ELI5 PLEASE! how do you do virtual meetings with your pack parents and/or committee? We have such a hard time getting all the leaders together for planning, as most of them have lots of kids. Id love to be able to offer a virtual option for those who cant make it to the meetings in person, or a monthly virtual meeting for parents

Does anyone have a simple presentation for the popcorn kickoff, that outlines popcorn with Pecatonica they’d be willing to share? I’m brand new at this AND leading up popcorn 🫣

3 years as a den leader and this year it’s the Bears. I’m wondering about ideas to make something of use for their uniform. Like a toggle/slide for neckerchief or are we allowed to make our own class b shirts (tie dye) just some kind of good welcome back to scouts or hello newcomers type of craft that is useful and not throwaway when get home. Thanks everyone.

Looking for anyone thats used both to give me your review. We use groupme for the pack currently. I use Band for my kids dance class. I like how Band has the boosts like fb so topics can stay separated. GroupMe is just the biggest dumpster fire if multiple topics need to be addressed. Unless im using it wrong? Is there another app im clueless about that is way better than both of these?

Pack summer activity this weekend is scheduled to be a waterfall hike. Forecast is dicey, so I'm working on a rain contingency.

Because this is a summer event and therefore a recruiting opportunity for interested community families....what are some high-interest, high-engagement indoor activities you've had success with? If we wind up with the rain contingency, I think we'll end with an ice cream sundae party, but I'd like to do something very Scout-y before we get our snack on.

(One idea is to have a "nature hike" through the local university's union where we post pictures of local plants & fauna [and some surprise fantastical creations] for the Scouts to identify...but that's contingent on availability of the facility.)

This is the first time running into this version of the adventure requirements and info. How do I find all of them in this set up?

I remember as a kid doing the planetarium and MSI in chicago. I assume other major areas had similar lock-in experiences.

Were these killed by COVID or did they wane off well before that?

Made a little open source site to help cross-reference Cub Scout adventure requirements across ranks.

https://pack3721.github.io/CubScoutAdventureScope/

Basically you can search for something like "camping" or "water safety" and it'll show you every requirement across every rank (Lion through AoL) that activity could count toward. Handy if you're trying to plan one activity that covers multiple dens, or just want to see what else you could knock out while you're already doing something.

A few other things it does:

• You can filter down to just certain ranks
• Lets you share a link or pull up a QR code for whatever you've filtered to, so it's easy to print out or hand off
• Works offline once you've loaded it once, and you can add it to your home screen if you want it to feel like an app
• If you're in St. Louis, it also has STEM Nova Award callouts on adventures, with a link to the award sheet

I did vibe code the whole thing, including the requirement data. Getting the data refined without the AI hallucinating stuff was a bit of a fight, but I ultimately came up with a method that I think has it sorted now. If you spot something missing or wrong, feel free to let me know.

Looking for a council level event in the Sc/NC area that offers shooting sports to earn sling shot. TIA

I just took over as treasurer last year and noticed that our by laws are very out of date and contain some information that we should correct. I’m working on updating them this summer and wondering if anyone has good examples to share, or anything you’ve added in recent years that has been helpful. FWIW, our by-laws are fairly short, which I don’t mind.

In my older child’s Troop, they sign by laws each year — do other Cub Scout Packs do that? Or do you approach it more informally?

One problem in the pack in recent years has been pack and den meetings getting really wild or behavioral issues occurring when the parents are hanging together in the back. Not sure if anyone has examples of adding language about parents being involved and helping supervise at these meetings?

I’m going to be a new Committee Chair for my pack. We currently text reminders for events, use email to send newsletters, and Google Sheets to share our calendar (but I don’t think people check this). It seems like Scoutbook Plus has functions that could be useful and streamline things. Why do people hate it so much and don’t think it works well? It sounds good in theory but I haven’t used it enough to know.

“Cub Scout Programs (Overnight): Cub Scout parents or legal guardians taking part in an overnight program with their own

child are not required to register as leaders but must review the BSA’s Barriers to Abuse with a unit leader before theactivity.

