos but hopefully earlier. Even if they can only attend 1 webelos den meeting a month or only go on their campouts with them, that would be a huge help to webelos leaders.

I'm just thinking of it in terms of how our summer goes. we graduate them to the next rank the end of may, so they have new hats, neckers, slides and books on June 1st. All summer long they work on the things for that rank they are currently working towards. They think of themselves as wolves, cause that's what we call the den eh? So then at the end of the summer, we give them the summertime pin for beging a Tiger over the summer while they were wolves? makes no sense to me at all no matter how you parse it. I view the Tiger pin as a recruiting tool for the spring--join by june 1st and you can earn two things over the summer(at least) Bobcat and the summertime pack award. It gives us even more of a reason to try hard to recruit boys before summer gets started. Now over the summer the boys are working on the stuff for the Outdoor Activity Award, primarily the big go to day camp or resident camp. Using the same logic as this pin, that it's unfair to the boys who join in September cause they can never earn the Outdoor activity award as tigers cause there usually isn't a day or resident camp after they join until the next summer. So then there is no way they can earn the OAA patch and ALL the possible pins, they just can get a few of them. yeah the extra paw prints aren't colored orange, but give them time, they'll figure out how to do that soon enough to encourage scouts to earn it every year. But let's be realistic, they only care about earning another doo dad, only a few parents wonder why their scout didn't earn it this year, and a quick explanation fixes the issue. The summertime pack activity award is the same. if you weren't a tiger the summer you were a tiger, how can you earn the tiger pin? seems a no brainer to me. realize that there isn't even a spot on internet advancement to record this pin, so yeah, it's not high on the importance list. Whatever you decide to do, be consistent from year to year and give everyone the same chance to earn it. don't change the rules in the middle--which is what it looks like BSA did, cause I don't remember that sentence being in the description in prior years. Someone at national thought they should clarify, but perhaps they didn't fully think it thru? seems obvious to me that much of the bsa documents don't all match up, as different people work on different parts, eh?

I see a wolf earning the Tiger summer pack award as being like a wolf joining in sept and wanting to go back and earn the tiger badge so he doesn't miss out. too bad, so sad you can only go forward from when you join, not backwards to work on prior rank stuff once you go up to the next level on June 1st. I believe it's in the Guide to Advancement about going back and working on achievements or awards for a prior rank, but I'd have to go look to be sure. I think it's also covered that way in the Cub Scout Leader book. so I would be consistent. if a boy who is wearing a wolf hat and necker can earn a tiger summer pin, seems they may also want to earn a tiger badge, etc. If a pack is upset that they don't have any tigers earning the summertime pack award, then the pack needs to take it up a notch and do a springtime recruiting of those kindergarteners, don't they?

Our roundtable gave out a bead "necklace" when you first came to roundtable as a new cub leader, a blue and yellow bead for cub scout colors, a colord bead to represent the district colors, and a clear bead to represent that you are new to scouting and come in with a brain that is empty of all the scouting ideas you gain at roundtable. Then each month they'd add a blue and yellow bead. To see the adults comparing the length of their bead necklaces sometimes was interesting. I wouldn't say that they came for the beads, but it was a visual way to see how experienced someone was, in theory the more roundtables you go to the better cub scouter you'd be, eh?

The problem is after 5 years of running cub scout events, which take a lot more planning and hands on, most parents are really looking forward to the hands-off-ed-ness of Boy Scouting. They are burnt out on that cub scout level of putting in 1 hour a week (which is really 1 hour a week times however many boys are in your unit). Besides, it is totally different to go back and try to ramp up the fun for cubs when you've already gone to the fire station many times with your scout and really don't want to do it again, you've btdt on the crafts and games and activities, you just don't have the high level of enthusiasm to pull it off as a cubmaster or den leader. Sure you could help with the boring stuff--paperwork, applications, YPT, tour plans, and such, but who really wants to do that?

