Brother as Den Chief?

[The Blancmange]

Next year, my younger son will be a first year Webelos, and my older one will be in 7th grade and 1st class. Older son has expressed interest in serving as Den Chief for them. Just looking for input about whether anyone has done this and whether it worked out well. They generally get along well, but I guess my concern is that others might feel excluded.

[Eagle92]

Blanc,

Frogive me if I've forgotten the role(s)you play, but my suggestion would be the scout to talk to the SPL and SM about being a DC first and get their input.

 

 

Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't is all I can say. It all depends upon the scout. Now if he is asking about it, that is a good sign that it can work.

[jamist649]

I think it's a great idea. What a good big brother to want to go back and help out his little bro. Of course, he'd have to clear it on his end, but as far as the Pack...I think it would be great idea.

[The Blancmange]

Both our Troop and Pack are fairly small, and no one else volunteered when offered to the whole troop, so the position is his if he wants. There was no DC this year.

 

Thanks for the input.

[Eagle707]

Go for it! The Den Chief position benefits everyone involved: the DL gets help, the Cub Scouts get an older Boy Scout to mentor them, and the Scout gets to practice his leadership skills.

[acco40]

A potential toxic situation is Mom/Dad as den leader, older son as den chief and younger son as Cub Scout.

 

When I was a Webelos Den Leader I had a pair of Boy Scouts (1st Class, 12 yrs old) act as den chief. It worked out real well.

[SeattlePioneer]

I had a great Den Chief for my Tiger Cub Den a couple of 7years ago. I made a point of treating the Den Leader as a LEADER, which was the key to success in my view.

 

The DC was a teacher and planner for the program. I did most of the teaching and planning, but the DC was given an assignment for pretty much every Den Meeting, and did it well.

 

The key in this situation would be to have a good DL/DC relationship --- NOT a parent-son relationship. If the parent can't treat it like that I'd look for another Den for the DC.

 

Being a DC is a fine act of service for the DC, and involves a large commitment of time. That deserves to be respected and the DC treated as a respected leader by other pack leaders, in my view. The worst thing would be to treat a DC as the Den Leaders Gofer.

[Oak Tree]

We have seen this work well, and not so well, in our pack. There were cases where the younger brother seemed to resent having his older brother be any type of official "leader" for him.

 

The cases that worked better were those with more of an age gap - with a five-year difference, things were good. With two years, more sibling rivalry. I got to the point where the stated rule was that we would not have brothers as den chiefs, but we'd be happy to have the brother as den chief for another den. I did make an exception when justified.

[qwazse]

All of our boys who were den chiefs while their brothers were cubs turned out quite well. Some of them chiefed the same den as their brothers, others opted for a different den that met on the same evening.

 

I wouldn't worry about about the other boys feeling excluded. Never seen it happen. Some only-children will probably love "borrowing" a brother for an hour once a week!

 

If fighting is a concern (doesn't sound like it by your description), your best bet is to ask the boy point-blank if he thinks it would be better if he was with is brother's den or if he thinks it be better to work in a different den.

 

[kbandit]

My older son was den chief for younger son's den and worked quite well. All the scouts loved him especially calling a 6'4" 260lb scout "Marshmellow" lol. That was his nickname. Oldest was a den chief for 3 years along with holding other positions within the troop.

 

I think how well it will work depends on the Boy Scout.

[Basementdweller]

Depends on their relationship.......

 

I would give younger brother veto power on the decision too.

 

Remember he has his own scouting experience too and may not want to be in big brothers shadow.

[Scoutfish]

I say go for it. YOu won't know until you try.

 

In our pack, we have several families that have 2, 3 and even for boys in scouting. At some point, somebody's older/ younger brother will have to interact together..

 

Just tell them they are not brothers at the meetings...they are scouts who just happen to be related!

[acco40]

One thing to remember is that Cubmasters & Scoutmasters are suppose to assign den chiefs, not den leaders. I know it rarely happens that way but that is the proper path.

[The Blancmange]

One would think asking for volunteers would produce a better result than assigning someone who has no interest.

[qwazse]

Just asking for volunteers can get you some pretty scattered den chiefs! This isn't like asking little Johnny to go to the office and run off copies on the mimeograph. The troop's reputation with your DL's is on the line, so they'd like to have a say. The common sense way this works:

 

1. CM informs the troop that he has X dens who need den chiefs. At this point he may inform the SPL or SM which scouts in the troop have siblings in the pack.

2. SPL discusses with SM which boys would be good candidates. This usually works very well because the SPL will have seen how the boys perform with new members in the troop.

3. At the next troop meeting, the SPL talks to the scouts then gives the CM the list of available boys.

 

CM contacts the boys and sorts out schedules and assignments to specific dens. He then reports back to SM about which boys took up the position.

 

A lot of times the process is less formal than this depending on the size of pack and troop. And definitly, a CM can ask for a specific boy or to bring back one of last year's chiefs. But when he does it's a good idea to get a look at the SPL's face for signs of cringing!