Our Journey Through Tiger Cub Scouting - September 2008 About This Page:

[emtpej]

I thought the Tiger Cub motto was 'Search, Discover, Share' --?

You should have only one Pack meeting each month. The others should be den meetings. There is also a Pack Committee meeting, which should be once a month as well.

[Chrissi]

Originally Posted by emtpej

I thought the Tiger Cub motto was 'Search, Discover, Share' --?

Not any longer. It changed recently, though Tiger Cubs do still adhere to the old motto in many ways.

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by emtpej

I thought the Tiger Cub motto was 'Search, Discover, Share' --?

The Tiger handbook refers to "the Tiger Cub concept of 'search, discover and share,' around which Tiger Cub den meetings are built." Those three things are part of the agenda of each den meeting, according to the sample program in the book. So yes, it is still a part of tigers, but they use what I guess is the overall Cub motto of "Do Your Best". Do you think that changed when Tigers were fully brought into Cubs?

[Chrissi]

Originally Posted by christiejay

The Tiger handbook refers to "the Tiger Cub concept of 'search, discover and share,' around which Tiger Cub den meetings are built." Those three things are part of the agenda of each den meeting, according to the sample program in the book. So yes, it is still a part of tigers, but they use what I guess is the overall Cub motto of "Do Your Best". Do you think that changed when Tigers were fully brought into Cubs?

Actually, I believe I read that it was intended to make it easier for Tiger Cubs - as they need to learn the Cub Scout Motto, Law of the Pack, and everything else, it made more sense and was easier if the boys didn't have to memorize new mottos, promises, and such when they moved up to Wold/Bear/Webelos. Just streamlining the learning process to make Tiger Cubs more "user-friendly".

[Colexis Mom]

Glad Joshua learned the motto

[christiejay]

Sunday, September 21

I had hoped to work on this part yesterday but Jay really wanted Joshua to go with him to the funeral home (extended-extended family member's death) because all the cousins would be there. It was about a 2-hour drive one way so that took up most of the day and they got home late. I didn't go because my sinus troubles had me coughing so much, and with a very hoarse voice.

So anyway, Joshua had learned the motto and sign, which only left the salute to be learned to earn his totem. I read the description to him, and had him show me how to salute both without and with the cap. He's got it! So he has all 3 tiger paw prints colored in on the chart, and at tomorrow night's meeting we can report his completion of these requirements. Don't know if they will award it then, or if it will be at the next meeting.

Next step: working on Bobcat requirements.

[Colexis Mom]

Congrats to Joshua!!

[christiejay]

Monday, September 22
First Den Meeting

Left home a little bit later to avoid the playground situation, but wouldn't you know it they are not even on the playground tonight!

Started off in one room as the whole pack. The boys went up front for pledge, motto, etc. Then a few quick announcements during which Joshua would *not* sit still! We still do not have an activity calendar for the year. This makes the second meeting I thought they were going to hand it out. In fact, tonight, you knew they hadn't even really started on a calendar because they were taking suggestions for places people would like to visit during the year. That's a good idea, though. Different people have different interests, and then you're not visiting the same old places every year unless they are pack favorites.

They did explain a little more about the district campout coming up in a couple of weeks. The official dates are Saturday and Sunday, but most packs go down on Friday to claim the best campsites. Of course with Jay working evenings we will not be able to join them until Saturday morning but we know our way to the camp and since Jay has worked there several summers he will be able to find them once we get there. Missing Friday night will not be that big a deal. As long as you camp out on Saturday night the scout still gets their participation patch. Then we broke up into groups for our first den meeting. This is a small pack so each grade level only has a few boys, so there is only one den for each level.

The Tigers have four members - Justus, Sean, James and Joshua. At first I thought I heard that Sean's name was John, that would have been funny to have 4 J's in the same den.

Met the den leader, Gary. Last week when he volunteered to lead the Tigers I thought his child was a Tiger, so I was a little concerned about his level of experience if we would all be learning together. But tonight he said that his son is either a Wolf or a Bear, so that made me feel better that he has already gone through the whole Tigers year with his son.

