Bill's Unofficial Cub Scout Roundtable
A compendium of Ideas For Cubmasters, Den Leaders and those who help them.
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Bill's Unofficial Cub Scout Roundtable
A compendium of Ideas For Cubmasters, Den Leaders and those who help them.
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Next to games, I would guess that the top den activity would be projects where the boys get to build grand and wonderful things. Boys of Cub Scout age love to build things. Several years ago I wrote a Training Tip that described some of the advantages of projects and the sorts of things that go on in a boy’s imagination when he builds something. If you are new to Baloo’s Bugle, you may want to go back to September of 2005 and check it out.
About eight years ago Brad Farmer, then National Director of Cub Scouting, suggested that we eliminate the word craft from the Cub Scout vernacular and replace it with the word PROJECT
Brad felt that describing a Cub Scout activity as “craft” had a strong implications of busy work or fine, intricate handicraft that rarely appeals to young boys. Project, on the other hand, brings to mind things more physical, more boy-like. Apparently his suggestion has been largely ignored since most Cub Scout literature still uses craft. On my little roundtable website, I try to avoid using the word craft and so far only one person has ever complained about it.
Several approaches I have heard by den leaders used in planning den projects:
Which approach is used will have a huge affect on the outcome:
Busy work is a downer. By the age of 6, most children will spot busy work with ease. Many will put up with it for a short while with some level of resignation, but they won’t line up to do it again. If your plan is to bore Cub Scouts, busy work will do it.
“Pretty” doesn’t work for most Cub Scout projects. Try to see projects through the eyes of a boy. Tools, wood and paint are things to look for. Fine intricate craft projects can be frustrating for many boys. Beware of them.
Advancement and its badges are there to provide adventure and challenge for a growing boy. (See last month’s Training Tip.) Badge chasing is the opposite. We should be more concerned with what happens to the boy rather than what happens to the badge.
What will it do? Making things that can be used for games works well. Look at some of the games on pages 3-38 through 3-41 of the How-To Book. Making the game equipment is just part of the fun. Using it is even better.
The best Cub Scout projects items do things. They fly, move, throw other things, explode, dig holes, fill holes, cut things, mend other things, float , sink, or save the world from destruction. Some can be used to help the boy himself do exceptional things. Others serve well because they engender a boy’
In general, projects require more planning and more preparation than most other Cub Scout activities. Just getting the material assembled and ready for use can be a major job — and expense. The really effective projects — the ones that grab boys’ attentions and prepare them for life — are special and deserve the leaders’ best talents and skills. My advice to den leaders is to look ahead and plan three or four good projects for the coming year that fit needs, resources and themes. Then plan for fun and success. Run each project through the above check list to assure yourself that each has the potential for success.
Projects often require lots of one-on-one help for the more challenging steps. You may need more help at your den meeting if the project involves new skills or intricate procedures. Getting parents involved with your den meetings may either add to your difficulties or, on the other hand make your life a lot easier so plan accordingly.
It’s important to have enough help when you schedule building projects. One of the most valuable benefits of a good project is that feeling of accomplishment one gets from getting it right. Messing up is the opposite. Our den activities must never discourage or demoralize a boy who is trying to do his best.
It might seem like a trivial concern but our society tends to discourage large numbers of our youth to the point of limiting their hopes and aspirations. Consider The “Boy Crisis” from BoyProject.net.
Since the late 1970’s, young women have soared in college attendance while young
men have stagnated. Young men's literacy is declining. Many young men are disengaging
from school. Young men are less likely to be valedictorians, to be on the honor roll,
and to be active in organizations like student government. Young men are more likely
to get D’s and F’s, to be suspended or expelled from school, to drop out
of school, and to commit suicide.
We are losing young boys to a sense of failure that comes from schooling poorly adapted
to their needs. We are losing adolescent males to the depression that comes from feeling
neither needed nor respected. We are losing young men to life tracks that include neither
college nor any other energetic endeavor.
A large, sullen, poorly educated group of men will not keep the nation vital in the
twenty-first century. The nation needs the energy, initiative, and ambition of its young
men as well as its young women.
The real benefit comes from the worthwhile things children learn as their self-confidence, inner strength, and self-esteem grows. Keep that Cub Scout Motto fixed firmly in mind. I was impressed by the sentiment expressed by screen-writer Tina Fey when she said, “I want to thank my parents for somehow raising me to have confidence that is disproportionate to my looks and my abilities.”
I hope that in years to come, America’s writers, teachers, builders and leaders will be saying similar things about each of you.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
There has been a lot of discussion in the last year or so about the quality, quantity and effectiveness of Cub Scout Leader Training. This month’s column is mostly directed to members of our district training teams but much also applies to those who staff Roundtables, Pow Wows, Universities of Scouting and other Scout training arenas.
On just about any of the Cub Scout email forums, when a leader presents requests help for a particular problem there will be several answers recommending that the questioner should go take one or more training courses. As members of the BSA we seem to have great faith that training will cure all ills. Too often, it turns out that the questioner has already attended training and still has the problem.
What went wrong?
How really effective is our training? Does it really make dens and packs better?
How do we know?
What does a good Cub Scout leader really do? Do good den leaders and Cubmasters do things differently than other leaders? Could you tell they were good leaders by just watching them perform? Did they learn to do these things in one of our training courses? If so, which ones?
I was with a group of trainers who played a game where we pretended that we were aliens from another planet who were instructed to contact a good den leader. We needed a list of things to look for in order to identify one. We then compared our list to what we were teaching at our training sessions. It was an eye-opening experience.
Will the people who attend your training sessions do these things? Now that we have a new Cub Scout Leader Specific training that does a great job of addressing what goes on at Cub Scout meetings, we should do our best to make our training effective.
Part of our problem is that the folks who give the training and those who take the training are often marching to the beats of different drummers. Pack leaders come in with their own unique sets of needs and wants that often times don’t quite match up with what we think they need or what we think they want. They have their agendas and we have ours. We follow our manuals and outlines and think we have communicated. They leave remembering only that their concerns were not addressed. Any good or useful stuff we did cover was lost somehow.
Trainers who take the time to ferret out the questions and concerns that leaders bring with them usually find that they run way over time or cut a lot of corners.
It would certainly be helpful if we knew before hand what were the concerns and question people had before they came.
My wife Shirley and I traveled to Europe once armed with a National BSA Letter of Introduction that got us into a lot of interesting places. At Gilwell in the UK, we were able to spend the better part of an afternoon with two of Britain’s top Scout trainers. During the conversation, they told us of a weekend training where this came up. People arrived on the Friday evening at different times so the evening program was one long cracker-barrel session where the staff mingled and ferreted out just what the participants expected and wanted from this training. After lights out, the staff reassembled and then essentially rewrote the training course to comply with what they had learned at the cracker-barrel. They told us that it worked but it was sort of hard on the staff.
There should be a better way for trainers to get some handle on what our pack and den leaders want or need to get from training. In every district, there are district folk who are in contact with pack folk. Commissioners, RT staff, Pack Trainers, membership and finance people all get to talk and interact with those in the Cub packs. They see a lot, they hear a lot and they are aware of what is needed to steer packs in the right direction. It would certainly help if the district team worked — well, like a team and that their goal was to improve the program in the dens and in the packs rather than just put on training.
What happens in the den and the pack is much more important than what happens at the training.
Former Scout Executive Dennis Cook put it very succinctly:
It appears that we have lost track of who is responsible for supporting whom. Unit
support becomes the primary job of the whole district. This idea would require
districts to communicate directly with their units prior to setting the district
calendar and to find out what the unit’s needs are. Knowing in advance
what their needs are would allow us to plan activities that would help better
support them.
When applied to training, those district people who are in contact with units
— the Commissioners, DE, membership and Roundtable staff — will be
aware of questions and problems in the packs. If they make the district training
staff aware of what goes on in the units then the trainers are in a better
position to adapt their training to better help the pack leaders solve their problems
and improve their programs. Too often a trainer can be sandbagged by an innocent
sounding question where an ill prepared answer opens up a can of worms that disrupts
the training for all concerned. It is difficult sometimes to foresee what experience
is behind any question.
It is part of the duty of our district training staffs to learn as much
as they can about the people whom they are going to train and it is the duty of
anyone who can, to help them prepare. I would guess that many Pack Trainers
should have very valuable advice for the training staff.
Did We Do the Job?
When the training is over, how do we evaluate our training? A lot of our evaluations are superficial and self-serving.
