Looking for Ideas for Pack Meetings

[ramsemaj]

Hi, I'm a new CM for a pack of about 60-70 Cub Scouts. If you have any ideas for pack meeting ideas, I'd love to hear them. I did find these couple of ideas

1. Sock ball war
   
2. Balloon Pop
   
3. Paper Airplane Derby
   

Would love to have some more. I'm thinking I'd have 20-30 minutes of the activity, and it should be something where the scouts will be active (I don't want to have a boring pack meeting).

Thanks!

[Tampa Turtle]

We did the pretend campfire firemaking exercise with pretzel sticks, candy etc. Always a big hit.

 

Also once did a whole camoing 'expo' with Webelos and Boy Scouts talking about gear basics since so many parents needed hand-holding. Had competitions on setting up tents.

 

And animal relay races (run like a crab, etc). Simple obstacle course (crawling through tubes, hopping over swim noodles) can be fun.

 

Good to mix up inter-den competitions with some things that the smaller guys have an advantage now and then because of size,

 

Hard to go wrong with balloons. They still go crazy for it when they are 16!

[meyerc13]

First off, welcome to the forum!  60-70 kids, wow!  I wish you luck.  The Pack I was Cubmaster for was half that size and it kept me busy.

 

As a Roundtable Commissioner, my first duty is to invite you to attend Roundtable.  There you should find local Cubmasters and other Cub Scout leaders who are there to share ideas and learn from each other.

 

One great resource which surprisingly few Cubmasters know about is the Pack Meeting Plans: 

http://www.scouting.org/Home/CubScouts/Leaders/CubmasterResources/PackMeetingPlans.aspx

 

These give you a theme, games, songs, and lots of useful material.  As they explain on that page, you can do these in any order, and you can pull from any of the three years of meeting plans that are currently on the site.  If you've taken your Cubmaster basic training, you'll notice one part of the agenda is missing - 'The Program.'  So that's the part where you need to come up with something.

 

What exactly is, 'The Program'?  (I think that needs some monumental background music, don't you think?  Tum Tum Tum Tum TAAAHH....  Sorry, did I mention I'm a Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner... we like to have fun!)  Well, this is what the BSA tells us about 'THE PROGRAM':

The program section of the meeting may include presentations and performances by the dens that demonstrate things the boys learned during the month, activities that involve the entire audience, or a featured event.

 

The BSA ideal is for each den (and with 70 kids, you must have a lot of them), to get up in front and really show off what they've done that month.  In the interests of time, that may not always be feasible with so many Cubs, so you might rotate in a few dens each month.  It sounds like you are looking for 'activities that involve the entire audience,' and there is nothing wrong with that... but remember that it should include the entire audience, including moms, dads, grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles, siblings... the Pack Meeting is for everyone. 

 

It could also be a 'featured event.' What's a 'featured event?'  Well, let's look at some ideas:

• Calendar based - What month is it?  What's the major holiday (if any) that month?  How can we incorporate that into our Pack Meeting?
  • October - Halloween Party.  Setup stations with Halloween themed games and have the audience go around and visit each station.
  • November - Thanksgiving.  There are a bunch of fun Thanksgiving themed songs (my favorite is The Turkey Parade by Jean Warren), plus crafts.
  • December - Holiday Gift Exchange.  Have each child bring a wrapped $3-$7 gift.  Challenge each family to also bring a second wrapped $3-$7 gift (emphasize more 0-3 year old gifts, and more girl gifts).  Pick some fun method to distribute gifts and everyone leaves with one.  Whatever extra gifts were brought are donated to a local shelter.
  • February - Valentines Day - Cake Walk... Have prizes for the best Super Hero cake, the best Scout theme, etc.
• Theme Based - Check out the theme for the month and base your special event on that.  If the Pack Meeting Plan theme is Treasure Hunters, have a Scavenger hunt.  If it is 'To the Rescue' invite the fire department, EMTs, or Coast Guard.  If it is 'Strike up the Band' have a local children's singer come in.  A variation on this is tying it to the point of the Scout Law for that month.  For example - Cheerful could be a Clown or Juggler.  Brave could be the local K9 unit.
• Other things I've tried:
  • While Martial Arts isn't allowed under the Guide to Safe Scouting, since my son is a black belt I know that his school offers a great stranger danger class.  We invited one of their chief instructors to our Pack meeting and he taught the kids what to do if a stranger tries to grab them (it involves a certain way of yanking your arm away which actually works very well... as a four year old my son was able to escape no matter how tightly I gripped his arm).  The actual technique only takes a few minutes to learn, but he builds up to it with a lot of explanation on how he expects his students to behave (standing at attention, acknowledging commands with a loud 'Yes Sir!", etc.), followed by an explanation of what stranger danger is, why you shouldn't be the 'boy who cried wolf, etc.
  • Wildlife educators - In our area we have a great 'snake guy' who is involved in Scouting.  There are also groups who rescue raptors, owls, and other wildlife.  They can often bring in some animals and teach the kids about respecting wild animals.

There are really so many ideas you can try... but I'd start with the Pack Meeting Plans and see where the inspiration takes you.  You should also check out Baloo's Bugle, there are lots of great ideas in there every month, and there are years worth of back issues too!

Edited August 3, 2016 by meyerc13

[Tampa Turtle]

Oh! We had a Bike Night and a local pediatric brain surgeon talk on the importance of wearing helmets followed by some demonstrations from some League of American Bicyclist. We followed that up a few weeks later with a Bike Rodeo.

