WOW what a place

[newbie-cubmaster]

this has got to be the best place ive ever seen. i have found out more info on here than from my district director. have a question is it to much to ask that the dens have one outing a month instead of the whole pack trying to go on one since its getting harder to find stuff that both the tigers will like and the 2nd yr weblos would like too. i thought it was supposed to be the den that have the monthly outtings and the pack have one every now and then. have i said how much i really like this site.

[anarchist]

Welcome to insanity central! fasten your seat belt and keep you hands inside the car its a heck of a ride!

 

Good question...and no it is not too much to ask of the den leaders,in fact I don't know of any packs that have monthly "PACK EVENTS" outside of the pack meetings...BLUE AND GOLD, Pinewood,rain gutter etc,

 

Our Troop does at least two troop District events per month but Our Pack (I'm ACM) does four per year...a battlefield hike, couple of Family Camps and a Picnic...Dens do most of the activities...

for exactly the reason you have picked up on!

[SemperParatus]

Welcome.

 

A pack outing everything months, outside of the monthly pack meeting (including B&G, PWD, etc.) does sound aggressive. For the summertime, its fine. Year-round is a different story. While it can be done, I would agree that the a good combination of den and pack outings is the best way to go.(This message has been edited by SemperParatus)

[ScoutNut]

"i thought it was supposed to be the den that have the monthly outtings"

 

Not necessarily. The only Den that should do a monthly outing is the Tiger Den. Even then, sometmes shedules don't quite work out that way.

 

For Wolf & Bear most of the rank achievements should be done at home with the family. I know that doesn't always happen, but the Den Leaders should let the families know which ones they will be working on in the Den (should NOT be all of them) and which ones the families have to work on at home. Den meetings should be for (along with other things) working on things for the monthly Pack meeting.

 

The dens should be working on things outside of the den meeting place whenever possible. However, every month, is not always possible.

 

For Pack activites outside of regular Pack meetings, we do one every few months & every month in Summer. Oct was the Corn Maze/Pumpkin Farm & our CS Haunted House. Dec was making ornaments and trimming the trees around our CO church. Feb is a pro hockey game. April will be a campout. Not every family can make every event, but the ones that do have fun.

[johndaigler]

Welcome, newbie-CM!!

 

jd

[Cubmaster-Fred]

Welcome all the way froom Texas!!!!

 

Climb aboard and share the wealth of scouting information!!!!

 

Fred

[EagleInKY]

Welcome newbie! The only problem with your name is that it will be outdated soon. You'll learn quick if you hang around this bunch!

[packsaddle]

Welcome, newbie-cubmaster! I can still remember the day I started as a new CM, saying to myself, "It's only one hour a month" I'd go back to the cubs in a second if they needed me. Have fun, they grow up way too quickly.

[Eamonn]

I can only echo the welcomes.

Back in the day!!

In July or August we held our Pack Annual Planning Meeting. This was the only meeting of the year that was allowed to run over 90 minutes.

Armed with the Themes for the year (Taken from the Program Helps.) The first order of business was to agree on the Theme for each month. As a rule we would stick with the theme, but at times we would go with our own. I remember one year the Program Helps had Indians of someplace, we changed it to fishing!! Each den worked on something to do with fishing and near the end of the month we had our Pack Fishing Competition.

We had as much information as we could get about what was going on when next year.

Pack Events, other than the monthly Pack Meeting which was same time, same place September through May. Were put on the Calendar. In our case we had: B&G Banquet, Scout Sunday, Pine-Wood Derby (We used to do this at a pack meeting, but the pack grew!! So it became a Saturday event.) Pack Picnic, Baseball Game, Different parades (Fireman's Parade and that sort of thing) We added the District and Council events: Day Camp, Resident Camps, Parent and Son Camp, Cub Scout Olympics, and any other stuff that came along. As I was active with the District I pushed District events and made them a budget item.

Looking at all this the Calendar was already kind of full.

Each Den would then come up with their own trips working within the theme. These trips were not part of the pack budget and either came out of the Den Dues or were extras. Some colleges and museums offered classes in stuff, but this was down to the Den Leaders (With the OK, from the Pack Committee)

Now and then out of the blue someone would come up with an invite or an idea that wasn't on the plan: Free Tickets to the Zoo or something like that and we were never a pack that looked a free trip in the mouth!!

I can't help but think a outing each month along with a pack meeting each month would slow things down a lot a Den meetings.

Eamonn

[Joni4TA]

I don't see why a den can't have a monthly outing. Did you mean camping or just a day outing like a day at the park, a zoo trip or museum trip or something to that effect? When I was a den leader we scheduled outings that coincided with belt loops or requirements out of the boys' handbooks. They were not Pack outings, they were Den outings. In fact the entire summer after school let out, instead of meeting once a week, we met every other week and worked on belt loops for those boys that finished earning their rank, as well as electives for arrow points. I will mirror Eamonn and say that our "den outings" were not Pack funded either. For boys that hadn't acquired their rank, we tried to help them with those requirements.

 

There are some requirements that have to be met with the family. I don't recall right off the bat but I think there is one or two about safety around the home, knowing what to say if someone calls on the phone, turning off lights and securing the home before leaving - stuff like that. The boy obviously can't do those kinds of things in a Den meeting. But there were others like going to a sporting event or theatre or museum - we did some as a den, and they required a den outing.