I was finally given the keys to the Pack!

[OwntheNight]

Saturday night at our Blue and Gold, I was installed as the new Cubmaster for our Pack. Just so happens we were also celebrating 30 years of consecutive recharter with our CO. Now comes the hard, but rewarding, work.

 

For the last few years, the pack has been humming along like a well oiled machine. A steady stream of boys coming into the program to replace the boys that were graduating to the Troops, active volunteers, great financial shape. All the things you want to see in a pack, until the beginning of this year. Due to some personal conflict between a few people, we ended up losing our Tiger Den and a Bear Den to another pack. And now, our WEB II den has graduated, we are down to about 14 boys (9 wolves, 5 WEB I)from about 40 boys at the same time last year.

 

I know some might say this is a train that's running off the track, and I need to jump. I'm actually very encouraged about the future of this pack. I have a core group of adults who are taking on additional responsibilities, our wolf den has two capable leaders with another parent in the group who could be a great 3rd ADL. The outgoing CM is still going to be with the pack until her WEB I den crosses over. She is staying as my ACM. Another parent has stepped up and agreed to be our Treasurer. The only thing we're lacking is a permanent CC. Our COR has stepped into the CC role on an interim basis. Our CO had been pretty hands off for quite a while, but because of all of this, they are getting involved again. This is a good thing for us to be able to work together and feed off the resources each of us brings to the partnership.

 

Another reason for my encouragement is alot of people want to see this Pack return succesfully. The SM of the troop we've been feeding boys and even our District Chairman, both of whom were CM of this pack, have pledged their resources and support to our efforts. The SM has even told me not to worry about my ASM duties and just focus on the Pack and it's needs. Having that support does ease some burden off of me, but I still have to go out and have a good recruiting effort and hopefully mend some fences along the way.

 

Finally, I want to say to all the Scouters on this forum, thanks for your experiences, thoughts, ideas, and opinions you have posted along the way. Going through and reading the threads has given me some ideas of what I need to do to make this successful and how to deal with situations as they come up. I really do appreciate and value your advice. It helps knowing I'm not the only one who's been in this situation. I look forward to updating our progress with you.

 

For The Boys,

OTN

 

 

[jamist649]

If you don't mind me asking...Those that caused the issue that drove the Tigers and Bears away, are they gone? I certainly hope so. I know there are two sides to every story, but it seems like a difficult problem to fix unless all involved in the "tiff" are gone.

 

Your Pack sounds a little like mine. We lost alot of boys to a new Pack back in 2008 and have been in recovery mode ever since. We've done pretty well, we've gone from 11 Scouts at our lowest to 46 and now back down to around 30 "core" Scouts that are active. The problem with our area (and many others, from what I hear) is that there are just too many darn units. We're spread so thin with every little hole-in-the-wall crossroads wanting thier own Pack/Troop. What could be a large, dynamic Scouting presence is split up 5 different ways asking for support from the same community.

 

But...I digress. It looks like you're highly motivated to get things back on the right track. If you have any tried and true, or anything new, in the recruting area I'd love for you to share. We're gearing up for Spring recruuting and I've used everything in my bag of tricks in previous years!

 

Best of luck to you and yours!

[OwntheNight]

Jam,

 

>Those that caused the issue that drove the Tigers and Bears away, are they gone?<

 

Yes, that has been dealt with accordingly, so we are able to start with a clean slate, somewhat. There are still some "hot embers" we need to keep an eye on, but for the most part, every body has moved on and is trying to put this behind us. We all still see each other frequently, due to our CO lets this other Pack use meeting rooms at the church for their meetings, luckily it's on the opposite side of the building we're at.

 

I'm actually meeting tonight with our COR/CC to talk about our Spring recruiting efforts. Our district has an inflatable Bounce House that the units can rent, so that's a possibility. I was reading a post earlier, and something stuck out to me. I believe it was AKDenLeader that said in a nutshell, It's easy to sell the program to the kids, you have to really sell the program to the adults! So that is my mindset now.

 

Thanks and Good Luck with your Pack as well

[OwntheNight]

So tonight was my first Pack meeting as CM, some observations:

 

I hadn't realized how late we had been starting our pack meetings, until tonight. I was at the church at 6:40 to start setting up, by 6:58 there were 3 leaders and boys in the gym, myself included. At 7:05 the rest of the families trickled into the building. Even had one show up at 7:15. Next pack meeting we have in the gym, 7:00 will be when "Scouts Attention" will be called.

 

I changed up our opening ceremony a little bit. Instead of having 1 den call and bring the flags in, I had both dens bring the flags in and had one of our den chiefs do the opening and calls. That worked well because the boys weren't just standing there fidgeting around, but actually had an active part in the opening.

 

Didn't have any advancements tonight, so I was able to take some time and interact with the boys about what they did during Spring Break. Boys were pretty well behaved and engaged in the conversation.

 

Now the fun begins...After keeping the announcements brief (I could already see the glazing over after the first announcement) I got the boys going on 6 verses of the Banana Song. Had to teach them the song, but they started getting it. After we went through the song 1 time, I shocked everybody in the room by telling each boy to grab 1 parent and they would be doing the song with their parent along with actions! (Yep, social hour has ended!!!) By the middle of the second time through the song, all the boys were yelling as loud as they could and reminding me what part was next. They got some energy out but they were still engaged in the activity. Good to see!

 

After our song, I was able to get them to sit and listen to a "play on words" story about a farmer and a bull. (That time in drama class finally paid off!)

 

Finally I got them up for the game. Split them up into 2 groups and had them toss "meadow muffins" into baskets. This then just turned into the meadow muffin mosh pit and that's when the "stuff" started flyin' around!! The boys had an absolute blast and even got to take a "muffin" home with them.

 

I hope they go to school tomorrow and tell their buddies that they got to throw "ploop" around at Cub Scouts. Whatever it takes to get them in the door!

 

Think I'm gonna' like this job!

[jamist649]

Ok...I'll ask. What were the "muffins" made of? LOL Sounds like fun!

[OwntheNight]

The "GreatStuff" Expandable Foam sealant. Spray it like whipped cream, let it set up solid. Spray paint Dark Brown, add a little grass while it's wet, Voila....Meadow Muffins!

[Vicki]

What a great idea!! I'm going to forward that to DH (who works Cub camporees, former Pack CC, etc.). He's gonna love it...

 

Vicki