Advancement deadline

[briantshore]

I belong to a pack that last year did not run any activities in the summer. Last spring I agreed to be the new Wolf Den Leader. One of the other dads to be the Pack Leader. I did not ask, when a training session would start, I did the old wait till someone calls me. Needless to say, I did do my Training last fall. Now I am scrambling to get my boys to get their Wolf Badge. The first few months I sat back and followed the book to the letter having the boys do the work at home. I think I have finally got my parents to understand that they have to work with the boys. My question is at what point can they no longer work to complete there Wolf requirments? I will set up a summer program and have them start there Bear requirmnts through the summer.

Brian

[Torveaux]

I have seen two different answers to this that both make some sense.

 

1) Once the 'crossing over' ceremony in May, the boys move to new books and stop working on old rank.

 

2) When school year ends then they are no longer in the correct grade for the old rank and must move on to the new one.

 

I haven't seen anything definitive, but I will be the Bob White knows exactly where to find the official answer.

 

 

[Oak Tree]

I'd go with the end-of-grade answer. But I think packs can take some leeway with this, depending on individual circumstances. Our pack does set a date, but we would work with anyone who wanted a little bit of extra time. It's never come up. Most people finish early, and anyone who is deadline-driven manages to get done by the date (which roughly maps to the end of the school year).

 

With boys in year-round schools, home schools, magnet schools, charter schools, private schools, and so on, not everyone officially finishes at the same time. But the pack sets a date that applies to everyone in the pack.

 

Oak Tree

[NWScouter]

Many Packs let them catch up during the summer and present the badge either at the first Pack mtg of the fall or an event during the summer.

[cajuncody]

I don't think it has to end at the school end. The Key word is "OR"

For Wolf it is "In second grade or age 8" So that means that until he enters 3rd grade or turns 9 he can be a wolf. Summer is the between for grades so you could use his age.

Kristi

If I am wrong please be gentle.

[fotoscout]

If you're looking for a hard and fast date, you won't find one.

There is nothing wrong with allowing the boys to work on Wolf Arrow points during the Summer. In fact this may be preferred since your participation may be less through the summer months. Then in September, with everyone back from the summer, you can startup with the Bear program.

Your first responsibility is the give the boys every opportunity to earn their Wolf Badge. The Wolf program is fairly simple to get through, most units have completed the requirements by February or March. Then they move on to "the fun stuff".

 

The first few months I sat back and followed the book to the letter having the boys do the work at home. I think I have finally got my parents to understand that they have to work with the boys.

I would advise caution with this approach. It Scouting becomes too much work, the boys, and parents will find other fun things to occupy their time with.

[ScoutNut]

The "Cub Scout Leader Book" states that you can give the boys some extra time (4 wks?) after the end of the school year to finish their requirements for their rank badge.

 

The only requirement/condition is that they can only work on ONE program at a time. In other words, while they are finishing up their Wolf requirements they can not work on anything for Bear.

 

Ideally, rank requirements should be done at home with the family. Practically, what usually happens is the Leaders sit down & look at the handbook & the Pack calendar & decide what achievements they want to work on as a Den and when. Some things just work better in a Den setting than with the family. There might also be some outings that you want to take your boys on that will cover some achievements. They then send a newsletter home telling the families what will be worked on in Den meetings & what needs to be covered at home. As you have learned, you also need to keep after the families. Send notes home every now & then telling each one what they still need to do. Den news letters that you can individualize for each scout are great.

 

Also, if you have any scouts who have reached rank give them their award ASAP. Don't wait for everyone to be finished. Last night I had 4 out of 6 Tigers who received their rank. Afterwards, the dad of one of the others came by to ask if he worked with his son, could the boy still get his rank. I told him of course & that seeing friends get their rank often will give boys incentive to finish up theirs. His response was that it sure gave HIM incentive to remember to look thru his son's book & sign off on things he had done! DUH!

 

PS - Don't be suprised if by your last Den meeting before your Pack's "official" graduation you are given boys books with everything signed off! These are what we like to call "miracle ranks". Don't let it bother you too much. I would rather have a boy get his rank this way than have a leader feel sorry for him and just hand it to him without any paperwork at all. At least this way they KNOW what they SHOULD be doing and they had to look thru the book as they were signing off on everything!

 

Have FUN!

[Torveaux]

On Arrow Points...

 

The Cub Scout Leader Book says: Pg 20-7

 

"At the end of the school year, and once a boy moves to the next Cub Scouting level, he may not "go back" and earn Arrow Points from the earlier rank."

 

For Tigers.... Pg 19-10

 

"The boys should lose no time or Scouting experiences in beginning the Wolf program...They are automatically tranferred from a Tiger Cub den into a Wolf Cub Scout den on June 1 of that year without any additional paperwork.

