Pack Annual Planning Process

[SeattlePioneer]

Does your pack go through a pack annual planning process? What do you do well and what ways would you like to see things improved?

[Scoutfish]

We do, but we don't follow any specific protocol.

 

I mean, we always look at any way we can improve any part of what we do, but what is an improvementy is arguable and up to personal interpretation.

 

We had our fall campout at the CO last year since our usual spot was being revamped. Turns out that meant there was no cost other than food. Hey, that ended up beinga great way to get MORE new parents camping as compared to what usually happens. By this, I mean: Parents just spent a ton of money on back to school supplies, fees, clothes, registrations...pictures, school shirts, sports, uniforms, band equipment and such. Then the school wants the kids to raise money for something or another and then 3 weeks later, we have roundup where mom and dad hand over more money for insurance and BSA registration and Boy's Life. Now we are asking them to sell popcorn and pack dues.

 

SO hey mom and dad..you want to hand over more $$$ to go camping?

 

So something as simple as saving $20.00 makes a big difference.

 

Fundraising: WE can try to plan a budget at out annual planning meeting - which is a week and a half , by the way. But we have no idea how many new scouits are going to join, if some will quit, or what camp fees may raise up to. WE can plan, but we know that we may have to adapt several times over.

 

The biggest thing is that each year, we reflect on what happened the year before. We look at what used to work, whayt still works, and what is starting to get old or dull. What was cool last year may just suck next year.

 

The biggest thing I can say is we remember to allow ourselves to be flexible.

[Basementdweller]

Pretty easy stuff

 

We go to a couple of out of district events that are fixed dates.. Those go on the calendar.

 

the Blue and gold and pinewood dates are fixed.

 

The Graduation camp out is always the second weekend of May.

 

Pack meetings are always last monday of the month.

 

We have two fundraisers that go on....again fixed dates....

 

Then it is up to the den leaders to plan their den outings.....

 

So not much in the way of planning....we critic each event at the next committee meeting and plan for improvements.......

 

 

So scoutfish what do you guys charge a head for campouts?????? We set a $20 cap per family. We usually break even.....We can rent state park group campsites or national forest sites for $40 for the weekend...... Which is cheaper than our council scout camps.

[Scoutfish]

We usualy charge $15 per scout and $10 per parents, sibling, guest, etc. The scout is more to cover beltloops and such .

 

We try to break even or at least not go in the hole. WE are not looking at profit though.

 

When it comes to council camps, we might group together as a pack, but each family pays directly to council.

 

We hold our pack campouts before or after council camps so that the choice to attend either or both is available.

[GKlose]

We're a couple of years removed from a Cub Scout pack, but I think I can accurately describe their annual planning process as this: "well, we did X last year, and the Cubs seemed to enjoy it, so let's just do X again".

 

The only problem is that when we joined the pack, it was about 90 Cubs, and three years later when our youngest moved on to a troop, the pack was pretty much thinking about folding. Maybe 20 Cubs still left in the pack. They didn't fold, and now two years later, they're hanging on with 25 to 40 Cubs.

 

Meanwhile, our "feeder pack" is having a leadership crisis of their own. Nobody wants to lead it (because it turned into yet another "one-man show" with the Cubmaster, and his son moved up to a troop) and they've been stuck in a program rut for a few years too.

 

So my recommendation is this: keep varying the program. "Good enough" usually isn't. Keep coming up with fantastic and fun new ideas -- think outside of the box.

 

Guy

[UCEagle72]

Guy --

 

I'd recommend contacting your District Commissioner and see who the Unit Commissioner is for the "feeder pack," if there is one. They really should be "engaged" with the unit on a regular basis to help them with their leadership crisis. If there is NOT one assigned, then the District Commissioner, or preferably, one of his Assistants should be addressing this issue.

 

As DC I have several units that I am still recruiting Commissioners for -- and while we do our best to keep tabs on them like all the others, sometimes we may not be aware of issues like a "leadership crisis." So, feel free to contact your District Commissioner and let them know.

 

[KISMIF_Works]

In late summer we hold a program planning meeting where we try to flush out events and dates for the upcoming year. The output is our calendar for the year that we present at our fall recruiting night and our September Pack meeting.

 

I disagree that a Pack must "keep coming up with fantastic and fun new ideas" to keep the boys engaged. Our annual program is pretty much cookie-cutter:

 

- Fall family campout (Halloween)

- Halloween party at October's Pack meeting

- Raingutter Regatta (November's Pack meeting)

- Winter cabin campout (December)

- Holiday party at December's Pack meeting

- Pinewood Derby (January's Pack meeting)

- Blue & Gold Banquet (February's Pack meeting)

- "special" Pack camping event (spring)

- Graduation ceremonies at May's Pack meeting

- Summer family campout

- Summer day camp

- some kind of summer event

 

When my older son joined 5 years ago the entire Pack was about 20 boys. This past fall we swelled to 70+ and are sitting close to 60 heading into summer. It's my belief that the program we have is good and doesn't need to be continuously reinvented. Instead, the key is *executing* it. We've greatly improved our planning, coordination and execution over the past couple years to the point now where events run on-time or even end early!

