new pack's first event

[mtm25653]

I'm an experienced Cub Leader (Tiger Coach, CM, CC, WDL - my youngest of 3 boy scout sons is 15) who is now Committee Chair for a brand new pack started by my church. We are blessed to have a lot of leaders like me, who are willing to give a year to start up a Pack even though our boys are high school or college age. We are all excited about leading a new generation of boys, and about creating brand new traditions.

 

I wanted to tell you about our first Pack event. A few weeks ago, I read an article on some Scout site (don't remember where it was), called "Stop Having Pack Meetings". The premise is that meetings are boring, so don't have meetings, do something fun. I talked with the new CM about this, and we agreed to have monthly Pack Powwows (instead of meetings). Our first was last night.

 

We have about 30 boys - about 14 who transferred from a nearby Pack (where the leaders' boys had been Cubs) and about 16 from Roundup. Tigers, Bears, and Web IIs already had a leader, one BS leader stepped up to take the 3 Web Is, and the CM and I will organize the Wolves (5 of them) until we get a parent to be the den leader.

 

We met outside, in the gravel parking lot of the church. Scouts from the church's troop built and lit a campfire. The Web IIs (who moved from the other Pack) did a formal flag ceremony. Then we had an induction ceremony for the boys and parents. I talked about the early days of Cub Scouting in the US using a Native American theme, and called us the Webelos Tribe, with Akela (CM) as our leader (using a modified form of an advancement ceremony). As I went through the stages the boy would go through in the tribe, the CM and I put face paint (washable with soap) stripes on our faces. Then we asked the boys who wanted to be part of the Webelos Tribe to come forward with their leaders. They repeated the Cub Promise and Law of the Pack, and then they were marked as members of the Pack with a blue stripe on their forehead. Boys who already had a rank got the stripe for their highest rank, and the leaders got the blue stripe and the stripe for the rank their boys will earn this year. Then I had the parents stand and make a parents pledge, including that they would "help as needed to make the pack go." We sang Happy Birthday to the new Pack, and ended with birthday cake.

 

We finished in 55 minutes, but no one wanted to go home. I had a blast, and one boy who had moved into town over the summer said it was "nothing like his old pack, way better."

 

I like being a kid. Have fun with your Pack. What creative, out-of-the-box things does your Pack do?

 

[OneHour]

mtm25653, check out this previous thread to get some ideas of what I did with our pack as a cubmaster once upon a time:

 

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=86452#id_86472

[BrentAllen]

Here are photos from our last Pack meeting. As you can see, it was well received by the boys.

 

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=1AcMm7hu4ZsXJw

 

Program was presented by Steve "The SnakeMaster" Scruggs.

http://www.letsgetwild.net/

 

In November, we are having the only Georgian to ever complete the Iditarod come in for a presentation. He was also a CM and SM. He is bringing his sled, equipment, some of his dogs, and a PowerPoint presentation and film footage. Afterwards, we are going to have our own indoor Iditarod between dens. Each den will bring in a clothes basket and rope. The rope is tied to the basket and the boys are the pullers. The DL sits in the basket, like sitting in an inner tube. Set up a course in the gym and let the dens race!

http://www.cooldreams.net/home.html

 

For December, we have a Marine in his Dress Blues talk about his uniform and about being in the Marines. We tie this in with our Toys for Tots collection. He will help with our annual uniform inspection, inspecting a den or two. 2 years ago, we had a Marine who was also an Eagle Scout make the presentation. We learned the Marines allow Eagles to wear their award on their Dress Blues, which he was doing.

 

Last year we had the local Chattahoochee Nature Center present their Hunters in the Sky program, which included an owl and a hawk.

 

For our Blue and Gold last year, we had the 2003-2004 Antarctic Eagle Scout talk about his trip to Antarctica. He is from a local Troop, and a Senior at Georgia Tech. He was great with the kids, talking about sneezing ice cycles and building igloos. His photos were awesome!

 

I totally agree with you - this is like being a kid again, except we get to plan all the fun as well as participate!

 

We do face painting as part of our rank advancements. I took the info from this page and modified it for our own personal program.

http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Rapids/8047/paint.htm#pww

 

Sounds like y'all are off to a great start and have a very bright future ahead! Good luck!

[DanKroh]

mtm, sounds like your new pack is off to a good start.

 

Our September pack meeting used the "Shipbuilding" theme (actually from October helps). One of our former leaders is a naval architect, so he did a presentation to the boys about what make big ships float. The boys then put that into some practice by building boats using aluminum foil sheets. They tested how well their boats floated by counting how many pennies the boat could hold before it sank in a tub of water. The boys had a blast.

 

October is going to be a Halloween party with each den creating a "street fair" type game for all the boys to do.

 

November, we are going to be having a group of medieval recreationists visit to support the "Cubs In Shining Armor" theme. We are also having a sleepover that month at a local armory museum, complete with a medieval feast.

 

We generally try to have an "outside" pack event each month in addition to the pack meeting. It might be a hike, a sleepover, bowling, or something else informal that the boys do together as a pack.

 

But I agree with you that successful pack meetings have to include fun, hands-on activities, not just a lot of sitting around and talking. Keep up the good work!