For those of you leaders who have sons who are getting ready to finish up their time in their Pack and move on to a Troop, what are your plans for what you're going to do as a leader? Will you stay with the pack? Move onto the Troop with your son? Slide over to a district position like Unit Commissioner or be a trainer or part of Roundtable staff? I'm curious as to what everyone else is planning on doing.

If you are a leader whose son already has made that transition, what did you do?

I know in some cases the answer is, "Stayed with the pack because kid #2 is about to join or already is in the Pack." But I'm wondering more about what happens when your last kid ages out of the pack and you don't have any more in the Pack or going to be in the pack in the future. What did you do or do you plan on doing?

I'm somewhat conflicted over what I've chosen. I do want to be a leader with the Troop my son crossed into at the end of February. In fact, it is also the Troop I was a member of as a youth in the late 1980's and early 1990's. But at the same time I want to make sure my son experiences Boy Scouts for himself without the old man underfoot all the time. So in my case what I've done is agreed to stay on as Committee Chairman of my son's now former pack until the end of our program year, August 31st. On September 1st an existing leader I've been grooming for the role will take over, and I will step down to the role of Pack Trainer. I do not plan on leaving completely as I also have ties to the Pack beyond my son – it was the pack I grew up in as a youth and I am officially considered one of the Founders of the pack as I was on the first roster.

Waiting until September 1st to sign on as a leader with the Troop will allow me to decrease my Scouting workload with the Pack so I don't overextend myself, plus it will give my son the benefit of six months of Troop meetings and activities without his dad around. I'm hoping that by then he will have had time to establish himself for himself in the Troop and I will be able to drop in as an Assistant Scoutmaster to not have to worry about stepping on his toes.

That might be the case if I wanted to be Quartermaster. But since I have zero desire to be on the committee (like you said, "been there, done that, got 8 t-shirts"), and there is no limit to the # of Asst. Scoutmasters a unit can have, it isn't really a factor in my decision this time around.

And here's the thing. I've been doing this long enough that I know where I can excel and where I can't. And I also know that even the best leader ever will be a crappy leader if they're stuck in a role they do not want to be doing. So if the Troop doesn't want another SA, then I guess I'll be spending more time with my district level duties, or with my duties as CR of the units at my church, or with Girl Scouts with my daughter, or be a merit badge counselor or something. Would it suck that I don't get to be involved in my son's Troop? Sure. But if there's no good fit for me there then so be it.