Program Helps

[trlarue]

I was wondering how many people use the program helps or do most focus meetings on achievements

[ScoutNut]

The Program Helps are, as the name states, a great help. They have lots of good ideas for den & pack meetings.

 

Den meetings shouls NEVER be 100% focused on achievements. If you do that you are eliminating one of the purposes of Cub Scouting (family understanding) & one of the methods (family involvement).

 

Cub Scouts is a FAMILY BASED program. If your pack's families do not agree with that then what they want is babysitting, not Cub Scouting.

 

[ManassasEagle]

I never really used the Program Helps much but neither did we just focus on advancement requirements. Remember the guiding principle of KISMIF - Keep It Simple, Make It Fun. I just always tried to come up with activities that the Cubs would find interesting and fun. If it just so happens that some requirements got met in the process, that's a bonus.

[Michael DeMar]

Our Pack uses Program Helps as a guide for Den and Pack Meetings, although we often substitute more challenging (and consequently more fun) activities than those suggested in Program Helps in order to keep the boys interested.

 

While we might introduce or start work on an achievement in a Den or Pack Meeting, we would never make it the main focus of the meeting. When we include work on acheivements in a Den or Pack Meeting, we try to make sure that they fit with the monthly theme and also lend themselves well to being worked on this type of setting (e.g., a simple craft project).

[jens3sons]

Our pack uses the program helps to help us plan our Pack Meetings...as far as using them for den meetings, I can't say any of our dens do that. We use the den meetings to focus on the boys earning their achievements, but we use our pack meetings for fun and celebrating what the boys have achieved. We don't always use the monthly theme ideas in order, we may "switch" them up a bit to accomidate other agendas, or what works best for us to get outdoors or the usage of the school etc, but I must admit, I am very happy to get my new copy of the helps each year!

[Jeffrey H]

We use the program helps as a guide primarily for Pack Meetings and as a reference for fresh ideas, but we don't hold hard and fast to them.

 

Our den meetings are a mix of achievements and activities. If there are fun and interesting achievements/electives that we can do in a den meeting, we do them together as a den. We let the parents know what we worked on so they do not have to repeat it at home. Most of the achievements have to be done at home anyway, so find the fun stuff in the handbook and have a good time. Remember to throw in some cheers, applauses, and upbeat songs.