All very nice but they miss the main point: Will the programs in the dens and packs improve or was this just a pleasant social get together? After all, that is why we train. Our only purpose as members of the district team is to make Scout units more successful. How can we possibly measure this? Training objectives should be attainable, relevant and — especially — measurable. We should be more concerned with:
We could ask people who would know — like Pack Trainers and Unit Commissioners — to do some follow up for us. They should be able to tell whether or not the leaders we train are becoming more successful. We haven’t really completed our job until we communicate with those who regularly observe the leaders we train.
In the long run we can use metrics like advancement and membership to ascertain the effectiveness of both training and the entire district team’s efforts. These numbers tell us just how successful are our packs. And that is our job: to make packs better.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
Advancement seems to be involved in most of the things we do in Cub Scouts. In family and den activities, in ceremonies at pack meetings, in things we sew on the uniforms, advancement is there.
First of all we should remember that advancement is a method. of Cub Scouting. That means we should use it to achieve the aims and purposes of the program. The books, the requirements, the badges — everything — are there for us to help each boy develop. Think of advancement as a tool we use to help the Cub Scout grow.
Advancement is one of the methods used to achieve Scouting’s aims — character development, citizenship training, and personal fitness. Everything a Cub Scout does to advance is designed to achieve these aims and aid in his personal growth. These badges are a means to an end — not an end in themselves.
The Cub Scout Leader’s Book
Each requirement is an adventure that a young lad takes along with his special leader: his Akela. On the trail he is challenged to do his best to overcome the obstacles he meets. This gives the boy’s Akelas opportunities to achieve those ten purposes of Cub Scouting. His parents and his den leaders who guide him and help him on these requirements should be aware of both the adventure and the purposes.
I was a member of one of the task forces that updated the Wolf Book. We spent a lot of our first meetings just reviewing how requirements related to the aims and purposes before we ever addressed changes or new ideas. Our Chair person and our professional guide wanted to be sure that we were focused on the correct goals. I expect other updating groups have had similar priorities.
Each requirement in Tiger, Wolf and Bear trails represents a challenge to that boy. How he reacts to each challenge will depend on how he perceives that particular encounter. Some boys revel in a challenge. Others are intimidated. Each boy has his own unique responses. We need to be flexible in how we treat advancement. It’s the boy that counts here, not necessarily the requirements. The journey rather than the destination is what is important. As my first Scouting Guru, Bud Bennett would say about Cub Scout projects,
“It’s not what the boy does to the board that matters;
it’s what the board does to the boy.”
Remember, methods in Cub Scouting are meant to be flexible. We should do what we feel is best for each boy. The Parent Guide in the Wolf Cub Scout Book reminds us: In Cub Scouting, boys are judged against their own standard, not against other boys.
These requirements are not tests that a boy must pass to advance in order to continue in Scouting. They are more a series of experiences that help him grow into a more effective human being. All we ask is that he does his best in each of them.
Doing your best is one of the most important things for the Cub Scout to learn. Boys often become so interested in winning that they fail to see the importance of doing the best they can at everything. One boy’s best might be quite different from another boy’s best.
The Cub Scout Leader’s Book
Scouting provides a series of surmountable obstacles and steps to overcome them through the advancement method. The Scout plans his advancement and progresses at his own pace as he overcomes each challenge. The Scout is rewarded for each achievement, which helps him gain self-confidence. The steps in the advancement system help a boy grow in self-reliance and the ability to help others.
The first rank that EVERY boy MUST earn when entering the Cub Scouting Program is the Bobcat rank. Bobcat features the ideals of Cub Scouting: the Motto, the Promise and the Law of the Pack. all teach good citizenship and contribute to a boy’s sense of belonging.
The Cub Scout purposes and ideals are excellent character guidelines for any group, organization or individual.
School for Champions
The achievements - 5 Tiger, 12 Wolf and 12 Bear - represent those things a growing boy should be doing as he learns to be a better citizen and a more responsible and capable human being. They give parents and others ample opportunities to observe and understand how this boy is growing up: what sort of adult he will be, what kind of husband, what type of father, and what quality of community member he will become. Informed parents and leaders can - and should - make the achievements fun experiences for the boys.
The Tiger program is an effective process to introduce parents to the values and practices of Cub Scout advancement. Family involvement is an essential part of Cub Scouting. When we speak of parents or families, we are not referring to any particular family structure. Some boys live with two parents, some live with one parent, some have foster parents, and some live with other relatives or guardians. Whoever a boy calls his family is his family in Cub Scouting.
The Bear program involves choosing Achievements. This is a valuable opportunity for leaders and parents to guide a Cub Scout in how to make a choice. Rather than make the choice for him, help him understand what goes into evaluating alternatives and then opting for the best one.
The electives automatically involve TALKING. The boy and his parent TALK, they listen to each other, they plan; they express their hopes, their concerns, and their jokes. They learn to respect each others moods, ideas and styles. They create special communication channels that remain vital and valuable for all their lives.
If leaders shut out the parents by doing a lot of Tiger and Cub Scout advancement at den meetings then they deny the parents the opportunity to establish these relationships with their sons.
On the question of how often should a Cub Scout repeat the same elective, there are diverse opinions. We certainly want boys do have a variety of experiences and to explore a wide range of the opportunities in his books. However a boy might develop a penchant for a particular field and want to dig deeper into it. As long as he is challenged and seems to be benefiting, I would have no problem signing his book or awarding him his arrow points.
I am reminded of Linus, a boy who lived here in Portland. At a young age he became excited about a toy chemistry set and soon chemistry captivated him and he became so obsessed that he tended to neglect other activities and didn’t even finish high school.. Linus C Pauling went on to become a world famous pioneer in the application of quantum mechanics to chemistry, and one of the founders of molecular biology, and to win two Nobel Prizes.
In practice, the Cub Scout Academics and Sports Belt Loops and Pins offer boys opportunities to explore other fields and to dig deeper into those that excite their minds. It can be a budget buster for some packs but if you can afford it or work with interested families it adds a rich mixture of activities and recognition possibilities. Webelos and Activity Badges
By the time boys are Webelos, they are more serious about goal setting, team building and reaching out to other adults in the community. The Webelos Activity Badge program gives them ample opportunities to become knowledgeable and even skilled in fields of art, science, health, communication and government.
About this age, boys start looking outside their families for acceptance and guidance. Good packs will ensure that Webelos den leaders have lots of adult help for their Activity Badge programs. This not only makes the WDL job easier but provides the boys opportunities to interact with a several adults. Build a data base of all the skills, hobbies and interests of parents as soon as the families join your pack.
And finally, remember to show off your leadership skills by recognizing each advancement step with a spectacular award ceremony that the boy will remember for years to come.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
Working with a den of young boys can be a challenge. To make it a bit less daunting, new leaders should become a bit familiar with what else besides snits and snails go into the make-up of boys. Boys are different.
Do Your Best. When we think of the Cub Scout motto, we usually concentrate on the word —best.– However the verb “do” more accurately describes boys. Boys are involved with doing things. One time National Cub Scout Director Bud Bennett reminded us:
If three boys are standing, talking, they are talking about doing something, If three boys are walking, they are on their way to do something. If they are running, they have just done something.
Action is important. Boys seem to be most comfortable at our meetings when things are happening and especially when they are part of the action.
Even when boys make things, they expect their creations to do something. Again, Bennett said:
Did you know that when a boy makes or builds something — like a model plane, a boat or a car — he often imagines it in action: flying, sailing or racing, as he works on it?
His mind is as active as his hands.
Boys Needs
The emotional needs of boys between 1st and 4th grades are basically the same. All boys (in fact, all people) have:
How each boy tries to fulfill these needs is what really makes him unique. One boy may be very timid and quiet and another loud and rowdy, but both are afraid they won’t be loved. We usually notice the rowdy one, but both need our care and attention.
If a boy wants to be noticed and receives a lot of attention from you when he misbehaves, his need to be noticed is fulfilled. He will probably continue his inappropriate behavior because it best fulfills his need.
Well then, what’s a den leader to do? Boys will be boys and will probably get into trouble. How can you deal with misbehavior, build up their self-esteem and still maintain some kind of order in your den? You need a plan of discipline.
Indian Nations Council Pow Wow - 1994
DISCIPLINE AND PUNISHMENT
Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment.
