How do you get the parents to complete "At Home" Requirements?

[ShutterbugMom]

My husband is the den leader for Bears and I am the committee chairperson for our pack. We recently combined with another pack and have gone from 7 cubs to 14 in our den. It's a bit big, but we are managing since most the parents are fairly helpful and we have a den chief, and a large area where we can meet.

 

The question I had is what does everyone do if a scout misses a meeting and the activities that were completed? Nearly all the activities can be completed at home, so I normally send an e-mail to the parents of the scouts that misses and tell them what they missed, ask them complete achievements x, y, and z at home and to let me know when they complete them so I can mark them off. These are not hard achievements -- they can generally be done one on one in 10-15 minutes. For some of the more active achievements we try to repeat them at other pack meetings (such as the Buliding Muscles Achievement) but with that many scouts, it has not always been possible this year.

 

We are on track to finish our first three achievements tonight so everyone can receive their first bead at the pack meeting next week. However, what if some of them do not? Some of the parents are great and keep me informed and show us everything they complete. Others...not so much. I feel bad giving it to half the boys, but not the other half, but on the flip side, I have sent multiple e-mails and have given them the deadlines.

 

It is usually just 1-2 that miss each meeting to illness, sports or school work. I totally understand having to miss the occasional meeting as both my bear and my Boy Scout also play sports all year round (and several times my husband has been at scouts leading the boys while I have our scout at his game...ha, ha!). I guess I've always made sure they keep up, so it stresses me when other people are not responding.

 

We also use ScoutTrack so the parents can track their scouts progress at any time, but most do not.

 

Thanks for any ideas!!

[fred johnson]

There are no good options. You can ask, but my experience is there is no reliable way. And, you will get a 30% response rate. Parents are already dealing with too much homework from school and competing activities.

 

I'd look for giving the scouts the best experience possible in the den and keep them active and getting new experiences. If a scout missed a meeting or two, maybe they don't get that specific advancement. But I'd look the other way when it comes to the rank badge.

 

Effectively, if a scout was at all active in the den, I'd do my best to see they got their rank patch by the rank time period.

[Sidney Porter]

Repeating requirements are always an issue when dealing with no shows. With a den of 14 I think it will be next to impossible to repeat items, if you have a couple missing each meeting.

 

I have several Webelos that have partial requirements. It makes it real hard when they miss the meetings where you bring in a guest speaker (scientist, artist, engineer etc). That took effort to arrange and I don't really have much interest to go though that process again. But with Webelos there are enough activities that I can continue w/o needing to repeat. So that those scouts get their electives w/o making the other scouts repeat a lot of items. Although it has dictated which items we would focus on (metal skills and technology) since they can count as either electives or as one of the required groups. But it is critical that they need to attend the meetings.

 

The other side of repeating items is that it takes away a new experience for those that attended the original meetings. I get that some of this is beneficial to learning 2x but it is still a trade off.

[King Ding Dong]

My current pack has been going the route Fred suggests and just handing out rank advancement as registration prizes. I don't like it one bit and I feel had led to a decline in the Pack. I get letting a requiremnt or two slip but it has just gotten out of hand. I think it is a disservice to the boys in the long run.

[qwazse]

... We are on track to finish our first three achievements tonight so everyone can receive their first bead at the pack meeting next week. However' date=' what if some of them do not? ...[/quote']

 

They don't get the bead. How is this hard?

 

When you have a moment each boy who didn't advance and tell him if he reads his book and does the activity with his mom or dad, and they sign off, you'll get him a bead for the next pack meeting. Let him know you really would like him to earn it, but if he doesn't want to that's okay. Leave it up to him to talk to Mom and Dad.

 

I had a friend on the phone upset because his cub wasn't going to complete his bear requirements (missed meetings, disorganized DL, yada yada ...). The minute I told him that little jr. doesn't have to earn Bear and the only reward he needed was a smile on his face, I could hear the relief in his voice.

 

Seriously, people, it's okay if the losing runners aren't crowned in laurel.

 

[meschen]

Unless absolutely necessary (i.e impossible to do in a Den setting), I never expected the stuff the Scouts were supposed to do home would be completed. When meetings were missed, parents were told what was missing, and why Johnny won't get the badge everyone else does, but in reality only a few Scouts actually did the work at home. During the year, when some Scouts got awards and others did not, parents got the idea.

 

I usually did dedicate the last couple of Den meetings before the final Pack meeting of the year to missing rank requirements. I knew who needed to do what and I was clear with parents what I would cover and when their Scout needed to be there to finish their rank. If they didn't show or do the work at home, the Scout didn't get the award. If they were 80 or 90% of the way to completion, I would work with them to form a plan to finish the badge.

 

The award only has meaning if Scouts are held to the requirements.

[Stosh]

Ever consider asking Little Johnny what he would like? The parents don't care if he doesn't get the award because it wasn't important enough to get him there. Now you want to bend over backwards for the boy? Maybe he doesn't care either. Maybe when it all boils down to the bottom, the only one wanting everyone to get the award is the DL.

 

If Johnny is having a good time hanging out with his buddies. That in itself might just be all he wants. If not, then work with Johnny, the parents aren't going to change.

 

Stosh

[Petey091]

After every den meeting I would send an email to the den explaining what we covered and asked parents of absent scouts to complete the missed stuff at home. We also used scout track so the parents were able to sign off themselves. Once I had covered all the achievements I would send an email telling the parents of finishing the rank requirements and telling them that any missed achievements were their responsibility to complete. Two weeks before advancement I would send another email and then again several days before the advancement deadline. Did I have some upset parents when their scout was not recognized for earning a rank yes. I have a busy job. I am a parent to two children and a den leader. I will not brow beat parents to do their part.

