Blue & Gold Ceremony Question

[Basementdweller]

Not meaning anything slanderous about a third year webelos.....Just he could end up as a third year webelo.

 

I looked up the record and the youth was 11 years 8 months when we rechartered. The young man had been held back a grade. It was all kind of a shock, He was bigger than the other boys, but got along with them just fine, a head scratcher when it happened.

[SeattlePioneer]

No Scoutnut. Councils routinely recruit Tiger Cubs in Kindergarten in the spring. Parents fill out the application and pay their membership fees and start participating in den and pack activities right away.

 

I think District Executive don't process those applications until June, but those boys are still Tiger Cubs.

 

Just another examples of how rules are bent or adapted to make the program work.

[ScoutNut]

Not the councils in the Chicago area. Not any Packs that I know, or have heard of.

 

Per council, all district level Tiger recruitment events MUST be held after June 1st.

 

All of the Spring recruitment activities in area Packs happen at the end of May. Kindergartens in the area generally graduate at the end of May. Any new Spring Tigers are included in Summer Activities.

 

Our Pack invites newly graduated kindergartners to our final Pack meeting of the year, at the end of May. Any Tigers who register that evening are welcomed to the Pack, receive a Tiger necker, a Pack slide, their Tiger Handbook, and information on Pack summer activities, and Council/District summer camps.

 

It makes no sense to have new, unregistered, kindergartners, attend Tiger den meetings with boys who will not be in their den.

 

While your Pack might "routinely bend rules", not all Packs, or Councils do.

 

[Eagle92]

"Nut,

 

In some places, council will conduct a "Spring Roundup" for Tigers in May or early June (some places don't let out until June) just before school lets out. They are prospective scouts prior to June 1, so they can still change their mind, and on June 1 they officially join.

 

My oldest started visiting packs the last week in April of Kindergarten year. We were invited on a pack camp out in May (glad I went as the TCDL had an emergency and couldn't make it so I had to run the den) and he officially joined June 1.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Scout Nut,

 

School around here often continues into the second or even third week of June.

 

 

Your council likes it's practices and that's fine.

 

My council recruits kindergarteners during our spring recruiting efforts, which start in March and peak in April or early May.

 

This does cause some issues --- I mentioned the Bobcat Den I lead in the spring for these early recruits. That is in a thread I started a few weeks ago.

 

And this is a COUNCIL plan and program --- not a pack program.

 

 

[ScoutNut]

Just pointing out that sweeping generalizations about what all councils "routinely" do, while it might be correct for your council, is rarely correct for all councils.

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Scout Nut,

 

 

Actually, I rather like the idea of not doing the early recruiting. It does tend to make it difficult to absorb boys brand new to Cub Scouts when established dens are working to complete requirements for badges and the program they have planned.

 

Perhaps it's the fact that school usually last until the middle of June that has caused that kind of adaptation by the council ---- I really don't know.

 

Getting new Scouts in just when the dens are being reorganized for the new year and program sounds best. But we live in an imperfect world.

 

 

[IM_Kathy]

many of the packs in our area do 2 seperate ceremonies - Arrow of Light is done somewhere between Dec and Feb depending on the pack... and then they have crossover at the end of the school year.

 

so for a webII who earned the AOL he would have his AOL ceremony and join a BSA troop... if he did not then he would work with DL, CM, WebI den, or parent to either finish his AOL work and crossover when he gets it done or just keep doing what he's doing until the end of the school year and then could decide to join a troop.

 

the Pack my son was in had the biggest drop off of boys between webI and webII - part of that was the way our school system works and we had 5th and 6th grade in seperate building where the 6th graders that didn't continue into troops would pick on boys who were still in scouts. thankfully that part has changed, but it is still when the boys who are in sports start getting into tournament teams and they are made by their parents to pick between sports and scouts.

 

My son started with just a few at tiger (was back with the orange shirt days) and not a lot of parents liked the idea that they had to attend all the meetings and such, so den was small then. As wolf the den was so big it needed to be 2 dens, but we had no one that would step up as DL. We lost a few as bear, lost a few more as web I, and lost a lot as webII... ended with just 3 boys who earned their AOL and joined a troop - 1 is now a life scout, 1 is a star, and 1 is at 1st class... and are all enjoying scouting. The ones we lost was due to sports and lack of parent support.