Robert Baden-Powell
Discipline is the process of learning. Den discipline is a cooperative process where the boys behave in such a manner that both the boys and the leaders win: both achieve their objectives. The boys have fun, do exciting new things and feel good about themselves. The leaders achieve the aims of scouting, the boys are safe and they all get through the meetings with a minimum of damage and tears.
Punishment is the opposite. Punishment happens when discipline fails. Punishment is adversarial: either, the leader wins, the boy is punished and the boy loses or the leader backs down and the boy wins. .
It is risky to order a child NOT to do something.
It immediately opens to him the adventure of doing it
Robert Baden-Powell
Children need to develop self esteem. They need to win and feel good about themselves. When a leader uses punishment or the threat of punishment to control behavior, every time the leader wins, the boy loses and is motivated to misbehave in an attempt to win next time.
Scouting relies totally on positive reinforcement.
The Cub Scout Leader Book contains the official word on Cub Scout discipline. Every leader should read it and follow its recommendations.
A few years ago, we presented six essentials for a Cub Scout leader to get through their meeting or activity with a minimum of damage and tears. Here they are again in abbreviated form.
Well planned programs.
The first, and most critical, step toward controlling the behavior of the boys is to plan a good program. Boys, who are having a good time, rarely cause trouble.
Get and hold their attention.
You will get nowhere if you lose control of your meeting. Wearing your Scout uniform, ceremonies, the Cub Scout sign are all useful. Keep activities short, simple and fun.
They know what’s expected of them.
Boys often misbehave just because they are not sure how they are expected act. They are imaginative and invent their own standards of behavior. You don’t want that.
You will need a Code of Conduct — a set of rules that we all follow at our meetings..
A boy carries out suggestions more
wholeheartedly when he understands their aim.
Robert Baden-Powell
Give each boy individual attention.
Use each boy’s name a lot. Children crave attention and, the last time I priced it, attention was an inexpensive commodity.
Build a team.
Build pride in your den. Use lots of standard team building gimmicks like den flags, doodles, cheers, secret codes etc.
Uniform inspections instill pride in appearance and this spills over to pride in conduct.
Empowerment
Give each boy a chance to lead or star. There are opportunities in each of the boys’ books for leadership roles. Use them in your den programs. Skits and ceremonies at pack meetings give boys opportunities to stand out. Make sure that each of your boys gets these chances. Use the denner, change denners regularly.
For several years I was a range master (bb-guns and archery) at one of our Cub Scout day camps and other council run activities. I estimate the well over a thousand boys went through my purview.
Now misbehavior cannot be permitted on a shooting range. There is zero tolerance for disobeying the rules. The consequences of misbehavior are just too extreme. My approach to discipline relied heavily on the first three of those six essentials. I had too little time with each group to develop and use the other three methods.
Program.
Shooting bb-guns or arrows seems to captivate boys’ attention. I don’t know why this is so but it works. We made sure our equipment was ready and visible. Targets were up and that the boys knew it as they entered the range.
Attention.
I insisted on respect for the Cub Scout sign. We can’t begin shooting if you don’t pay attention. I adopted a new persona — Big Bad Bill, the Rangemaster. The kids loved calling me by my title even though some parents disapproved.
Rules.
Range rules are pretty much the same at every Scout camp but I made sure that they knew the reasons for each one. For example: why does everyone have to get permission from me to enter or leave the range? Because we can’t shoot if I even think that someone is missing and could possibly be down range.
Yet of all these boys — many brand new Tigers — I had only one near case of misbehavior. He was a very young Cub Scout who had pinched his finger in the lever action of the bb-gun. He was lying on his mat in obvious pain still holding onto his gun with his good hand. One of his leaders called to me that she had some ice in their cooler and to bring him over to where she was. The boy refused to get up or to let go of the gun no matter what I did.
Finally through his tears he told me that he hadn’t put the gun on safety and Big Bad Bill had told him never to leave a gun unless the safety was on. Once we got that straightened out we got everything fixed up and ten minutes later he was back on the firing line plinking away at targets.
Finally, here is a list of positive statements from both Indian Nation and Orange County Councils.
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Use them liberally at every meeting.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
The monthly pack meeting brings together boys from every den, their leaders, and their families, to participate in a large-scale event that serves as a showcase for everything the boys have learned and done in their individual den meetings. The pack meeting gives the boys a larger experience beyond their own den, and helps them to connect their individual activities to the entire Cub Scouting program
Purposes: Why do we do this, anyway?
Generally, pack meetings are held to recognize and reward dens and individuals for their good Cub Scouting endeavors. They are sort of pep rallies to generate enthusiasm for the rest of the program. Resources
One of the first things to look at is your meeting place. The layout and facilities will both limit and enhance your program. What does it provide in the way of space, seating, facilities, storage, etc? How can you best use it to make your pack programs exciting and effective?
Do have a stage? Lighting? Sound system? If you have fixed seating, how will boys and parents move out to participate in ceremonies, skits and stunts? How will you fill the time it takes? Check sight lines around the room. Will everyone be able to see and hear what is going on, or should you move the action center so they can?
When I was a Cubmaster, we met in a small school room so we had the boys and siblings sit on the floor by dens in a horse-shoe formation with parents on chairs behind the boys. All our activities — ceremonies, skits, games — took place inside the horse-shoe. This limited things like games and big productions. It forced us to rely on monthly outdoors activities to provide more excitement. On the other hand, it was great for audience participation stunts and songs. Everyone was so close, even the parents had to participate. Advancement ceremonies were close and personal.
PLAN IT
Lack of planning ruins more pack meeting than any thing else. Plan everything down to the last detail. Who is going to do what, when, and for how long?
Get as many of the participants (the TEAM) involved in planning as possible. This will help ensure that each member knows his or her part and is willing to do it. Remember to plan the little things like pre opening activities, cheers and run-ons. The more you plan, the more spontaneous everything will play out and the more prepared you will be when something unexpected happens. Write it all out and give a copy to everyone involved.
TEAM LEADERSHIP
A whole bunch of jobs have to be done to make a pack meeting work:
You can double up or rotate and share some of the functions but you should involve all the Assistant Cubmasters and most of your Pack Committee in these jobs. You will also need a few people to do run-ons, help with ceremonies, and handle the lights.
KEEP IT MOVING
A successful pack meeting grabs and holds the attention of everyone there: the Tigers, Cub Scouts and Webelos as well as the parents, and siblings. You do this with short fast-moving bits. You change the mood of the audience with every dramatic and comedic trick you can borrow or copy or invent. Keep the pace changing with faster or slower sparklers or audience participation gags. Use the entire room so that if someone leads a song from the north end of the hall, the following den skit enters from the south-east corner. Move the center of attention around with action, sound and lighting.
Dead time is a killer. Make sure that when one bit is finished, the next participant is ready with a cheer, a magic trick or presentation. Don’t let them sit still for the entire meeting - sprinkle in lots of stunts that get everyone standing, jumping, applauding and shouting.
Sean Scott of San Diego tells us:
I’ve observed a lot of pack meetings (good and bad) and I’ve seen a definite correlation between the behavior of the kids and parents and the quality of the program being presented. If it’s not interesting to both groups, one or the other will stop listening. So, as leaders, we have to tailor the program to include "Interesting to kids and adults" right along side "Recognize advancement" and "Inform the membership".
Focus on the boys, and fine tune for the adults
BUILDING BLOCKS
Pack meetings are constructed from a variety of building blocks that you should use effectively. Here are some of the common ones:
FLOW and MOOD SETTING
Each part of the meeting sets a tone or mood that will carry on to the next part. The opening ceremony will catch the attention of the audience and things usually begin in a subdued and attentive mood. You usually want to build the fun and excitement before you bring on a high-light event like a den skit. You can do this with sparklers, audience participation stunts, and games. If things get a bit dull, liven them up with cheers and run-ons. If the boys get too rambunctious, use a song or story to bring the mood down to earth. You may want to set a serious tone for a graduation ceremony or a closing so choose your stunts and gimmicks accordingly. A good team of leaders can, with a bit of practice, become expert at this.
VARIETY
Variety and surprise can do a lot to make your meetings successful. Vary the pace throughout each meeting and vary the elements, themes and moods from month to month. When the boys and parents start wondering what will this crazy bunch of leaders do next, then you have reached top form.
SOME TIPS FOR PACK MEETINGS
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Training Tips
Training Tips
Since its inception, about a year ago, National’s Cubcast has steadily improved as the hosts, Robert and Kristen along with their various guests settle into an effective routine. These monthly podcasts make great additions to Roundtables and can be a great help for all leaders.
