5yearscouter

In Quicken I would set up each boy as a separate savings account. for fundraisers, I use excel to track sales and then transfer items to Quicken at the end, with total sales to the unit, total payment to council for product, and then % transfer to each boy's scout account.

http://madsenco.com/scouting.shtml http://trax.boy-scouts.net/scoutttrax.htm not sure if both of them include all updates, but you can google for "excel tracker for boy scout merit badges" and get others.

Our pack originally had the year set up so that each month had a core value and a theme that goes together. some were moved around a bit to match what happens each month here in phoenix. for instance you don't do outdoor sports in august. the dens who focused on that order for their meetings seem to have accomplished more in the year with more excitement. some of the core values fit in more than one place, so they often get totally mixed up and switched around. we roundup in august so it's Communication & making new friends (tv station visit, morse code) sept- outdoor skills (camping, hiking) oct- Safety (fire station visit, first aid, police visit) nov- citizenship (veteran's parade, veteran's day flags at cemetery, visit to state capitol) dec- Faith and Family (doing for others in varying ways) jan- Building things (derby, woodworking) feb- collections and cooking (blue and gold decorations and food) mar- Games and sports (cub olympics, bike rally) apr- outdoor skills (LNT, World Conserve, birds, animals rocks) may- music & magic (graduation talent show) june- fun in the sun (day camp, swimming) july - science, engineering and technology (rocket derby)

I will guess they will figure out a way to redo the meetings so everyone needs to buy all new materils. I would prefer them to move to certain themes that repeat, the things cub scouts do, cooking, outdoor/camping skills, nature/animals, sports, fitness, safety--sort of like the boy scout themes that nobody seems to focus on anymore either.

ok I googled yes, I'm impatient http://nesa.org/PDF/EagleCeremonyBooklet3.pdf

linky poo? or do I need to google? or it is some secret?

When we do sales at a store, where there are several boys working the area, holding signs, answering questions, maybe one boy asks the people on the way in the store and they say they'll come back out and buy, and then end up buying from a different boy--well there's no real easy way to track that by individual boy. so we put all the sales in one pot, and then divide the sales up by hour worked for each boy. so if we sell $200 during 20 boy hours, each hour is worth $10. if Joey worked 2 hours, he gets credit for $20, but if I notice that joey was sitting down and never doing anything, I might figure a way to reward the boys who sold more. sometimes you can track sales per hour and see that 2 boys that were there a certain time slot really rocked on their sales and were real go getters, so you might reward them. of course, it could be that they were just at the store at a time of day where there was more traffic than any other time of day. I'd say in your instance unless you note a particular scout doing a particularly good or bad job, split the money based on how many hours they worked. even the shy boy who barely talked came out, in uniform he acts as advertising for the unit sales just standing or sitting there, and if he tried a bit, he may have learned a bit about salesmanship so he'll do better the next time. We often have shy boys who want to hold up signs or fetch change rather than do any talking--but that can be just as important at getting the sales done.

for popcorn sales sold at home or store, the parents track their scout's actual sales, and the pack gives them a credit of 15-20% of the cost of the popcorn depending on if the pack meet their overall sales goal for the year. the other part of profit goes to the pack. for anything else sold where you can track individual sales, it will depend on what the pack needs look like for the year. we usually have one fundraiser where all profit goes to the pack regardless of who sells the most. usually that's one where there are nice prizes, so the boys still get something out of the deal. occassionally we'll tie participation in a fundraiser to a discount on a particular campout or event--usually when there seems to be lack of participation. so if you help with the fundraiser, you don't get a % of your sales, but you get say a free rocket for the rocket derby, or you get the scout cost of the pack campout covered by the pack. we have had years where all sales of scoutorama tickets at the grocery store went into one pot. then everyone got credit for 5 sales to = the participation patch, and sales over that were divided up by boy based on how many hours they worked. it just depends on how the fundraiser fits into the pack budget[how much of profit you can afford to share directly with the scout] and how hard it is to track individual sales per boy.