Gary wanted the boys to play a game to learn each other's names, which I thought would be good. But the "game" turned out to be, the first scout says his name. Then the second scout says the first scout's name followed by his own. Each scout then adds his own name to the list. It didn't go so well because the boys were pretty shy, but as the meeting went on they warmed up somewhat.

I was so excited about having a den meeting tonight, I thought we were really going to get into the "meat" of scouting (to a small extent of course). But it was still just basic information they were giving. Nothing you couldn't have learned by just a casual glance at the handbook. Gary spent the whole time going over what the requirements were for their Bobcat badge, but it was very boring for all of us. He had them repeat the promise, but we only went over it once. He spent waaaaay too long going over the safety rules in the front of the book. I know it's a good thing to go over, but he dwelt so much on that one topic, coming up with more and more examples to see what the boys thought they should do. Plus, I felt that was more of a family-time thing to do than a den meeting thing.

I was disappointed in the lack of preparation. Gary did not have any type of record-keeping book or chart or anything for the den. All he had was his son's 1-2 year old handbook. Of course it was a different printing so the page numbers do not even match up to the handbooks the rest of us have. We closed the meeting and on the way out I asked him about the requirements Joshua had already completed. I showed him the page in the handbook where I had signed my "OK" and asked him if he was supposed to sign off on it as well, or if they were going to wait until next week to start doing any of that. He basically just said "Yeah" and I'm not sure what part of my question he was responding to. It was obvious he had received no direction from the other pack leaders about this, so I just let it go.

And on the way out of the building, I heard those dreaded words "I don't like Cub Scouts". I told Joshua it was fine, that we were still just getting started, and that there was going to be plenty of fun stuff to do throughout the year. But I kind of felt the same way, the difference is that I can see the big picture whereas Joshua can not.

Now I don't want to seem like I'm being such a downer, although this is the second meeting in a row that I've left disappointed. I just had my hopes set so high. But no more! I explained to Joshua that they weren't ready to hand out any awards yet (he had done enough to earn the Immediate Recognition Emblem, or "totem") but that wouldn't stop us from working on the next set of requirements. For my own part, I will just take matters into my own hand. I have my master notebook with all the requirements for the year written down, so that we don't forget to have anything approved, and we will just keep working on things a little at a time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuesday, September 23
Bobcat Requirements

After school I went over the first of the Bobcat requirements with Joshua, the Cub Scout Promise. It's pretty long, so I was surprised to see that after just a few tries Joshua had learned almost the whole thing. He is just getting a little confused with a few parts of it. But since it was his first try at it, I didn't press the issue too much today. We will come back to it tomorrow.

[Colexis Mom]

Sorry it's not what you hoped for Christie One of the boys has already dropped out of Colin's den......the Mom said it was too "structured" for him (I guess he's an outdoor boy) and he just didn't like it!

Maybe after a few more meetings things will improve!!

[Chrissi]

Christie, he won't be eligible for the immediate recognition totem until AFTER he's earned his Bobcat rank badge. Every boy has to complete the Bobcat requirements before he earns any other achievements, awards, or ranks. (I asked this specifically of our committee chair and Scoutmaster this past Monday when I was introduced to our boys at our Pack meeting..) "Immediate recognition" only means that he can receive beads at den meetings directly from his den leader and Akela in a brief and immediate ceremony and not have to wait to be awarded them at the pack meetings once a month from the Pack's Cub Scoutmaster. It's geared towards rewarding them quickly so they can see their accomplishments accumulate quickly. BTW - "A Bobcat Requirement" is NOT supposed to be covered at a meeting. It's meant for parents to read it to their children at home and discuss it amongst themselves due to the sensitive subject matter.

You need to ask if your son's den leader has attended Cub Scout Training. If he hasn't, he should be being supervised by a trained leader until he's completed training. I'm doing my training this Saturday (5 hours!!!) and I still have several hours of training to do online.

