Blue and Gold limited time

[Eagle309]

The church that charters us has imformed us that due to its busy schedule, we have only two hours to use the building for our Blue and Gold. In this time we have the meal, skits from each den, awards culminating in Arrow of Light and cross over, and finally desert. In my opinion (as Cubmaster) the schedule is too tight for two hours especially if Murphy rears his ugly head. What could we cut out/abbreivate to make sure we can get done in time?

My vote would be for the desert, but parents have already been told to make something for this.

[Rixkidz]

We ran into the same problem a few years ago...

 

We changed our B&G to be just about the Advancement to BSA for our Webelos.

 

We do no skits except the AOL program for the WEB2, there are no other advancements or awards, but we still look at about 2 1/2 hours for the evening..

[SemperParatus]

You should serve the food immediately and do the skits, awards, ceremonies while everyone is eating (unfortunately, as CM you will probably end up taking a bite when you can). Put the desserts out with the food to be gotten, or have dens keep their brought deserts at their table to share while eating. As soon as the last person is through the buffet line - start r' up. If the boys have prepared skits already, you should probably not cut that out, especially if they are B&G related. Now, if you have ten or so dens, maybe it is necessary to ask half of them to perform at the March pack meeting. Make sure the awards are well organized so that scouts are basically only brought up once for all of their awards (rather than multiple times for multiple awards). Consider attaching each boys awards to a cardboard cutout (fleur de lis or whatever) so it is as simple as handing one thing to each. Maybe don't read off every award for every boy (gosh is that boring), but rather say something special about the boy or one of the awards he earned. I come from a background of handling the AOL and Crossover as separate events, but I think you need to abide by your pack's tradition and the expectation of the webelos and their troops.

 

Thats a shame. Have you looked into other possible venues or is it just too late in the game?(This message has been edited by SemperParatus)

[OneHour]

We usually have ours lasted 2 hours, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm on a Friday. This included ceremony (namely rank advancement), skit, awards and eating. It got really long when you have 10 dens parading through the rank advancement. This year we are knocking off the rank advancement portion, because the pack dwindles down to 40% after B&G. I guess that everyone thinks that once the boy got his rank, they don't need to attend the pack meeting any more. This year, we will have just plain fun! We will eat, show a slide show of past events, award pinewood derby winners, recognize several of our parents, and then recognize our 2nd year Webelos! Their AoL is on a separate night. We figure 1 1/2 hours. By the way, we have about 100 boys in our pack.

 

One other thing, our Pack feels that the Arrow of Light is very important for our 2nd year to rush through a Blue & Gold or a pack meeting. We elected, about 8 years ago, to hold it as a separate event. We'd invite the local Order of the Arrow chapter to perform the ceremony. At the B&Gk, we recognize the 2nd Webelos for their achievement such as Super Achiever badge, Religious Award, etc. The cross-over night is celebrated by friends and family with refreshment. We also invite the troop(s) that will receive our Webelos. So far, every one of the AoL has been memorable.

 

1Hour(This message has been edited by OneHour)

[knottyfox]

Past experiences as a Charter Organisation Rep. I asked the pastor and the trusties if Scouting was a ministry in the church or not. The answer was quickly a ministry. Meeting rooms were shuffled and everyone was satisfied. Perhaps a visit with the Pastor is in order?

 

Knotty Fox