How to be a 3 in 1 leader without going insane?

[christineka]

I went insane attempting to be the Bears and Wolves leader at the same time. Now the Webelos have been added. Oh, sure, I always get a second adult to show up to meetings, but the rest is on me. Right now we're doing the webelos' athlete, which earns a belt loop for all (physical fitness belt loop)- also slowly working on the volleyball belt loop- after that we pick up trash. Then we will probably do the ultimate belt loop (if I can figure out how to play) and if we have time before September, we'll probably do basketball. In September I've planned to start working on bear requirements, seeing as how I'm the bear leader. (At the moment, the only bear has already earned his rank and will be a webelos in 2 weeks- this is lds scouts, where boys change rank on their birthday.) This is lds scouts, so I just have to sit around and wait for leadership to be changed. I'd rather plan for no change than to be disappointed when it doesn't happen. Are there any helps for doing 3 groups of boys at a time? I know we can do the webelos craftsman with all and have it work for wolves and bears, but I am really not prepared to teach craftsman. I tried calling the only hardware store in town (home depot) to see if they would help and no, they don't do that. I need help!

[5yearscouter]

I'm not sure I can help that much without typing a novel.

In your meetings get as much adult help as you can. ask if you can get any boy scouts for help as den chiefs.

assign a boy in each rank level to be denner. give him a lot of responsibility--he can pass out handouts or assignment sheets for the boys that are at different levels and be like a teacher's helper for his rank. have each rank do gathering, flags, announcements and closing together. Have each group sit as separately as possible for their main activity.

 

 

There is a lot of overlap--a lot of repetition, but things should get harder or more in depth as they get older.

make a chart of which achievements sort of line up between the badges

I would focus on the Bear content areas, 1 for god, 3 for country, 4 for self, and 4 for family.

pick the ones in bear that seem similar to wolf. and try to cover both together.

then for webelos find the activity badge that is the most similar and work on that. webelos are older, so for some things they could work independently--with a boy scout even once a month that could really be great

 

Looks like you are working on the sportsman badge for webelos, some of the self achievements of physical fitness for bears, and there are some for wolves too.

when you do the god part for bear, that is faith for all three ranks including the faith requirement for the webelos badge.

for country, you have citizenship, flag ceremonies, for webelos that would give you citizenship badge, you could do scholar and being a good student,

for family you have family member for webelos, throw in cooking in the bear and wolves and outdoor cooking for webelos.

all have something for first aid related --for webelos that's readyman, we usually do that towards end of webelos but it could be at any time. but bears and wolves have something first aid, visit a police station, kind of thing.

I'd have to sit with all 3 books here to get more in depth.

you could also have wolves meet 2 times a month, bears 3 times a month and webelos 4 times a month. with them doing the overlapping things together. or have wolves meet for 45 minutes, bears for an hour and webelos for 1:15 to give you a little more time with them just at their own level.

 

It may help you to think of the "things cub scouts do" as a way to organize your year.

They work together to be a team/den/pack--getting to know you, playing games together, good sportsmanship, maybe communication with visit to a newspaper office, or a library.

They go camping and work on outdoor stuff--camping, outdoor essentials, hiking rules, maybe toss in outdoor cooking and fishing.

They are good citizens, so you do your flag ceremonies, your visit to the state capitol, being a good citizen at school, following rules.

You have the first aid, visit to the fire station/police station, etc.

They have a strong faith and family oriented activites usually at Christmastime.

They build things (so you get your craftsman and pinewood derby cars built that month)

um, let's see.... you have outdoor ethics, recycling, leave no trace, world conservation, throw in some geology, bird study, etc.

fun in the sun--swimming, and sports sports and more sports?

music, magic, talent show type stuff

science and technology stuff.

what else?

 

 

 

 

[Cheech]

I would double check with Home Depot. I know they used to have a kids workshop offered on Sat. mornings that you sign up for in advance. I'm not sure what the age requirements are but all of the scouts are probably eligible. Not certain what they would be making but if they all attended the workshop, you could possibly have them do that instead of a more formal set up with home depot.

[Pack18Alex]

I ran Tiger/Wolf this year, though focused on my Tigers and got another parent to run some Wolf-achievement meetings. There was a guide my DE sent me (can't find it now) on alternative meeting plans for groups meeting together. It was a one year (or 9 month) program that did Tiger/Wolf/Bear/Webelos. There were alternativing programs A/B so your boys didn't repeat each year. The Tiger Go-See-Its were fudged and a few other things (not applicable for LDS), but might be a GREAT program for LDS, since boys change ranks randomly through the year. They just work on which ever level of the activity is appropriate for their current rank.

