Residency requirement?

[kramr1]

Hello. We have a boy in our den who will be moving to a town about a half hour away. His parents would still like to bring him to our den meetings and stay in the pack. However there are some who say he can't do this and that he has to join the pack in his new town. Some of us disagree. Is there a hard and fast rule that says you must join the pack in your town or can you join any pack?

[scoutldr]

A scout or scouter can belong to any unit he/she chooses, as long as the unit is willing to have them.(This message has been edited by scoutldr)

[ScoutNut]

We have had families move who opted to stay in our Pack. We also have families who live elsewhere, but work nearby so they belong to our Pack. We even have a ASM in our Troop who moved 1 hr away who drives in every week for the meeting!

 

It all depends on what works for the families involved.

[SR540Beaver]

Ask those folks who think he has to move to another pack to give you evidence of such a rule. They won't....because they can't. My son and I just moved to a new troop in another district. Our old troop was a mile from the house and roundtable was 2 miles away. The troop we are in now is across town and it is over 20 miles one way. Same town, different district. Unless a charter organization has some membership restrictions, you can join any unit you want regardless of it's location. If you are close to a council border, you could join a pack in the neighboring council if desired.

[kramr1]

Thank you all for your advice!(This message has been edited by kramr1)

[CascoDad]

I wondered about this too and was glad the topic was on this forum. The pack in our town is dwindling away, due to several reasons. The leaders are too busy with other commitments (in charge of rec soccer and baseball) so scouts don't start meeting until Nov and end in April (I can't fault them, nobody else has stepped up to be Cubmaster); we haven't met yet (today is Nov 9) and nobody has returned my call as to when meeting will start; the town is quite small so all dens meet at the same time in one room at the school which is chaotic for younger ones; also I feel that the town is just too small to support a pack the way it should be (no outings at all last summer).

 

There is a lack of interest here; maybe it is the same percentage as in larger towns, but it comes down to there were 13 boys who made cars for the Pinewood derby last year and half of those have left the pack, and now it is my turn. I called the cubmaster in the next town (6 times larger than mine) and he was happy to have my son join his pack which has 50 boys. Luckily I can literally throw a stone into the next town from my backyard so the commute is not that bad. The den leader told me that the pack is just what I would expect a pack should be, she said she couldn't believe how badly some of the other packs in the area are run, so that was quite encouraging. We are looking forward to Wolf this year even though we are starting a bit late.

 

Also, I am happy to volunteer my time, the den leader asked if I would stay and help out rather than just drop my boy off and I said yes. I want to become more involved; I just felt that with the old pack it wasn't going to help much.

[Prairie_Scouter]

This does come up occasionally. As the CC of my pack until last year, I had one school principal tell me that their boys HAD to join the pack in their school or couldn't be Scouts. She wouldn't believe otherwise, as wrong as she was.

 

Bottom line is, any Scout and Scouter are welcome to participate in Scouting wherever they want.

Don't let anybody tell you otherwise.