One More Question - Wolf Cub has missed several meetings

[ShutterbugMom]

I have one more question. We have one new Wolf that attended the first den meeting and has not been back since. His brother has been attending one of the den meetings for one of the older groups. The CM told me that the younger boy would be back after he was done with the sport he is involved in (the mom told me it is 4 days per week, year round when I was talking to her at the first meeting so I was surprised he was joining at all.) Anyway, if he does come back, should we be working to catch him up?

 

Obviously, catching up Feats of Skill is not too hard, nor is most of Achievement 2. Your Flag. However, it was a bit of work to do the outside flag ceremony. We had to borrow a flag from an organization with a flag and flag pole (the place we meet at does not have one). We had to make sure we had good weather and plan the meeting around being outside the whole time. With the end of daylight savings time, it will be hard to fit this in, assuming he does show up again. We had to repeat a few things last year for boys that started late (including the hike) however, I am not sure what our obligations are for this scout. If he started coming regularly, I wouldn't mind so much, but I hate to rearrange our pre-planned schedule if he is only going to drop in every now and then.

 

I think arranging Scouts around sports is very difficult as both my cub scout and my boy scout play different sports year round. Since we are the den leaders, and had over half our den playing soccer this fall, we were able to find a night that worked for everyone. I am concerned what will happen when basketball starts. I guess we'll see.

[AKdenldr]

This is what I would do, go ahead a wait for a while to see if boy will really be participating with the den calendar you have already arranged. Then if he does start, see if parents are interested in achievement, or just participating in the den activities. You could easily do a day time catch up event latter in the year for all the boys where you tidy up any missing requirements. So far family has indicated by their actions that he will not be participating.

[Hueymungus]

Generally, no. You can give his parents the sheets or items he needs to work on. If there are things that can count for rank, that your doing now, he can do those.

Flag: GO BUY ONE! Get a Pack and State Flag too! Does your Pack even have them? I know that the ELKS will give you a flag if needed. Your Pack should be doing a Flag Ceremony every Meeting. Even the Den should do one.

 

Overall, don't re-arrange for just one Scout. It was a whole gaggle of Cubscouts, that would be different.

[Brewmeister]

Anyway' date=' if he does come back, should we be working to catch him up?[/quote']

 

Absolutely, unequivocally, NO. If it's important to the boy/family, he can catch up on his own.

 

Unfortunately he can come to a meeting with every requirement signed off by mom and there is not much you can do about it.

 

[koolaidman]

If you don't show up, you miss stuff. Fact of life best learned early on. I recommend taking a "We'll see what we can do, but no promises" attitude. Don't jump through hoops for someone who has missed so much by choice.

[christineka]

The only things I'd re-do for one boy would be the ones that must be done as a den- and that's only if the boy is being serious about working toward his rank. I believe most of the wolf achievements can be completed at home. (Half of them have to be completed with an adult relative.)

[ShutterbugMom]

Okay, I am glad to see that I am on the same page as most everyone. I will just wait and see what their dedication is....if they do come back and work through all the home items, then we'd be glad to repeat the den items.

 

Hueymungus....you don't need to yell at me. We have a flag for our pack and den and we have a den flag. We do a flag ceremony at every meeting. We do not have a large outside flag pole where you can actually run the flag up and down the pole with a rope. I guess you could take the small indoor flag outside and call it an outdoor flag ceremony, but I would only do that if we had no other options. We had to go to another location to do that, and it would be a bit of work to repeat.

[Hueymungus]

Okay, I am glad to see that I am on the same page as most everyone. I will just wait and see what their dedication is....if they do come back and work through all the home items, then we'd be glad to repeat the den items.

 

Hueymungus....you don't need to yell at me. We have a flag for our pack and den and we have a den flag. We do a flag ceremony at every meeting. We do not have a large outside flag pole where you can actually run the flag up and down the pole with a rope. I guess you could take the small indoor flag outside and call it an outdoor flag ceremony, but I would only do that if we had no other options. We had to go to another location to do that, and it would be a bit of work to repeat.

Sorry, wasn't really yelling. But the way you stated that you didn't have a flag, led me to think the Pack didn't have one at all.

[ShutterbugMom]

Okay, I am glad to see that I am on the same page as most everyone. I will just wait and see what their dedication is....if they do come back and work through all the home items, then we'd be glad to repeat the den items.

 

Hueymungus....you don't need to yell at me. We have a flag for our pack and den and we have a den flag. We do a flag ceremony at every meeting. We do not have a large outside flag pole where you can actually run the flag up and down the pole with a rope. I guess you could take the small indoor flag outside and call it an outdoor flag ceremony, but I would only do that if we had no other options. We had to go to another location to do that, and it would be a bit of work to repeat.

I guess I should have stated specifically that we *had* an indoor flag, however, I was just discussing the outdoor flag ceremony. I think most people interpret all caps as shouting. I'm not one that likes to be shouted at, so I will try to be more specific next time.