I have the schedule for the entire year up through early June at this point and a rough plan of attack for the first month of meetings. We're going to work on earning achievements at den meetings even while the boys complete their Bobcat rank with their parents so we can award the beads immediately after they earn the Bobcat rank.

Go to the next committee meeting or speak to your Pack's Scoutmaster and find out what the hold-up is. There's no excuse. I won't even be on my own after training for several weeks so there's no lull in the program. We're signed up to give the new Fast Track Program a try, so there are NO idle meetings. This Sunday, we're going on a train ride and a hike through a corn maze and on Monday, we're going to a newspaper office for our Den's first Go-See-It. The following week, we begin fire safety month.

We've also got a costume contest, a dessert bake-off, and two Halloween parades coming up. We have a float to build and costumes to make.

[emtpej]

If you don't like the way the meetings are run, become a scout leader and do it yourself. If they need someone to organize things and make up the calendar (even if it gets changed later) go to the committee meeting and help! The pack runs through the involvement of the whole family. There is usually about ONE paid BSA staff member for your whole scouting district. Everybody else is a volunteer. Everybody is always learning because of the constant turnoverGet involved!

The complaint form = volunteer leader application form.

This is MHO. I'm trying to encourage you to get more involved...

[Chrissi]

I completely agree with EJ. Tiger Cub Dens often require a second leader or assistant den leader. There's no way they'd turn down a second volunteer!

I got an application to go over this week and he's a carpenter! A dream come true in an assistant den leader.

[emtpej]

Originally Posted by Chrissi

I completely agree with EJ. Tiger Cub Dens often require a second leader or assistant den leader. There's no way they'd turn down a second volunteer!

I got an application to go over this week and he's a carpenter! A dream come true in an assistant den leader.

Yeah! There are LOT of activities where that is helpful! All through cub scouts! Good deal!

[christiejay]

Originally Posted by Colexis Mom

One of the boys has already dropped out of Colin's den......the Mom said it was too "structured" for him (I guess he's an outdoor boy) and he just didn't like it!

That's too bad, especially since there are so many outdoor things that scouts do. Even if you don't like something (anything) at first, it is so worth it to stick it out for a little while and give it a good chance to get going.

Originally Posted by Chrissi

I have the schedule for the entire year up through early June at this point and a rough plan of attack for the first month of meetings. We're going to work on earning achievements at den meetings even while the boys complete their Bobcat rank with their parents so we can award the beads immediately after they earn the Bobcat rank. This Sunday, we're going on a train ride and a hike through a corn maze and on Monday, we're going to a newspaper office for our Den's first Go-See-It. The following week, we begin fire safety month.
We've also got a costume contest, a dessert bake-off, and two Halloween parades coming up. We have a float to build and costumes to make.

Sounds like you are not going to have much free time! But it sounds like it will be great fun for the boys.

Originally Posted by emtpej

If you don't like the way the meetings are run, become a scout leader and do it yourself. If they need someone to organize things and make up the calendar (even if it gets changed later) go to the committee meeting and help! The pack runs through the involvement of the whole family. There is usually about ONE paid BSA staff member for your whole scouting district. Everybody else is a volunteer. Everybody is always learning because of the constant turnoverGet involved!

The complaint form = volunteer leader application form.

This is MHO. I'm trying to encourage you to get more involved...

I have been placed in a leadership position a few times before (not through my volunteering but through crazy circumstances) so I can say from experience that it is not a good idea. Probably something about my OCD tendencies and not being very flexible. Funny how kids don't do what your plans say they ought to ... I also can't take on anything else right now. I am trying to get out of several things already because of the hassles of being the person in charge. Having said that, I'm open to volunteering in some small capacity at different points throughout the year but so far I don't see where that will be. As I get to know the other people involved and feel more comfortable being around them I will figure out what to do that fits my life right now.

[christiejay]

Wednesday, September 24

Didn't have much time today. Only about 90 minutes between school and church activities. But I did want to review the scout promise with Joshua again. He surprised me by how much he remembered from yesterday's beginning. After just a few times he could say it by himself, all the way through. I will test him on it again tomorrow just to make sure it "sticks" before we start on the Law.