Last month their program featured some important tips on internet safety that all parents should listen to and understand. The guest expert was Linda Griddle, author of Look Both Ways, a guide to online safety measures. It was a valuable and effective presentation that should be recommended to all parents of kids who go online.
And now for something completely different,
Good Cub Scout packs have good leaders.
Leaders who have the enthusiasm, the dedication and the skills to make the program successful are essential to getting a good Cub pack. All the training and planning in the world won’t help unless there are quality people to lead the dens and the pack.
So, how do you get the right people to be leaders in your pack? What are the secrets to find them and then get them to sign on? It takes a bit of planning and hard work, but it can be done and it is worth the effort. If your pack is going to continue to put on a great program for boys then it’s up to the current leadership to make sure that only the best people be recruited.
Pack Leadership Inventory
It starts by determining the needs of your pack. Take an inventory of pack leadership to deter mine the numbers of quality leaders needed based on the numbers of dens needed. This can help ensure that a pack maintains good membership. The inventory should be taken in the early spring so if you haven’t done it yet, you are running late.
A common mistake of many packs is to fill needed positions with people already responsible for other leadership jobs. Overloading a good leader is a sure way to weaken any pack. It usually happens when it seems easier to take on another job than to find someone else to do it. That often indicates that we really don’t have a cohesive plan to find and recruit a new leader.
Being a good Cub Scout leader takes more than just running the meetings — that’s the easy part.
Interacting with other adults — especially parents —
is the essential job quality of Cub Scout leadership.
Each time we take on another job that could be done by a parent who is not performing as a role model for his/her son we are admitting that we have failed. Instead of sharing responsibility we have opted for the easy work around: do it ourselves instead of teaching others that it is better that they do it
Worse, we have hurt two boys. We have hurt our own sons because the time it takes to do the second (or third and so on) job often comes from the time needed to fulfill our duties as Akela to our own sons, and also, we have deprived another boy the chance to see his parent be a hero — doing something important in his Cub pack.
Never, never do anything that you can possibly get another parent to do.
Recruiting adults — A few tips
Pacific Pacific Skyline Council
Selecting the right prospects
What do you know about the parents of boys in your pack?
Try to match people with jobs. Have you had all the parents fill out a Parent Talent Survey Sheet? Some years ago I found a great Personal Information sheet on the internet.
Busy people make the best leaders. It may seem that the best prospect for the job is too involved in other things to take on your request. Never say “No” for someone else. If the job you propose is important enough, they will find a way to do it.
Choosing a recruiter
Who knows the prospect? Is there someone in your organization who commands the respect of the one you hope to recruit? Someone to whom they might answer, “Yes.” Pick someone the prospect knows and respects to do the recruiting. It could be anyone in your community – not necessarily from your pack.
Why are you asking?
Tell the prospect up front, why the job is important and why people think that he/she is the best person to make it a success. If you have done your selecting job correctly, you should be able to give a whole list of reasons why that person is the right one for that job.
What is the job?
Lay out precisely as possible what the job entails. How much time, what skills will be needed. What training and support is available. Be as honest and accurate as you can. If you tell a person that it will be easy and take only an hour a week when you know it will be much more than that, the disappointment you cause will come back to haunt you.
Closing the Deal
Never attempt to recruit over the phone or standing up at a meeting and asking for volunteers.
The key factor is asking them personally. This should be done in a face to face situation, preferably while you are wearing your uniform. If you ask someone personally to basically give what you’re giving, it is much harder for them to say no.
You may have a list of two or three prospects for the same job and the top candidate just can not take on the responsibility. Then you might ask the #1 candidate if he/she would be willing to help the next person on your list if they were recruited. If so, you will have some added ammunition when you approach the second candidate. “Marge (who has talent for this) says that she will be glad to assist only if you will take on this job.‒
Provide Training, Recognition and Support.
Make sure that your new Cub Scouters have all the training, the materials and the help and cooperation they need to do their jobs. Recognize them regularly at pack meetings, in your newsletters and on your pack website. Ask for their comments, advice or reports at leaders’ meetings. It can be frustrating to be asked to do a job and then to be totally ignored.
Remember:
In Scouting, we are in serious competition with a host of adversaries:
We need friends and allies!
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Training Tips
Training Tips
Dive right in as Cub Scouts spend a month learning about water, our most precious resource. Learn about marine life. Dens can visit a water treatment facility, local aquarium or fish farm. Cub Scouts may even want to prepare their own aquarium or fish bowl and "adopt a gold fish".
This is also an excellent opportunity to teach our Cub Scouts about water conservation. Don’t forget learning about water safety. Enjoy water games; hunt for shells and experience all the beach has to offer. Cub Scouts love to get wet.
What could be better than a water carnival complete with games, competition, and safe swim demonstrations? This would be a great time to work on the Wildlife Conservation, Fishing, or Swimming belt loop and pin. Have an outdoor Cub Scout rain gutter regatta race.
Program Helps July, 2008.
When one imagines Boy Scouts camping, there is usually water in the picture. It may be swimming, a canoe pulled up to a lake shore camping spot or white water rafting. A boy should be ready to participate in all these, safely and confidently, as soon as he joins a troop. Cub Scouting provides an age appropriate, graduated program of aquatics:
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Swimming is not only lots of fun but the ability to swim is an important physical skill. It is worth the effort of every Cub Scout leader to ensure that each of their charges gets the opportunity to learn to swim. |
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Check out local community services like the YMCA, Red Cross etc. for swim classes. Put swimming in your annual pack plans. |
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Also when a boy graduates to a troop he will need to be able to swim in order to fully participate in the troop program.
Second Class requirement 7b states:
Demonstrate your ability to jump feet first into water over your head in depth, level off and swim 25 feet on the surface, stop, turn sharply, resume swimming, then return to your starting place. Until they are able to do this they cannot advance. If a Scout can not swim, there is so much that he misses out on, troop’s trip to Florida Sea base, and other high adventure sites, canoe trips, white water rafting etc.
If you have never taken your den fishing, you are missing one of the great joys of Cub Scouting. It’s a blast to take any bunch of kids fishing, especially when you have a place where they might actually catch some fish.
Longhorn Council runs a successful Cub Scout Trout-O-Ree in conjunction with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Junior Angler Education Program
Tiger Cubs, Cub Scouts, and Webelos Scouts may complete requirements for the Fishing Belt Loop or Sports Pin in a family, den, pack, school, or community environment. Tiger Cubs must work with their parents or adult partners
The Cub Scout Leader How-To Book has some splendid water related activities in chapter 14 that include fish and other aquatic life.
The Boating Elective in the big Bear Book has all sorts of skills and experiences for a growing boy. Operating a rowboat or sail boat are not only adventures, but they also let a boy discover the mechanics of force and motion.
Cub Scout canoeing is restricted to council run camping programs to ensure qualified leadership and safe conditions. If you are lucky enough to have a canoe program in your council Cub camp, then your boys are in for a great adventure.
For many years, Cub Scouts and Webelos were not allowed to canoe. My wife Shirley and I had been volunteering at a local Easter Seal camp where we discovered that children sitting in the bottom of a canoe were more stable and secure than when sitting in row boats. Even the most severely disabled went canoeing with us and had a great time. They just didn’t weigh enough to tip the canoe.
Shirley, an avid canoeist, was on our council Executive Board and she convinced the leadership to apply for a program variance to permit us to include canoes at our Council Day Camp where we had a small pond.. The variance was approved by National and the program was a great success. We even ran occasional Saturday camps so working parents could canoe with their boys.
Eventually National included canoes as a camp program for Cub Scouts, pretty much along the lines of Shirley’s request.
Safe Swim Defense
Before a BSA group may engage in swimming activities of any kind, a minimum of one adult leader must complete Safe Swim Defense training, have a commitment card (No. 34243) with them, and agree to use the eight defenses in this plan.
Register,
Log in,
Take the Course,
Get Credit.
Safety Afloat
Safety Afloat has been developed to promote boating and boating safety and to set standards for safe unit activity afloat. Before a BSA group may engage in an excursion, expedition, or trip on the water (canoe, raft, sailboat, motorboat, rowboat, tube, or other craft), adult leaders for such activity must complete Safety Afloat Training, have a commitment card with them, and be dedicated to full compliance with all nine points of Safety Afloat. [Note: Cubs and Webelos are not permitted on excursions, expeditions or trips.]
