Sam Houston Area Council B.S.A. Pack 505
Chartered to St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church
Houston, Texas

Here's a summary of how the Bear program works:

• If the Cub Scout has not previously earned the Bobcat Badge, it must be earned first.
• To earn the Bear rank a Cub Scout must complete 12 achievements out of a possible 24 that are offered in the book. The achievements are grouped in 4 major areas, GOD, COUNTRY, FAMILY, and SELF. Within each group, a required number of achievements must be completed. Also, achievements that they do NOT use to earn the Bear Badge may be used to earn Arrow Points.
• Note that these activities are primarily done at home and signed off by the parent after the boy has completed each task. The book is then shown to the Den Leader who records the progress and also signs the boy's book.
• AFTER a Bear Cub Scout earns his Bear Badge he may begin earning Arrow Points in the Electives section of his book.
• He may work on his Arrow Point Trail at any time, however he cannot receive Arrow Points until AFTER he has earned the Bear Badge.
• There is a big difference in the achievements for arrow points for Bear. In this rank the Cub Scout can go back and do requirements from the ACHIEVEMENTS section of the book and use them as requirements for arrow points, as long as they do not count any requirements that they used to earn the Bear Badge.
• The Achievement requirements and the Elective requirements can be freely mixed to count toward earning arrow points. In the following descriptions, the term "Arrow Points" refers to either type of requirement.
• GOLD ARROW POINT: For the FIRST 10 arrow points completed in the Electives section of his book, the Bear Cub earns his GOLD ARROW POINT.
• SILVER ARROW POINTS: For EACH 10 arrow points completed (AFTER HE EARNS THE GOLD ARROW POINT) the Bear Cub earns a SILVER ARROW POINT.
• He may earn any number of SILVER ARROW POINTS, but he may only earn ONE GOLD ARROW POINT for the first 10 elective points that he completes.

New boys should be able to complete the Bobcat requirements by the time of their first pack meeting, certainly no later than their second pack meeting, especially if they start working on them right away!

The boys should also be able to complete one achievement per week during the school year, which would put them on a track to receive their Bear badges at the January pack meeting. Since this is a bit aggressive for those who did not work on anything during the preceding summer (and who therefore only start working on Bear in September), try to ensure that everyone finishes up his Bear requirements by the time of the March pack meeting. Recall that there are no rank advancements at February's Blue and Gold Banquet.

The following Bear achievements can successfully be worked on during Den meetings: What Makes America Special, Tall Tales, What's Cooking, Be Ready, Games, Building Muscles, Shavings and Chips (carve soap instead of wood), Sawdust and Nails, and Tying it All Up. The remaining achievements are more successfully worked on at home.

The online Pack 505 Library contains links to the Bobcat requirements and a set of Bear helps, as well as an extensive set of Leader Resource links. The Bear Helps page, in turn, contains links to the Bear achievement and elective requirements, as well as a growing set of links organized by activity badge. By all means, if you come across any links you find helpful, please contact the webmaster to have them added to the list!

Finally, even though the boys cannot receive arrow points until they have earned their Bear badge, they can still work on them during the summer and fall. By the time of the first den meeting of the new school year they may already have completed some of these requirements: Family Fun, Family Outdoor Adventure, Ride Right, and Swimming.