Scouting with the Dads

[Stitch'sCousin]

Just finished 8 nights at the Great Lakes Jamboree with our troop.

 

[DisDadDoc]

Hey, guys! Just back from Wood Badge. A great experience! Learned lots about teamwork, leadership, and communication. And had super fun! Thanks again to those Scouting Dis Dads (especially Stopher) who encouraged me to do it. If you have the opportunity, I would definitely recommend it!

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

Our troop is going to particpate in the "War of 1812" reenactment at Niagara-on-the-Lake today. Just curious if any of the other DisDads out there were going to be there too since there are around 2000 Canadian and American Scouts attending this camp.

 

[Urugami]

Just had my first exposure to Scouting in the organizational/welcome meeting last night. Quite by surprise, too... DS hadn't been interested in it until the Scout Master pitched to his class on Tue or Wed this week.
Hope I can glean a few nuggets from the thread and we can be active contributors to the pack. :salute:
What, no salute smilie?

 

[Bo Duke]

Just had my first exposure to Scouting in the organizational/welcome meeting last night. Quite by surprise, too... DS hadn't been interested in it until the Scout Master pitched to his class on Tue or Wed this week.
Hope I can glean a few nuggets from the thread and we can be active contributors to the pack.

There fixed it for ya

 

[wasnotafan]

Organizational meeting last night and went about as expected. A lot of mothers and Tigers/Cub age boys, the regional rep, myself and the dad that did Cubs last year. The former Webelos leader isn't interested because his son aged out and he had been doing it for years. The former cubmaster and I are over committed already and his son is ready for Webelos now so it looks as though some mom's may get together and try to do a Tiger/Cub troop and nothing for the Webelos boys unless the boys and the other dad and I do something together. It is a shame that more dads aren't willing to step up and help out these days. It isn't just BSA, but 4-H, soccer, religious education and everything else.

 

[Bo Duke]

Organizational meeting last night and went about as expected. A lot of mothers and Tigers/Cub age boys, the regional rep, myself and the dad that did Cubs last year. The former Webelos leader isn't interested because his son aged out and he had been doing it for years. The former cubmaster and I are over committed already and his son is ready for Webelos now so it looks as though some mom's may get together and try to do a Tiger/Cub troop and nothing for the Webelos boys unless the boys and the other dad and I do something together. It is a shame that more dads aren't willing to step up and help out these days. It isn't just BSA, but 4-H, soccer, religious education and everything else.

I know how that goes. On the plus side for you though, at least you are having someone possibly try.

I am cubmaster for our pack. I was doing that and tiger den leader last year because I couldn't get anyone to do it. Finally at the end of the year someone stepped up. I asked her why she didn't step up before (she had done it before with her older son) she said she wanted someone else to try. Well I am starting to wish someone else would have.

Now the Boy Scout leader's son will be done this year and so the leader wants to drop it. Now they are trying to get me to lead both boy scouts and cub scouts. Which I said no way and I am not going to just drop cub scouts.

The unfortunate thing is I don't see anyone that would want to be cubmaster or that i think would do a good job. And no we don't have an assistant cubmaster at this point either because no one will step up.

It makes it very hard when all of the parents just want a babysitting service.

 

[arthuruscg]

Well, I guess I should introduce my self.
I made eagle scout back in 1999. I also served at a adviser in Venture for a few years.

Currently I am not active in scouting or currently registered. I do have a 2 DS year old and I am looking forward to him joining. The recent news about the pending Eagle Scout in CA, does make me want to rejoin and work towards changing the national boards policies, but this is not the thread for that discussion.

I think a lot of troops have issues with very little parental involvement. One thing that helped increase the % of parents involved was to make the military families fee welcomed. Typically, the parents would be involved and sometimes the whole family. When more parents started getting involved, it pulled/guilt other parents to become more active in the troop.

We eventually had enough involvement that the parents would have a monthly meeting to help divide up the responsibilities.

It also helped to have a Venture Unit with the troop. The venture unit allowed for the older boys to feel like they should stay active and allowed for the inclusion of sisters. Typically the Ventures would meet by themselves at the same time the troop meant.

