Aril Cub Scout Roundtable

[SeattlePioneer]

I'm Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner in my district.

 

For our April Roundtable next Thursday, we are planning a presentation on planning outdoor activities. This would include the summer pack program and activities that would be a part of a Pack overnight camp.

 

Also, an experienced Pack Committee Chair will be describing her methods of having consistently effective and well attended Pack Committee meeting even in a small pack.

 

Our aim is for our Roundtable to last no more than an hour.

 

Any ideas people would like to see their Roundtables discuss in May or June?

 

I'm planning a fall recruiting workshop for our August Cub Scout Roundtable, and that will be my last as Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner. I will have put in two years in that position and I'm FRESH out of quality ideas!

[Scoutfish]

So, if I understood your post, you have April covered, right?

 

If not, I only offer this advice when it comes to Summertime activities: Simple, fun, and think like a kid!

They do not have to be productive to be productive. Socializing, interaction , and plain fun will create the same atmosphere come fall when the pack starts meeting agin.

 

We went to a intercollegiate summer series ball game. Our scouts got in free, led the opening ceremony, met ( and wore out ) the mascot, played the games they had every inning.

 

Had a blast. At the end of the game they ( the ball park) shot off fireworks.

 

May is a good time to bring up advancement scenaerios. You know, they ones they ask about about a scout who is a grade ahead, behind, held back, etc.....

 

We discuss beltloops that can be earned while on summer vacation and family trips. This is also especially important with the Webelos.

 

June is when our RT has an ice cream social. Yep! We just sit and eat ice cream and people write down 5 things they would like to se as the topics of next years RT's. Write them in order of how much you'd like to see them.

 

August is our welcome back RT and we jump right into roundups and recruiting ideas and tactics.

[Basementdweller]

Why not start talking about popcorn and fall recruiting??????

 

It is almost too late for summer activities???? Summer camp deadlines have already passed as have sign ups for most of the cool stuff round our town....

 

 

 

 

[Scoutfish]

Yeah, camps are just about filled ( or over filled ) up already for Cubs.

 

Boy scouts should have already signed up and paid for or at least deposited by now.

 

But for packs, the best stuff is done at the pack level. Summer time fun days.

 

We went to the above mentioned ball game for June and will do it agin this June.

 

In July, we go to a sound side beach ( no waves or undercurrent) and make a day of fishing, swimming, sand castle building, and swimming.

 

You'd be surprised at how many things scouts would enjoy that we tend to look past because it's "boring" or "not fun" for us.

 

Basement, I know you know how to think outside of the box!

 

 

In August, we have been to the Battleship USS North Carolina BB-55 .

We have been bowling in August too ( hooray for air conditioning!).

 

There are a few Civila war and revolutionary war sites we can visit and even see re-enactments.

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

 

Personally, I'm not big on attending pro sports games. To me they are 'way over produced activities, and I don't relish turning innocent children into "fans."

 

Still, Cub Scout ranks usually require attendance at some kind of sports activity.

 

I've fulfilled those requirements by doing Cub Scout Olympics and such where the Scouts are the competitors.

 

I've often thought about having a den meeting at a Little League game one of the den boys is playing in, or one of their soccer games and such.

 

Roast hot dogs for the Cub Scouts and team members. Do den cheers to support the team and such. Being a FAN at a Little League game makes sense to me, while being a fan at a Mariners game does not. I'll bet you could make that a fun activity, and perhaps recruit yourself a den of new Tiger or Wolf Cubs as a bonus.

[5yearscouter]

Let's see....

Summertime activities we already have some ideas, we gotta get them on the calendar for parents ASAP or they'll not be around thru the summer, so we try to have them fleshed out a bit before March, with some filling in of details before May. But a new pack may not have that all figured out yet. be sure to cover the summertime pack award and info if there are any local cub scout day camps that have room (ours has 2 or 3 sessions still open).

 

But not a bad idea to focus on some calendar planning ideas in April and May so packs can do calendar planning over the summertime down time. Help them determine the things that council always has on certain weekends that packs need to know about and find out if the district events are planned for the same dates as well. Then brainstorm all the new and different ideas for outings and field trips each month so the pack leaders go into their own pack calendar plan full of fresh ideas and excitement for a new year.

