mariewendan Posted July 24, 2005 Share Posted July 24, 2005 Hello, I was wondering, if you are living in a small town and have 2 Cub Scout packs, is it "legal" to set boundaries and say that we can only recruit on "our side" of town?? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutNut Posted July 24, 2005 Share Posted July 24, 2005 There are no boundaries for BSA units. I have even known a Cub family who moved into another council & kept registered with their old Pack. Families & their boys pick units for many different reasons. Some of these are - Time/day of den/Pack meetings, number of friends in unit, how active the unit is, distance to meeting place, unit leadership, and many more reasons that are not so clear cut. Is it "legal" to tell another Pack they can't recruit on your side of town? Not really, no. You said your town is small, is it big enough to support 2 Packs? If there are enough boys to go around, then it might make more sense to have a joint recruitment drive & let the boys & their families decide which Pack better suits their individual needs. They will end up doing that anyway at some point. Why set up bad feelings in the community? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariewendan Posted July 25, 2005 Author Share Posted July 25, 2005 That is what I thought and that is the impression I was under! I would LOVE to do a joint recruitment and have the boys and their families pick which pack they feel is right for them. We left this other pack and formed a new one because they were turning away boys, saying there wasn't enough room...and for various other reasons...the new pack is going well- we've done so much more than the old pack did. We wanted to start recruiting more boys and we recently got a call from the someone in the council office saying we need to all sit down and talk because the old pack wants to set boundaries where we would not be able to take boys from "their side of town". I thought the idea was absurd and don't understand why we can't just all get along, but I wanted to get some feedback from here before I go "sit and talk" about it. Thanks for the reply!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ScoutNut Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 You mean, that if you get a family from "their" side of town who wants to join your Pack, they want you to tell them no, that they have to join the other Pack instead? That is ludicrous. I can see asking the family if they have considered joining the Pack closer to them. They might not know it is there. Or, they might know about it and simply not want to join it. You can't force anyone to join a particular Pack. If you do that, odds are the family will NOT join the other Pack. You will lose them to Scouting completely. Contact your Unit Commissioner. He should be able to help you talk to the other Pack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariewendan Posted July 25, 2005 Author Share Posted July 25, 2005 Thanks! Yes, that is exactly what they are asking us to do- give them the boys from "their" side of town. And before- they never did any recruiting and didn't care to have more boys. It's not about the boys for them- it's their pride now, it's terrible! The unit comissioner is already involved and we will all sit down to talk about it....and I will stick to my guns... that if a boy knows there are two packs in which he can observe to see which one he wants to join- and chooses to join ours...I am keeping him!!! Thanks for the input!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nldscout Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 When we had two packs in town we did joint Schools nights. It worked well for us. It gives the parents a choice. Thats the way to go, rather than try and set some artificial boundry line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CubScoutJo Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 We are in a small town, too. Our town has 3 cub packs. We have done recruiting together and it does work out fine. I don't think anyone should be able to force families into boundries. Jo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lynda J Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 We normally recruite withing school districts. Some areas in our council have 4-5 packs in one school district but those are really large school districts. But having them take boys from your pack that are already memebers is wrong, PERIOD. They boys and their parents get to chose whick pack they join. We have boys in our troop that are actually in another troops area. They simply wanted to be part of our troop. It is the scouts choice. If there are enough boys to form two packs that is great. But don't let them take your boys. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cubmaster Mike Posted July 25, 2005 Share Posted July 25, 2005 We are a city of 40,000 and have five public elementary schools, two private schools and four cub packs. One pack is LDS sponsored and the others are sponsored around local schools. My pack's policy is that any boy in town can join any pack. Meeting times, days and personalities each offer different things to each family. But it is also important to note that we have made an effort to meet with the other packs and share our view (with which they agreed). CMM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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