Pack parent training?

[CC Tonya]

Our pack is less than one year old. We started out with 6 boys (4 Tigers, 2 Wolves) and pretty much each parent had to step up to a leadership role for us to become a pack. Lucky me--I'm the committee chair. I've immersed myself in all of the leadership books, have done all the training I can, go to roundtable, etc., in order to try to provide leadership for the pack. I'm loving it.

 

Our growth in the Spring & fall roundups has been huge--we are up to 30 boys now from 28 families.

 

I'm wondering what I can do to further "train" the new parents in the pack. We came up with a parent handbook that we give to each new family, we have a pretty decent website with links to all the scout info they could want. But there still is an element of total confusion with the new parents and ... suprise! Everyone looks to me (still wet behind the ears myself) to provide the leadership.

 

I was looking at the committee chair job description in the leader handbook and noticed one of the points is to "Provide a training program for adult family members."

 

What does everyone else do to orient new families?

 

Thanks for any advice!

[fgoodwin]

Congrats on growing your Pack so much in just your second year.

 

With so many new parents on board, try to get one of them to be the Pack Trainer. Its the PT's job to provide new parent orientation, but if you don't have one, that role will fal to the CC or CM.

 

In addition to a parent HB (only good if the parents actually read it), there is a parent orientation video available from National. Ask your DE if your Council provides a lending library of videos, or if they can make a copy for you (not sure which of these two is the actual parent orientation video):

 

AV-01V006 Cub Scouting: It's Not Just For Kids ($14.95)

AV-01V012 Cub Scout Orientation ($15.95)

 

If your Council doesn't have the video available for loan or copy, ask the staff at your Scout Shop, they may be able to order it for you.

[mtm25653]

I'm committee chair of a brand new pack of 28 boys (14 transfers from a nearby pack). I'm also a former Cub RT commissioner and district trainer.

 

We are camping this weekend, and including 2 parent sessions - 1 hour for new Tiger/Wolf/Bear parents, with an overview of cub scouting, including the terminology - what is a den, pack, Tiger, Wolf, Bear, Webelos, also what is a district and council; quick intro to advancement (Bobcat first, then year rank, then arrow points/electives); who's who in the Pack; overview of calendar (PWD in Jan, B&G in Feb, etc.), then I'll take questions.

 

At the same time, our Cubmaster (and Asst Scoutmaster) will do a similar session for Webelos boys and parents, with an introduction to Boy Scouting and how Webelos transition to Boy Scouts. The Tiger/Wolf/Bear boys will be playing games with their den leaders.