April-D

Do any of you have poems or certificates or words/speeches or ideas to thank the PARENTS of the WEBELOS that are crossing over for their dedication to the Pack and their children... ???

Oh boy do CS EVER know what Star Wars are -- I have a 3 1/2 year old that LOVES it. We just went to a birthday party for a 5 year old and he lives and breathes it. My 4 year old nephew can tell you everyone's name. My 8 year old wolf is quite the Star Wars junkie as well. I think this sounds AWESOME! I want you to post some pictures of your B&G for me to see after it's done! This sounds way cool!!! There are SO many ways you can run with this... the sky is the limit! May the force be with you!

Our pack meetings generally don't have a theme (pretty boring -- which is one of the reasons I joined this board -- to help turn that around 180 degrees) so, that being said, I wouldn't need the ceremony to reflect any particular theme. Just looking for "COOL" here to give some wow factor and get the Tigers then excited about earning Wolf rank NEXT year! We've got two VERY active tiger dens and I want to help retain their enthusiasm. This ceremony WILL be for the wolves only. If we have any other dens earning rank -- it would probably be a separate ceremony... I've contacted the two tiger den leaders to see when they're on track for their rank advancement. Our pack meeting in April will be our last official pack "meeting" of the school year. We do have a crossing over campout in May but no pack meeting... which is why I want to do this in April. I'm sure there are way cool ways to do this at the campfire but since they'll have already crossed over during the day, backtracking and giving them rank at the fire pit wouldn't seem ??? well, heck... maybe it would be cool??? what do I know! Our advancement chair actually just started being our CC so the other one is a little more involved with boy scouts and isn't really probably giving 100% to CS anymore... but I don't want my boys going without b/c no one else takes the time... KWIM?

Yes, we had 40-50 MPH winds yesterday -- don't htink they'd be too hip on fires in brush areas then. However, in March, who knows how it'll be. I can hope.. but I think the meals are all in the mess hall anyway but it'd still be fun to do a campfire at our campsite each night!

I am BALOO trained... and ok, that makes total sense -- advertised as a pack event and even if we're the only den that attends -- it's still our pack going... just only my den... gotcha! This is not our Council's resident camp... that isn't until another time.

I'm interested in any ideas you have for tried and true ceremonies for boys earning the wolf rank. I've got a den of 10 that will be earning this in April and I would love to hav eit all preplanned!

What do we do at your pack meetings? We have a flag presentation, opening, announcements, skit, applause, awards, presentation of the spirit stick, closing. We follow the monthly theme, per se, but it's up to the den to do whatever THEY want to do for their assigned task. As far as a demonstration - we've never done one that I'm aware of -- This is my 2nd year as being a leader. The only time we've done a display that I'm aware of is on rally night when weve had other leaders bring things their boys had done or when I've had my den bring something we worked on and we put it out on display. Our pack meetings are about an hour long. The Christmas one ran long but generally from 7-8 pm. We do not serve refreshments. We generally do not have any special guest presentations... but I think that's about to change with our new CC because he, like me, wants to make these meetings FUN and the are NOT! They are quite boring... The best pack meeting, by FAR, was where the boys got to witness a ceremony when the Bears had earned their Webelos badges... I had never seen the entire audience so engrossed in the ceremony. You oculd have heard a pin drop. Our den leaders are going to be the ones responsible for doing this as our CM does not -- I jsut recently learned that ... that is the kind of thing that is supposed to be his job... ??? I don't want my wolves to just be given their rank and have a hand shake so I'm really going ot make a fun ceremony when they get theirs in April. (which reminds me -- need to post about that! ha) We generally always stick to the monthly themes -- but we don't decorate or anything... just use the skits, etc. to represent that.

This is the link to the actual registration form http://www.longhorncouncil.org/events01/flyers/cub_family_adventures_2007-2008.pdf I'm just saying... if we promote it as a pack thing but no one but my den decides to go -- can we still go as a representation of our pack but just be a den?

I can't find the guidelines to verify - but we have a couple of council sponsored events coming up and I'd love to go with my den of wolves to them. Our Outdoor Activities Director will not be in town for a couple of them (she's acclimating as ASM to Boy Scouts with her eldest that crosses over in February) so she won't be organizing this as a Pack event... but I'd still like to encourage my den to go and participate... this is allowed right? Since it's a council event?

I have two kiddos in my den that are autistic and having something to help them fixate on their oral sensation actually keeps them focused on the meeting... it's generally something as simple as crackers, goldfish, pretzels. Typically I didn't provide a snack but doing this has really helped keep my den under control (10 Wolves)

I would love to know the timeline for your B&G banquets... does anyone have a program they'd like to share? We,too, are doing the Chinese New Year Theme and frankly... YEE GADS... it's been interesting planning this.