Working on Charter

[beardad]

First sorry for the thread hijack,

 

As I said I don''t know the whole story, as I am a new comer. tomorrow is our first meeting and I will talk to some of the older members and pry just out of curiousity.

 

My wife and I have been working to get our pack out there in the community, and have been somewhat successful. But have never met or heard from anybody from district or council level.

 

For some reason the town live in, has more churches per capita then any other city in the State of washington. Most are Islam, or Asian denominations, but we are hesitent to approach a church that none of us attend. As far as I know none of the adults attend any domination of church. right now we have our meetings in a classroom, at our local elementary school (which my kids attend) that we rent.

 

[lcjones]

**

 

Thanks folks for all the comments and thoughts. As mentioned we''re in a seriously small town with little resources in the community. We have approached the PTO(PTA) and they are reviewing the charter and it seems like a go at this point. The president of the PTO is excited to be involved, so that is a bonus! We should know by mid next week what they decide. While the school itself will not be the CO, the school has graciously and with open arms allowed our fledgling Pack the use of the cafeteria for our monthly pack meetings. As well, one DL is holding Den meetings after school in the cafeteria. The school has the facilities and the desire to grow our community. I honestly believe in our small community this is the best venue to expose boys to Scouting in a town which has never, as far as I know, had a Cub Scout Pack.

 

Thanks again for all your input.

 

YIS,

 

Les Jones

Pack 150

Wilderness Trail

 

 

[Scouting Mom]

Around here, whenever they want to start a new pack, these days the first group they approach is the local PTA. Officially a public school can''t do it themselves, but the PTA/PTO can.

 

The mission statement of the National PTA is very consistent with the mission of Scouting. Despite a falling out about 20 years ago between National PTA and BSA, PTAs are making a resurgence as Chartering Organizations.

[Lisabob]

The pack my son was in was chartered by a PTO. This can work, but the drawback we found was that there was a lot of turnover, both in PTO and Cub Pack leadership, as kids moved on from that elementary school. It doesn''t take long before you find yourself in a situation where nobody on the PTO knows anything about the charter that they signed. So regular communication is even more important than with a more long-term operation like a church or civic organization.

 

But sure, PTOs can be great COs. LC, I''m glad to hear that this is probably going to work for you.

[beardad]

Ok Thread Hijack again.

 

so I asked some more questions about this "self chartering thing." a long time ago we were chartered by a PTA at an elementary school. eventually we were not rechartered due to on person on the PTA''s alternative lifestyle, and that person not agreeing with BSA policy.

 

So we went to our council exec (or president) or whatever, and he said self charter "for now" and with in weeks you will have a new CO. that was 10 years ago.

 

During that time we approached the pta at another local elem to charter us, but were told we could not recharter by the council honcho, we have learned that that pta now has a pack, after we were told no, so we tried to merge, again council dude said no.

 

so it comes out last night, that the reason we are self chartered is becuase the Council will not let us get a CO, and also found out that the vast majority of packs in our Council are self chartered.

 

[lcjones]

Hey guys,

 

Discounting the hi-jacked thread thing......

 

Things are looking up. Things are looking down.

 

As one mentioned, creation of the Pack and recruitment by the DE was done backwards. To top that off, and unfortunately, the DE has since seen fit to leave the Council and the BSA after 19 years BSA professional service and about a two month stint in our Council. Replacement DE is in training. We have an interim DFS who is concerned and so far has been helpful.

 

In the meantime, I have worked with our PTO to Charter status and have received signed paperwork AND a check for CO. Very cool! I'm a happy camper.

 

But, on the other hand, as things were done askew and we could not hold any sanctioned meetings since recruitment night, I've lost two of my four Den Leaders. I have 10 Tigers and three Webelos without Den Leaders. Ack ..... what to do, what to do. I've had one fish nibble on the bait for Tiger Den Leader but no commitment.

 

As Cub Master, I can do the Cub Master thing. However, my schedule just does not allow me time to be a Den Leader too. And the last thing I want to do is over-extend myself and fail when and where most needed. A quandary!! I have great Wolf and Bear Den Leaders and they are running a full ship each. I can't ask them to take on more when I can''t do it myself.

 

Well, Be that as it may, Pack 150 is now official and I can go from there!

 

I do have a serious question though. I had planned our first Pack Meeting for the last Tuesday of every month.

 

In your experience, when in the month do pack meetings work best? The first, middle or last of the month? I would think the last of the month so to incorporate the monthly theme.

 

Your thoughts??????

 

YIS,

 

LC(This message has been edited by lcjones)

[beardad]

We have our pack meetings the last tuesday of the month also.

 

Last year, I did Wolf''s & Bears at the same time. this year I have just Bears, but our cubmaster is doing Wolves (his tigers from last year) and now tigers since we had about 3 or 4 kids join in the last few weeks.

[ScoutNut]

I would say whenever you can get the meeting space allocated. Since your CO is a PTO, I will assume your Pack meeting will be in the school. You will have to be put on the calendar and since the year has started there is a good chance your first choice will be booked up already.

 

My Pack generally has their Pack meeting the 3rd or 4th Tuesday of the month. However, there are times when we hold it on a Friday or Saturday depending on what we are doing. Sometimes we have to hold it earlier in the month too if the school/parish hall is being used by others.