I hate spring sports

[starwolfmom]

Not really, but I hate what they do to our pack meetings. I had a terrific meeting planned for last night--our Scout executive, dressed like a pirate, came to talk about summer day camp, and I had a herpetologist bring several of her snakes to show the boys.

 

On a really good day (like the Pinewood Derby) I'll have 18 Cubs. Last night, I had 7. Soccer practice, lacrosse practice, baseball practice--wiped out my numbers.

 

Certainly the boys who were there had a great time--they loved the snakes! And the pirate! I told them to be sure and tell their buddies what they missed.

 

But I still felt really discouraged. Do you have similar experiences in the spring?

 

Elizabeth J

[FScouter]

Did you tell the boys beforehand that the next meeting would have snakes and pirates?

[ManyHats]

We started to see a decrease about a month ago in my son's den. They had finished the requirements for their rank and the den leaders were trying to cram in several electives before graduation Wed. night. Now we are done with meetings and will just have Pack events until roundup in Aug.

[Karen_216]

Yep. Same here.

To make it worse we just had Webelos 2 den cross over. So there I was new CM up there with only 15 of a pack of 40!! We had a FOS presentation and then only 10 mins left to present our collections and make announcements, etc. (Maybe FOS drove them away too?? I hate to say that , it's a very worthwhile cause but I've put over 300 of my own in this year!! )

We have a great meeting planned for May with the boy scouts being involved but my own son has a bball game and several other leaders children do as well. I try to have my son do some sports them come out but try to make them leavem in the middle of a game.

Oh well......

[msnowman]

We're lucky - our Pack meetings are on Sunday afternoons so we don't conflict with most youth sports. During wrestling we have a boy or two miss here or there for a tournament, but routine practices don't effect us much.

 

Sure would hate be a Tuesday evening group - you must get decimated. Best wishes to all of you out there keeping things running even when the boys are elsewhere running bases or laps.

 

YiS

Michelle

[clydesdale115]

I always thought Sunday afternoon meetings would be ideal but it just didn't take off in our Pack. In fact, our CO was a Methodist church that didn't hold Sunday evening services so we could easily have used the building without conflict.

 

Karen's point was a good one: we have several who will come to a pack meeting and sneak out just after they get their awards to head to baseball, but I seriously doubt the coach would let them leave a game early to come to a pack meeting. More often than not, sports would beat out Scouts.

 

It goes back to a quality program, though. We have to make them "want" to choose Scouts over sports when there is a conflict. I do think they can do both, especially now when most of the boys have made rank and are just working on electives and such. But our pack meetings need to be bang-up to get them there. Pirates and snakes - now that's my kind of pack meeting - what more could a boy want?!

 

What's that song? "I don't like pirates and snakes, and that ain't what it takes to ... "

Oh well, it's something like that!

 

:-)

clyde

 

[Pack212Scouter]

I hate this drop-off as well. I hate the fact that many people feel that sports is more important than Scouting. Unfortunatly it is a fact of life anymore. Also realize that most sports require more of a committment that Scouts (as in you must be there) so Scouting takes the hit. Our Pack started feeling the hit about a month ago and it is the reason that we push very hard to graduate everyone up by our April Awards Banquet. We have found that in 99% of the cases, if they don't earn their rank badge by the end of March they won't complete it.

[ScoutNut]

We have a lot of our boys in sports too, and yes, it does affect attendance.

 

However, we are flexible, and our families are well practiced at doing multiple things all at the same time!

 

At our Pack meeting last night we did our "gathering" portion for rather longer than usual because it was looking a bit bleak. But eventually we had most every family (and a few newbies!) show up. Our Wolf den was on stage receiving their awards when 2 of their number, in soccer pads buttoning their scout shirt over soccer uniform, came running full speed into the hall and onto the stage!

 

 

[gcan]

seems like this is a problem for everyone! We have rescheduled our meetings to fit in with soccer and baseball schedules- I have a bad feeling I'd know what would win if we make the kids choose. that might be a little hard with 40 kids in a pack, though it works well for our pack of 18.

 

we actually have committee meetings at the soccer field... adapt and overcome, lol!

[Jeffrey H]

Sports is a reality because all Cub Scout Packs have one common denominator. They all have boys and many boys love sports (not all, but many). We have the same issue in our Pack and we don't consider it a problem. Many of our active scout families are active with sports. They enjoy Scouts, but have other interests.

 

Scouting is a year-round program, so my suggestion is to maintain good rapport with those families that are very active in sports! I know it can be frustrating at times, but avoid making negative remarks about missing meetings, outings, etc.

 

Sports (also music) are complements to the Scout program. Do not put down those that are heavily involved with these acitivities or you will lose them completely.

 

Give special recognition to those Scouts that attend regularly and thank them for making the Pack go! Make it fun and get them outside on campouts and outings.

 

 

[mrsstroh]

we have this problem in winter too with ski clubs. we now alternate meeting dates weekly so the boys only miss every other meeting.