 

[brattosa]

One of our District Unit Commissioners sent an email today regarding recent changes adopted by the national office yesterday. By his wording as well as the changes made, it sounds like maybe national is toying with the idea of combining Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to try to eliminate the drop with Cubs crossing over. It also sounds like there is a potential to make scouting co-ed to match the rest of the World Scouting organization. I know the co-ed idea was talked about when I got my Eagle in 1989 but nothing came out of it. Thought I would share here (nothing secretive in the content of the email) and get your thoughts on these changes.

One of life’s constants is change, and the Scouting Program is no exception. In the 1960s, Cub Scouting was formalized, to draw younger boys into the program. And in 1998, Venturing was spun off from Exploring, to cater to youth of both genders. The BSA is unique in the World Scouting program, in that it still is largely not co-ed. The division between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, creating separate programs, also offers families an “opportunity” to decide to “not join Boy Scouts” as the fifth grade closes.

CHANGE ONE
Yesterday, the BSA took its first step towards streamlining and unifying the program. Please read the attached resolution, passed by the National Executive Board. Effective with the 2014-2015 program year (for Venturing) and the 2015-2016 program year (for Cubbies):

• The Tiger Cub Promise will be eliminated
• The Cub Scout Promise will be eliminated
• The Cub Scout Law of the Pack will be eliminated
• The Venturing Oath and Code will be eliminated
• All programs will learn and subscribe to what is now the Boy Scout Oath and Law

The attached resolution doesn’t elaborate these points, but the following changes will also occur:

• The Venturing sign and salute will be replaced by the Boy Scout sign and salute. The Cub Scout sign and salute (for now) will remain in place. The Cub Scout motto and handshake will also remain unchanged.
• The Core Values of Cub Scouts and Venturing will be realigned to match the Boy Scout Core Values.
• The Venturing slogan and motto MAY change to match the Boy Scout slogan and motto; no decision made at this date.
• No uniforming changes will be made at this time.

CHANGE TWO
Effective January 1, 2014, two more merit badges will be added to the list of those required for Eagle Scout rank. First, the Sustainability merit badge will be added as an alternative to earning Environmental Science. Second, Cooking will become the new, 13th required Eagle badge (meaning one less optional badge for rank….overall requirement will remain at 21 badges).


Plenty of other changes coming. Wanted to make you aware before your units started inquiring. One of our jobs as commissioners is to help them through change. We’ll continue to discuss in the coming months.

 

[wasnotafan]

One of our District Unit Commissioners sent an email today regarding recent changes adopted by the national office yesterday. By his wording as well as the changes made, it sounds like maybe national is toying with the idea of combining Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to try to eliminate the drop with Cubs crossing over. It also sounds like there is a potential to make scouting co-ed to match the rest of the World Scouting organization. I know the co-ed idea was talked about when I got my Eagle in 1989 but nothing came out of it. Thought I would share here (nothing secretive in the content of the email) and get your thoughts on these changes.

Not big on the Co-Ed thing. Changing Cub Promise and Law of the Pack is not going to keep kids from dropping. The bigger issue is at that age a whole new range of opportunities open up to the boys and some that were in for something to do now have new opportunities. That won't change.

I'll avoid going off on a rant, but when I was a cub late 60's-early 70's we didn't have to sell popcorn and everything else to try to support a top heavy national organization that really provides no local support. What little money we made doing car washes or paper drives stayed with the pack and covered what it needed to cover. Girl Scouts is the same way so I'm not picking on BSA. If we need that much administration to oversee the program, maybe the program has gotten too big to meet the local needs.

 

[arthuruscg]

Well, to help reduce the drop outs from the cub > boy transition, the packs and troops need to be more integrated.
So, the pack and troop might try meeting at the same time and place. And the Weblows need to go on more of the troops camping trips. Basically, the Weblows need to become socially invested in the troops activities.

There is nothing wrong with co-ed scounting, my Venture crew was co-ed and when the hormones are policed by the advisors, the members treat each other more like cousins then potential mates. It also teaches boys and girls how to have friendships with each other. I still am in contact with a lot of the people from the Venture Crew.

 

[brattosa]

I agree that packs and troops need to be more integrated. In our district, troops rely solely on their feeder pack for recruits. Last spring our pack held a city-wide scouting recruit night where all of the area packs, troops and crews were invited. None of troops or crews helped to organize or promote the event and some even complained that our pack did not provide recruits for their unit.