 

There are a few events that aren't already "dedicated"...the March and April Pack meetings, the "special" Pack event, and the summer event. This is where we do some creative thinking to try to make the event fun. If we come up with something that really works, we'll likely repeat it.

 

For our "special" event we've done the Buffalo Naval Park overnighter, a science center overnighter and a zoo overnighter. These have all been well-received and attended, so we'll do them again but in some kind of rotation.

 

We've done a Pack bowling party in March the past couple years, and since it's well-attended and feedback is positive we'll likely continue to do it.

 

At last year's April Pack meeting we did a "field day" type thing, and that was OK. This year we did a compressed air rocket launch instead, and that was a big hit, so we may repeat it next year.

 

We don't worry about budget planning at this meeting. We have a dedicated "finance subcommittee" of about 5-6 people who are interested in finances, and we keep in touch throughout the year to monitor the budget and determine Pack contributions towards events as they get closer.

[Eamonn]

Back in the day!

We had a joint meeting of the Pack Management Committee and the Den Leaders.

We started with the monthly themes from Scouting Magazine, changing the ones we either didn't like or if we had Pack activity like Fishing going on that replaced the monthly theme.

The plan had the preset dates and holidays built in. Things like District events, Scout Sunday and so on.

Some dates had to be penciled in due to not knowing if dates for the hall were free or not.

The themes worked out great for us and helped make the Pack Meetings more interesting and flow better.

 

As a rule I as Cubmaster had a list of things that I thought the Pack might want to participate in and might like to do, with costings for these.Things like going to a baseball game.

By the end of the meeting we had come up with a plan for the year and a budget for the year.

A good many of our Scouts attended the R/C School, the church was our CO. The parents of these kids seemed to move from one fund raising event to the next and didn't want to have to sell or ask for money so we came up with a cost per Cub per year.

Parents were informed what that number was and could pay it either by fund raising or just by writing a check any money above that was used to pay for Cub Scout resident camp and moved with the Scout when they crossed over to a Troop.

The themes worked out great for us and helped make the Pack Meetings more interesting and flow better.

Ea(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

[SeattlePioneer]

I've been working for 2 1/2 years to revive a pack that was down to one Cub Scout.

 

We've been building a solid base of families and pack leadership, and my aim is to give up my CM position at the end of the year and expect the new leaders to carry on.

 

In past years, I've relied on two devices to majke the task of organizing outdoor events easier:

 

1) Three or four months are reserved for "Den Outings" organized by each den.

 

2) Taking advantage of district activities, such as our Cub Scout Bowling Tournament, Cub Scout Marble Tournament and District Pinewood Derby.

 

This year we organized our own PWD and made that a simple and fun event.

 

The aim is to have one major or outdoor event each month which includes the den outings.

 

I avoid scheduling multiple major activities in a month, since families ten to choose one to do rather than two. Twice the work for half the participation.

 

Also, in past years I've pretty much written up my own plan of activities and meetings and submitted it for comments and revision to our pack parent/committee meeting. That allows us to agree on a plan in a one hour parent meeting, and I've revised the plan to fit proposed changes.

 

This year we have a parent meeting scheduled for July to propose a plan for the next Scouting year, and then the August meeting to review the proposal and changes made in it.

 

That will be giving parents greater room to make revisions.

 

I expect to propose a meeting schedule and different ideas for outings and activities. I plan to continue the Den Outings for three of the months or so.

 

We did a bicycling outing a year ago, but not this year. I'd like to schedule another for next spring.

 

I'd like to schedule a fishing trip. I'm a zero fisherman, so we'd need to identify a good person to plan and lead that trip.

 

I'm considering a chemical rocket launch activity ---REAL FIRE! I found a pack that does this and they will be inviting me along to learn how it's done, and I'd like to find a parent who would be the leader of that kind of event to attend as well.

 

It may be that parents will have other ideas they would like to add. Last year a family invited the pack to a Harvest Festival, which included making apple cider families took home and we had cider for our Blue 'N Gold dinner and Pinewood Derby.

 

We seem to be doing reasonably well of building up a roster of experienced and able leaders who will be able to manage the pack on their own in the future.

 

Since we have larger number of experienced parents, they can make more choices of things they'd like the pack to do.

