Kindergarteners as New Tigers?

[Herms]

Was wondering what the Scouting worlds thoughts were on this issue?

 

As a Cubmaster, I have always (with the District's approval), allowed Kindergarteners who are 6 years old and about to finish school, to start in Tigers with me now, in the Spring, so that they can participate in the Summertime Activities like Raingutter Regatta, and Day Camp. Heck we just ran a recruitment at the local fire station (Thanks Guys!!) where we got 7 new Tigers.

 

My brother, who is also a Cubmaster in the same Council, but different District, on the other had, is being told by his DE that his boys have to wait until they officially start 1st Grade in the fall.

 

How do other Packs out there handle this situation? And does anybody out there know the official line?

[acco40]

Our district encourages kindergarteners to sign up for Tigers (Cub Scouts), regardless of age, in the Spring so that they can enjoy summer camp activities.

 

Now, since Boy Scouts (and Cub Scouts) is not only an age based program but a grade based program the question of when a boy transistions from grade A to grade B is a common question. I was told by the registrar in our district that the national council (Irving) considers June 1st as the transistion date. Therefore, a boy currently in Kindergarten, can join the Cub Scout program after June 1.

[eaglewings2002]

I agree with acco40, we were told by our DE that they are "legal" on June 3. They can not go to camp, although in the past they have allowed leader's kids who were new Tigers to go to the Wolf den, IF the parent would lead the den. I don't know if they earn anything or not. Technically the camp is for those who have finished Tigers. though they are talking about adding a new Tiger den next year.

 

I have a son who will be a Tiger next year. He has been wearing an orange shirt since he was 3, and can't wait to be a "REAL" Tiger! When our Pack's Tigers graduated last month, I told him now he was a REAL Tiger. He said "no mom, (CM) said I would be one on June 1."

 

I do plan to have him wear his uniform to pack events this sumer and invite some of his friends from Kindergarten. Tossing around the idea of sending a flyer home with ALL the K boys to join us for at least one event.

[Twocubdad]

I've been told by our Field Director that the technical language is "promotable" to the first grade, which generally occurs sometime around mid-May. (I wouldn't tell any of the boys that, no one will go to school the last three weeks.)

 

When I was district roundup chairman awhile back, we toyed around with the idea of a district-wide Tiger Roundup in late-May. Two main problems: 1) day camp doesn't include a program for new Tigers and with less than a month from the Tiger roundup to the start of day camp, it would be pretty tough to add. 2) most packs have a fairly spotty record for summertime programs. The worst thing we could do would be to register a bunch of kids in May and then tell them, see you in September (hey, there's a song in that somewhere.)

[acco40]

Our district specifically states that K "grads" who resgister as Tigers CAN go to summer (day) camp.

 

Eaglewings - are you going to have trouble with your son explaining that he may wear a blue shirt instead of an orange one?

[Bob White]

We sign them up June 1st and send them to Day Camp.

[fotoscout]

We are allowed to sign them up in the Spring, no problems with Council on that one. Few packs however do a Spring recruitment, I suspect that they feel too much pressure to put on a quality Summer program if they bring in Tigers during the Spring.

[Eamonn]

I went to bat on this one a few years back. We as a council didn't recruit these little fellows until the Scout School Sign Up Night in September. At the time I was on the Council Membership Committee and was serving as the Sign Up Night Chair. For the District.

The argument at that time was: When does a boy become a First Grader? There was a lot of people against my thinking that he becomes a first grader as soon as he graduates from kindergarten.

At that time we came to an agreement that only packs that had a planned Summertime program could recruit in the spring.

In time this became a District Tiger Cub Safari. Which worked but wasn't the greatest. We would have the schools pass out invitations for these little guys and their parents to come to a location in the district where we would have three or four Tiger Cub activities, feed them a hot dog and some pop corn get the application and tell the parent that the Cub Scout leader would contact them. This year we changed it we did a Tiger Cub Safari in each School District,using the Cub scouter's with packs in that school district. We have three school districts in our Scout District. One school district covers the mountains so we had an extra safari up there. We still have one Tiger Cub Safari to go and already we are up by 75%. We do invite all these little fellows and their parents to attend Day Camp and we have a District Tiger Fun Day in early October.

I just received an E-mail informing me that the Tigers will now wear the Cub Scout uniform. I'm not sure what I think about this. Not that it matters what I think. My hope is that it might help keep more of these little guys in the program longer.

Eamonn

[CubsRgr8]

Our council is encouraging spring K Tiger roundups AND hosting several Tiger only events this summer.

[caddmommy]

When I joined my current pack, the numbers were very low. Once, I got a few more adults involved in leadership, we decided to "get the word out" that our pack existed and started a spring recruiting session. It has worked wonders in adding boys to the pack and getting additional leadership. Last year, we recruitted only the kindergarten boys and this year we had two tiger dens, of which, the leaders came from the spring roundup.