Not sure where you got your info from? If every June 1st, the boys go up a rank, so tigers become wolves, why would you award them a tiger pin? It makes no sense to me to do it that way. They are no longer working on anything to do with tigers. If it's a national thing, maybe they did it that way because not very many units were giving out tiger pins because many units don't have a tiger den until the fall recruiting? I would be consistent. If you give the tigers two tiger pins that really doesn't sound so great, does it? I guess you could give new tigers the patch--if your council makes a patch, I don't think national makes the patch? and then give the tiger pin the next summer when they are working on wolf stuff. which still doesn't make any sense to me. I think I'll continue to do it the way we've always done it in our pack, since not that many boys earn it --July is usually a really tough month to get attendance, too many parent vacations to work around. So our incoming new tigers would earn the tiger pin, new wolves as of june 1 would earn the wolf pin, etc. sure webelos could earn it twice, but most don't earn it twice. I don't think there is a generic pin for the summertime activity award. there used to be gold pins only, so if you can find some of the old gold pins you could award them for either incoming tigers or webelos who already earned it once. I don't like the colors around the edge of the pins. they should match the hats to avoid confusion. instead they match the patch color for each rank, right? (This message has been edited by 5yearscouter)

I'd probably do like what was mentioned, meet at a picnic area near the corn maze, or set up the back of someone's pick up truck as a stage, call each boy up as they get their bobcats, paint their faces give them their bobcat and welcome them to the pack. you could give everyone glow sticks or something like that as you put them back down into the group from the tailgate. new meaning to the idea of a tailgate party. but the kids would remember it. that's the point of the ceremony. that it's something to remember besides here is your bobcat award in this fancy ziplock bag. could even do something about how bobcat is the first step on your way, the guiding light toward your career as a cub scout and give them a little flashlight or glow sticks as you give it to them. glow in the dark face paint or just a strip of yellow and blue to go with the cub scout colors. We do a mix of pack meetings and activities for just about every month. you get your flag ceremony and awards, you get a song, skit, repeat after me, cheers and a fun activity to go with it, order changes depending on where and what we are doin but somehow it all works out.

We have a troop rule of no cots in tents. although at summer camp it is nice when you have to sleep there all week to have a cot to put your gear under. in that case I'd recommend requiring tennis balls on the feet of all cots, and that the tents have to be x size in order to fit the cot. One thing we've found is 1 man tents, or we have a couple parents who bough "cot tents" sold at Cabelas is that it puts a distance between those people and the rest of their patrol. makes it easier for those boys to be loners and not part of the group.

With younger guys, I really prefer 2 or 3 man tents with 2 guys in it. Have had a few of the younger ones get totally freaked out on a first couple of campouts when they hear a coyote howling or an elk bugling and they do better if someone else in in the tent with them. even when backpacking, my boys prefer 2 man tents with one of them carrying the poles and one of them carrying the tent itself and then sleeping together in the tent. then they have the buddy system going on, as well as sharing the load. When they went on the cold weather backpacking, they had someone to share body heat and keep an eye on each other for hyperthermia and such. In the heat if it's very hot they just don't carry a tent at all, just a lightweight tarp each and make do that way. They tend to also share camp stoves and cooking equipment and food and water. one carries the stove one carries the pots. the smaller guy carries less water, the bigger guy carries more water. it all works out.

I see it like Calico. It was an oopsie, BOR done right before a COH and the paperwork not done, ac not notified, so the scouts didn't get their badges. In our troop it would go like this. scouts sign up for SM conference, once that is done(even if at a campout) then SM asks MC (or AC if she's present) to do a BOR asap. then the BOR completed the paperwork for advancement--signing the advancement form and turning it in to the ac's in box at the scout meeting location. the SM gives out the badge right then in front of whoever is present unless they forgot to take the box of badges we have on hand, then it would be the next troop meeting at the end of the meeting circle up. at the next Cof H, the boy receives the card and the parent pin and recognition again. So if the a/c didn't get the advancement form from the BOR, then there is no way she would know about it, so the badge would not be available at the CofH. The SM or ASM in charge at the campout usually makes sure the paperwork was done, and takes responsibility if it was forgotten (like if they forgot to take an advancement form and the box of badges). As a/c I would have been upset, explained that I cannot award a badge that I was not given the proper paperwork for, and that the parent should take it up with the SM--but that sometimes mistakes happen because we are all human and then end the discussion and not sit there and take it from the parents for any longer.

Part of the agreement to BE a troop is that the CO promises to run the BSA program. Eagle is part of the BSA program and is not something that units can choose to add to or subtract from at will. If a troop were to decide they'd only recognize SOME eagles, I'd honestly hope national would pull their charter.