[Scoutfish]

We just had our annual planning meeting tonight.

 

And we switched things up a bit.

 

1) First thing was that we decided to plan only half a year ahead. As of right now we are good til May.

 

Reasoning behind this is this: We plan ahead every year for the entire year, but end up changing and switching so much stuff because we cannot plan around everything . For example: youth athletics school issues, council re-schedules,etc...

 

WE usually do well with planning the first half of the year, but the second half goes to pot because it is planned out too far ahead of time. So we figured we'd resume our planning in February. Besides, at this time, we will usually have picked upo more adult volunteers anbd leaders, so that alone changes schedualing and planning.

 

2) Our B&G. Last time, e ended up holding a combo B&G and PWD due to snow screwing up our schedule.. We had 3 snows in 4 weeks and in the great state of NC, 9" is practically the" Blizzard of the Century". So we ended up holding our B&G directly after the PWD and announcing the winners after eating.

Also, alot of boys in different den had to drop off their cars and leave due to sports obligations.

 

We ended up cooking hot dogs and eating cake for B&G.

 

EVERYBODY LOVED IT!!!

Instead of hoilding two events a week or two apart....and lets face it, it's always the same core group of people who do everything... we can spent 6 hours total for one event instead of spending 5 hours EACH for two events only a week or two apart.

 

 

THis year, we are going to hold it later. Car registration starts at 4 pm. At 5 pm, we are going to have our B&G. The pack is going to cook sausages and BBQ leg quarters ( I did mention we live in NC, didn't I ? )The families will bring sides and dessrts. At 6:30, we are going to start our PWD. Since it will be Saturdayy, we dion't mind if we don't finish til 9 pm.

 

3) Camping. Last year, we held our fall camping at our CO. The only cost was food. Since so many new families join scouting in te fall and some of them have never been camping before, this acts as a great "intro to camping" - camping event.

 

What better place to wet your feet in camping than a place tha isn't 2 hours from home? Plus, sports. We have kids who wake up, have to leave and drive an hour and a half to a game that lasts an hour, then drive back to camp. THis way, all our scouts are within 6 miles of all the schools and youth group game sites.

 

Did I mention cost? In the fall, parents just spent a huge amout of maoney on school supplies, new clothes, school fees, school pictures, new BSA registrations, plus school pictures - possibly school uniforms or sports gear, and of course, time to sell popcorn.

 

4) Spring camping is going to be held a month earlier. It's easier to keep warm that to cool off. I'm tired of sweating while camping. Tired of skeeters and no se ums attacking me. Cooler weather just makes campingf so much better and nothing beats a campfire on a chilly night!

 

WE also decided to hold our crossover at the CO insrtead of while camping. We have alot of people who pay a partial (one day)_ rate t for the camping only because they want to see the crossover. They do not stay over night, do not set up camp or do they do anything else. The come for crossover, clap then drive off.

 

Since we hold our pack camp at a site that is bout 1 1/2 hours from our CO, it makes sense to do the crossover at the CO.

 

And the thing about all of the above: when every one of those ideas was mentioned, it was almost a unanimous decision to do it. After spending a few minutes dicussing the pros and cons, everybody agreed on all of the ideas.

 

 

[fred8033]

ANNUAL PLANNING SESSION

- Our big focus is reflection and making improvements. Similar to STOP, START, CONTINUE. What isn't working? What should we start doing? What should we continue doing. Another form of Roses, Thorns and Buds.

- Much of our year is cookie cutter. We try to work in a little variety.

- We try to get each den to step up a level to reflect that their kids are more mature. Webelos don't want to do the same things they did as Tigers.

- We try to work in service projects during the year. One in fall. one in spring. Two or three during the summer. Make them fun too!

 

PACK CAMP OUTS

- Our fall and spring (june) camp outs are FREE. Parent's have already spent enough and the # one thing we want is to get the kids to camp. And parents need to pay $5 per car to get into the park. Pack budgets $250 to $300 per camp out for food, location and equipment. Parents are to bring a dish to share.

- Our focus is getting them to the camp! We try to work in den advancements and awards. That usually makes parents get off the sofa.

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

I want to add some new activities for our pack plan.

 

I just assisted a pack with their recruiting night that makes and launches Estes chemical rockets. They are going to invite me to their meetings and rocket launch so I can learn how that is done.

 

I also talked to a parent at our Bobcat Den Meeting last night who is interested in being our new Tiger Cub Den Leader, and also has ideas for a fishing trip next spring.

 

We did a bicycle trip last year, but not this year. Adding it back for next year would be good.

 

 

That would be three "new" activities for next year, plus recycling some old favorites.

 

That seems like a good mix----