The belt loops/pins are $1.79 each + 10 cent card. there are 56 belt loops, 56 pins 112 x $1.89 = $211.68 x 30 cub scouts if they all get as carried away as our bear den a year ago = $6350.4 That is a bit more than our pack has in it's awards budget for a year. how bout you? Packs have to have some kind of policy, ceiling, limit on how many can be earned out of the pack budget before parents have to start paying. now if a scout earns 2 a month, that's only 3.78 say for 10 months in a year = 37.80 x 5 years = $189 that is earning 100 of the belt loops, maybe you want to allow the occassional 3 a month for special occassions like finishing a webelos badge or something (like sportsman), to get you up to that 112 total cost of $211.68 but it would be spread out over 5 years, not all done in a few months where it looks like someone checked off everything their son may have possibly sort of done at school or church or sports or maybe they could do it at scouts or home, but only if you fudge the requirments. Basically since it's not rank advancement, the pack doesn't have to participate in those awards, if they parents are going to abuse the belt loop and pin program, then the program will cease to be a part of our cub scout pack awards unless specifically mentioned by name as a requirement for rank. that would be citizen and scientist in the webelos activity pins required to earn those pins. all the other belt loops mentioned in the rank books are options that could be done, but don't have to be.

I told the tiger leaders they should back it back down to the 1 or 2 belt loops they did in the den meetings. So right now we are at chess and basketball. which is really cute thinking of tigers learning chess (not saying they can't, but it's not exactly the easiest belt loop for a tiger), and basketball (they can't even come close to making a basket at the school where they played). just strikes me as a funny choice.

Well our bear den handed in advancement forms requesting 30 belt loops and pins one month last year. well we've never had anyone get more than say 3 or 4 in a month but had the policy that you can earn them multiple times but the pack only pays for them once. So we went round and round on how to deal with that. they cost like $2.50 each, so that's $75 for one scout, and our dues are not that much for the whole year. We explained that the pack didn't have that much in the budget for belt loops for the den and the parents came up with a bit of the cost (like $20 each) so then we made an announcement to the dens that the pack budget has $5 a month for awards per scout, so that a scout really can't earn more than 2 belt loops a month on our dime, parents could choose to pay for extras if they'd like. that worked for a while. tiger den didn't get the memo it seems this spring they have marked off that they've earned EVERY belt loop. arrrgggghhhh!!! I would like to see a pack rule that we pay for belt loops and pins only if they are actually earned in den, pack, district or council scouting. see if you participate in a sports team, you get recognition from your team and if you participate in stuff at school, you get recognitition at school so you should get recognition for stuff you do in scouts at scouts, right?

Let all cub scouts wear the same hat and necker. everyone recognizes a wolf scout as being a cub scout. it's that traditional bright yellow hat that stands out in a group. separating the boys by hat and neckerchif color while handy when they first start is not necessary once you learn who the kids are. It's a $22+ expense every single year for the parents and while that's not a lot of $, in a poor area, that can mean the difference between keeping a scout or not keeping a scout. So our pack gives them their book and passes down hats and neckers to save money. but if everyone had the same hat and necker it would be great.

Let's see, you know how we recruit new scouts in the Fall??? well I would make sure to have enough new scout uniforms and uniform hats and neckers and books in stock in the fall. same for bobcat badges. they usually run out of them, and then new scouts have to wait..... similarly if the 2010 scout book has all the webelos working on citizen in the same month, then order some extra citizen webelos pins for that month. be a bit more proactive. or how bout if council knows that 3000 cub scouts are going thru day camp this summer, and they all get the archery and bbgun belt loop it seems, then order ENOUGH of the belt loops so again my cubbies dont have to wait to get their belt loops!

I would get rid of the diamond emblem holder--parents use that for the rank badges instead of sewing them on!!! arrrrgggghhhhhh there should be NO reason for them to exist. I don't like the oval patch holder either for the same reason, boy scouts try to put their scout badges in there, with the excuse that they are working on the next rank so they don't want to sew it on yet. aaaaarrrrrrrgggggghhhhh!!!

