Cubmaster Randy

10 years is a long way to plan in the cub scout world. Many things could happen in that time period. Do it for a couple of years. If you still want to do it, and they want you to continue,then do so, Talk with your assistant(s) and other parents if they would consider being CM. You can't take away an opportunity for them to lead if they don't want it If your ACM(s) is interested in the cubmaster training knot, they will need to serve a year as Cubmaster. The cubmaster is the program officer and in a proper organized pack should not be able to set up a "fiefdom". I would be more concerned about the committee chair Longevity does not always bring stability. It tends more to be "thats they way we have always done it" mentality. You could be CM for a couple of years, let someone else do it for a few years while you are helping the pack in other ways, and then come always come back as a CM with another son(s) if needed.

No recruiting can be considered to good, unless you have every boy of cub scout age registered We have several packs in our district that recruit from the same school due to some of the packs being chartered by churches and meeting at the church and by other CO's who actually meet at the school. We had an issue a couple of years ago, so the membership chair, along with the district chairman)had to come up with a policy regarding recruiting at the same location. This has worked fairly well. Your district membership chair should meet with the Packs in question and see what agreement they can come to. Has anyone come up with an overall marketing and recruitment strategy for your district? You don't mention how many TAY you have. I would do what I could to help them with their recruiting. Involve the district people With that being said. If a boy wanted to join who went to another school or lived in another area wanted to join my pack, I would not turn him away, I might ask why... and I would make no apologies

Thanks Wingnut. That one flew right over my head. Not sure, but Who would want 515

I must be moved away too long from Chicago, I don't get the Troop 25 or 624 from Chicago. Maybe 9094 makes more sense,

I googled Troop 666. Other troops came up too. Looks like Mike Walton was in one in Fort Knox KY. I'd stay clear of it though, would not get much support from most of the potential CO's here in GA..

Local 1400 I don't see anything wrong with Troop 1. Many of us are members of Troop 1, Gilwell

I can email you ours from 2006 if you wouldlike a copy. It is a 31 page pdf. The table of contents is as follows Training Materials General Rules Alert, Weather, Fire Drill Camp Map Schedule Volunteer Responsibilities Guide to Helping Out Discipline Camper Safety/Lost Boy Youth Protection Emergency Incidents Stress Management Den Guides Briefing Boy Scout Volunteer Expectations Volunteer Evaluation

Commisioner contact with the unit is the key. When a commisioner actually visits a unit, he can observe what is really going on and can relay that information back to the key 3. As a commisioner for 2 packs, I can visit either at a committee meeting or a unit meeting. Some months I can only visit the committee meeting, others I can only visit the pack meeting. Sometimes, I am able to make both Once in a hwile, when everything is going well, it is just a simple phone call to see if they need anything or to see how things are going,if they need anything or to let them know about something going on in the district. Commisioners need to visit regulary so they can see if their are any red flags. Is that every month? Not necessarily. Some units are providing a strong program and it is not necessary for a commisioner to hold their hands constantly. No committee meetings, that is a red flag and the commisioner should be there to help. No sucession plan... another red flag.. As a unit leader, my first priority is to my own unit, but I will tell you that the units I am a commisioner for are happy to see me when I visit. Over the past couple of years, I have built a relationship with them. Right or wrong, We have several Unit leaders who serve as commisioners. They have one or two units that they serve so it is not an overbearing request of time and actually fosters communication between the units. Does our DC serve as a unit leader, no. Does our district chair, no.. Would it be ideal to have everyone to wear one hat, yes, but I don't see that happening anytime soon

Sounds great. Take the CC and the CM. You might see something you want to incorporate. I've gotten some of my best ideas going to other Pack's meetings. Even for older Packs, it not a bad idea. Lots of times we get stuck in the "We've always done it that way" mentality. I find it very helpful to get to see others in action

In our district we do the cub leader specfic for all of the ranks together, then we do a breakout session for each of the ranks to go over the differences. (Tiger, wolf/bear, webelos and CM/CC). If someone is changing position they only have to attend the breakout session of their new position ie CSLS starts at 10am and then at noon they go to their specific breakout. Those changes positions come at 11:45 to go to the noon breakout Also, each May we have "breakout only" sessions at our May roundtable for those who will be moving up. Works well as the dens graduate to the next level at the end of school which is in late May. That way the leaders are ready

Actually as a Webelos leader should attend Webelos Leader Outdoor and not BALOO. It is similar, but goes into activity badges and the difference between webelos and cub scout camping. The BALOO course goes into how to take your pack camping safely. Where to go, what to do,what you can't do, equipment, cooking, first aid, planning a campfire etc etc.. Yes, You probably know all this stuff, so I would ask my district/council training chair. Maybe they will let you CLEP out and get AP credit

Barring National from saying any more than they have (depending on which website you use , it might be in the best interest of your pack to have the pack committee to get together and formulate a policy for your pack. With that is also a good policy to instruct the parents as to the rules to using the knife as well