 

Personally it's too late at August roundtable (2nd thurs of the month for us) to talk about August recruiting. We've usually already done our recruiting the first fri in august when school has restarted already, or we are so far into the planning, because we have to get flyers approved by schools and plans made for exisitng scouts for the month of august that we'd really need recruiting info in May or June (we don't have a July roundtable, but cubbies really need it for the recruitng ideas).

 

August would be good for how to start up new dens, den assignments, permission slips, tour plans, cub trax info, a list of awards available and a bunch of ideas for the first month or so of den meetings for brand new den leaders.

 

Sept for pack committee make sure they all know how internet advancement works and that they've all turned in their summertime pack awards. go over a bunch of bobcat award ceremonies in August or Sept and intro some pack campout stuff for those who do a fall campout, and maybe some location ideas for those who need to make reservations ahead of time for a spring campout.

[Eagledad]

We suggest packs recruit all their adult positions by May and complete their annual pack agenda in June. We do a District Cub Scout recruiting clinic late July.

 

Barry

[SeattlePioneer]

Actually I've done district training for recruiting nights in June. That's about an ideal time, but mostly the well prepared and experienced units don't bother to attend and the weak units that most need the help aren't thinking about recruiting yet!

 

 

Last year my August Roundtable was about how to improve popcorn sales. That went well.

 

Last September we did a Roundtable on planning recruiting, which combined with an ice cream social at the Roundtable. My experience is that weak units don't plan recruiting events on their own, so holding one late isn't really a handicap.

 

Also, getting people to turn out for ideas on planning a recruiting night works pretty well as a Roundtable event, but poorly if you try to schedule it as a separate event.

 

So last year we helped improve popcorn sales markedly with our August Roundtable event and September helped with fall recruiting, despite being later than I would have preferred.

 

This year the August Roundtable will be on recruiting, which is the best time for doing it for weaker units, I think.

 

I'm certainly glad to see hot dog units planning earlier though. That's certainly desirable.(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

[5yearscouter]

We have to be careful if we know our district has a lot of weak units, that our program at roundtable helps them to become stronger units, to pre-plan things more in advance than the minimum, to think of recruiting a couple times a year, and get their calendar done far enough in advance to actual plan, rather than to fail to plan and end up with failed events.

 

so it would be nice for roundtable to give those weak units a heads up, spend a bit of time each month telling people of upcoming events and dates to keep in mind or to get on their pack calendars, like those recruitings, as well as asking the roundtable participants, what month do you want us to go over these things more in depth? you have newbies come into roundtable all the time, but you also have people that come regularly, poll those people to see what they need, and what they wish they'd known that month.

 

sometimes you find that what you think people need to know, they already know and they are really struggling in some other area that you haven't covered in a while or ever.

[Scoutfish]

No, not pro ball teams. These are guys in college who play during the summer break. Not even AAA yet. Full price tickets are $6.00 a game. When we went, scouts in uniform were free and adults associated with the scouts were $3.00

 

THese guys are people you never heard of unless you really follow college baseball.

[howarthe]

Our pack doesn't seem to have any trouble getting outdoors in June, July and August. We usually meet in an elementary school. The school isn't available in Jun, July and August, so we meet in local parks. We do the rain gutter regatta, bicycle rodeo, day camp, and a day at the local pool. What we have trouble with is May, September and October. Around here, the weather is still good enough that we really ought to be outdoors because the weather will not be good enough Nov, Dec, Jan, Feb, Mar and Apr. Anyway, I would love for our May pack meeting to be around a council fire, but I can't think of a location. A camp ground has a lot of fire pits, but not a lot of room for seating. A picnic area has a lot of seating, but no fire pits. I think we ought to do a sports tournament in September. It might make for good recruiting, too. People are crazy for sports around here. What should we do in October?

[Basementdweller]

Fish our summer calendar was planned last summer, my cubs don't lack for activities outside the CO during the summer......Including week night hikes, burger burns, fishing, bowling and roller skating, creeking with a university naturalist, minor league sports, stomp rockets. on and on.

 

how about just a play date at a local park.

 

my point is this should have been done around christmas not in april and may.

[kari_cardi]

I'd love to see a roundtable on how to organize pack records, review different advancement tracking programs, set up a pack website. It would be a great chance to go over social media use guidelines, too.