[TSS_Chris]

I did this last year and nearly burned myself out. My recommendation is don't try to do too much.

 

If you have a really small Pack, where the three groups together are less than 10 boys, then you can use the combined program. Of course, National has taken the PDF down for the combined program from the Den Leader Resource page.

 

If you've got more than that, you should have dens of 6-8 boys. Anything more than that is an injustice for the boys. If you don't have other leaders you can count on, you're going to need to get the parents to step up. Break down the list of requirements. Have a meeting with all the parents, and make up a calendar of your meetings. Have each parent commit to run one meeting with the goal of getting one Wolf or Bear requirement done, or a decent fraction of a Webelos activity badge. If you don't have the time to pull that together, then use the BSA den leader program pages and just hand those out.

 

If the parents balk, remind them that Cub Scouts is a parent/child program. Remind them you are a volunteer, and don't be afraid to tell them just how busy you are. Give the "

if needed.

[jc2008]

I did this last year and nearly burned myself out. My recommendation is don't try to do too much.

 

If you have a really small Pack, where the three groups together are less than 10 boys, then you can use the combined program. Of course, National has taken the PDF down for the combined program from the Den Leader Resource page.

 

If you've got more than that, you should have dens of 6-8 boys. Anything more than that is an injustice for the boys. If you don't have other leaders you can count on, you're going to need to get the parents to step up. Break down the list of requirements. Have a meeting with all the parents, and make up a calendar of your meetings. Have each parent commit to run one meeting with the goal of getting one Wolf or Bear requirement done, or a decent fraction of a Webelos activity badge. If you don't have the time to pull that together, then use the BSA den leader program pages and just hand those out.

 

If the parents balk, remind them that Cub Scouts is a parent/child program. Remind them you are a volunteer, and don't be afraid to tell them just how busy you are. Give the "

if needed.

This pdf you mean?

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/multicultural/pdf/523-006_web.pdf

[5yearscouter]

I took a short glance thru this link from an LDS cub pack

and it appears to give you what you need. it would at least give you a starting point.

 

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=lds%20combined%20den%20meeting%20plans&source=web&cd=8&ved=0CFIQFjAH&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cubpack174.org%2FDownloadableContentHandler.ashx%3FmediaId%3D55975b06-a9ff-4939-b536-da1ccdba08a3&ei=UMPVUeL_A4mQiQLZqIBo&usg=AFQjCNFd55PehNpQEgWKagVXKWmlwi_X5A&bvm=bv.48705608,d.cGE

 

yes it's a gobbledygook link, but when I tried the link button scouter.com gave you a link to google.com

 

 

 

[Basementdweller]

As long as you are doing the job.....No one else will step up.

 

So my advise is not to do it. If the boys suffer a bit before another parent decides to help then so be it.

[christineka]

Thanks for all the links. I will check them out. I need to get a plan before I run out of plans! The pack is very small- 2 Wolves, 1 Bear, and 5 Webelos. That changes again in October, November, January, etc Since I have a 10 year old, myself, I am rather invested in the Webelos' program running, then I've got to do Bears, which is my responsibility, and I feel like I should not ignore the wolves while I'm at it, but half the wolf stuff needs to be done with a parent, so we don't have to work on quite as much.

[TSS_Chris]

I did this last year and nearly burned myself out. My recommendation is don't try to do too much.

 

If you have a really small Pack, where the three groups together are less than 10 boys, then you can use the combined program. Of course, National has taken the PDF down for the combined program from the Den Leader Resource page.

 

If you've got more than that, you should have dens of 6-8 boys. Anything more than that is an injustice for the boys. If you don't have other leaders you can count on, you're going to need to get the parents to step up. Break down the list of requirements. Have a meeting with all the parents, and make up a calendar of your meetings. Have each parent commit to run one meeting with the goal of getting one Wolf or Bear requirement done, or a decent fraction of a Webelos activity badge. If you don't have the time to pull that together, then use the BSA den leader program pages and just hand those out.

 

If the parents balk, remind them that Cub Scouts is a parent/child program. Remind them you are a volunteer, and don't be afraid to tell them just how busy you are. Give the "

if needed.

@jc2008: That's exactly it. I didn't think to look in the multicultural section for this. I thought this used to be accessible from the den leader resources page.