I would refer them to the age approriate guidlines for scouting activities. It has been updated and tigers are not allowed to use pocket knives http://www.scouting.org/pubs/gss/ageguides.pdf From a practical standpoint, I would do it as late in the Bear as possible although a wolf could earn it. It really depends on the boy and his parent(This message has been edited by Cubmaster Randy)

I think you are heading in the right direction. Once you identify that you want to work (training, Webelos transition or whatever) on which will correspond to your interests and skills, I would suggest you talk with your district chair about what you would like to do or what needs to get done. (some folks would say to talk with your DE) Make it your vision, write it out your goals If you want to be a UC,but don't want to take on half the district,then be a friend for as many units as you would like. talk with your District Commisioner. It is a volunteer position, you don't have to take more than you want Just because the rest of the commisioners are all "essentially retired" does not mean that you cannot start something new. Maybe you can start a new trend, have them recruit those crossing over Web II leaders and CC/CM leaders for pack commissoners as well

This is why reccommend having several adults BALOO trained. In our pack of 60 boys we currently have 6 trained adults. i certainly do not want to be the one who tells everyone that the trip is cancelled because we do not meet the BSA requirement. In our district, we do it once or twice a year. Our neighboring districts do it as well. Our council even has two scheduled. I've even sent one of my leaders to NWGA council because that was the only date they could make it If you don't have one the district/council training chair needs to put it on the calendar and have one.

We collect the money from everyone in August at the beginning of the school year. We register the new scouts then, but when it is time to recharter we have their money ready for our December recharter date and don't have to chase them down again. Returning scouts pay then too. Most folks are used to paying at the beginning of the school year, so it gives us a few months to collect even from the stragglers

Correctly they should contact the district commissioner, but not knowing the particulars of the situation, there may be a reason. The DE is part of the district key 3, so hopefully they are communicating. I am not sure of how it is being communicated though. Being a commisioner is more than wanting to wear "silver tabs" or correctly silver shoulder loops

interesting potential spin off.. In our district we have approximatly 720 registered Boy Scouts/. Out of those 37 have earned the Eagle rank in the past 11 months. I would suspect that we will find a wide variance of percentages throughout the many districts and councils in our country To find the current percentage of all Eagle scouts, we need to find the sum total of all Eagles and divide by the total of all the boys who are currently registered + all those were registered. Of course, the adults who earned the award prior to 1952 might affect the numbers

When you go to WB, you will be assigned a troop guide. In most instances, he/she will also serve as your ticket counselor. The ticket processs will be explained the first couple of days of the course. Before you go, they will give you a list of questions that you should answer to help you think about what you do and where you want to go. Nobody is going to look at them unless you want to show . You could talk with your friend for guidance and support, but it is your ticket based on your vision

Some units include it in their dues, some don't. it really depends on the demographics of the members and the value that the leaders put on having each member recieve the subscription. I would be ok with them including it in the national dues and then just sending it out, but they have given us an option. When someone asks what the dues money goes, I explain that it goes for membership. insurance, awards, and a Boys Life subscription as well as some other items. When I am signing up a new leader, I say it goes to membership, etc and a subscription to Scouting. Not sure if it a selling point, but I included it. Made for a nice presentation

A tiger den should be have shared leadership. The TDL is more of the person to keep the other parents informed of what is going on, and to lead them in the right direction. Our situation was similar. The one leader was terrible about keeping track of records.(also refused to get trained, but that is another story ) She liked doing the program, but the boys were not getting recognized. Had a talk with the parents, went over the requirments and they realized they had been doing the beads and activities. We recruited an assistant den leader who was good at keeping records. He went to training so I consider him to be the leader now. We also had a former tiger leader become a "tiger coach". (I know it is not a current position, Pack Tainer would be more appropriate, but she only focus on the tiger dens) to mentor the dens the following year. It has worked pretty well. First year tiger parents need to get acclimated to the program

Why does he want to switch? Does he want to change dens because of when the den meets? or where his buddies from his class are in? i would discuss with the CM and the other TDL We had a situation with two tiger dens. Several of the den 1 parents wanted to switch to the other den. problem was that we den 2 leader did not want 10 boys with the other only having 6. Fortunetly it was for a reason that we had control over. We were able to talk it out and come to a resolution before an implosion happened

If there is a subscription of Boys Life going to each address, then the requirment is fulfilled for 100% . Growing up I had to share with my twin brother. There are several reasons that an adult might subscribe to Boys Life, but being thrifty, I just read my sons copy. He could read my Scouting if he wanted too. If you are using the interenet recharter, when you get to a certain point it will ask you to click on a button and it will verify that you are 100%.

In addition to being a Danish Knight-Scout, Hillcourt is also an Eagle Scout, having been allowed to work on Scouting advancements prior to a rule change in the 1950's that only allowed Scouts under the age of 18 to become Eagle Scouts. Hilcourt was later recognized with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

Yes, they could My grandfather was a scout during the early 30's. I have his troop picture and the SM has merit badges on his sleeve, I asked him about it when I was a youth and He explained it to me that at that time the adults would work on their Eagles to help motivate the scouts to work on their Eagle. Different time, i suppose, different methods