What's your biggest problem?

[goodoldeagle2]

Laurie: It's good to hear that from someone who's had Cub training. I sometimes secretly pray that when my wife and I have kids, we have all girls so daddy won't have to go through any more training (kidding, of course). I'm heavy on scout training, but I've got nuthin' in the Cub department, save what I can remember from my youth.

 

What are the major differences? Maybe in finding those we can agree on a good way to help leaders make the transition from one level to the next.

[Laurie]

This begs a new thread Gotta run, but I'll get it going unless someone else starts it--maybe in the Open Discussion forum?

[CubScoutMom2004]

The first few months I was a leader, my biggest issue was getting information. I never received any info from our committee chair but somehow I sought out info and would find it. Now I seem to get info more easily.

 

The latest thing that bugs me is gossip. We have a couple of leaders that don't like a couple of the other leaders and it started getting nasty. It makes me sick. These people's egos were coming before the boys. This is the whole reason I got my son away from the sports parents!

 

I don't get involved in the gossip and hopefully the parents of my group will stay out of it as well.

 

[VAordeal]

im not really a new scout, 3 years on my back but the rest of the troop still treats my patrol as if we were rookies. The younger kids get more respect than we do. Of course it doesnt help when your patrol leader is an active communist but thats another story. I also cant stand leaders who think they are "all that" and cant leave us alone. And there is this one kid whose dad is divorced so the dad makes the kid's little brother (whose a 1st year webelo) come on all our campouts and hikes.

[jens3sons]

-goodoldeagle2- hopefully this will help your "problem". Although I didn't come up with the idea, and didn't orchestrate what was done to resolve it, our Pack definetly benefitted from it. Last Scouting year I only had about 3 boys go on to BSing out of about 13. (Last year was my first yr. as CC and we were still trying to find a permanent CM.) When I finally got a CM one of our top priorities was trying to figure out how to get boys to continue on to BS. What I hadn't really realized at the time was, our council and our district had gone from one of the top to now one of the worst and they were also very concerned about the same thing. The BS were able to maintain their #'s not from Weblos transfering in, but by boys joining troops later on. Our district decided to set up a weblo transition "team". They gave a directory of all the toops to the packs (which made it much easier to try and contact them), and they also set up an open house. They invited all the troops to set up tables and then they invited all Weblos and Bear scouts to the open house to begin checking out troops. This allowed for them to figure out which troops they were most interested in, to then contact them for further investigation on camp outs etc. Although I did have one 2nd yr Weblo den completely disban with 3 months to go to their AOL, the other den invited one of the boys who didn't want to drop-out into their den, and I had all 8 boys from that den end up crossing over all into the same troop. This troop is known for having a 50% rate of boys getting their Eagle! At the begining of this scouting yr I was only told about 3 boys would crossover, and was so surprised to find all 8 boys went on! It may not seem like much, but it sure meant a lot to me and my CM that our concerns were FINALLY being heard and met by our district/council! Happy Scouting!

Jennifer

[gsleader]

As a parent of a new cub scout....

We meet as one pack, seperate into the grades for activitys.

 

1. Lack of information. I have to ask to get any. I recieve an email a couple hours before a meeting to tell us to come half an hour early. I have to ask them to sign my son's book when he earns something at a meeting so I can keep track. Emails going unanswered.

 

2. Complete chaos at meetings. They only last 1 hour and my goodness the boys probably only spend 20-30 min tops actually doing something. The rest of the time they have the run of the place. No structure at all.

 

3. Not allowing new parents to help out. Have any idea how many times I have offered?

 

4. Camping. The boys never cook their own meals, ever. The parents do just about everything.

 

5. When boys are working on stuff at meetings parents doing the work for them, while the boys run around, and they still get the badge work credited!

 

6. Way too much is done on very short notice.

 

7. I hear the end of the year trip, they let the kids trash the hotels and adults drink alcohol. We will NOT be attending.

 

I think I need to find a new den/pack for my son......