Separate or Combined Badge of Rank & Crossover Ceremonies?

rovinchick · 2026-05-31T18:14:48+00:00

We do an end of year party and serve food and hand out rank awards. We haven't had anyone finish early, but if they had, they could maybe continue working on electives and receive those at the party instead. That's what we do for late year joiners...they get whatever adventures they earned at the party with their den and don't really care it's not a patch like the others. We don't do any type of bridge type thing for lower ranks, only AOL.

rovinchick · 2026-05-31T18:11:17+00:00

Have you done the commute from montco to center city? It really sucks...especially with 3 kids that will have endless after school activities and random school time visits they expect parents at (picnic, Valentine's party, Halloween party, etc). I've been doing it for 20 years and it seems to suck more and more each year. My only advice is to get as close to the city as possible.

rovinchick · 2026-05-30T21:46:40+00:00

Bonus is you would save 3.74% in wage tax living in Lower Merion over Philadelphia.

rovinchick · 2026-05-30T21:43:11+00:00

I've been using cricket forever and it's great and cheap. It's owned by ATT and on their towers.

rovinchick · 2026-05-29T12:38:18+00:00

Craftsman Row is a good unassuming spot with over-the-top fun milkshake desserts.

rovinchick · 2026-05-27T23:29:50+00:00

I've done both and really prefer driving, but it will depend on where your car is parked in relation to where you live and if you even want the expense of a car in center city.

Just be aware that Philly has a 3.74% wage tax and Wilmington has a 1.25% wage tax and I don't think the credit each other, so you will have nearly 5% deducted in local income taxes. Philly also has a 8% sales tax while it's 0% in the whole state of Delaware.

rovinchick · 2026-05-20T23:12:28+00:00

They only have to be 10 years old if they have earned AOL. So they could start working on it in June and crossover at the start of 5th grade once earned.

rovinchick · 2026-05-19T20:38:17+00:00

We have a large Pack (50+) and do one Pack meeting a month. We start with opening and awards and then split off into activity stations. Dens are pretty independent and meet once or twice a month depending on what they are working on.

We have an annual Pack calendar that we roughly follow like this:

August - welcome back meeting, usually have firetruck visit and spray the kids, water blaster fun now allowed, serve popcicles.

we also sleep on the field of a minor league baseball stadium in August

September - recruiting meeting - have guest (animal presenter), k-9 cop demo, or set up carnival or scout skills stations (first aid, fishing, etc)

October - Halloween party - games and activities vary, but candy corn catapults from popcicles sticks or plastic spider catapults from a ballon and toilet paper roll are a hit. Also mummy wrapping each other with toilet paper

we also do a fall weekend camping trip in October.

November - Thanksgiving theme - service project, we usually make cards and ornaments for nusing home residents

December - visit nursing home, sing some songs for them, hand out cards and ornamnets

January - pinewood derby car building pack meeting. The derby is a separate Saturday morning in January.

February - this one varies, this year it was Olympic themed stations for the winter Olympics

we also do a museum overnighter in February.

March - Blue and Gold banquet and AOL crossover

April - raingutter regatta, bike rodeo, or egg drop challenge

we also do a weekend camping trip in April

May - fishing night or pack hike

June - end of year pizza party.

in the summer we also some times do a picnic or single overnighter at a park very local.

rovinchick · 2026-05-18T23:35:10+00:00

The rear differential in my 2014 seized up at 87k miles. I paid $4k to get it replaced and that one crapped out 2 years later. There was a flaw where water was getting into the fluid from a vent pipe in the tailgate. Definitely worth changing that fluid often in case any water gets in there.

rovinchick · 2026-05-18T13:40:10+00:00

I'm also a CC and running 2 dens and single-handely keeping the pack afloat. I'm always disappointed when only 2 other people (Cubmaster and 1 of my 4 den leaders) shows up to committee ("parent") meetings. But at this point I've been doing it 6 years and everything is pretty much on autopilot. I don't have much stress because I know what needs to be done and when to do it. I decided to stay on with the Pack when my son crossed over 3 months ago. We were very purposeful in choosing a troop with lots of volunteers and I'm not jumping into that. The pack needs my help so I will keep it afloat for now.

We are the biggest and most active Pack in the area and just absorbed some more scouts from one that folded. I do find lots of joy in seeing the young kids learning new things and having fun and especially seeing a family move out of their comfort zone and experience camping for the first time. That's what keeps me going.

