Lenae

I second the recommendation for a designated sibling watcher. A small craft, game, toys, books, etc. The siblings should be in a different room, if possible. If that isn't possible, do your best to physically separate them from the rest of the group. My daughter is now a Cub, but has been tagging along with me to all of my now AoL scout son's meetings. I have a large den of very active boys, and keeping the meetings entertaining and educational meant not having younger siblings around causing distractions. If the siblings are just a year or two younger, and therefore more able to participate without problems, then I'm okay with them joining in. But preschool aged little ones won't be able to participate without distraction, they're just too little. Also, a little thank you gift for the babysitting mom like a coffee house gift card, is always nice.

In regards to the "program year" the official Cub Scouts website listed the start time as fall 2018, so I assume they mean September. My social media accounts have been blowing up, and I'd say that just a little more than half are in support. I suppose that info comes with a bucket of salt though, being as I am a late 20s something woman, and I think the younger generation is more in favor of this change than the older folks, and I know at least 10-15 MOTHERS who would gladly step up to be den leaders for new all-girl dens. So that probably skews my statistics, much like anyone's demographics skew their stats. https://cubscouts.org/cub-scouts-welcomes-girls-to-expanded-programs/ Edited to add link

Well, I can only offer my point of view, but here is how I see it. I would like to point out again, that I'm not necessarily for coed BSA, I'm also not necessarily against it. But if I were to be in favor of it, my main reason is the programming. Not to have my daughter spend all her time with boys in a pack or troop, or to have my son spend all his time with girls in a pack or troop. I see the merit of having single gendered packs/troops. Boys able to be boys without worrying about girls. Girls able to be girls without worrying about boys. The BSA far and away offers the kind of character development I'm looking for, for BOTH of my children. GSUSA does not work for my family, and speaking with the other parents of daughters I know who would be in favor of opening up BSA membership to girls, it doesn't work for many other families. So yes, separate but equal would be a wonderful solution, IF I were to be in favor. Which, I don't know if I am or not.

I'm in the PNW, most of my councils camps already offer girls weeks of summer camp, and do so successfully, so why not alternate weeks for camp? One week boys, the next girls, the following boys, then girls, and so on. Is there a reason that wouldn't work?

If I were to envision the BSA allowing girls in, this is how i would like to see it be done. A charter org could choose whether to offer a boys pack/troop, a girls pack/troop, or both a boys pack/troop and a girls pack/troop. They wouldn't be coed units, they would exist autonomously from one another. If units wanted to work together to run certain events, say a Pinewood Derby or a fundraiser, together, then allow them to do so, but the units would stay single gendered. Council events would be coed, but camps could run with boys weeks and girls weeks. I said before that I am torn on the issue, and I am. I love the program and everything it offers my son, and in theory I'd like my daughter to have the same opportunities. However, I wouldn't want to fundamentally change the program, and I think coed units would do that.

I use the handbook and the leader guide to plan meetings and outings. I haven't asked the boys to read their books, or read passages to them. As a matter of fact, I hardly use the leader guide to plan den meetings anymore, and haven't since Wolf year. I feel like the meeting plans dumb down the information and treat the boys like they are younger than they are. We've had much more success keeping the boys interested with using the actual handbooks (not the leader guide) to plan our meetings. My husband is my assistant den leader, and he's a very animated, funny guy. He's good at making the material that I've put together fun and engaging, and does a better job presenting the material than the leader guide does.

I've been a den leader for three years now, my sons den. Started as Tigers, now they're Webelos scouts. We hardly ever utilize the rank handbooks, and I honestly feel like it's a disservice to the boys. I know that some of what is in the book is fluff, but there is quite a bit of good info in them. I know, because I read my son's book every year. So, my question is, do you, my fellow den leaders, use your handbooks? If yes, how? Do you read them during the meeting out loud, or have boys read pertinent sections? Do you assign the pages you're covering as homework before a meeting? I'm just not really sure how to implement this, but I know it's something that needs to happen. My den is 10 boys, and they tend to be wild. We have a difficult time making meetings interesting enough to keep them engaged without adding any reading, which is honestly the number one reason we haven't successfully included book usage. We started the year off last year (as Bears) reading portions of the book that we were covering, but we would lose the boys SO quickly when we did that, it only lasted a few meetings before we scrapped it altogether. Thoughts?

I'm torn on the allowing girls in issue. I will, however, say that I personally believe the reason that girls are clamoring to join the BSA and the opposite isn't true of the GSUSA, is because the BSA offers a far superior program. Girl Scouts do crafts, learn how to be feminists, and SELL COOKIES. That's most certainly not anything my daughter wants to be involved with, however she'd love to become a Cub Scout like her brother, and have opportunities like BB gun shooting, archery, panning for gold, woodworking, fishing, hiking, camping, etc. The BSA may be a boys character development program, with an emphasis on the outdoors, but there just isn't anything comparable for girls, which is why many girls would like to see it become coed.