Register,
Log in,
Take the Course,
Get Credit.
Safety Afloat Every child must wear a Coast Guard approved Personal Floatation Device when on the water.
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To work right, a PFD must fit snugly on a child. To check for a good fit, pick the child up by the shoulders of the PFD. If the PFD fits right, the child’s chin and ears will not slip through.
Children and PFDs |
Even when the weather is warm and sunny, the water may be cold — and dangerous. Beware of exposing Cub Scouts to water temperature under 60 degrees F. The American Canoe Association tells us that more than half of the fatal boating accidents in Pennsylvania occur when the water is cold
I have been a canoe instructor with both the American Red Cross and the ACA. I know, first hand, that cold water can be extremely dangerous.
Once while attempting to free a stuck canoe, I slipped and fell into water under 40 degrees F. The current was not fast — less than brisk walking speed — and the brook was hardly twenty feet wide at that point but I was powerless to extricate myself. The cold water had effectively paralyzed me. I could not swim nor could I grasp hold of the paddles that my companions reached out towards me. I just hung in my PFD and went with the flow until an eddy washed me close enough to the bank where others could drag me ashore.
Currents and Low-Head Dams
Cub Scouts and Webelos should do all their boating on flat water with no current. Moving water, even a slow current of one or two miles per hour, can exert enormous force on a child. A boat or raft full of water can weigh over a thousand pounds and could crush the body of a child caught in its path. Taking Cub Scouts on moving water is just plain foolish.
For this and other reasons, trips and excursions on water are not permitted for Cub Scouts and Webelos.
Some notes for current and future Boy Scout leaders.
Especially dangerous situations occur at the many low-head dams common on rivers in just about every state. These dams are small, ranging from 6 inches to a few yards in height. They produce hydraulic effects that trap unwary boaters, where escape is almost impossible. Rescue is difficult and perilous, even for trained personnel.
In sum, [low-head dams] combined with the hydraulic current create a nearly perfect drowning machine.
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
The real danger is that these dams slow the general flow of the rivers creatin g an impression of placid, safe waters. Every year many people, sometimes Scouts, perish in these traps.
Suite101 writer, Alan Sorum, Manager for the Municipality of Skagway, an Alaska Borough and immediate past Port Director and Harbormaster for the City of Valdez, Alaska has and excellent article on low head dams.
Some more links on Water Fun – Water Safety.
Red Cross Aquatics General Aquatics Information
Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources. More on PDF
Camp and Fish - Interesting stuff for Packs
Longhorn Council Trout-O-Ree
American Canoe Association — Cold Water.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
I know what you’re thinking:
No, Bill, we won’t be recruiting until September. That’s still four months away.
That is exactly my point. You are already late, so you had better start working on it!
Recruiting must come before anything else. Before program planning, before pack meetings, before den meetings, service projects or outings you have to get the boys and the leaders. Good, solid recruiting is the foundation, upon which, everything else you do as a Cub Scout leader rests. If your recruiting is weak, your whole program for the coming year is built on shifting sand.
There is much that can be done, should be done and must be done if your pack is looking for lots of fun, adventure and success next year. If you haven’t started to plan your Recruiting Drive, start now!
Plan to be Visible
No one is going to show up at your Recruiting Night if they don’t know you exist. Between now and then, get out and be seen. Start your planning by considering the possibilities to be seen by the families you want to recruit.
Think parades on Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Where do families in your neighborhood gather in the spring and summer? Be there, in uniform with flags, banners and anything else that tells people who you are and what you stand for. Don’t be shy. We have a fabulous program for them. Let them know about it.
How about holding a picnic in a local park with lots of active games, and a rain gutter regatta. Or host a bicycle rodeo and invite everyone from your neighborhood elementary school. Keep planting the seed that your pack is there, you are active and the boys have fun.
Another posted this on Yahoo’s Cub-Scout-Talk forum:
We had a very successful recruiting year last year. What we did was on the open house/back to school nights we had a campsite set up that the kids and parents walked by on their way into the school. We set up a tent, some camp chairs, had some boys in their uniforms, a fake campfire, the works. It got a lot of attention. Then at the beginning of the open house we led a flag ceremony. Our school also has various vendors (PTA, school fundraiser companies, scouts) set up in the cafeteria. This is where we placed our sign up table. On our table we had literature as well as some pinewood derby cars, pictures, scrapbooks, brag rags, you name it-- things to get the attention of the boys. Last year was the first year we did the opening and camp set up and our recruiting more than doubled.
This all didn’t happen by accident. There were excellent leaders and committee members who planned it and then worked hard to make it happen.
And, of course you too will need the names of who is going to run each item and bring all those props and displays. Who will promote it and who will do the necessary paperwork? Spread the jobs around. You will need lots of help but it will all be worth it.
Plan to Inform
The Boy Scouts of America has all sort of material to tell the world about us. Your DE should be able to supply you with yard signs, pamphlets, posters and other neat gimmicks. There are good lists at the Cub Scouting Recruiting and Online Resources. There are all sorts of things on those pages that your council can get for you.
Let people know what we are about. Can you get copies of Scouting Magazine and Boy’s Life into places where boys and parents may show up. Check out School libraries, waiting rooms in pediatric and orthodontic clinics. You probably have lots of copies around your homes. Share them with your neighbors.
Look for local places and events where you may hand out pamphlets and flyers. I particularly like the Cub Scouting’s 12 Core Values (#13-323) and Race to Cub Scouting Recruiting Flyer, No. 34188. Your Council should be able to supply these in quantity for you at no cost.
Another venue is your local Home-Schooling community. I have had wonderful times attending their curriculum fairs and conferences. They generally welcome Scouting and may even permit a Scouting booth. A quick check on Google indicates that strong Home School organizations abound in almost every city.
Plan to Welcome
First Impressions are precious. Don’t waste them. You will want to impress the boys and parents as they arrive. No, more than impress, you really want to astound, bedazzle, dumbfound, and boggle the minds of, all & sundry with electrifying talent, bewildering knowledge, and breathtaking technique.
For some families, their very first introduction to Scouting may be when they walk in the door to your recruiting night. What will they see, how will they feel at that moment? Set your room up to WOW them as they come in. Get well-prepared greeters at the doors, in the hallways and perhaps even out in the parking lot.
Plan to have the greeters ready and waiting for them. The newcomers may not understand what is going to happen or what everyone else is doing there. Point out the displays, help them find seating and make sure they have all the handouts. Introduce them to a few people and, above all, show them that we give good will and that we help other people
Plan to look Organized
No one wants to board a sinking ship. No matter what state your pack is in, plan to appear like a well-oiled machine running smoothly and efficiently. Everyone will be in proper uniform and everyone following THE PLAN. Have as many uniformed leaders as possible there and helping.
Plan to get Participation
Remember, you are recruiting families, not just boys. Make it plain that we are all volunteers, all parents and we all attend pack meetings and events; we all work with our boys in their Cub Scout Books, and we all pitch into make the pack go. Make sure the parents understand, up front, that the Parent Agreement they sign is important and that they know that they will be asked to help.
Two Comments I read that might help you involve parents in their sons’ Cub Scouting:
Parents can be real experts in the art of excuses; for example: they are too busy right now, the will do something else instead of, they work, they have children, they don’t drive, their car has a flat tire, the guy next door won’t, they’ve never done that sort of thing, their parents didn’t do it, or their spouse won’t let them.
From Three Fires Council.
So be ready to counter with this one:
Imagine a program that can help your son learn, grown, and mature while he is having fun. There are activities in which you and he can participate together with the rest of the family and get to know each other even better. This is exactly what Scouting is. Every activity gives you and your son the chance to discover and share together.
Minsi Trails Council.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
The best Cub Packs I have seen over the years have been those that regularly schedule outdoors activities. These are packs that attract and keep kids as members, packs that always seem to have lots of leaders. A common characteristic of these good packs is that they are always doing things. They have activities beyond the usual pack and den meetings. A month rarely goes by when they are not out on a tour, a service project, a hike or a campout.
Check out the Outdoor Activity Award in last month’s Bugle.
ENJOY THE SEASONS
Winter is a fine time for bird-watching. Follow and identify bird tracks, look for nests, set out bird feeders. It’s a time to identify trees without their leaves. And in some parts of the country it’s a time to play in the snow; to build snow people, forts, and igloos; to go ice-skating, sledding, and sleigh riding; and to help others by shoveling sidewalks.
