All this talk about crossover reminded me...

[beardad]

All the questions lately of Cross over and Blue and Gold, reminded me that my son is crossing over to Boy scouts on Wednesday. He earned his AOL at our B&G banquet, and now is just biding his time.

 

I took over as his den leader in December. It is just my son and one other boy. We joined this pack at the beginning of his web 1 year, but he started as a wolf in another pack.

 

My question is this. What should I do for the ceremony? I have no idea what I am supposed to say or do. I have only been the den leader for 3 months. he had two other den leaders before me.

 

The other dad is building a bridge. I guess he didn't like the rope bridge used during last years ceremony. So I know at some point the boys are going to cross this bridge where somebody in the new troop (scoutmaster or spl) will remove their neckers and replace it with a new one.

 

What do I say or do up to that point. One idea I had was to have each of the scouts in new troop to come out with a lit candle and state one point of the law, but I don't think there are 12 kids in the troop. we have a cool fire pit on premises where we hold the meetings and I was going to have a fire going and such, but I think it's going to rain, and plus it will be dark out.

 

I guess I am overwhelmed with this whole thing, and am not much of a public speaker. Any ideas or directions. I don't want to make this too complicated, but I want it to be memorable for the two boys.

[Eagle92]

bear,

Contact the CM ASAP for a copy of the ceremony script. Every unit does it different, and some untis don't do Crossovers at all, that's the job of the troop and/or OA.

 

good luck and CONGRATULATIONS! Now the fun really begins.

[ScoutNut]

Do a Google search on - BSA crossover ceremony. You get back 507,000 results. Lots of places on the 'net that have ceremonies. Pick one you like and use it. Pick a few, and combine the parts that you like, have the resources for, feel fit your boys, etc.

 

Campfire ceremonies are always fun. Being dark is a good thing for a campfire ceremony.

 

If it rains, move it indoors. Ask if the Pack, or the Troop your Webelos are going to, has a fake campfire. Many units have electric campfires as ceremony props. I think between out Pack, and Troop, we have 3.

 

With crossover the day after tomorrow, you don't have the time to put together much of anything fancy. Get on the internet and look up ceremonies. You should be able to find something nice you can whip together. But you need to start NOW!

 

[sbemis1]

In our area one of the troops usually runs the actual crossover ceremony, or with more time the local OA will do a really nice one.

[Buffalo Skipper]

Our pack has also used the OA for many years, at least the last 5. But even though most of the local packs use the OA, some have crossovers in a different environment. We do ours at B&G. Others have a post-B&G pack campout (a month or so later) in which the boys crossover to troops invited to camp with them.

 

In the OA ceremony, the Den leader is (presumably) just another parent, and has no part, speaking or silent. It is the Cubmaster who represents the Webelos, and as the Webelos cross the bridge, they stop midway, turn around, salute their cubmaster with the cub scout salute, turn and continue across the bridge and are greeted by the receiving SPL with the Boy Scout handshake.

 

I posted the ceremony about a year ago here:

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=228009#id_228074

 

 

(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

[beardad]

Thanks for all the ideas guys. We had the Cross over ceremony last night and I think it turned out well. I took bits and pieces of different ceremonies I found on the web.

 

We held it outside at our fire bowl during the last half of the den meeting. we had all the other ranks file out to the fire bowl, were we had a big fire going and a bridge.

 

I called the 2 boys who were crossing over up to the fire and gave my speech. mostly talking about there journey through scouts.

 

Then we had 12 members from the boy scout troop they were joining come out of the woods with lit candles each one reciting one of the points of the law and basically lining the bridge so it looked as the bridge was lined with candles.

 

When that was done I had each kid 1 at a time cross the bridge stopping in the middle to cub scout salute the cubmaster then when he got to the other side he boy scout saluted his new scout master.

 

they were met on the other side by boy scouts who removed there neckers and epulets and replaced with new ones, the last one giving them their new books. the scoutmaster welcomed them to the troop, and that was it.

 

I guess I should change my username to scoutdad now or something, but I guess my younger son will be a bear next school year, so it will be apt again.

 

sorry for the long post.

 

edited to add: I found out recently that the pack we are in has been around 45 years (that's 12 years more than me) and the troop my son just joined as been around since 1928 (that is the year my grandparents were born) useless bits of info, but I thought it was neat.(This message has been edited by beardad)

[artjrk]

That ceremony sounds terrific. I like the inclusion of the rest of the Pack as well as the boys from the Troop. I take it there is a close relationship between the Pack and the Troop. Which in many cases can be a good thing.

 

[beardad]

It's fairly close, we share the same CO and meeting space (kind of), and I think we collaborate on one or two things a year.

 

Thanks for the kind words.

[silasm]

I like the "salute the Cubmaster and then the Scoutmaster" thing. I will be adding that to our ceremony!