Eagle1993

@Eagledad I agree with the summary above.

This actually sounds pretty cool. I would love to see more older scouts get involved with the Cub Scout program. I’m not sure if it would work but it sounds like a great idea. We see this with soccer camps and teams here where high school students help coach youngsters and are the primary resources at camps. That said, I do think you can burn out as SPL and PL. I was ASPL at 14 and SPL and Eagle at 15 in a “Boy led” Troop. At 16 with three varsity sports, NHS, etc. I had no desire to also teach 11 year olds to tie their shoes. I wanted HA outings and mentor the new SPL. Most of my friends quit by then (girls and lost interest in scouting). I stayed on board until I aged out. Few in my Boy led troop did. That program is long as well, even in boy led Troops.

Not necessarily true. If scouts have to deal with 11 year olds when they are 16-17 then they could burn out as well. Just because 14 yo scouts start dropping doesn’t mean they aren’t running the Troop. Perhaps that is why the UK breaks this group up, but not sure that is the answer either.

There is a lot of shade being thrown at Tigers and Lions; however, I’ve seen these at net positives for my pack. 1 - My den leaders when first starting are green and are essentially learning (along with the parents) on the job. Yes there is training and materials they use but for the most part they are absorbing everything that Cub Scouts offers. So, by the time they are Wolf den leaders they are strong den leaders with two years of experience. Any bad den leaders can be rooted out. If my den leaders only started out with the Wolf den they I don’t see them hitting their stride until Webelos. 2 - It isn’t the same program for 5 or 6 years. Each year the scouts get more options. You can’t even have den overnights for the first 3 years. Parents stop attending den meetings at Wolves. As long as you ramp up the experience each year you can make it fresh. Experienced den leaders (see #1) helps with this. 3 - Kids in our Pack recruit their friends year after year. Every one of my dens have been growing at each age. My smallest den is not the one that started with a ton of Tigers... it is the one that started with the fewest Tigers. More young scouts who have fun talk about scouting and that builds excitement. One could argue Boy Scouts is too long (7 years). Perhaps that is why we see so may 14+ year olds drop out. I see that as the bigger attrition issue vs the Lions or Tigers.

I think hockey and the fact that Dallas stole their team.

This is somewhat like our Pack and was started probably 10-15 years ago. The Troop we feed keeps the majority of the scouts we transfer and many of those achieve Eagle. While it “works” I don’t agree that ranks in Cub Scouts should just be handed out to all scouts each year. The issue I’ve had is with the previous leadership who does not agree. “Cub Scouts is for fun with families and Boy Scouts is about boy led patrols and earning rank.” So, as you say, the kids understand and it doesn’t negatively impact the Troop. (The current Troop leadership was the ones who started the Cub Scout rank policy for our Pack.) The good news is that I’ve been able to softly influence the younger den leaders who have been tracking attendance and following up with parents/scouts to ensure they do their homework if they miss. Also, my girl dens are ensuring they follow policy. The last of the old guard leaves this spring so this will be a topic of my annual planning meeting. I’ll look to add an advancement chair who helps drive this change. Adventures are not hard, there is no reason we can’t expect those who rank advance complete the requirements. I actually had fun with my son helping him with the adventures (while the Pack policy is loose, mine isn’t with my own son). I think other parents will find value one they start seeing the adventures and working with their scouts as appropriate.

Keep watching for more options for girls this summer. In my council, there are only 2-3 packs that are early adopters and accepted girls. However, I know many Packs planning on adding girls for 2018-2019. So, I would expect you should see options starting this summer. If financial issues prevent you from joining you should reach out to the council or even the Pack leadership. I know for our Pack we would never want financial issues preventing participation and we actively tell parents if the charges are an issue we will work with them.

I thought girls wouldn’t be in OA until 2020 but was told that Explorer and Venturing would start OA elections next year. Has anyone else heard of that change?

My father was a shop teacher in the 70s-80s. One day a teacher came in with a towel on his hand asking my father if he could watch his class while the other teacher went to the nurse. My dad said sure and went to the classroom. The kids were all silent and pale. My dad asked what’s wrong and one of the practical joking students said ... Mr. XYZ ‘s finger is over here. My dad said “well why don’t you bring it up and leave it on the desk” (thinking it was a joke). He did, it wasn’t. I’ve always tried to be careful with saws after hearing that story.

The new books are printing as we speak. They should hit the shelves in June. I’m glad to see the requirement updates integrated. It will also be nice to see the gender updates for those of us with girls in our pack.