The above paragraph was taken from the Cub Scout Leader Book. More Enjoy the Seasons ideas can be found in the Cub Scout Leader Book for sale at your Council office.
What you do and when you do it depends, of course, on the climate in your part of the country. I remember visiting an April Roundtable in Gulf Ridge Council in Florida where they were discussing plans for summer pack activities. Most of the talk was about the best air-conditioned bowling alleys in the district. I learned that they do their pack camping there in January and February when the weather is pleasant and there is no danger of hurricanes.
Going outdoors is one of the most exciting parts of Scouting. Cub Scouts enjoy many outdoor experiences as they participate in the variety of activities that can be held outside, such as field trips, hikes, nature and conservation experiences service projects, and camping experiences.
The outdoors is an ideal environment for boys to be able to develop positive qualities such as resourcefulness, ingenuity, self-reliance, team spirit, and an awareness of and appreciation for the natural world around us.
The study of nature in its natural surroundings is an ideal way to encourage boys to appreciate beauty and enhance their capacity to enjoy simple pleasures and respect all living things.
In addition, apply these Cub Scouting program-specific criteria:
When a boy and his family join Cub Scouting, they are joining an organization that values the fun and excitement of experiencing the outdoors. Each Cub Scout pack is encouraged to provide its youth members with enriching, positive outdoor experiences. An event may be a youth member’s first organized outdoor activity. Good planning using Cub Scouting guidelines should ensure a positive experience.
Last Frontier Council
What do they do? Here is a sampling of outdoor activities I found on the web site schedules of just a handful of packs across the country:
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Fun Day
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Maple Sugaring
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Cub Scouting in the outdoors happens all year long, as you can see from those examples. Check out the photographs of these four packs on their outdoors activities: [no current links] Pack 99 Arkansas Pack 6, Rhode Island Pack 34, California Pack 88, Illinois
Outings are Worth the Effort.
As a pack, do something special every month over and above the pack meeting. Tours, hikes, service projects, picnics, and especially pack camp outs — these sorts of things make the difference between ho-hum and WOW!!!
If you have never taken your den fishing, you are missing one of the great joys of Cub Scouting.
Planning a Pack Activity
If the pack’s trip destination is a popular tourist attraction, the committee must check in advance to make arrangements for tickets, parking, etc. The committee must also consider costs and transportation.
Submit your Local Tour Permit Application to the local council well in advance of the trip. Also, check the following ahead of time to make sure leaders and parents are prepared:
Urge the boys to be courteous and observe all rules of the place you are visiting. Their good conduct will ensure that other Scouting groups will be welcome there.
Tell them the location of restrooms.
Announce rendezvous points, plans for eating.
Chartering a bus is a good way to make a pack trip because it promotes esprit de corps. But a bus can be bedlam if you have not planned any activities to keep the boys occupied.
Bring along some copies of the Cub Scout Songbook--one for each two boys and parents. Have your song leader stand at the front of the bus and lead some pack favorites.
Intersperse the songs with some sit-down games that can be played in large groups. Try the following from the Cub Scout Leader How-To Book:
For other games, see "Travel Games" on these pages.
Immediately upon arrival at your destination, gather boys and parents and:
When the pack returns home, ask the denners to write thank-you notes to your host. At a minimum, the pack secretary should write a letter of appreciation
HIKES
Any trip through a wooded area offers so many opportunities to teach Cub Scouts: watching for natural wildlife; tree identification by bark, leaf, shape; finding and identifying animal tracks, nests; plant identification — edible plants and poisonous plants; using a compass, etc.
Adapted from Pack 114’s Library
Hikes make wonderful den outings. A small group is easier to control and makes it easier for the boys to observe nature more closely and with less impact. Remember to follow the requirements in the Guide To Safe Scouting on two-deep leadership and other safety items.
Here are some theme hike ideas:
HOLDING THE FRONT — The leader in the lines stops and points to a tree or a flower. The boy next in line must name the item or go to the rear of the line. The object is to stay at the head of the line.
MONOGRAM HIKES — Find three or more objects that begin with your initials.
INCHER HIKE — Collect as many objects as possible that are one inch high, long, or wide. Measure treasures on return and see who brought in the largest amount of one inch things usually over locked.
SILENT — Practice walking in single file as quietly as possible.
COLORS — Choose one or two colors and list all things seen in these colors along the way.
SOUNDS — Hear and identify all sounds possible along the way.
ABC HIKE — The unit is divided into groups which attempt to find natural objects beginning with each letter of the alphabet.
RAINBOW HIKE — Find and list as many colors an possible.
TRACKING AND TRAILING — One group can go ahead and leave a trail for the other group to follow.
PENNY HIKE — Flip a penny every twenty feet and go in the direction called for. Heads for east, Tails to west.
Bill’s Challenge for District Scouters:
Does your district have a good list of places for Packs, dens and families to visit?
Is on line on your council or district website?
Is it easily available at Roundtables and your Council Service Center?
If not, wouldn’t it be a valuable service to all those boys if you got a project going to provide one? These lists are local in nature and that’s why we need lots of them.
About ten years ago, Brian Gorman, a Scouter in my district, compiled a list of places to go as a Wood Badge ticket item. When I started my Roundtable web site, he asked me to include it. Places to Go has been a popular page for packs in Sunset Trail and surrounding districts for over eight years now. It has doubled in size as people have suggested additions.
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Training Tips
Training Tips
Did your pack win this award?
If YES, Great, congratulations!. Make sure that every boy and every leader gets the patch to wear on his/her uniform. We are all proud of you and everyone who contributed to making your pack go!
If you tried but came up short on a couple items, that’s still a good sign. In fact you may be better off than those who got the award. I’ll show you why as we go on. You may find out that you can use it as a springboard to do a pack makeover.
If you didn’t even try, then I’ve got a special message for you. Your pack is missing out on one of the best tools to make your pack exactly what you want it to become. Forget about what National, your Council or those district guys want. This can help your gang achieve your goals.
What are you going to do about it now?
Winning or not-winning the CQUA is not really that important. It’s only about a badge: another little do-dad to hang on your uniform. What really matters is what the whole effort of filing the application, working to succeed and then getting the results will mean to the success or failure of your efforts as leaders. What you do about it right now is more important than anything else.
I’m sure that none of you do this Scouting stuff solely to get more badges. I know some of you put in considerably more time than the advertised one hour a week. You deserve to have all your efforts succeed in having boys grow into the kinds of men you will be proud of. Your pack might be very efficient at this or much of what you leaders do may be just a lot spinning wheels and not a lot of progress.
The results of your CQUA experience can tell you a lot of how successful your pack is in reaching your real goals. Let’s look at each of the six requirements and see what the results can divulge about your pack.
Each of the 6 requirements on that 2007 form attempts to measure a symptom of the health of your pack. Your real goal should be to improve your pack operation and not to obscure or cover up the symptom so that no one notices it.
1. We will have ___ percent of our direct contact leaders complete Basic Leader Training for their position, including Youth Protection Training.
Let’s face it; an untrained leader is probably not going to be successful. By now every one of your direct contact leaders — Cubmaster, den leaders and ALL ASSISTANTS should be trained — NLE, job-specific and YP.
You don’t have assistants for every den? Why not? What will happen if a trained leader moves, gets sick, gets divorced or wins the lottery and flees to Tahiti? What will happen to those boys left behind? Will the den, or even the whole pack, flounder or just muddle around until someone finds a suitable replacement. How many boys and how many families will give up?
What are you going to do about that now?
How effective is your Pack Trainer or do you even have one? A good PT can and should work with district folk to facilitate training and get reluctant leaders to attend.
John Mount of Highland, Utah recently posted on a popular forum: We now have one. We call him “the hammer.”
Remember, it’s especially frustrating for trained leaders to work with an untrained and uncooperative committee. If you want your pack to work as a well-oiled machine then get your committee to training as well.
2. As one of the committed units in our district, our goal is to retain ____ percent of our members, recruit ____ new youth, and recharter on time.
If most boys and families stay in your pack until they graduate out then your pack is doing fine. Don’t change! Good retention is the gold star for pack leadership.
If your pack has troubles keeping boys and families in the program, then your top priority is to find out why and then do something about it.
