Have to find a new Pack... again. :(

[Liz]

Well, we've visited both potential packs. Both my daughter and I really prefer the pack that is closer to our home. She feels much more comfortable there. The other pack, she didn't want to be there, she wanted to go home, and she didn't want to go back. Why? I'm not sure. I felt it wasn't as organized as I would have liked but I didn't have the visceral "I don't like it here" reaction that she did. But the one in our neighborhood seems like a super fun, super inviting sort of a group, with a decent amount of structure and discipline while still room for kids to be kids, as well as a great meeting space for kids to play indoor games in winter and next door to a large park for outdoor activities closer to summer. 

My daughter is sad about "splitting up" from the other kid her age from our old Pack, but we'll be getting together to work on the Moviemaking pin and I'm sure other things over the next year they have as Webelos; and they'd eventually have to go to different Troops anyway. 

I'm feeling a lot better just having the decision made. Now we just have to figure out how we handle her re-registration.

[Beccachap]

On 11/5/2019 at 12:32 AM, Liz said:

There are only two troops for girls in our city, and the other one is "closed" to new members, so unless the one girl in this nearby Webelos den happens to be the daughter of the Chair of the "other" Troop (which would be unfortunate, but that's a long, other story) it's safe to say she'll be joining our Troop if she joins any Troop at all. 

We had our meeting tonight and I think I've pretty much made up my mind to go with our neighborhood Pack, for several reasons. As a bonus, our Troop Scoutmaster who was at the meeting pointed out that it would give us a good opportunity to make another connection between our Troop and another Family Pack in the area. My daughter is disappointed but I think the other kid that she is currently doing Webelos with and she can still get together and work on electives and stuff, and we may still go to camp together next summer. Once they move on to Troops they won't be able to be in the same unit anymore anyway, and this gives her at least a chance of working towards her AOL with a girl who she might end up in a patrol with later. The unit the other family is planning to go to, which is in their neighborhood, is registered as a Family Pack but I don't think it has any girls at that age level. 

It's not a done deal yet and I reserve the right to change my mind before it's all over, but I think this is a reasonable course. 

So just a quick note, we have 8 registered girls in our Pack and more filing in the door, but only through word of mouth and our own recruiting. Despite fighting with our council since the inception of girls in cub scouts to reclassify us (and I mean revisited over and over and over), we still appear as a boy only Pack in the council and at national level. There may be more Packs out there taking girls than what you can see online, given how impossible it is for someone on the Council end to fix our own classification. 

As an aside, yes, I know it is a setting we can do through our own Scouting.org tool. However, at our council level that function is disabled globally and it does not appear to us to configure. We've had DEs and Council verify this and look into it, and .... nothin'. 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Beccachap
wrong use of troop instead of pack