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When did Tiger and Bobcat trade places?


mschwartz

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When entering the Tiger Badge advancements into PackMaster the other day, it informed me that the boys had not yet completed their Bobcat badge. Now, from my days as a Tiger leader (and we doublechecked in the books that this year's Tigers are using) I recall that they finished up the Tiger badge and then the book said "Now you are ready to move on and earn your Bobcat badge." And that was the first thing they did as Wolf Cubs (if they hadn't done it over the summer or some such).

 

Checked the Virtual Cub Scout Leader's Handbook, and it also shows Bobcat preceding Tiger.

 

When did this happen? The software and the online information (including the nice new National website) says one, the book (and my memory!) says the other.

 

We can deal with the change, just curious as to when it happened! :)

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The new version of the regular Tiger Handbook, and the brand new coil bound version, showing Bobcat before Tiger, was out prior to May '06. Some Scout Shops continued to sell the older version.

 

National's Tiger Fast Start online training showed the new information by December '05 I believe. If your new Tiger den leaders took the required training they would have been informed of the change.

 

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Scoutnut writes:If your new Tiger den leaders took the required training they would have been informed of the change.Not necessarily -- it depends on the trainer, and whether the trainer himself or herself was aware of the changes. FWIW: the current Tiger course syllabus hasn't been updated since it was released in 2001.

 

As district training chairman at the time, I made my Cub Training Coordinator aware of the change, and then left it up to him to decide how his Cub training team would address this issue.

 

My concern was that, if we teach something different than what's in the book (almost every TDL had an old book that has Bobcat at the end), would it create more confusion than clarity? I suggested leaving it alone, but ultimately left it up to him and his trainers to decide how they would teach this.

 

Hopefully, the Scout Shops now have corrected Tiger HBs, and trainers can safely teach the correct approach without worrying that they will be contradicting what's in the HBs the parents will actually be reading.

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Part of the required training for Tiger den leaders (especially those who have never been registered with the BSA before) is Fast Start Training. The online version (vs the old VCR tape version) has been available for quite a few years now. As I stated, the online version of Tiger Fast Start had the Bobcat update included quite a bit in advance of the implimentation date.

 

You are correct in that not all District/Council trainers were aware of the change & so were not including it in their Tiger Leader Specific training. However, if new Tiger den leaders had taken BSA's online Fast Start Tiger Training, they would have known of the change & could have asked questions at their Leader Specific training.

 

Many Packs, especially those who had the old Tiger Handbooks, decided to postpone the change until the 2007-08 program year. Our Pack went with the changed format. I had mostly new Tiger handbooks, with just a few of the older ones. I hand printed the changes in the older books, explained the change to my Tiger Teams, gave the corrected books to familes who were not new to BSA & the new books to the brand new families (avoiding confusion for the newbies).

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just got back from NCS Cub Scout Day Camp Administration training at Heritage Scout Reservation and on the first day of training this question came up during the discussion about the different ranks in Cub Scouting.

 

It was obvious that the instructors hadn't seen the update or forgot about it if they weren't working directly with Tigers. A lively but brief discussion occurred and even some current Cub Masters and Den Leaders were confused.

 

Fortunately everybody got the correct info and sequence and we were able to move on to other less contentious topics like shooting sports, etc.

 

BTW, it was a very good if overwhelming course. What have I got myself into....

 

"Day Camp One -- Sleeps at Home!"

 

John

Tiger Den Leader & District Twilight Camp Director

Pack 13

Potomac District

Shenandoah Area Council

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