Many packs lose entire dens. How can you lose a whole den? Did the den leader leave and there was no replacement? Was the den program weak and the boys just stopped coming? Did the DL get the training and get support from pack leaders, the committee and parents? Find out what went wrong. One of the reasons to have regular den participation at pack meeting is to keep pack leaders aware of den health.
Boys who drop out make it harder to recruit new ones. The word gets out on the street that your program is either worth, or not worth, the time and effort. When they first joined, you promised them it would be fun and challenging. Did you and the other leaders keep that promise? Was every meeting fun and exiting? Was every outing an adventure?
What are you going to do about that now?
First Aid Analogy: STOP THE HEMORRHAGE!
3. As a participating unit in the national parent initiative, we commit to recruit __ new adults to be active.
OK, it’s got quaint wording. You may or may not care about the national parent initiative, but you do care about the future of your pack. As families join, get the parents involved in making the pack go.
Have a plan to bring them into the fold. Ensure that every family is aware of the Parent’s Agreement and understands their obligations when we accept their application to join. The longer we wait the harder it becomes to involve parents. Recruit the parent along with the boy.
Parents and other close family members have a relatively narrow window of a few years to open the door to their boy’s future — to shape his character, help set his life’s goals and how he will react to his next set of influencers. These Tiger and Cub Scout years are the time for parents to spend as much time as they can with him, to lead him into positive activities, to get to know his friends and his friends’ families. Cub Scouting gives parents a wonderful set of tools to do exactly these things.
Every boy should see his parent(s) be good role models who make the pack go.
What are you going to do about that now?
4. We had a minimum of 60 percent of our youth members advance in rank for Cub Scouting or we improved by 10 percent over last year.
It’s hard to make the 60% if half the boys drop out before your Blue and Gold banquet. Solve any retention problems before you tackle advancement. I have heard the urban myth thing that poor advancement is supposed to cause poor retention. That just doesn’t make much sense. I can not imagine there are that many boys having lots of fun and adventure but not advancing in rank and then dropping out because they didn’t get their Wolf or Bear badge.
It’s more likely to be the other way around, or that both advancement and retention depend on good programming and good leadership. Boys who have fun and find adventure in Cub Scouts stay in and do advance. Those who don’t will likely quit and, of course, won’t advance.
Advancement requires parent participation for Bobcat, Tiger, Wolf and Bear. It gives families opportunities to share growing experiences and challenging activities with their sons. Try not to push book work into your den meetings. It becomes too much like school. Also, the boy is more likely to do more of the reading if he does it at home with his family. Do everything you can to get advancement into the boys’ homes. It will take some good salesmanship by both den and pack leaders but it will be worth the effort.
Webelos Activity Badge work is different. You shouldn’t expect mortal Webelos den leaders to be masters of all twenty subjects. Get them help. Scour your pack records and your neighborhood to find some resources for each badge. I have noticed that Webelos dens are less likely to have assistant leaders than other dens, and fewer of them are trained. Check this out in your pack.
What are you going to do about that now?
Take a critical look at how your pack celebrates advancement. Do your ceremonies resemble the Academy Awards or are they more like a visit to a dentist?
Who gets the most recognition in your pack?
New member who earns Bobcat?
Boy and parent who earn Tiger?
Boy who earns Arrow of Light?
Winner of Pinewood Derby?
Who should?
5. At least 70 percent of our youth members had an outdoor experience or one activity per month, or improve the percentage over last year.
I understand that the first sentence has been interpreted so many different ways that it may be difficult to know if your record is meaningful or not. A lot depends on the environment and the character of the community, and which boys and which activities were counted.
Regular attendance, however, is an excellent indicator of how good your program plays to boys and families. Boys and families will attend if your program seems important to them. Boys and families stay if they regularly attend.
There are several ways that top leaders have promoted regular participation: Sean Scott of San Diego puts on big productions at pack meetings so that people wanted to attend. Cliff Golden of DeKalb IL loads his troop calendar with a variety of activities so that boys have more opportunities and choices. Many packs make sure that everyone has a role to play at pack meetings and other activities.
These all require a good sized team of leaders and well organized plans. Does your pack have enough leaders and how thoroughly do you plan your program?
Every good pack I have seen in my forty-five years of Scouting has had an impressive outdoor program. They typically run one or more special pack activities every month and even more in summer to fit in with family schedules.
6. We will conduct annual program planning and will provide the financial resources to deliver a quality program to our members.
The most important responsibility that leaders have in Cub Scouting is program planning. The quality of the Cub Scout experience each boy receives will depend on how leaders schedule and carry out the essential planning procedures.
If you want your pack program to be more fun, more party-like and more exciting for all family members, try holding a masterminding gala extravaganza for your next annual planning session. Make it party with games, skits and run-ons — even costumes. Make it FUN.
One of your planning items should include just how your pack will recharter next year. Who will do it; where are the records and how will you pay for it? Sort of a budget item?
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Training Tips
Training Tips
Why Should Your Den Do Skits?
It builds team work. The Cub Scouts in your den work together to visually tell a story (often amusing) to the rest of the pack. It takes cooperation and exchanging ideas that lead to a common goal.
It creates reasons for other den activities and projects. Building scenery, props, and costumes all make good program ideas. Story telling is a great way to trigger an idea for a den skit.
Putting on a skit at a pack meeting or pack campfire is an excellent way to get the support of parents. Instead of den skits, you may want to try family skits.
A Den skit at a pack meeting can and should be the highlight of the evening. It makes pack meetings better and den meetings more fun.
It’s not only fun, and boys just like to show off but getting your den to perform at a pack meeting will help prepare them for Boy Scouts. Communication is one of the set of leadership skills that Boy Scouting fosters amongst its members. The ability to stand up in front of the public and say something is an important part of the program.
Boys of Cub Scouting age can be incredibly shy. We try to help them overcome this by making it fun in the Cub Scout program. Run-ons, cheers and especially skits are all fun ways to help them feel comfortable performing in public.
HOW DO WE GET SKITS?
Canned Skits It will probably best for Tigers and Wolf Cub Scouts to start out with one or two of the old familiar and reliable canned skits. There is a wealth of skits available for Cub Scouts to act out.
The Cub Scout Leader How-To Book has some good ones in chapter 5.
MacScouter Skits For Scouts. Has a down-loadable Big Book and several Pow Wow Book sections.
Assistant Cub Scout Leader at the 9th Barking & Dagenham Scout Group (UK) has an excellent web page on Skits and Stunts. It includes the collection of Jean Poulton of the Eagle District, Otetiana Council, BSA.
Original Skits
As Boys get more comfortable performing at campfires and pack meetings, they should be ready to make up their own original scripts.
Your Den Can Write a Script!
Writing a skit is not as hard as it may seem, though it does basically take some imagination. A basic subject or plot, such as the theme of the month, will get you started in the right direction.
HOW TO WRITE A SKIT:
Let’s examine what a skit is. Basically it represents the following items: Make the skit fun for the Cub. To avoid problems in skits, keep the following in mind:
Keep the Skit Simple — Don’t expect boys at this age to understand complicated plots. If possible, have the boys compose the skit. You may give them ideas, but if they compose the skit they will enjoy it more and also better understand it.
Keep It Short — (3-5 minutes). A long, drawn-out skit will make the audience restless.
Avoid Long Memorized Dialogue. — Again, boys of this age cannot be expected to memorize long lines of dialogue. Keep the dialogue to a minimum. Have the boys speak slowly and loud. It is a good idea to let the Cubs practice their skit at the pack meeting place in advance of the pack meeting.
Use Simple Props — Props can be made from cardboard and signs can be put up to indicate scenery. Adding appropriate accessories to everyday clothes can make costumes. Most costumes, intended to be cut from fabric and sewn, can also be cut from crepe paper and glued and/or stapled by the Cubs themselves.
Let Every Boy Participate. — When a den puts on a skit, every member needs to be a part of it. Create parts for each person. One boy can introduce the skit by setting the scene. Others can be animated scenery, form a chorus to repeat important lines, or create sound effects. Certainly building props and costumes contribute, but make sure the builders get credit.
CAMP FIRE SKITS
Skits are important elements of campfire programs. If your den is doing one remember that things are different out there. The boys will have to use their outside voices. Actions should be somewhat exaggerated so that everyone will see them and follow the action.
If your presentation is between the camp fire and the audience, the actors may be silhouetted by the fire light. On the other hand, if they operate behind the fire, action on the ground may be hidden by the fire.
In any case, safety around a fire is very important so guard against sudden action or commotion anywhere near the fire.