[Sidney Porter]

Scouts do not need to make rank nor do they need to make rank at the same time. If they don't put forth the effort / attendance they are not going to make rank. They can still have a rewrding experience in scouts. It is the same as the kid that only attends 1/2 of his sports team practice he is not going to start but will still get to play some.

 

[ShutterbugMom]

Wow....there are so many different opinions! I do what someone else suggested and send out an e-mail after each meeting. I do have people saying that people just don't read e-mails (which I know is true, but that's their problem.) We do almost everything at the meetings, but there are just a couple things to do at home. I just don't want sad kids because their parents didn't read their e-mail. I expect this will be even tougher when they move to Webelos next year.

[AKdenldr]

Shutterbug, all great ideas, which I did use.

 

However I haven't seen the most effective idea... make an achievement poster with the requirements listed that you have done or asked to be done at home. Each meeting for a short bit put stickers on what each scout has completed. This helps the boys SEE their advancement. You don't want to make this a big deal cause boys can be scouts and have great experiences without earning any awards.

 

(I also would have 'requirement roundups' prior to the Blue and Golds where I could tidy up all those pesking missing items with the scouts who had missed. Usually a block of time on the weekend.)

 

Best of luck.

[Faith]

I have tried many things for this issue in the past three years - quoting some of it.

 

After every den meeting I would send an email to the den explaining what we covered and asked parents of absent scouts to complete the missed stuff at home.

 

make an achievement poster with the requirements listed that you have done or asked to be done at home. Each meeting for a short bit put stickers on what each scout has completed.

 

They don't get the bead. How is this hard?

When you have a moment each boy who didn't advance and tell him if he reads his book and does the activity with his mom or dad, and they sign off, you'll get him a bead for the next pack meeting. Let him know you really would like him to earn it, but if he doesn't want to that's okay. Leave it up to him to talk to Mom and Dad.

 

I always send messages after each meet and we tried the chart (which wasn't as effective as I'd have liked it to be but we can say we tried.)

 

I also make sure they know if it isn't completed, they don't get their bead(s). Last year we had some boys bust behind at the end after sports finished up (even though they knew what was required all throughout, they held it off) but most did get it done in time and I did assist them during one of our last meets. We still had a few boys not ready by B&G when most receive their rank. That was ok. They saw the other boys get theirs, then used the last 3 months to earn theirs as well. It sounds a bit tough to some but for us it works!

[Stosh]

It always amazes me the terminology we use incorrectly. There are no ranks in Cub Scouting. They can, if they wish earn an award (Wolf, Bear, Webelos, AOL etc.) and extra bling (arrow points) if they so choose. They can progress through Cub Scouts and never receive any awards along the way if they so choose. It would be correct to say that the only ones that feel it necessary to measure their success in the program seems to be the DL's. OMG, what if my boys don't get their awards, what if they come, have fun, screw around, waste time and have a blast doing so? I must be a total failure as a DL. Why aren't the parents busting their butts helping these boys get their awards? Woe is me!

 

Hello, people. Fun is for everyone, but awards aren't. If Little Johnny doesn't get his bead and everyone else did, is it Little Johnny's fault he didn't care one way or the other, but thought it okay his buddies who worked for it got it? I kinda thought we were over this "Participation Award Self Esteem Building" process as not producing the results we wished for.

 

I think we as Scout leaders need to do more focus on good programming that is fun and less time on letting the boys know how disappointed we are that they didn't get some stupid badge. It's not a punishment if one doesn't get an award. It's not the fault of anyone if one doesn't get an award. The success effectiveness of a DL is not measured in how many patches he/she gets to hand out at a pack meeting.

 

Quit worrying about the patches and start worrying about the boys having fun.

 

Stosh

 

Forgot to mention: When I was Webelos DL, as the basis for my program, I used the pins. I worked them into the activities that we were doing. It worked really well until one pack meeting when the CM, who was handing out the pins/patches, asked one of my boys what he did to earn the pin he was handing out. Seriously, the boy had no idea. It was the Readyman pin. I called out from the back of the room, Little Johnny, tell him about the first aid you learned about. I figured if the CM (really good friend of mine) could embarrass me, I could do a turn around is fair play. After several minutes he finally had to interrupt the boy and send him back to his seat so he could go on with the awards ceremony.

 

There are ways to incorporate the two processes into one.

[Loomans]

It's an ongoing problem. I feel that as a den leader, if I've communicated to a parent throughout the year about advancements, noted specifically what their scout needs to do for an advancement, and given them access to scout track and other advancement resources, they cannot look to me when their scout does not receive an award. We generally do advancement work in our den meetings and expect the scout to work at home if it is missed.

 

On the other hand, I've been generous about giving an award to a scout who was missing a requirement because the adults messed up. We've had the occasion or two where a requirement was thought to be done and wasn't, with no time to do it before B&G so the award is given and the requirement met after the fact.

[Sidney Porter]

It always amazes me the terminology we use incorrectly. There are no ranks in Cub Scouting. They can' date=' if they wish earn an award (Wolf, Bear, Webelos, AOL etc.) and extra bling (arrow points) if they so choose. [/quote']

 

It should not amaze you when the BSA calls them ranks. See 4.1.1.0

http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/GuideToAdvancement/MechanicsofAdvancement/CubScouting.aspx