NEW PACK NEEDS ADVICE

[tommymcl1230]

Hi i am Tom from New York. We have just started a pack or packs in a city where scouting has not been around for 20 years.I am the Cubmaster of one of these packs and i really need the wisdom of everyone here. Since this is a new thing ,and i have no idea where to start or what to do after the parents get trained? Where do i start?What is my first order of bussiness after the leaders are trained? Please oh please do not tell me to talk to my DE or commisner.they knew this was coming. I know one thing i WILL not do is be a leader who uses the baggie syle of award giving.I love the way Cubmaster Chris talks on his podcast about awards.Please i need your wisdom here. Thank you

[scoutldr]

Hi, Tom and welcome to the campfire. I was a CM for 5 years, back in the early 80's. Things have changed a little, but not much. As I learned it, the CM's primary job is to Emcee the Pack meetings. Attend roundtable every month...if they are done well, you will come away with more ideas than you can use. Same goes for the Den Leaders. Your Pack Committee Chair is really the one who runs the business end of the Pack, along with the committee members. Let them figure out the logistics...you and the Den Leaders deliver the program. Best advice I can give...don't attempt to do everything yourself...recruit good people and let them do their thing. FIrst order of business: yearly planning meeting. Use the published themes for each month or do your own. Also have an active summer planned. Biggest mistake Packs and Dens make is to "take the summer off". The boys are paying for a year-round program. Cub Day Camp and Resident Camp are a must.

 

If you have specific questions, let us know. There's probably a gazillion years of experience here on the forum!

[FScouter]

Welcome to the forums, congratulations, and good luck with the new pack.

 

There are a lot of folks here that will offer a lot of good ideas for you. I'll offer one, rather negative I'm afraid. Call the district executive and DEMAND that a unit commissioner be assigned to the pack, and that you can't/won't get started without one. It's astounding that a district would have an idea to start a new pack and expect the Cubmaster to flounder around the internet with no idea about how to get started.

[infoscouter]

The BSA publishes a great item called "The Pack's First THree Months". You will find it here:

http://old.scouting.org/cubscouts/resources/13-010/13-010-E.pdf

 

It walks you through three months of den and pack meetings, as well as discussing program planning and meeting details.

 

Your program planning meeting is vital.

 

Here are some resources from your council which you may find helpful:

http://www.hvcbsa.org/2008_2009_new_program_launch/program_launch_home.html

 

Find out where your district holds Roundtable (I can't find it on your council web site), but you should be able to contact your district commissioner from the info here:

http://www.hvcbsa.org/commissioner/

 

Roundtable will help you talk to others and get support and ideas from them.

 

 

[DenZero]

Here are my recommendations. First, get copies of the Cub Scout Leader Book and the Cub Scout Leader How-To Book. Maybe even get enough so that everyone willing to be a leader can read through them. The cubmaster and every den leader ought to have the How-To Book. Youll learn more from them than from Cub Scout leader training. The cubmaster and the committee chair should both have the Cub Scout Leader Book

 

If you have enough people, try to form an actual pack committee. Not just a paper committee, but one that actually meets regularly. Especially if theyve been through the training or read the Cub Scout Leader Book, they should be able to notice problems and work to fix them before it is too late. At the very least, the committee chair should not hold another position in the pack.

 

Make sure that there are enough potential boys available to recruit. Find out why previous packs have failed in your area. If you cant get at least 15 boys year after year, there wont be enough adults for potential leaders, and the unit will fail.

 

It sounds like more than one pack is being started in your area. If thats the case, work out an agreement on recruiting territories, and work together on recruiting. Recruiting is hard enough without another pack trying to recruit out from under you.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Yep, lots of good advice here so far...

 

Put all your Den Leaders and Committee Members through the various Cub Scout Fast Starts and the BSA Youth Protection training. You can do this from the My Scouting tab at www.scouting.org

 

Have folks surf through the Cub Scout portion of the Scouting.org website. Lots of info there to be culled.

 

Remember the key thing about 8-10 year olds: Keep It Simple, Make It Fun!

[ScoutNut]

First order of business, before anything else, is to get YOURSELF trained. BSA National has Fast Start and Youth Protection training online -

 

http://scoutnet.scouting.org/elearning

 

This will actually give you a good idea of what to expect.

 

Next, don't worry about creating a Pack Committee. That is the job of the Committee Chair. Your job is the Pack program and the monthly Pack meetings.

 

Now you need to put together a Pack plan for the year. Gather the calenders from your District, Council, Charter Organization, and area schools. Meet together with your Committee Chair (CC), your Charter Org Rep (COR), your Unit Commissioner (UC), and all of your other Pack leaders and plan 1) place/date/time/activities of Recruitment Round-up(s) 2)place/dates/time of the monthly Committee Meeting 3)place/dates/time of the dens den meetings 4)place/dates/time of the monthly Pack Meeting. Try to be as consistent as possible with the days and times so that it is easier for the families to remember (ie - Tiger den meeting every Tues at 6PM in Charter Org's meeting room, Pack meeting last Thursday of the month at 7PM in School Gym). Pick the themes for each months Pack meeting. Decide on any "special" Pack meetings (Pinewood Derby, Holiday Party, Blue & Gold, Graduation, etc). Decide on which Pack meetings will have a "guest presenter" (FD Smoke House for fire Prevention month, Naturalist from local park, etc) and get ideas for who/what. Decide on some cheap, easy Pack outings for the first few months (bike hike on local bike trail, kite fly at a local park, picnic, etc). Put together a Pack Calender for the year to give to potential new families.

 

Attend, with your CC, your Council/District's Program Kickoff and any recruitment presentations. Have your CC recruit a Popcorn Kernal. Include fundraising dates on your Pack calender.

 

 

[trebor2152]

It sounds like your heart is in the right place. What bothers me is the fact that you are located in my council. You speak of your DE as if they let this happen. Once you attend a few roundtables and begin talking to other leaders I hope you will see that 1)Our movement is in constant need of dedicated, trained volunteers 2)Our paid staff and volunteer commissioners are stretched thin and 3)Your parents hold the key to your success. I recently became Cubmaster (four months ago I became assistant cubmaster) and at our leader's meeting last Friday I handed out a preliminary schedule for the year containing every leader's meeting, pack meeting, district training, council event and pack event I could get off of the calendar distributed at Program Launch. I stressed to all my leaders that we need to be fully trained, that one of them needs to accompany me to every roundtable, that I wished they all would attend Pow-Wow and that we needed to stress our willingness to take every bit of time that parents had to give, no matter how small. After all, one less phone call you have to make is fifiteen minutes of time you could be devoting to your family. My son just crossed into Webelos, and I will be there for him despite my new resposibilities. Stress two-deep leadership for all your dens, don't turn away new Tigers because none of their parents feel they can step up into the leader role, and above all else involve the families in pack meetings and outings. Don't go it alone. Best of luck, and write if you need help.