What To Do With Webelos!

[mc99218]

Weebs at Camporees are always problematic.

But it the adult baggage that compounds the felony of mixin and matchin east and west which kipling says just wont work.

 

As a long time district commissioner I always admonished program poohbahs to leave weeb attendance and other boy scout wannabees of age to the scoutmasters.

 

Sure ,bully pulpit the SMs at RTs to "invite" the weebs as individual boy prospects (call up the parent) not as a weeb den with attending theatrical strings and adult detailia....

 

Use "new boy" patrol if you must ,better still sprinkle the new blood into the existing patrols and tell those patrol leaders to to "watch the basket"

 

In the end its supposed to be about individuals ...paiting their faces white and sending them to the jungle to swim with the big bears ...so to speak

 

Weeb dens and cub scouting orthodontia do not belong in patrol environments...and boy scout ways and means need to be free of cub scouting social gymnastics...

 

East is East and west is west and seldom the twain meet.

 

Bring the wannabees to outings as "invited prospects" and let the scoutmaster deal with the minutia...(not cub leadership or parent needed )

 

all scouting is local

 

all esle is vanity

 

campfire chatter

 

MCCET

PMTNPO

OWL

 

 

[Mom2ThreeScouts]

My district runs a "Webelos-Ree" along side the Camporee. The Webelos have their own activities, games that teach scout skills, and their own campsite. However, they are right next to the Boy Scouts and can visit the troops and observe some of the Boy Scout competitions. My Webelos I den will be attending in April.

 

As far as what to do with Webelos, mine are keeping very busy. So far, since we bridged in June, the boys have gone to day camp (same ole, same ole), Webelos resident camp, our Council's centennial encampment, and a district Webelos weekend camp (where they pitched their own tents and, with the help of parents, cooked their own dinner and breakfast). In addition to being the Webelos I Den Leader, I run the pack Hiking Team (Hiking Club seem to exclusive a name) so most of my Webelos attend the Pack monthly hikes. So far we have kept quite busy.

 

This is my third son to go through Cub Scouts so I am very familiar with the program and I am blessed with wonderful, active parents. Most of the parents are very enthusiastic about outings, both day hikes and overnighters. We are slowly converting the one reluctant scout (and parent) to the wonders of sleeping in a tent. We are are going on a camp out in March and another one in May. Our Pack has a pack camp out in June and we will be attending a different Webelos resident camp in August. At the end of September we will probably do a "Good Bye to Summer" camp out. There are a handful of troops in the area that plan events for Webelos II and we will, of course, be starting to visit the different troops. The boys have earned their Webelos Rank and are well on their way to Arrow of Light. I anticipate a very busy 12 months until they cross over into Boy Scouts.

[dkurtenbach]

What concerns me about this discussion is the premise that the Webelos Scout program is boring because it is simply more of the same stuff that the Scouts have been doing since Tigers, and the notion that the solution is more contact with Boy Scouts and Boy Scouting.

 

If the Webelos Scout program is boring, in my experience, it is because the den leaders are running the Webelos den program just like they ran the Tiger, Wolf, and Bear den programs. If the Webelos Scout program is not fun, in my experience, it is because the den leaders are far too focused on racing through as many advancement requirements as possible rather than carefully selecting (with input from the Scouts) the program activities that will satisfy advancement requirements but will be the most interesting and have the most potential for building extended fun activities around.

 

The solution is not to push Webelos dens toward Boy Scouts and Boy Scouting activities, but to train Webelos Den Leaders to run fun Webelos den programs using Webelos Scout materials.

 

The question "What To Do With Webelos?" is what Boy Scout Camporee planners ask each other after Webelos dens are foisted on them by well-meaning but misguided district activities committees.

 

Dan K.(This message has been edited by dkurtenbach)

[Eagledad]

//The solution is not to push Webelos dens toward Boy Scouts and Boy Scouting activities, but to train Webelos Den Leaders to run fun Webelos den programs using Webelos scout materials.//

 

Exactly! Leaders who use the Activity Pins as a theme to plan fun activities will do a lot better than leaders set on earning the pins or training boy scouts. Let pins be a byproduct of a fun program and you find most of the scouts will rack up pins without even knowing they are doing it.. Let the scouts fun meter tell you if you are doing it right. If they are having fun in the den, they will join a troop. If the den is boring, then so is the troop.

 

And try to do as much of the activities outside as you can. We live with in five minutes of a lake, several parks and school tracks. You can do a lot of activities that are really easy to plan in those places. I cant remember the number of times I called scouts parents 30 minutes before the meeting to move the meeting to the park or lake because the weather was so nice. As I said before, an eagle scout who was one of my Webelos told me Webelos was the most fun he had in scouting.

 

Barry

[SeattlePioneer]

There are two separate issues here:

 

 

1) Getting a top notch Cubmaster to discuss how to run an excellent Webelos program at the Cub Scout Roundtable.

 

I don't see any objections to that...

 

 

2) Allowing new 2nd year Webelos Dens to participate in Camporee, competing among themselves.

 

That seems to be controversial.

 

Our district has done that for years, although the past two years no Webelos Dens have turned out for Camporee.

 

When they did I was involved in setting up competitions for Camporee. When Webelos Dens came along, I simplified the Scout skills needed so they could participate in a meaningful way.

 

For example, one year Scout patrols lashed together a flag pole, erected and staked it out and performed a flag ceremony.

 

For Webelos dens, I demonstrated how to do the lashings and then let them erect the flag pole, stake it out and do a flag ceremony.

 

Another time a did a bugle blowing contest. All the Scouts got a chance to practice blowing a bugle. The patrol chose their best bugler to do their best blowing any bugle melody ("Taps" being most popular). Webelos Dens could participate in that as well as older Scouts.

 

 

All I can say is that I haven't observed problems inviting Webelos Dens to participate. We also invite Webelos Dens to participate in our Klondike Derby, which amounts to a winter camporee. Most Webelos Dens do that as a day activity.

 

One reason I support that is that I hope it will encourage Webelos leaders with little experience at camping with a group of boys to do that with a Troop where they can see how to do it, and make it easier to do because a wide variety of quality activities are available that the Webelos Den Leader doesn't have to program.

 

I simply haven't seen the problems others describe.

 

 

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)