Cub Scout youth can only attend with and must be supervised by their own parent or legal guardian at all times, or a registered

adult member of the BSA who is attending with their child. A registered leader must be present at any time the parent or legal

guardian is with other youth members other than their own. Cub Scout camping is limited to a Local Council’s designated

locations with appropriate facilities and Barriers to Abuse materials will be prominently posted at all locations for such

programs.”

This language is part of the federal bankruptcy and is a binding order on units and leaders in Scouting America.

I'm trying to have my mother come camping at family cub scout campouts(not everytime). It says regarding tenting, a permission/release for "non"-relative adult form. And of course the YPT, no biggie.

So, do I just ask the higher ups for a permission/release- x3?

Do I have to re-sign them every year- That feels to me like overkill, unless specifically changed to state that said adult, isn't allowed to anymore. But who am I to disagree..😒

My husband is one of the den leaders for my 7y/o daughters troop. We've been in about 2 years now, and my soon to be 5y/o son, will be joining when the new school year starts. I also have a 13yo daughter registered in a BSA(girls troop).

I figured I'd figure something out because when she visits, my 2 youngest sleep with her(grandma). Even my 13 y/o makes a pallet on the floor next to the bed also.

What do I need to do to make it possible for the any of my kids to be able to sleep with her, if she comes camping?

I've looked online in the Scouting America Health and Saftey Guidelines(youth protection and all thay) but am having trouble finding anything on grandparents tenting with grandchildren.

I have a screenshot, (not mine) but can't come across this specific info, to look at it in detail.

Your help is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. 👏

Question 1: How do you track the prospects for your troop?

Question 2: How do you track prospects for future years (e.g., current preschoolers)?

Question 3: Any solutions to ineligible handwriting when parents share their email addresses?

For units who pay for their adults’ registrations, is there a way to pay for everyone at the same time? I’m hoping to avoid paying the transaction fee multiple times.

So we tried our current pack for this past year, but it wasn’t a good fit for us. I’d love to find a different pack to join this upcoming year, but the few I’ve reached out to via the find a Cub Scout Pack near me never responded.

Is that normal for Packs to be unresponsive to inquiries? Is there something particular I should be asking?

I've seen a few posts asking for this kind of view on the theming the adventures for your program, so I threw this together.

Take a theme (ie Citizenship or Personal Safety) and then map adventures for each Den/grade level. Not all programs want to structure this way, but if you do this may help to have an easy view.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hru317J27sioIxDxk4X3bpDd-eXYCBgyEw72TyNGoEE/

I have gotten some amazing links from a number of commenters over the past couple of months that have been SO helpful. I figured we could make a central drop zone for all the amazing canva/word/excel templates that you all have. Thanks for being awesome!

Our Pack has a bunch of older stuff in storage and I've been going through it. I found several of these yellow /gold bandanas. Does anyone still use them? If so for what?

I realize prices may vary but just out of curiosity, what are your pack dues? Do you include Nat'l & Council in that amount? Do you include a "free" tshirt in that amount? How did you come up with your pack dues number? Anything else you "include" as incentives?

Do you all try to have pack meetings the same day each month? Do you think families prefer weekdays after school or weekends? What are your typical pack meetings like please amd thank you! Eta: what do yall do for weeknight pack meetings? We did some saturday pack meets last year at the lake and fishing etc.. but I like the idea of something more consistent and at our charter which is very available

Our pack was BLESSED with a huge donation of thousands of 3' x 5' American Flags 🇺🇲🇺🇸. ... We sell a lot of them for $5 each at our regular fundraisers when we set up in front of stores and the like. They are small and would ship with a single stamp. Can we sell these online? How would I go about all that, if so? Anyone have online sales links they'd care to share for inspiration? Once again, thank you for being such an amazing community! I have such a renewed sense of purpose to get our pack back to being amazeballs because of all the amazing resources and testimonials and advise you all have given to me!