# Of Den & Pack Meetings

[SeattlePioneer]

How many den and pack meeting do you schedule?

 

We've done two meetings per month in the past --- two den meetings or a den meeting and a pack meeting. There was a den or pack out or other activity in addition to that.

 

That seemed a bit thin, and somewhat hard to maintain continuity.

 

A year or so ago, we went to having two den meetings per month and a pack meeting every other month. Plus the den or pack outing described earlier.

 

That seems about right to many parents.... and den leaders.

 

Opinions on this and the practices of other packs are welcome.

[jc2008]

We do one pack meeting a month.

 

Our den does a den meeting every week except for holiday weeks, pack meeting weeks and the week after a campout. So basically once a week there is a den meeting or pack meeting.

 

Not all the dens in our pack are as ambitious though.

 

 

[eaglewolfdad]

We have out pack meetings the first Tuesday of every month. Our dens meet the remaining three weeks of the month. We follow the school calendar and do

not meet during Christmas or Spring breaks. Our last meeting of the summer is a pack meeting in early June but we do have a summertime activity in June, July, and August.

We also have a monthly outdoor activity such as a pack camp out or a district/council event. This schedule has worked for us the past several years. Our den leaders

like it as they have enough time to work with all of the boys on advancement. Our scouts like it as they look forward to getting the bling at our monthly pack meetings. Our parents enjoy

the variety of camping opportunities which enable them to pick and choose the outings that they will attend. Our pack has 55 scouts at this time.

 

 

[TSS_Chris]

We meet every Monday night from September through Early April on days when school is in session. (We can't compete with Baseball).

 

When I took over the pack, it had a system where all the dens meet every week at our CO. On "den meeting" nights, we open as a group and then the Scouts split off into their dens.

 

On "Pack Meeting" nights, we'll do a group event which may be at our CO, or may be a field trip somewhere else. This year our Pack Meetings were: Sept (2): Back to School recruiting & Popcorn Kickoff, Oct (2): Hayride & Halloween Party, Nov: None, Dec: Bowling Party, Jan: Police visit, Feb: None, Mar (2): Blue & Gold & Pinewood Derby Workshop, April: Pinewood Derby, May: Outdoor fun night & Webelos crossover.

 

[Jeffrey H]

During the school year, Pack meetings are usually once a month and den meetings are three times a month. We build-in breaks for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Spring Break. When we have a Pack Family Campout, we count that as a Pack Meeting. We take a break from our regular meeting schedule for the summer and have Pack events at least once a month during the summer months.

[Faith]

Our pack meets are once a month from August to May, last Monday of every month (10 yearly.)

 

Our den meets are the first and third Monday of each month, from September to May (18 yearly.)

 

In June we have a 5 day camp.

 

July we have a water day at our regular pack meet area.

 

If we schedule any special trips (such as a Go See It!, a Cubmobile race or something else,) we usually do that on another day that works for everyone that isn't one of the dates above.

 

Our Blue & Gold is always on the pack meet date for February.

[Austinole]

We meet every Thursday with the last Thursday of ever month being a pack meeting.

[King Ding Dong]

The Den Meeting and Resource Guide has a twice a month schedule. The problem with that is if one gets cancelled for some reason (DL sick, Strings Concert, school conferences, etc. ). We start falling behind in requirements. I think scheduling 3 a month is better with the realization that one may get dropped. Of course I have a Webelos DL who thinks once a month den meetings is fine and just gets done in an hour what he can and the awards the activity badge. Nice training for the world of Merit Badges. I call it Webelos Lite.

[Polaris]

Our Pack meets 9 times during the school year with monthly summer activities. Aug: Popcorn Kick-off and Ice Cream Social with new parent info, Oct: Raingutter Regatta, Dec: Holiday potluck, Feb: Pinewood Derby, March: B&G with rank advancement/crossover ceremonies and Sept, Nov, Jan, April themed meetings.

 

The Den Leaders set their own meeting times based on the scouts' extra-curricular activites. Some meet for 2 hours on Sunday afternoons once monthly. Others meet weekly. Last year, one den met on Friday nights during football season.

 

We are sponsored by a civic organization and we have most of our Pack meetings at the school. The Den Leaders will have meetings at the local arts center, their home or a neighborhood club house. Of course, this makes it difficult for the CM to stop by and visit the dens as we don't meet at the same time/location.

