Cubmaster Bill

Our pack hires a Boy Scout troop to run the entire thing. They bring the track, set it up, run the races, even choose the non-racing winners (coolest car, best craftsmanship obviously built by a cub). All we do is weigh the cars the night before. It is the best money we spend all year.

We experienced the same drop out issue with Spanish Speaking scouts last year, 15 of 17 new Hispanic scouts dropped out. This year if we recruit a large number again I am going to heavily recruit among the bi-lingual parents to be den leaders or assistant den leaders with an English only leader. This way both languages can be spoken when needed. I don't want to split a den along those lines. Our town has a homeschool pack but it is very small. We have invited them to join us for larger events such as the various derbies that they may not be able to do on their own. Not much response. I know a couple of the mothers in that pack and find them to be (in my opinion) way overprotective. I think our rowdy loud Scouts scare them!!! Just my .01 cents worth! Bill

I've always seen this issue this way: I wouldn't let a heterosexual male take my daughter camping (youth protection rules aside for the moment) because he is naturally attracted to females. I would also not allow a homosexual male to take my son camping because he is naturally (that is what I think anyway) attracted to other males. Neither scenario to me is appropriate because of the sexual attraction issue. Just remove the temptation and keep everyone safe.

Being a former Tiger DL all I can say is thank the Lord the parents were there!!! A bunch of 6 year olds can be hard to control!! About the parents with their own ideas, some might be really good so I always listened. The ideas that were not good, I listened to anyway but I made sure in a nice way that they understood most of the meetings were already planned out or some other reason that their idea would not be used. I found my self chanting "I'm here for the kids, not their parents" over and over again after a lot of meetings!

Thanks for the replies but every leader from my daughter's unit (not sure of the phrasing) resigned over the issues discussed. I am disappointed and tried to convince them that they could avoid those issues but they felt they had to make a stand for what they felt was right. And I have to respect them for that. I'm going to forward your responses on to them and maybe next year they can re-look at the GS again.

My wife and her best friend had decided over the summer to start a girl scout unit at our kids school and were really excited about it until they discovered the "don't ask don't tell" rules and also that a number of GS troops are sponsored by Planned Parenthood. I did some research on the internet hoping to quell their concerns but just the opposite happened. Of course I understand that you can't believe everything you read on the net (except for the stuff about Bigfoot and UFO's of course!) but I found enough negative to be come really concerned about the lack of a clear moral basis to the GS. I really want my daughter to be involved with scouting (her brother is a Cub) but I need something to take to my wife and friend to convince them to stay involved. Right now the whole thing is on hold. Help! (By the way going to their first leader meeting with the other groups in the area didn't help. They were both shocked at the outright animosity displayed by the other leaders towards one another.)

Can anyone suggest some simple flag football rules or a site where I can find them. Most of what I have found on line seems a little complicated and involved. I guess I could just come up with some on my own using what I have found but if someone else has already done this I would appreciate the help! Thanks!

I e-mailed our COR with the information from this discussion recommending that we require all leaders (including pack committee members) get officially trained. I spoke with our district trainer a few weeks ago about a Saturday training and there is one planned in the fall where they will get new leader essentials, YP and leader specific in one long day. That might make it a little easier on any new leaders or assistants. Normally the training is over two nights in the same week. I'll also check with my district on their trained leader policy. Thanks, you all have given me some great information!

I'm 99.9% sure that she is registered but I will check tonight to make sure. She is a parent who at least participates so I don't want to push too hard. Basically she just comes to the den meetings and helps hand stuff out. (What I would really like to see are both the leader and the assistant trained and coordinating what is going on in the den so if the leader is absent the meetings still take place. There are usually enough parents around to have enough adults in the room.) The pack committee is not very well organized to the point of not functioning at this point. Basically it is comprised of our COR (who wants the same things I do for our pack but is overloaded with work and home issues) and several others who rarely contribute. There are two I have never even met. None of them have been through any training (except for the old CM and he has major follow through issues). I went to the committee training so that we would all be on the same page but none of them showed up even after we agreed to meet there! I am working with our COR on adding new members to the pack committee and trying to provide some direction. Not sure if that is my job but no one else is doing it. In the meantime I had to take organizing the summer activites on as well as planning a graduation day. Fortunately my boss is a former Scout parent and if I need to leave early to tend to a Scouting issue he is very flexible. I am taking this year as a learning and organizing experience for next year. Otherwise I think I would go crazy!

I'm a new CM and I have "taken over" from a not very proactive CM so I am in the process of making sure everyone is up to speed as far as training is concerned (among other things). I have a assistant den leader who just refuses to go to any training due to the time involved. Am I out of line by suggesting that maybe she needs to step aside? I haven't had this conversation yet as I am not that sure what the emphasis is on assistants getting the training and people willing to volunteer are hard to come by. My den leaders are all up to date with their training. I am going to make sure that everyone involved with the pack has read the scouting safety information.