How small is too small?

[msnowman]

It was said in another post that perhaps Packs with 5, 6, 7, or 8 boys should consider merging or degrouping and let the boys choose from fewer but larger packs.

 

Coming from a Pack with 6-10 boys, I am very aware of the fact that one size does not always fit all. Our boys go to a school with less than 160 students in grades K-8, less than half of them are boys (the school is really girl heavy right now). They have small classes and know all of the kids in them. The next town over is about 4 times that size and they have a Pack as well. However, all of the families in our Pack prefer to keep their boys in a smaller, hometown Pack as well as smaller school. A few years ago this town rejected a proposal to send their 6th-8th graders to the sparkley new middle school that Nextdoor was building. The reason? They wanted their children to stay involved in Smalltown as long as possible.

 

As the school population swings the Pack population swings. Our Pack is growing again and with new parents taking on leadership roles I think it will continue to grow a bit, though it will never be very big.

 

Small Packs can stay active and provide their youth with an active program. Much of that falls back on to the parents. Larger, fewer Packs can become as impersonal as larger, regional schools. However, I do agree that a small Pack with no interested parents does everybody a disservice.

 

So, in your opinion, how small of a Pack is too small? I think a Pack is too small when you can't get the requist number of adults. Talk freely amongst yourselves...I just ask out of curiosity.

 

YiS

Michelle

[resqman]

I am wondering about den meetings when a Pack is 6-10. If all 5 ranks are represented in a Pack of 6-10 boys, a den may be as small as 0 or 1 boy. While I understand that the skills are often repeated through the ranks, the repetation usually adds a level of difficulty to the skill. How do you present skills to Tigers and Webelos II at the same time?

 

A den meeting could be a one-on-one with a Den leader. If there is only one boy in a den, then the more than likely the parent is the den leader. This sounds very close to Lone Scout type of scouting.

 

While I am sure the boys in such a Pack are getting something from scouting, it seems they may be missing the doing things with boys their own age level part.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Quality program is essential for a Pack of any size. If I could visit one Pack meeting and one Den meeting and take a couple of rolls of film with the parent's permission, of course, you would see a reflection of what I mean.

 

We just completed our Day Camp. One young burr headed Wolf told me that he never smiled. After just a few minutes, I walked up to him and asked him what had happened to his face. I didn't get a verbal reply. FB

[Hunt]

I think any organization has to have "critical mass" to succeed, and that means an adequate number of people available to attend meetings and outings for them to be a good experience. For a scout unit, I think it means having enough boys at each age level for them to make friends and have fun doing similar activities. I think 6 to 10 is pretty small--however, it may work if everyone shows up all the time.

[Jeffrey H]

A small Pack of less than 10 boys will work just fine if it has enthusiatic leaders and volunteers that provide a quality program of fun meetings and outdoor events.

 

I hesitate to give a hard number because I just don't know. I do agree with the previous post that a small Pack must have consistent attendance by all members to succeed.

[SemperParatus]

I have always been involved with large units. Many times I wished they were much smaller. Having no experience in this matter, I wholeheartedly agree with Jeffrey H that "A small Pack of less than 10 boys will work just fine if it has enthusiatic leaders and volunteers that provide a quality program of fun meetings and outdoor events."