Belt Loops not going away

[Helper]

Our boys wear their belts and loops. They do compare who has more loops. We are very big on rewarding our kids. To encourage the boys to wear their full uniform tucked in we started having a raffle at every pack meeting. The boys get a ticket at the beginning of the meeting if they are wearing their full uniform correctly. At the end of the meeting we pull tickets and the boys who win get to pick a prize from the bag. We rarely have a scout out of uniform.

[perdidochas]

I will admit, when I was a Cub leader, I wasn't big on uniforming. I would wear a field uniform shirt, and often a necker, but didn't get uniform pants until I started working with the Troop (which is full uniform, and wearing uniforms on travel). I was still kind of lukewarm on uniforms, until I visited summer camp. At that point, I saw the differences in troops, and was generally more impressed by the uniformed troops, including my own.

[Sakitama]

We have a lot of low income scouts in my pack, but we have recently gone to the t-shirt outlet in town and got them all t-shirts and had the pack number heat transferred on the back. We found a wolf picture on clearance there too and put that on the front. Our pack t-shirts costed a whopping $6 a shirt! Our boys were envious at Spring Cub Weekend of all the Packs that had t-shirts, they're excited they are going to Resident Camp with a Pack t-shirt (our boys worked hard selling peanuts and earned almost 100% of the money they needed for camp!)

 

[jumpyg]

I HATED the beads--boys would lose them, 2/3rds of the parents would not put them on, folks upset that their kid didn't get one, still finding them all over the house years later. I swear one Tiger Den I must have given out an average of 3 sets per boy.

 

 

It is always fun to hear the beads rolling across the floor at a pack meeting! The boys love to fiddle with them, and the plastic strings do not secure them very well, with predictable results.

 

As a leader, keeping track of whether or not the boys had the correct number of beads was tedious. Belt loops, pins, and patches are what my boys seem to covet.

[SM bob]

I don't understand the uniform problem. All my cubs and scouts wear the full uniform to all meetings. If it's a financial issue the pack or troop helps out. It's like we are a sports team. If a player is out of uniform they are turned away. Same goes for my den and my troop . Dressing in uniform puts the cubs and scouts into the right frame of mind. This is not play time is scouting time.

[robhuddles]

Our pack is concerned about the cost issue of the new program as well. As the advancement chair, I went back through our records and have determined that on average, our Scouts earn 7 belt loops in their time with the Pack - the five years from Tiger to AOL. Under the new program, a boy who starts as a Tiger will earn a *minimum* of 21 belt loops. So yeah, it's going to cost more. However, I have heard from unconfirmed sources that the BSA is aware of this and is hoping to get the new loops closer to the $1 mark, so that will help somewhat. I guess we'll have to wait and see...

 

On another note: I also won't be disappointed to see those beads go away...