What we're learning now is that packs are doing more exciting activities: camping, hiking, rockets, geocaching, etc. Troops are being challenged for similar activities to keep the boys involved. For example, when cubs hear that one troop in our city goes camping 10 months of the year, usually at one of the three council camps, it doesn't sound very exciting. Yes, scouts need to be outdoors, but there needs to be more exciting activities than just tent and campfire time to hold interest. A canoe tour with camping by the river; visit Gettysburg; hike a small portion of the Appalachian trail... something other than council camps.

If national eventually merges the programs, hopefully this will help flow activity ideas between packs and troops.

 

[Bo Duke]

I too think it will help some to merge. I have been trying the last two years to get the troop to do stuff with our pack. There is little to no interaction between the two as it stands now. In fact I didn't even know how many boy scouts we had and actually come to think of it i am still not sure. I am in the works to get a new derby track so our old one can be used for boy scouts and parents as an open class build race track. Maybe we can get some interaction that way.

The other issue that our pack/troop is having is leaders. Maybe this would help me get more help. I currently am the cubmaster for our pack. I have no assistant cubmaster (with the exception of my wife who helps a lot) and bare minimum on committee. I was asked about two months ago if i could do the troop too as their troop master's son is ready to earn eagle and he wants to be done. If we combine them then maybe that would be a possibility but there is no way i can do both and do all of the planning, fill in for den meetings and do the roundups. I will lose the little hair i have left.

 

[Bo Duke]

One of our District Unit Commissioners sent an email today regarding recent changes adopted by the national office yesterday. By his wording as well as the changes made, it sounds like maybe national is toying with the idea of combining Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts to try to eliminate the drop with Cubs crossing over. It also sounds like there is a potential to make scouting co-ed to match the rest of the World Scouting organization. I know the co-ed idea was talked about when I got my Eagle in 1989 but nothing came out of it. Thought I would share here (nothing secretive in the content of the email) and get your thoughts on these changes.

Just saw this posted on the Boy Scout FB page
http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2012/10/17/bsa-to-use-scout-oath-and-scout-law-for-all-programs/

 

[wasnotafan]

Just saw this posted on the Boy Scout FB page
http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2012/10/17/bsa-to-use-scout-oath-and-scout-law-for-all-programs/

Thanks for posting. Doesn't look like there is much agreement from the adults on whether this is good or not. I still think a big issue is that there are so many other opportunities now that you will loose boys in the transition no matter what you do.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

This is a great thread (why didn't I find this sooner?)!

I'm the Bear Den leader for DS's Pack and will most likely become Cubmaster soon.

We broke off from a large Pack last year and are currently stairstepping up to a full program--right now we just have Tigers, Wolves and Bears, with a total of 17 Scouts.

In the car tonight, DW was on the internet look for pictures of Pinewood Derby cars to inspire DS. He found the one he wanted to draw inspiration from and when we got home and started to print the pic, we discoved it was from a thread on the disboards. Small world.

 

[DisneyDadC]

any dads here have a good science experiment to do for scouts?? Any good ideas for build something with levers? ( I am thinking a medium size catapult to chuck balloons)I will be working on the NOVA award with my kids and want to really make it fun for them but not to hard for Bears

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

I'm not sure what your age groups are in the US, but we had our 3rd year Canadian Scouts (13 - 14yo) build about 4 to 5 foot tall catapults at our October camp using square and diagonal lashing as part of their pioneering work. They then launched projectiles (apple sized) to see how far they could get them to go. They loved it! If it doesn't have to involve levers, you can always try making pop bottle rockets. http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/BottleRocket/about.htm

 

[DisneyDadC]

I'm not sure what your age groups are in the US, but we had our 3rd year Canadian Scouts (13 - 14yo) build about 4 to 5 foot tall catapults at our October camp using square and diagonal lashing as part of their pioneering work. They then launched projectiles (apple sized) to see how far they could get them to go. They loved it! If it doesn't have to involve levers, you can always try making pop bottle rockets. http://exploration.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/BottleRocket/about.htm

I am dealing with 9 yr old cub scouts. We do the water rockets every yr come summertime.

 

[Stitch'sCousin]

After a few years absence, our group is restarting our Venturer Company (14-17 yo in Canada). I'm taking them to Niagara-on-the-Lake in two weeks for the War of 1812 re-enactment at Fort George. There are usually over 1000 youth from Canada and the US, along with hundreds of leaders, at this camp. I was wondering if any other Dis Dads are going to be there?