Entire den a no-show

[Daped01]

Thanks for the support guys, It means alot to me. I had this whole "War and Peace" response to some of your response and unfortunatley, or perhaps fortunatley for your sake, the website crashed on me and I lost it all! So instead of typing it all out I will just say this: I am now looking forward to our October Pack meeting which will be a halloween party. it is also our Popcorn Turn in nights so until then my focus will be on that! If they want to join us great! if they don't, its their loss!

[King Ding Dong]

I am in similar boots. CM and Webleos DL. Only my son and one other Webelos showed up for the last Pack meeting. We have not had a Webelos 1 meeting yet because everyone places a higher priority on sports. So Johnny do you want to go swimming or play soccer or go inside and learn about what it takes to be a good Citizen? How about lets play the Presidents Game? Or learn who your good for nothin congressman is? Let's write him a letter! I am not having much luck with this.

[koolaidman]

If I had a chance to do Web's over again, I'd do it differently. Instead of one or two entire meetings on one activity, do small parts of each activity over the course of several meetings. Each meeting gives a chance to review what was done previously and provides variety throughout the meeting.

 

example: knot time, then first aid, the outdoors, then citizenship. If you have good related games, it should work.

 

Anyhoo, just a thought I've been thinking lately...

[Faith]

I was sad to hear how the turnout went but reading further, kudos to you for venturing on and having a positive attitude with the upcoming pack meet. It sounds like a great time!

I have a feeling we'll see some of the same this year with our Webelos I but on a positive note, I'm so proud to see how far our volunteers have come in the past year and I hope you see the same in the near future. More and more here are signing up once we had a new CM and assistant CM take over. We've also had lots more volunteers help out with trying new events we've never done before as a pack (PWD earlier this year, our first show and sell tomorrow, among other things.)

This was after seeing my first year with the pack go quite sour with so many volunteers and scouts leaving due to inactivity, a CM that abruptly moved away, no communication among half the den leaders and parents, etc. None of the Webelos (I and II) from that year made it past WII, which was very disheartening.

We're trying to change things up to get new interest in the program and keep some of our 'regulars' actively interested as well. Take it one meet at a time, remind yourself you are doing your best and don't give up!

[Daped01]

Question for those of you that have been doing this far longer than I have..... As your kids progress along the program, is it "normal" to see a loss of kids in general as they get older? And if so, what would you consider an "average" attrition rate? I will have to wait a few years to see how it plays out here, but this year here is our make up:

 

11 Tiger Cubs (mostly all recruited through boy talks last spring)

8 Wolves (4 recruited through boy talks this year, 4 returning)

6 Bears (some recruited at boy talks, some through word of mouth,1 a transfer in from a neighboring council's pack)

4 Webelos (2 Web I's that came around and decided to continue, and 2 Web II's, 1 a transfer (brother of above's transfer), and 1 new scout who's mom contacted me about joining.

 

 

I understand why most of our Web I's did not continue, as they had an extremely poor leader last year as bears. It took alot of convincing that the program has improved to get the ones we have to return. Im not sure about how the Web den ran last year, I assumed since our then cubmaster was the den leader that it was going as it should. Perhaps the program was no good in the Web Den as well?

 

 

Anyhoo, i'm excited to see how many of the tiger cubs Recruited can stick around!

[Fehler]

Yes, definitely. My first "recruiting class" of Tigers started at 13, and now as they are entering Webelos 1, they are down to 6. Its been hard not having a class one level above them, to give them older Cubs to look up to.

[King Ding Dong]

Very common in my experience to see an attrition rate of 50-70% between Tigers and Webelos. One boy left my den for martial arts this year. I fully support the families decision, this boy needs the focus and discipline skills that I can't offer. My youngest son would probably be better off as well, I just can't affort the outrageous prices that are charged in my area.

[ShutterbugMom]

I think this drop off is very common also. My older son's group transitioned to Boy Scouts with 14, and that was totally abnormal for the pack which usually had 3-6 each year. My younger son's bear den currently has 14, so we will see what happens.

 

I truly think sports plays a huge issue in this. By the time they get to middle school, many of the boys that want to play sports will drop out of scouts. And on the flip side, by then many other kids have quit sports and focus on scouts. We have encouraged our boys to do both because they both offer so much. Also, truthfully, most children are not going to be MLB/NBA/NFL players, but I believe all boys with a good work ethic can become Eagle Scouts. :-)

 

As leaders, we have tried to keep any boys that miss the meeting up to date and make sure they know what needs completed, but beyond that it is up to the parents. My oldest has played three years of competitive baseball with up to 3 practices and 5 games per week at times and still managed to attend most of the scout events. He does miss many of the spring camp outs. I think it is totally up to the amount of time the child and parents are willing to put into each activity. (Plus, how many kids there are in the family, how the child handles schoolwork and of course many other factors can come into it.)

[Daped01]

Great! I am in the general vicinity that I want to be then. I told our scoutmaster the other day that if 5 or 6 of the 11 tiger cubs cross over into the troop in 5 years we are on the right track