Joint pack campouts

[clamchop]

I am a new Cub Master and have a medium sized pack (25 boys). I have recently been made aware of another much smaller pack (10 boys) that is in need of help. Most of their leadership has moved on to boy scouts and they have no program whatsoever. I was discussing with members of my pack about them joining with us to do activities Our annual pack campout is coming and I wanted to invite the other pack along as well. Is this possible? Any info on this would be greatly appreciated.

 

YIS

 

 

[Baseballfan]

Of course it's possible... invite away!

[Basementdweller]

Invite away....

 

But be aware that activities that involve multiple Packs are not permitted unless it is a District or council level activity.......As a new Cubmaster I did the same thing and was promptly told never do it again by our council Professionals.

 

I wouldn't tell anyone outside of the two units involved and make sure the other unit knows to remain quite.

 

If the blasted search function would work I would post the link to the discussion.....

 

[Jeffrey H]

We did the same thing with another pack in our district that was without key leadership. It worked out well and we built a friendly relationship between us. Eventually, the other Pack folded but many of the boys joined our Pack and stayed in Scouting.

[Fehler]

Yeah, don't try to get District involved by making it "official". Just have two separate campouts, two separate sets of paperwork, that happen to be held at the same time and location, and sharing some of the same resources. When our Pack started getting back into Pack camping last year, we camped adjacent to our neighbor Pack, and their Range Officer came over and led our boys on our turn at the BB Gun range. But we had our own BALOO leader (can't skimp on that) and enough of our own leaders YPT trained. We could have included some other joint activities, like a large-group service project/trash clean, or a sport/game that'd be hard with fewer people (capture the flag).

[TSS_Chris]

I had the exact opposite experience as Basementdweller and Fehler.

 

In the fall, I was approached by my district's professionals and volunteers about having joint meetings with another area pack that was in a leadership crisis. I'm now on the charter as CM of both units! The goal, of course, is to get these two units back operating as independent units again.

 

My original unit was in the 25-30 member level. With the two units, we're now at 49 members. I will say having that many boys makes some of the events more fun. However, if we stay together and grow again next year, we're going to have to find a new hall to hold our Blue & Gold in. We were over capacity for one of our CO's halls, and right at capacity for the other one's.

[clamchop]

Thanks for the great info people. I appreciate it.

[ScouterAdam]

No problem in combining. If you could help them with their program and help them grow it. great. Don't listen to your Council Professionals. What are they going to do?