 

Our Pack has 3 campouts per year: one in Sept/Oct and in May with Jan scheduled in a lodge. We will also schedule 2 other Pack outings such as a local hike, indoor trampoline jump, science center, bowling, etc. And Scouting for Food, March senior retirement center event and an April conservation project.

 

Attendance at our outings and campouts is poor, in my opinion. We will have a 25-50% attendance rate. Maybe we have too many events??? But, if we follow the JTE guidelines, we are almost spot on. It seems to be the same handful of families that attend the events.

[Baseballfan]

Our Pack meets once a month from Sept through May. Summer, 2 activities a month. Dens are scheduled by individual Den leaders as they see fit. My Webelos Den meets almost every Tuesday for 1 1/2 hr, we take off Nov and Dec instead of summer.

[Dreya]

Our Pack meets every Wednesday and Pack Meetings are the last Wednesday of the month. We schedule around Christmas and Spring Breaks (moving the Pack meeting to the Wednesday before break). We end weekly meetings in May with the ending of the school year, but continue with monthly Pack Meetings.

[RugerViking]

We have tryed to keep the Pack activity level to about 4-6 events per month (with the exception of July.) This includes pack meetings, den meetings & other events like pinewood derby, campouts, B&G, etc. If you have too light a month then interest will wane over the next few months. Your measure of sucess is when parents are actually missing baseball, soccer, etc to attend pack events instead. (Somehow sporting events seem to always take priority over scouting events for parents ... but this is a whole separate topic ... )

 

I have found it works well to have pack-level events offered to the pack but that are not events run by the pack. A lot of people like these opportunities, and they require minimal work on mine (Cubmaster) & the Pack CC's part. Events like these are musuem trips, metro parks, heritage sites, etc. These are more low intensity than the Pinewood derby, B&G etc, so that theadult volunteers can actually enjoy themselves. Generally, I enjoy these type of "low planning intensity events" more as the planning for events like PWD to run smoothly, really require a lot of time and background work. Most local areas have lots of opportunities and "scout days" ...if you know where to look. Don't be afraid to ask former leaders, and call local park offices, etc ... a lot of these opportunities are not well publicized.

[Pack18Alex]

We meet weekly. We historically just did it all as a pack and interest waned with the older kids and rank advancement was more or less granted regardless of meeting all the specific requirements. This meant that activities were generally at the Wolf level and the Tigers loved being with the older boys and the older boys dropped out out of boredom. Parents didn't know when meetings were and attendance was haphazard.

 

We now meet weekly, with 1 Pack Meeting, 1 Pack Activity, and 2-3 Den Meetings/month. Sometimes the Pack Activity is a Tiger Go See It if it seems fun for everyone, sometimes its a field trip arranged by a Den Leader, and sometimes its to work on a Belt Loop. In addition to our weekly meeting, we aim to have about one weekend activity/month. Often this is an event at a community event, sometimes our campouts (we did three this year, probably will do 4 or 5 next year, 3 in our District/Council/Religious Committee, 1 or 2 with our Pack).

 

When months get clobbered because of holidays, we skip the Pack Meeting, we're aiming to hit 9 Pack Meetings/year, we'll see how well we pull that off. This week we're trying something new, a combined Pack/Parent meeting. The Pack meeting has a guest speaker coming in to talk to the boys for most of the meeting, the Parent Meeting will be run in the other room, for new and returning parents.

 

We found that meeting weekly helps parents plan, and balancing Den/Pack stuff gives our Den and Pack leaders some variety (they overlap, something that needs to be fixed).

 

We found with meeting more the kids into Scouting take Scouting very seriously and we've lost the disinterested boys, but the people we've retained are far more into Scouting and far more dedicated.

 

[dedkad]

We are a minimalist Pack, which works well for our families' busy schedules. We have one Pack meeting a month throughout the school year, and the dens typically meet once a month, sometimes twice if they need to get more things done or if there is a field trip. It takes us all year to earn our rank badge. We award rank badges at our June campout instead of at B&G. It's what works for our Pack, and many parents have chosen our Pack over others in the area for that very reason.

[Faith]

"We award rank badges at our June campout instead of at B&G." - We considered doing that same thing and was told we'd be the only den not ready at B&G. I was torn as to what to do (and we ended up rushing to get it done since they were only working on them from September '12 to February '13.) I didn't want them to see all the other scouts get a rank up and they be 'left behind', so to speak. Now that we have a new Cubmaster I will see what his thoughts are on all this.