Wow, thanks for all the responses! I definitely have more research to do. I would like to say that our "assistant" den leader is a dad to one of our (soon to be) Webelos, and also the dad of a Boy Scout. He has BALOO training, and would be actively involved in the trip. I still don't know if backpacking is allowed or not! I called my local council and they brushed me off, again. Our pack does pack wide campouts in the fall and spring, with a winter overnight activity indoors typically. We do day hikes as a pack once every couple of months or so. I'd say as far as packs go, ours does a pretty good job of keeping the outdoors an important part of our program. My den does a lot of outdoor stuff, and we are all, parents and Scouts, really looking forward to having the option to do den campouts, too. We have 9 Scouts in our den, and they all enjoy the camping and hiking aspects of Scouts, so they would definitely view backpacking as an adventure. I guess I'll just keep digging for information, and see what I can come up with. Thanks again!

Thank you for the infograph. I've never seen that before! Looking at it though, just brings more questions. Under the camping category, it says family camping is only allowed at council designated locations. Does that mean our pack summer campout has to be at a council owned property? Also, it says Webelos are allowed to go on den overnights, but not weekend overnights. Does that mean multiple night campouts are not allowed?For any age? I'm more confused now than I was before I started looking!

Hello! I'm a regular reader around here, but I don't post often. I joined the forum when my son started as a Tiger, and now he's a Bear, soon to become a Webelos scout. My husband and I are co-den leaders, and we have another parent we consider an assistant den leader. We are backpackers, and we've tossed around the idea of backpacking with our Webelos den. Our assistant leader is keen on the idea, as well. I know that Webelos dens are allowed to camp on their own, not only with the pack, but I've been coming up empty on finding answers as to whether they can go backpacking. We'd obviously keep it age appropriate, a couple of miles of easy terrain at the very most, and make sure the boys weren't carrying too much weight. But I don't want to start any kind of planning until I find a definitive answer on whether it's allowed or not. So, does anyone know if it is in fact allowed, or can point me in the direction to find out for sure? I've put a call into my local council, but they gave me a bit of the run around last week, before telling me they'd have someone contact me when they had an answer. No call so far.

I'm coming to this thread late, but I am a leader in a FG troop that another Cub Scout Mom and I started, while also being a Bear den leader. We do not run the two programs concurrently, however we do often combine events, like movie nights and allowing our FG to join in Pinewood Derby and the like. It's working out very well for us so far, hopefully it will run as smoothly for you, @@Cubmaster Pete.

I think the best way to retain the older boys is helping them to focus on the moving to Boy Scouts aspect. I know with our pack, when boys become Webelos, they start that summer doing things more like Boy Scouts, planning their own campouts that aren't the usual family camp outs, and things like that. By December, our Webelos 1s are already starting to visit troops and join them for actives. By the Webelos 2 (Arrow of Light) year, the boys spend more of their time visiting troops and functioning as a "patrol" than as a den. When the Webelos years roll around, the boys start getting much more autonomous from the pack. So they spend their Tiger-Bear years functioning as Cubs in a pack, and their two years as Webelos with one foot in Cubs and the other foot in Boy Scouts. We only had one of about a dozen boys choose not to continue into Boy Scouts at our last crossover. We aren't a large pack, but we run a fun program and our den leaders (I am one) have a lot of free reign to make the program as awesome as we can, and we do. If you keep the older boys interested by allowing them to act like older boys and not like Tigers, you're going to have happier boys, for sure.

I think being Biblically based means exactly that. Their creed is based on the fruits of the spirit from the Bible, but it isn't a direct Bible verse. So, being biblically based and teaching love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control doesn't exclude Muslim girls or Jewish girls, or Buddhist girls. It just means that the program was written from the perspective of the Bible. As far as sharing requirements with other scouting programs, it's working out really well for us. All of the leadership in our brand new troop are parents of female siblings of our Cub Scout pack, so that works out well for being able to use family campouts (just an example) to work on multiple badges for the girls and adventure belt loops for the boys.

From Wikipedia; "The term Judeo-Christian groups Judaism and Christianity, either in reference to their common origin in Late Antiquity or due to perceived parallels or commonalities shared between the two traditions." I wasn't saying that Judeo-Christian values are 1) not controversial, or 2) the only values or belief system that is valid. I was saying that the group is based on Judeo-Christian values, and therefore the basis of their idea of "controversial" would stem from that place. As far as I know, Muslim girls would be welcome. There are references to God in their program, much like the BSA, but no strict definition of God. As far as competition for American Heritage Girls, I suppose it could be that. However, AHG is a strictly Christian based program, whereas Frontier Girls is more accepting of various religions and religious beliefs. The founder of Frontier Girls started when her Mormon friend wasn't comfortable taking the AHG pledge, according to the website.