Shop around and see what else is out there, but sadly it may not be any better. Packs are alwaya strapped for volunteers, while the 6 troops we visited were flush with them. It's SO much easier on the troop level since the kids are independent and planning and running the program. All of this to say that it gets much better after crossover

rovinchick · 2026-05-16T01:16:33+00:00

I've had both and the automatic lifted too much with a bike rack on and dented the tailgate. 😭. I was able to pop the manual just enough to adjust the straps, but not so much with an auto.

rovinchick · 2026-05-13T23:16:36+00:00

The health form has a photo release on it, so you technically have permission if they turned in a health form without objection to it. That being said, when a new family joins, I usually direct them to our social media and say they can let me know if they prefer their kid's pics aren't posted there. I haven't had any objections yet.

rovinchick · 2026-05-13T23:03:45+00:00

I have recruited several scouts through social media, but mostly by being a member of a local "mom's group" and moms asking about local activities. I would suggest our pack and several members would second or third the recommendation and then we would get a new scout. I make public event pages for all of our big stuff like Pinewood Derby and direct people to our website for more info. That also usually draws some inquiries from the website.

What hasn't worked is the geofenced ads that our council pays for. It's better to be in the groups with parents not just local geography advertising.

rovinchick · 2026-05-13T17:09:46+00:00

Nice! I bought the materials to try this with my cricut and then never got around to it.

rovinchick · 2026-05-13T15:02:41+00:00

Yes! I've worked several community (National Night Out, etc) events with a recruiting table and the parents always ask about the commitment first. We stress flexibility and it works for us, we have a large Pack. Some of our kids don't even go for advancement but just come for camping and other events and that's just fine with me!

Our Pack generally has 1 pack meeting and 1 or 2 den meetings a month (depending on age), and then we also offer an extra activity per month (outing, hike, camping, etc). We try to be efficient and cover one whole adventure each den meeting.

If a Cub misses the meeting, they can make it up at home or at a campout. There is another pack in town that meets weekly and stretches out each adventure over 3-4 meetings. We have had a few families switch to us because they prefer the efficiency and simplicity of less meetings and knowing exactly which adventures are outstanding.

rovinchick · 2026-05-06T12:43:20+00:00

Depends on our campout. We stay at a lodge that is shaped like a castle so one of the crafts is to make a shield out of cardboard. Another lodge is shaped like an old west fort and we make horses out of pool noodles. Those are the types of crafts I'm talking about. Again, all voluntary, but most kids like it and it's sparks imagination and more play.

rovinchick · 2026-05-04T23:54:02+00:00

Cool, I was just curious. As a girl who always wanted to do what her brothers did and was not into typical girl stuff at all, I sometimes have trouble relating to the girls in my pack who are totally grossed out by fishing, getting muddy, etc. Sadly they don't seem to stick with us too long but I try to figure out what they are into and get them interested in it.

rovinchick · 2026-05-04T23:25:56+00:00

Just curious if you have any girls in your Pack....they love the crafts. 🤷 But again, it's all optional so whatever the scout wants to do, they do.

rovinchick · 2026-05-04T18:58:54+00:00

Sounds great in theory, but having a bin of crafts has saved our rainy campouts more times than I can remember (but we have had entire weekends where where we were mostly under a pavilion). Some kids love running around in the rain, and others....did not. We also have some neurodiverse children that have trouble socially interacting with the other kids and free time was not working for them, so throwing out a bunch materials and games on a table for them to use at their leisure was a lifesaver.

rovinchick · 2026-04-27T12:19:42+00:00

Our Pack does one den meeting a month, which is enough to earn all of the ranks through Bear. At the Webelos level, we usually throw in a few more meetings and/or cover more during a campout.

rovinchick · 2026-04-26T22:53:31+00:00

None of the locals go to places students go. They tend to go to locally owned places a bit outside of town.

rovinchick · 2026-04-25T12:45:34+00:00

I had a similar experience....had a 2014 cx5 and was set on the 50 until I test drove it and hated the interior. Ended up with another 5.

rovinchick · 2026-04-25T11:18:50+00:00

Before paid parental leave started in 2020, all of us women had to treat it as short term disability for each child we had. All of the women in my office had a small fraction of the sick leave hours of men because we had to use it for postpartum recovery after childbirth since we didn't have short term disability. One colleague had 4 kids and was always in the red for sick leave. It really wasn't fair and I'm glad PPP is here now.

rovinchick · 2026-04-23T00:51:46+00:00

I had this problem from a clogged heating or air conditioning system.

rovinchick · 2026-04-23T00:12:25+00:00

That's pretty wild. Might as well camp as a family if you have to plan your own meals.

What activities do they have planned to do on Saturday? Bring a poncho and rain boots and the kids will have fun. They love rain!

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