TraceyK

Laura: I agree. Kids and adults should be publicly recognized for their service. Our pack awards the service pins in the spring (to represent the year just completed). We also award stars with blue backs to all the leaders in recognition of their service. We tried to recycle the old stars (since the boys no longer wear them) to save money but that didn't work very well. Only a few turned in their old stars. Oh well...

Okay, I'm only a year into active duty as my son's pack's awards chairperson and I'm stumped. In the past, I think the Tigers have gotten service stars on orange backs. Wolves thru Webelos got stars with yellow backs and the number count started over again at Year 1. So a boy with 3 years of Scouting, beginning with Tigers, would have both a star with an orange back and a number 2 star with a yellow back. However, when I tried to buy more orange backs at the Scout store, it no longer sold them. So I bought the "Insignia Guide: 2002-2004" booklet. It states that yellow backs are for "youth Cub Scouting (Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, Webelos Scouts)." The numbered stars represent the number of years in each "phase of Scouting" (phase represented by a specific color). Somebody help me out here!! Does this mean that from now on the Tiger year counts in the total number of years and the boys only get one star with a yellow background? What about those boys that have already have an orange-backed Tiger star from the "old system"? Should their yellow star should not include the Tiger Year, since they are wearing both on their uniform? How long have Tigers been around anyway? Our den leaders seem equally confused on this issue.