We had our annual Bear carnival with the boy and girl dens combining forces. It was by far the best Bear carnival we had in years. The scouts were having fun but in control. Both girl and boy cub scouts were working and playing together... no issues. It was the first meeting (Pack or den) since adding girls that I felt comfortable that it was no longer “special”... it just was. Our next Pack outing is our overnight (cabin) camping. We have a cabin reserved just for the girls and several for the boys. I’m brushing up on G2SS and YPT before this one.

No idea what this will be, but thought I provide the link.

The online systems works ok overall for new scouts; however, we ran into a couple of issues. - The system seems to only work ok with certain browsers and parents have stated they had to try multiple times to enroll. - There were issues with the credit card system early this year that led to multiple parents being charged 2-3x for the same app. It took well over a month to get credits back from BSA. - Some parents who were confused accidentally registered existing scouts (the system should flag someone if it notices the same name/birthdate/Pack for a scout app). It doesn’t, and charges the parent and creates a BSA number. As CC I can reject those apps but they go into a black hole and take 6 months to credit the parents back. The benefits is that you can auto load Scoutbook and it handles the payment to BSA. As mentioned earlier, I would love to add Pack dues as parents can be confused that there is an additional charge (even though we added a clear message in the online system). This is definitely a step in the right direction, they just need to keep working on the tool.

Our Wolf neckerchiefs are yellow. Lions will now get the yellow neckerchief and Wolfs will go red. That makes sense as the badge is already red.

Note the color changes as well. Each den has a color which will match hats, neckerchiefs, belt loops and books. I believe Webelos neckerchiefs are still plaid. Have no idea how many girl pictures are present, I’ve just seen outside covers. Note that these should be available starting June.

Info came from a Facebook group I am a member of. Info came from someone in Nationals. More pics below. This is a bit of a flashback to the old cover designs. 1940s Wolf Book is also shown

If district and council agrees a situation requires banning a parent then you made the right call.

I’ve never heard of parents being banned from activities unless there is a court ordered restraining order. As a Pack, I don’t believe we would have that right unless the parent was disruptive or we were aware of any safety concern from our scouts. That said, as he is not the legal guardian or parent then there is likely a higher bar. In fact, multiple people (including my sister) with felonies have been approved by BSA as leaders. I think it depends on your council, DE and CO along with what the conviction is for.

Or “scout” “youth”... Pictures are still used but there will be both girl and boy Cub Scouts integrated.

New Cub Scout books will be available in June. They are integrating the new requirements (that were previously in an addendum), rewording for gender and using the new Cub Scout color scheme. Old books still work if you have the addendum. See pic of the Wolf book attached.

I definitely like the split in Cub scouts. There is a big difference between the K5-2 and 3-5 grades. Perhaps keeping Boy Scouts 11-17 makes sense if BSA puts more effort in making Venturing sustainable. That gives some older scouts an outlet while perhaps keeping them engaged as leaders in the Scout program. When I’ve talked with a few (small sample size) crew leaders, all told me their crews start up with a group of friends, typically with girls, then fizzle our at that group ages out. The issue is that there is no natural continuous feeder program for Venturing. One thought is the BSA4G will kill Venturing (as girls can simply join Girl Troops). There is the other option that Venturing crews could be reinvigorated and can be the pure coed program of older scouts from Boy and Girl Troops. Who knows.

I’ve actually never seen a school in my area where junior high and high school are in the same building. I guess it varies by region. I personally am not a fan of Jr High kids hanging around high school students.

I like how the UK broke up the age groups. Beavers (6 - 8) .. our Lions,Tigers and Wolves Cubs (8 - 10.5) ... our Bears, Webelos and AOL scouts (10.5 - 14) ... our Boy Scouts Explorers (14 - 18) ... our Boy Scouts/Venturing Adult Network (18 - 25) ...our Venturing I could see this helping on a number of levels. I’m sure there are reasons not to go down this route.... but it is enticing.

#1 By far lifesaving was my favorite. I was a fairly accomplished swimmer but diving into a deep lake with 0 visibility to retrieve a 10 pound weight felt like an amazing accomplishment. I still remember diving down ~10 feet seeing nothing but blackness and placing my body flat against the muddy bottom in an attempt to feel the weight. Nothing stuck with me like that experience. #2-45...remaining badges #46 .... getting hit by a truck #47....basket weaving. I remember soaking the materials in water and spending hours at summer camp weaving a basket. I dreaded that class (as did the MBC).