 

fotoscout: "There is nothing wrong with allowing the boys to work on Wolf Arrow points during the Summer. In fact this may be preferred since your participation may be less through the summer months. Then in September, with everyone back from the summer, you can startup with the Bear program."

 

I would caution against this approach. There is more to do in the Bear program and many opportunities are best accomplished in good summer weather. Family camping and outdoor activities and such can be completed well before September. Once school is added to the mix it becomes more difficult to get such things done. Since one cannot be both a Wolf and Bear, I would suggest getting the Wolf completed ASAP so the boys can get moving on the Bear trail.

[briantshore]

Thank you all, I agree that some requirments like flag raising cerimony is best done as part of a den meeting. Every meeting I explain to the boys "You cannot get any work done on your book till you open it". I had also though about a newsletter to keep the parents up to date. I am also going to explore the idea to send up date on E-mail, this was I do not have to play phone tag.

Brian

[OneHour]

briantshore, good luck on setting up the communications links. It seems that nothing worked for me when I was a CM and a DL. I had a website that had all the dates. I sent out emails about the dates. I mentioned the dates at Pack meetings and I still got the questions "When was the date for ...?" It seems that Cub Scout and the digital technologies still have a little more reconciling before full benefit can be realized!

 

One thing that I know still works, a friendly call to remind them the night before works well. At the den level, that's not too bad, but at the Pack level, I utilize the call tree.

 

1Hour

[ScoutNut]

Torveaux - National's computer system automaticaly updates EVERY Cubs level as of June 1. That does not mean that a Cub (Tiger - Webelos) can't take some extra time to finish their rank requirements. Arrow points are a 'nuther thing. Once the Cub has finished his rank requirements (if finishing them in the summer) he should go directly to working on the requirements for his next level.

 

Brian - For quick reminders of summer dates take a look at the United States Post Office website. You can send personalized postcards to a mailing list you save in a address book. They have black/white (cheaper) or color. Add your own images, few lines of info & the USPS will create it & mail it out for you. You can even put them together early & have them mailed out on dfferent dates. The cost is more than a regular postcard, but considering it is easy, eyecatching, & personalized, not to bad.

 

http://www.usps.com/netpost/

 

 

[Cubmaster-Fred]

Scoutnut,

 

Just checked out the USPS link. That is "sweet", planning on using it in the future for reminders to main events. Always finding something new and interesting, and useful, on the forums.

 

Thanks

CMF

 

PS: I only let boys work on rank after June 1st not arrow points. I also take this on a case by case basis. For example teh boy joined late I will give him a few extra weeks to earn the rank. JMHO

[anarchist]

briantshore,

 

just quick post...Are you using the instant recognition kits for your den??? It was the single best recommendation I recieved "my' Wolf year...After I started handing out beads...my den took off!

[EagerLeader]

In our Pack there are two Wolf Dens, of which I am the leader for one. Three of the five active members of my den (two dropped out) are earning their Wolf at the April Pack Meeting. One is only two partial achievements away from finishing. And one, well, he won't get it.

 

We started meeting with the other Wolf den about 8 weeks ago. These boys aren't even CLOSE to finishing! I was asked by a boy from the other den, as I was handing out Instant Recognition beads, "will I be getting my Wolf badge too?" and I had to tell him "no, not this time". He nearly broke down! His den hadn't had a meeting since beginning of November, and nothing is signed in his book.

 

At the Den meeting last week, I made all the boys and all available parents sit down with us four leaders. I explained to them that there was only about 6 weeks left for them to earn their Wolf rank, and that it would not be simply handed to them if the requirements weren't met. I told the boys that if they didn't earn the Wolf rank, they wouldn't be held back in Wolves again, they would simply move on to Bears without the rank patch on their uniform.

 

I have made clear that the May Pack Meeting is the deadline for the boys to be presented their rank. Last year, some of these same boys were Tigers and were "given" their rank without attending meetings or doing the requirements. I had no input at that point. If the precendent has been set, how do I handle this situation this year, should it come up?

 

And, how do I handle this one... one of the boys in the other den has his Wolf rank because his father went to the Scout store and bought it for him!

 

 

[molscouter]

There isn't a whole lot you can do about it. All that will likely happen is that the boy will show up next meeting with everything signed off in his book. Since Mom/Dad are Akela, if they say he did something, he did it, even if you know otherwise. When you get to Webelos, you have a lot more control.

 

Also, artificially saying that nothing will be awarded after the May Pack Meeting is wrong. The rules are that he gets at least until he enters third grade. I note that you live in Massachusetts. My brother lives there and I know his son doesn't finish school until around the middle of June, so that is he earliest he could be considered to be a third grader. You are adding to the requirements by imposing an earlier deadline, and that you cannot do.