I can relate as well Montanero. In spite of some recent bad publicity the scouting program still has much to offer. Everything from citizenship to outdoor skills to learning about possible career paths. I can get rather long winded myself.

Part of the problem with the old pack, was that the previous leadership did nothing but run off parents and scouts. When DS's leader quit as well, I had two choices: 1) Let the pack fold then, or 2) Step up and work within the bounds they created to make it the best experience I could for the boys. I chose the latter. Sadly, we never had much in the way of pack camping supplies, or much of anything else, other than bows and arrows and bb guns which we weren't allowed to use anyway. I operated with no budget, planning activities with materials I could scrounge up at home, or borrow, or ... well, you get the idea. That was my sons Bear year, and I continued this for his first year as a Webelo. The Cub Master's son aged out so I was promoted to Cub Master for my son's second year as a Webelo. I had to recruit two former leaders to come back and help, and also enlisted the help of our remaining grandparents as well. If it hadn't been for them we would not have had a scout year.

By this time we had dwindled down to a much smaller group, we had 5 returning scouts and 8 new scouts come to recruitment night. After the dust settled we ended up with only 9 altogether. By Christmas we had dropped to 7. By spring, we still had the 7, although one had already planned on transferring to a different pack for the fall, so that essentially left us 6. All 7 came to the advancement/crossover ceremony. We planned an elaborate ceremony, complete with parts of a native American Indian chief's head dress and accessories borrowed from the local museum. I had some imitation eagle feathers and home made arrows for the arrow of light ceremony (two received that including my son) and face painting for all the advancing scouts during the ceremony. The leaders AND parents/grand parents were all involved in the ceremony in some way. A few other packs heard about it and wanted to borrow the ceremony (which I had borrowed from several different sources off the internet and combined with mine and the other leader's own ideas into one). I later heard that many of the boys slept that night without washing the paint off their faces.

I thought we had the best year ever. We started a Webelos Woods event for our district. We had a HUGE flag retirement ceremony at the school. A lock in "camp out" at the school. Camping at the district events. The best and most elaborate obstacle course we had created to date. All culminated with the advancement ceremony. After it was over, and we were packing stuff up to go home, one of the grandparents I was pretty close to told me one of the other grandparents asked him, "Now why didn't we ever get a ceremony like that when the other guy was in charge?" As good as the year was, it just wasn't enough to inspire anyone to keep it going. One year was just not enough time to repair all the damage the previous leader had done over the previous four years. I once overheard his wife say to him "Oh no, another summer ruined by scout activities." There just wasn't enough interest or support left to continue the scouting program there.

The pack has been gone for almost a year now, but the troop we moved to is local, with a strong local pack to keep feeding new scouts into it. The boys who were left in our pack were supposed to transfer to the same pack, 2 of them did not, 1 paid but never came back, another came to meetings until Christmas break and never came back after. My son is the only one from our original bunch that is still active in scouting, but the pack/troop we are involved in now is actually more centrally located, and a much bigger and more involved group so the adults get more help and the kids have LOTS more fun. We recruit at and get scouts from the school our old pack used to operate at. It seems to be easier to keep the scouting program going from a central location like we have now. All in all it has worked out for the best.