Bring back the women's culottes. yes, I know not every woman loves them, but I do!!! got mine on clearance and they've lasted 5 years, and well, the plastic zipper is toast, and I have to change it out. so I'm wearing the scout pants with the zip off legs, and I look like a man in them. I would have never worn the skirt, cause you can't get down on the floor and crawl around with the tigers in a skirt, but the culottes worked for that. I have had some complement my culottes at every single district, council event I've ever gone to in 5 years.

Well see.... if the boys their last pack meeting and get their last cub scout awards, and fill out applications for the troop and turn them in, and go on the hike as boy scouts, but the pack had scheduled the actual crossover ceremony after they are registered boy scouts as the ceremony for pictures kind of thing only, then I'd count it as a boy scout activity that could count for the 2nd class achievement I guess. if the boys are going to not have turned in their applications to the troop and are still members of the pack, I wouldn't count this as a boy scout achievement, and would plan to cover this item again sometime in the next year of their scouting where they can do it right.

We don't really do any spring recruiting, at least not on purpose. the district has a roundup they do at the local small zoo in May-- register for boy scouts for a small fee and get in free to the zoo for the day. We've only kept on average 1 boy per year from that roundup, and they are scouts that we already knew about and they went to the roundup at the zoo as a perk. every other scout has dropped. by the time we get them truly registered (kindergardeners can't be registered until June 1st), find out all their contact info, our pack is winding down on the weekly meetings. Unless the cubmaster or a committee person wants to take them on as a new group, it is incredibly difficult to get them into a den and doing something right away. and if a leader starts leading them until they get thru the first little bit, especially tiger parents, expect that person to KEEP leading them thru the summer and into the new school year. to fully get the most of our pack activities in the summer, you have to pay to register, and get a uniform, and then pay to go to day camp with the pack in June ($85 + late fee after May). July activities are cheap or free, but Day camp is our big summer activity and we just can't get newbies to sign up for it. It's soooo difficult to keep them excited when you don't have weekly activities they can attend. We focus our recruiting on the Fall, but we do it early August, when our schools are back in session.

Let's see add in that if you have a pushy loud mouth adult criticizing the track (we have a 20 year old wooden track thank you very much) we ask them to be in charge of doing the fundraiser to make the $ to buy a fancy metal track with new timer. They invariably shut up and take their grumbles elsewhere--or occassionally they offer to at least check the screws, sand the wooden track and repaint it to smooth it out. if we have a pushy loud mouth adult complaining about who did or did not get graphited, they get to graphite all the cars as they are checked in so everyone gets the same attention. This worked out really great cause cars with unrolling wheels were fixed (from parent gluing the wheel to the side of the car accidently) and wheels turning in or out were also fixed, all by the same guy so they were all on the same even footing. the parent sitting there critiquing the lane brain scores gets to sit there with a buddy as racing judge passing off scores to the person on the computer and they quickly learn that they have to pay attention rather than criticize. the parents getting annoyed because their kid had to go to the derby early and didn't get dinner, get roped into ordering pizza and turning it into a den fundraiser for summer camp. It's now the Webelos 2's do it every year to make money, and the local pizza joint gives them a discount so the large pizzas costs only $5 each. they get family estimates on pizza they'll eat ahead of time, and order an extra pizza for the school custodians in case we run late. the parents wanting something to do to keep the little ones busy get to pick out match box cars and help them run their own little race on the side with the derby practice tracks and hot wheels tracks. or run the cubanapolis 500 races. we have everyone vote on certain attributes, not everyone gets a certificate, but everyone gets to vote--so car that looks the fastest, and car with best paint job and stuff like that. we have extra blank certificates and a sharpie so cubmaster can give out the my dad broke my car award, and other similar things. usually our trophy is a chocolate car for the winner of fastest of the pack, and chocolate tires for the other placements --usually enough chocolate tires everyone gets one (check the walmart or walgreens aisles for easter or other)

one way to make it more mellow is to hand out the car and a few tools/sharpies/paints and you make and race the car the same day at the park. no extra go home and polishing axels and such. you can let the kids choose who to race by giving each scout x number of tickets. they decide who they want to race and pay a ticket to race. winner of the race gets a ticket, or 1st place gets 3 tickets, 2nd 2 and 3rd 1 ticket. after a bit of time, or a certain number of races, sort kids by how many tickets they have. and look for fastest of each rank at that point. then let them race each other til they run out of tickets.

