So Many Problems, Where do I Start

[GS-CS_leader]

Good points, Lisabob. I'd thought of two of your points, but not put them explicitly on my list. You are right that we need to remember to keep the boys needs and feelings in mind---they are the reason that we're going to all this trouble!

 

Activities: I'll definitely ask about activities. In fact, I'll ask to see den and pack calendars for the previous couple of years if they have them. I've already taken a peek at one possible packs calendars that they have on a website. It certainly gives you an idea of how active the dens and packs are.

 

The other reason that I've been looking carefully at calendars (in addition to the scheduling restrictions we have) is that it gives me some idea of whether we are likely to be the only moderately observant Jewish family (one of the other boys in our den is also Jewish, but less observant). For example, if some of the packs take use the Jewish high holidays to do events because the local schools have the day off (I know of a GS troop that does this even though strictly speaking it is forbidden by our council), then we know that religious observance is something we'd better discuss.

 

Summer camp: I was already going to ask about summer camp. I and possibly my husband as well are planning to take my son to Cub Scout summer resident camp this year while my daughter is away for a couple of weeks at a GS camp doing backpacking. I feel bad that he's missed out compared to his sister whom I've taken on numerous camping and overnight trips in the past 7 years of being the leader of her GS troop. I'm hoping that we will have an idea of whether we'll be switching packs and councils before the early bird registration for reduced fees ends. The DL of our den will be out of the country for much of the summer, and I don't think any of the boys are ready for a multi-night trip away from family anyway (one is even autistic!), but I was going to see if other parents would like to take to join me with their sons. The day camps of both councils are too far away from where we live to be practical.

 

One thing I didn't mention before is that I've definitely ruled out one pack. I noticed on their website that the leader of the Bear den is the father of a boy who has bullied my son in Hebrew school. The boy even got a whole group of boys to gang up on my son (and the other boys admitted it when confronted and apologized, so I know that it was not just a story made up by my son and daughter who witnessed the bullying). There have been numerous incidents and I won't say that my son has always responded in the best way, but I'd sooner have him quit CS then to put him in a den or pack with that boy.

[ScoutNut]

"I'm hoping that we will have an idea of whether we'll be switching packs and councils before the early bird registration for reduced fees ends."

 

 

What difference will that make? Most councils do not require that you sign up as a Pack/Den or be a member of the council to attend their Summer Camps.

 

Pick the camp that fits your time schedule. See if any of the other families in your den want to/can attend. If you can get a group of his den mates together, great! That will make it fun, but, if you can't, go on your own. The camp will put you with others who are there on their own too.

 

If this is his first Summer Camp experience, rather than do a week of Resident Camp, see if any area councils offer Parent/Pal Adventure Weekends. These are a good way to ease the boys into summer camping.

 

For your Pack problems, have you considered starting a new Pack with your Temple or your son's Hebrew school as the CO? It might be easier on the schedule problems, & to get people involved, if everyone is on the same page as far as religious observance goes.

 

 

[GS-CS_leader]

ScoutNut: thanks for your input.

 

To reply to your post:

 

> What difference will that make? Most councils do not require that you sign up > as a Pack/Den or be a member of the council to attend their Summer Camps.

If we did change packs and councils, I wanted to be able to attend camp with our new pack since I think that would be a great way to get to know some of them. In fact, having looked more closely at the neighboring town's council's website, I have decided that we should definitely switch to a pack in that council. For one thing, our neighboring district's RT location is only 2 miles from my house whereas our current district RT is about a half hour drive away. (This year, our pack was almost never represented at the RT, but I'm sure that people would go if it was closer.) The district Pinewood Derby and training classes are also much closer for the neighboring district. And the neighboring town has many more CS packs and BS troops, so I think we'll have more opportunities to do events with other packs who are from our area. So that solves the summer camp dilemma because I can just sign us up for camp with the neighboring council. I can always change sessions if our "new" pack is going to a different session.

 

Both councils have only 2-day or 4-day weekend camp sessions for Cub Scouts. I've recently spoken to the CM of one potential pack to join (whom I corresponded with earlier through another Scouter forum thread!). They are definitely going to attend one and maybe two camp sessions---one camp is relatively close, one is 5.5 hours away. And at least one other family from our den is potentially interested in attending camp with us.

 

Actually, having talked at length to the other pack's CM that I mentioned above, I feel much less anxious about our den's future. I'm now more confident that we will be able to find another pack to join.

 

As far as starting a new pack with "our synagogue" (we're not Reform jews, so we don't use the term "temple" which we reserve for "the Temple" in Jerusalem which was destroyed twice and has yet to be rebuilt): it's complicated, but it won't work with either of the two congregations in which we are members. And I don't want a synagogue-affiliated pack. Half of our den members and half of our current pack members are not Jewish. If I had wanted a Jewish pack, we would have joined the one at the Orthodox Jewish day school before our pack was even re-started.

 

If you are curious about why it wouldn't work to start packs with either of the congregations that we are members of (even if we were interested), you can read on:

 

The congregation that we are very active with and where we attend services nearly every Saturday is a small lay-led "minyan" of about 60 families. The Minyan doesn't have it's own building, so it rents space from a synagogue with an entirely elderly and thus ever-shrinking membership. The Minyan does not have its own Hebrew school because most of the Minyan's children attend Jewish day schools. The synagogue is several miles from where we live, in "the city" and we are one of the few families who are not within walking distance of it because many of the members do not drive on the Sabbath. I don't think other boys from the Minyan would be interested in Cub Scouts (I know of only one other family in the Minyan who does any camping) and the besides that Minyan already had to levy extra funds to support its small youth group which has also been struggling because it's very small due to the congregation's small size.

 

Since we send our kids to public school (which is why we live in a nearby suburb with good schools), we also became members of a synagogue that used to be less than a mile from our house, to be able to send our kids to its Hebrew school. However, that synagogue had trouble attracting younger families and less than two years ago merged with a larger more vibrant synagogue in the town north of us. That's the "affluent" community that I mentioned in a previous post, and my son gets along with only one or two boys in his Hebrew school class (note gang bullying mentioned in another previous post). We went to some family events at the synagogue after the merger, but have stopped doing so because it's just not our kind of place. So I wouldn't want to do anything more with that synagogue.

[GS-CS_leader]

If anyone is still following this thread, we've run into problems in trying to switch packs. Please see my new thread called "turf war...." also in the "Cub Scout" forum.