TIPS TO HELP CUB SCOUT ACTORS
Let’s face it ... Cub Scouts are not professional actors, but they can have fun presenting skits and pantomimes. The audience should also be part of the fun. Here are a few tips that may help your skit to be the smash hit of the meeting -- simply because the audience could tell what was happening or being said.
Speak clearly, distinctly, and a little slower than normal. Remember that the people in the back row want to hear you.
Every action should have a purpose or meaning -- movements should be somewhat exaggerated.
Events in action should be performed one at a time so that the audience will not be confused.
It is important to know what to say -- and it is also important to know when to say it.
If your Cub Scouts understand how a character feels (happy, sad, sorry, angry, proud, etc.) in a given situation, and why a character does a particular piece of action, the Cub Scout will be able to react in a similar manner.
Two characters engaged in dialogue should not face each other directly. Instead, they should face the audience in a 3/4 position, so that the audience will be able to hear them more clearly, as well as have a better view of facial expressions.
In Pantomime, gestures and facial expressions are more important than costumes. What is done is more important than what is said.
Acting Games — Practice acting by including games like charades and quick pantomime stunts as regular den activities. A simple example:
Have the boys pretend to open a door to discover:
Children’s Creative Theater has more acting games.
Bill’s challenge:
I found a few Cub Scout skits on You Tube.
Here are three I liked.
Tiger Den doing Emergency Broadcast Let’s get some more up there, especially originals. If you do, let either Dave or I know about it so we can let everyone else know.
Wolf & Bear Den’s Ugliest Man (maybe at a Blue & Gold)
An original with costumes
RT 492 Home
Training Tips
Training Tips
Philmont Scout Ranch is the Boy Scouts of America’s premier high-adventure base. It covers more than 200 square miles of rugged New Mexico wilderness from the Great Plains up into the beautiful Sangre de Cristo Mountains.
Philmont is High Adventure — Much of Philmont is used for backpacking treks, horseback cavalcades and other high adventure challenges for Scouts and Venturers.
Philmont is History — Philmont straddles the mountain branch of the Santa Fe Trail. See the world’s only known T — Rex track and view centuries old Anasazi rock art. There are archeological sites and museums on site. The nearby town of Cimarron boasts several historical buildings from the old “wild” west.
Philmont is a Working Ranch — Horses, cattle and bison are all raised at Philmont. There are real cowboys, wranglers and ranch hands working there.
Philmont is Training — Adults have opportunities of their own at the Philmont Training Center. World-class courses and seminars cover all aspects of Scouting—all amid Philmont’s dramatic scenery. If you want the best of Scout leadership training, Philmont is for you and your family!
Philmont Training Center (36°27’30”N, 104°57’W)
Of particular interest to Cub Scout leaders, the National Volunteer Training Center of the Boy Scouts of America provides a unique environment for Scouting Conferences each summer and fall. In addition to hosting these Conferences, the Training Center also provides the opportunity for families to join their Scouters and enjoy a wide range of Family Programs-making the Philmont Training Center experience one of a kind.
Attendance: Attendance is limited to Scouters who have been recommended and approved by their local council. Most Cub Scouters who attend training conferences get invitations just by asking their DE. Scouters are encouraged to bring immediate family members with them.
Conferences: Over 96 separate weeklong conferences are scheduled. Conferences will cover almost every aspect of Scouting — from Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting to Council and District Operations, from Venturing and Professional Development to Scoutreach and Finance.
The Conferences are conducted by divisions and committees of the National Council and are led by a faculty of outstanding volunteer and professional Scouters. Each Conference is designed to discuss specific Scouting issues, share information from all over the B.S.A., and train using the "best methods" that will enhance the Scouting program for youth and adults.
Why Should You Go? Because Philmont training has consistently been the most popular and most effective training for Cub Scouting in the last half century. The best improvements in packs, districts and council Cub Scouting I have seen has come from PTC trained people. Philmont Training is family oriented, program directed and fun. What more could you ask for?
Here are some of the 2008 conferences that are popular with Cub Scout leaders:
CUB SCOUT LEADER EXTRAVAGANZA,
June 22-28, Aug. 10-16
RECIPE FOR CUB SCOUT SUCCESS:
Begin with one of the most picturesque Boy Scouts of America properties; mix a big helping of family fun; blend in some of the most dynamic instructors from across the nation; fold in a rich variety of topics, skills, interactive and participatory activities for every volunteer who touches the life of a Cub Scout through the den, pack district and council. No matter what your registered Cub Scout position is, you’ll be cooking.
INGREDIENTS (all mixed according to the Secret Cub Scout Family Formula):
Week 9 — July 27 — August 2
Leadership Support Service /
A full schedule of 2008 Conferences.
While Conference time is important, ample opportunity for a Scouter to enjoy the majesty of Philmont with his or her family is part of the schedule of most Conferences. There is also plenty of time to meet and socialize with other Scouters from all parts of the country. Making life-long friendships is a regular occurrence at Philmont.
Family Program:
One of the great joys of attending a Philmont Conference is that your whole family can share in the experience. You can think of it as a Scouting Family vacation. The schedule is relaxed and the pace is comfortable.
Family Program Groups
Nursery (2 months to 2 year olds) — A fully equipped nursery is available for the youngest family members.
Small Fry (3-5 year olds) — The Small Fry Center is located next to the Handicraft Lodge. Philmont staff provides activities, games, pony rides, and supervised play during each program session.
Cowgirls, Cowpokes (6-7 year olds) — These individual groups participate in nature hikes, pony rides, games, songs and skits, crafts, museum tours, and an all day hike.
Ropers, Deputies (8-9 year olds) — Ropers and Deputies individual programs include hiking, Villa and Museum tours, archery and air rifles, pony rides, games, crafts and an all day hike.
Sidewinders (10 year old boys) — Sidewinders enjoy hiking, sports, crafts, archery and air rifles, Villa and Museum tours, and a Sidewinder/Parent overnighter.
Mustangs (11-13 year old girls) — Mustangs have fun enjoying horse rides, archery and air rifles, hiking, handicraft projects, nature activities, outdoor cooking, games, Villa and Museum tours, and an overnight camping trip in Philmont’s backcountry.
Trailblazers (11-13 year old boys) — This group participates in day hikes, nature activities and games, horse rides, archery and air rifles, handicrafts, and an overnight camping trip in Philmont’s backcountry.
Broncos (14-21 year olds) — The Broncos program is designed to accommodate those teenagers who choose not to participate in the mountain trek program. Broncos will stay at PTC with their families, but enjoy a week of activities built around participation in Philmont’s C.O.P.E. course, day hikes, and horse rides.
Mountain Trek (14-20 year olds) — Mountain Men and Mountain Women treks are backpacking expeditions that provide the opportunity to experience the rugged challenges of Philmont’s mountains. Mountain Trek crews travel approximately 20-30 miles in Philmont’s backcountry.
I have been told that teen-age girls are the most enthusiastic participants at Philmont.
Bill
Silverados (spouses and other adults not attending Conference) — Silverados find that a wide-range of exciting activities are available throughout the week. Activities include museum visits, day hikes, a pottery-making demonstration, Villa tours, COPE, horse rides, and trips to nearby resort towns.
Facilities:
Tent cities accommodate Training Center participants and their families. Tents are large, two person wall tents with wooden or concrete floors, electric lights, an electrical outlet, wardrobe, and two twin sized beds with mattresses. Each tent city has restrooms and hot showers. Cots and cribs are available for use during the week.
Meals
Meals are served in the cafeterias at the Center. Family member who are in camp eat together. Camp meals are provided for those on the trail or in the back country.
Conferences are conducted in fully equipped conference rooms or at various locations in Philmont’s backcountry. Family Program facilities include the Small Fry Center, the Handicraft building, and our Pony Ring. However, most of the time family members will be enjoying the best facility of all-Philmont’s 137,493 acres of “Scouting Paradise.”
Fees 2008
|
Conference participants |
$420 |
I have attended four different Conferences at Philmont. At each one, I learned a lot, had a great time, met wonderful people and had my Scouting spirit lifted to new heights.
Every family member who was with me still talks about their experiences in glowing terms. I am continually impressed with the quality of the staff members who run the family programs. They are special people.
Links —
Star Scout Cody Welch — his experience
Parking, Trading Post, Others
Memories from Scouter who were there:
PTC Program for little guys and gals
Philmont Hymn
Troop 227 2006 Photo Gallery