We make sure all weighs and measures are done the two weds before the race on friday, so if anything is wonky they have plenty of time to fix it. we focus on cars weighing less than 5 oz, and that they have enough clearance to actually go down the track. we give them all the other rules for district derby, so that if they don't qualify for district, the district pwd chair can deal with them--but overall everyone is very careful about keeping things on the up and up. we kind of force the really gung ho parents to make their OWN car. this is usually accomplished by the cubmaster or other person with a little carefully placed bragging about their car they made themselves with their own bare hands. next year adults can race just about anything as long as it weighs less than 5 lbs so it won't break the track. that will take the adult's minds off of their scout's cars. we have pinewood derby car cut outs where the adults don't do anything, the kids use non-powered coping saws and sand paper and a wood rasp to make their cards. we give out NO trophies. there are 1-4th certificates and pinewood derby patches. the spreadsheet used for running cars is posted and everyone can see the numbers. the electronic brain tells us 1-4th in each lane, so there is no guesses as to who beat who. we have everyone do the pinewood derby pledge ahead of time-- my car is wood, my wheels are vinyl, I'm here for fun, and the judge's decision is final.

It looks like it could be too wide to run down a raingutter, I'm going to look at it next time I go to the scout shop.

you can try looking up some songs here http://kididdles.com/ or google whatever song it says to sing to the tune of and you can usually find it in a audio file to play to give everyone a starting point.

Take it a bit slower, feel them out for what the existing pack leaders want and need, then help them find the holes and fill them. Meaning, when someone you don't know their ability well steps up and says I can do this big huge giant job for the pack, the other leaders may be thinking to themselves we haven't seen you do a little job, and you want us to give you the biggest job in the pack? So start smaller/slower, if the cubmaster has been doing all the paperwork, ask him if you could do secretary/membership for the pack? start a newsletter, keep track of members, then start helping with advancement once they see you can do these tasks. I was secretary of our pack for 10 months, slowly taking over all those paperwork tasks until I was handed the committee chair job when the existing committee chair saw I was capable and caring and wasn't a flake. Then I had to work to find a capable secretary and treasurer to flesh out a real committee. and along the way I've played cubmaster when our cubmaster had surgery and was out for pack events for a while, and played den leader at varying times for different dens as needed. A real committee chair person is able to step in to some of these other roles as needed--BSA says they fill the position of cubmaster if there is no cubmaster. look for other people that should be cubmaster, or assitant--cause if you like paperwork, you should really be on the committee side of the equation and find a cubmaster to do the stand up in front of the kids silliness and the work of setting up camps, pinewood derbys, summer camps, day camps and all those other events that your pack does. Ideally it's a cubmaster that thinks like you of bigger and better, onward and upward. but don't expect them to hand you the reins of the pack without seeing you do some of the pack level planning and running of events first. I'm currently trying to train my replacement committee chair. He's never run any of our pack events until after he showed an interest in the CC job. He never even had a good record of attending our events, so I've been very very wary of giving him all the power.

We usually give the webelos 1's the job of switching out neckerchiefs on a lot of the younger guys, so they feel important and don't realize that they didn't get something new. we also sometimes give them the boy scout oath or law coin from the scout shop to help them remember the stuff better for their 2nd year of webelos and get ready for their arrow of light award.

DC just was adult staff at NYLT with Eagle and his family. He's been a pretty personable guy up til now well a know it all and with this air of I'm better than you cause I've been on the radio before and have a big vocabulary. 2 COR's plan to talk to District Exec about this guy's antics being unbecoming a scouter, I'll see if I can get at least a third. He is moving in June to another state, I don't think this can wait til he just moves away.