Monthly Themes

[eaglewings2002]

Hello,

 

I would like to hear about the Monthly themes in the Program helps. Do any of your packs use these? If not, why? I would really love to hear pros and cons. I am newly in charge of our pack (until we get a new CM!!) and we have never used the themes in the past, other than maybe for the B&G banquet. We are having a planning meeting tomorrow and I am thinking of going with the themes. It sure sounds good in the Program helps. So how does it work? Do the dens have the choice whether to follow them or not?

 

Thanks in advance!

[Laurie]

Monthly themes can be a real asset to planning a pack meeting. That is when I see it come together. We only recently began using them, but in reality, I was the only one truly sold on them. When two DLs took training recently, they came back excited them because however the instructor pitched themes, it clicked with them. The draw back to program helps is that there is far too much planned for each meeting, but that's ok; just choose what is needed for den and pack meetings. Add too if you like. This is an idea book. The pros are that the den crafts or projects or field trips or whatever else they are working on all have a common theme when the pack meeting comes around. Add a themed song, themed skits, themed decorations, and a great deal of the meeting is already done because of what took place in the dens. It also eliminates a lot of work. Less time is spent trying to find ideas that are age-appropriate as well as meeting advancements/achievements. We are planning the coming year in about a month or two, and the program help themes will guide all planning we do, including the budget. It allows us to project what we will be doing in a more accurate way than ever before. Hope this helps Have fun!

 

p.s. One more thing: we are very flexible. For instance, my hope was to use the Fiesta theme for our Blue and Gold this past February. That just didn't work for us and we found that a Native American theme was doable and great fun. We had just gone to Powwow, and we took classes that pretty much planned it out for us--all we needed to do was adjust it to our own pack. This month, we are not using the planned theme. We have done, in dens and as a pack, several things related to geology, volcanos, and the like. Therefore, we are having our own version of Cub Rock for May, even having changed the words to the Flintstone theme to create a song titled "Cubs Rock". Skits are related, and I am giving out awards by "panning for them" using my kids' sand strainer and a big dish with water and gravel. The DLs like it, it fits what they are doing, and therefore all the pieces are just coming together with the greatest of ease.(This message has been edited by Laurie)

[KoreaScouter]

When I was a Cubmaster, I insisted my DLs use the program helps. Why mess with a plan that's worked for 75 years? Moreover, with different programs at each level, the best way to ensure that each level is age-appropriate, feeding into each other, and they sync up at pack meetings, is to use the program helps.

 

The DLs and dens I saw that had the most difficulty were the ones who tried to get too creative.

 

KS

[Eamonn]

At our planning meeting we would have all the themes and use most of them.

We changed them to fall in line with what the District was doing and some of the things that we were doing as a pack. For example we had a fishing derby in June, so fishing was the theme. We did however get all the dens working on the same theme.

Eamonn