Summertime Pack Award

[dlearyous]

I've received conflicting advise on the Summertime Pack Award. Does a Pack just have to plan an event for each summer month, or does it also require a certain amount of attendance for each event? (I know the latter is required for the Den ribbon)

 

Thanks!

[ManyHats]

The way I read it was you just had to have a Pack event June, July and August and fill the form with the date, time, numbers etc. The Den has to have 50% at all 3 events to get the den award.

[Lady_Leigh67]

Here is a link that might explain the requirements better than I can.

 

http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/awards/adults/unitawards.aspx

 

[Karen_216]

It says plan and conduct an activity during June, July and August. Does not have a number required.

You can plan attendence at day camp and resident camp.(?)

I saw packs do this as their event and receive the award. I have to admit I felt cheated as I helped plan events over the summer. But we had boys come to events who couldnt' attend camps so that was fair to them.

Also if a cub attends one event each month(june july and aug) then he gets a nice golden sun pin.

we do more than one but only 1 is required.

[dlearyous]

Thanks, that's what I thought, but for a reason unknown someone at Council gives the opposite advise. I don't know if that individual is mistaken or the Council really thinks that. They can't change National award requirements, correct?

[Lisabob]

No they can't change the requirements, but furthermore, they are also highly unlikely to "check up" to see whether you met whatever criteria they may be currently imagining. I have never, not once, heard of our council seeking verification that a pack actually earned this award. So I wouldn't sweat it unless they're demanding proof that you met/will meet some incorrect criteria.

[FScouter]

Nobody is going to check, but if you want to meet the requirements, they are very clearly detailed at the link provided by LadyLeigh.

 

Three (3) pack events are required; 1 in June, 1 in July, 1 in August.

 

The average attendance for the 3 in total must be at least half. That means you can still earn the award even if the June or July event had less participation; make it up on the August event.

[ScoutNut]

"The average attendance for the 3 in total must be at least half."

 

That is for the DEN award ONLY.

 

For the PACK award, all that is needed is for the Pack to plan and conduct three pack activitiesone each in June, July, and August. It does not matter if only 1 Cub attends each month. The Pack will still receive it's Summertime certificate and streamer.

[FScouter]

Right. Which proves once again that the correct answer may be found with BSA and wrong answers proliferate all over the internet, including me when I carefully read and then misquote!

[dlearyous]

Thank you all! I knew they probably wouldn't check up on us, but all the same last year I stressed over attendance lists, formulas, etc to make sure half of the boys met to meet the Pack award, and then again for the Den award, lol. I'm just that way about things. At least I don't have to worry about doing it this year for the Pack ribbon.

 

 

[SctDad]

I found an MS Excell file that all you had to do was to plug in the information about the trip and the Cub Scouts names for each den, and it would do the math for you.

 

If you contact me I will try to get it to you.

[dlearyous]

Thanks ScoutDad, but I think part of the frustration was trying to figure out how many kids we had in the Pack and Den each month. We're on a military installation and during the summertime we have a lot of people leave during that timeframe, so each month I had to work with a different number.

[John-in-KC]

I've not use PackMaster or one of the other unit management software packages in a while. Do they "connect the dots" at the unit level, as they do with things like the World Convservation Award at the member level?

 

If so, then it's easy to see what's happening with units.

 

Three easy summertime activities:

 

June: Daycamp

 

July: Participate in area Independence Day Parade.

 

August: Pre-back-to-school Pool Party (but make sure you rent a facility including the lifeguards!!).

[Pack212Scouter]

Our Pack just started using PackMaster. Years ago we used to use the competitor's version by the company that is now out of business and have used speadsheets since.

 

The biggest reason for the move to PackMaster was it's terrific Scout management, the compatablility with the Troop's TroopMaster, and it's ability to link with ScoutNet. While it strides to be an all-in-one it still lacks in some areas. Our den leaders will continue to use the Trax speadsheets both because of their ease of use, the fact that at a glance you can see where each Cub is in his progress and the fact that with 20+ dens we don't want the DotNet locked out all the time for Den leader updates. This would probably work well for a small Pack, but with ours they will submit their Trax spreadsheets to our Awards Chair who will enter them in PackMaster use it to update ScoutNet.

 

Unfortunately one of the other areas that it currently falls short is integration with some of the awards this Summertime Pack. While it will track Scout attendance and alert to low attendance, etc., PackMaster has not integrated some of these awards such as this one fully into the software. This may change in the future because they seem very ameniable to updating the software into something that can handle most everything.