 

The old Cub Scout How-To Book has a lot of great ideas.

[blw2]

the biggest hits for me, were the games and relay races

one comes to mind when we did a relay to get a balloon, bring it back and pop it by sitting on it....

I did a quick rain gutter regatta that was a hit, using pieces of swimming pool noodles as the boat hull.  Something like 5 minutes to make the boats, then race.... no recording of the winners, etc.... just fun.

 

I had mixed results with guest speakers.... we had a few bombs....but if you have a budget... I know of one large pack that used to bring in paid guests every meeting.... from the local science museum, magic, zoo, etc...

 

In hind sight though, my biggest suggestion is to involve the scouts.  Scouting is something that scouts do for themselves, not that adults do for them.  (this mantra applies more to troop level scouting, but if I could go back to CM knowing what I know now this is what I would focus on..)

• scouts really enjoyed skits, but we'd lean on the Den Leaders to pull them together.... and they were less than enthusiastic about it so it was a mixed result.... so lean on the scouts to do their own things, instead of the adults doing it for them.
• If you don't already know about it, really pay attention here and through other study to the foundation of scouting.... the patrol method.  Look for ways to apply it to cubs.
• lean on the WEBELOS scouts
• lean on all the dens to act more like boy-led patrols, even if that's not formally in the cub program.  The boys will have more fun with it.

[The Latin Scot]

If you have good enough den leaders, you could do what my pack does and divide the responsibilities. Every month we split the gathering, flag ceremony, activity, and refreshments amongst the various dens, and for special activities and Derbies the Cubmaster takes charge personally. It helps the dens feel involved in the larger meetings and gives the Cubmaster a chance to focus on more than just planning activities. With a pack as big as yours, that might be helpful!

[SSScout]

Take the Scout Promise, the Scout Law and put each separate word on a 3x5 card.   Fold them ONCE, and throw them in a big shopping bag, mixed up. 

Scene:  Start of the Pack Meeting. I assume you have some opening ceremony.  We did the PoA and Cub promise.   You could do this in the OPENING, or the CLOSING.    When Johnny  Cub assigned to lead the Scout Promise and Law stands up and is almost ready to begin, CM comes forward:

 

 "Wait a minute Johnny, I need to interrupt here to ask a question.  Have the Parents been paying attention?" (here, walk around to the parents in the audience, shaking the shopping bag).  " In this bag, I have the Scout Promise and Law.  Your Cubs have , ( I hope), been learning these.  Have you?  Here , take a card, yep, you too, Pete, and Mrs. Long... " (encourage all to pick a card out of the bag  until you run out). " Now, come on up front here, and let's see if they can line up in the proper order... " 

 

The Cubs will love it, watching their parents try to line up in the proper order.   CM , of course, needs to encourage and comment as necessary.  Keep the Cubs in hand, don't let them comment.  

If possible, ask the parents to do it SILENTLY, without talking!  

[scoutermomks]

I was Cubmaster last year and used the Pack Meeting Plans from scouting.org for almost all of our pack meetings.  They really do cover everything.  Each plan has a gathering activity, opening ceremony, songs and/or skits, award ceremonies, and most of them give you some ideas for the program part too.  We rotated through dens to split up responsibilities so that each den got a chance to do the gathering, opening, song or skit, and cleanup.  The nice thing about using the meeting plans is that you don't have to do them in any special order.  We used the August meeting plan in May because it fit in better with what we wanted to do that month (a "graduation" campfire).  It also saved a lot of headaches when I had to unexpectedly miss a pack meeting because I was sick.  My Assistant Cubmaster already knew which plan we were doing that month and all of the den leaders knew what they were covering.

[ramsemaj]

Sorry for the delayed response.  Just got finished with a week of Cub Scout Day Camp.  Thanks all for all your great feedback.  

 

I should have provided some additional background:

• I was committee chair last year and attended all the Roundtables.  I didn't recall any great pack meeting activities.  They were really not geared to a pack of my size.  They were more for a short den meeting game.
• I looked through a couple of the scouting.org plans, but in my opinion, the pack activities were on the slow side.  I will look through the rest of them though to see if I can find something that suits me.
• We have a tradition where each den is assigned a month to "host" the pack meeting.  They do opening/closing flags, scout law/oath, be in charge of the gathering activity, and do one skit/song.
• We do awards for major achievements, raffles, and adult recognition.
• My goal was to get ideas for the 20-30 min pack activity.

 

blw2, I love your quick rain gutter regata.  We've never done even the full version of it, and if we can do that in a pack meeting, that'd be great.  And I can't agree more about your points about involving the scouts.  In my opinion, speakers can come occasionally - if they come for each one, it feels like a school assembly.   And the balloon pop was my #2 item in my original post...great to know that it's a good one.

 

SSScout, I love your idea too with parents and the scout law.  Prob won't be the 20-30 min pack activity.  But something to increase the interest of learning the law.

 

meyerc13, Thanks for the tip about  BALOO'S BUGLE.  I'll check the issues out.

[meyerc13]

I was committee chair last year and attended all the Roundtables.  I didn't recall any great pack meeting activities.  They were really not geared to a pack of my size.  They were more for a short den meeting game.

 

I'd like to say that I'm surprised, but I'm not.  In fact, had you attended my Roundtables last year, you probably wouldn't have learned too much in this regard either.  However, this coming year will be a different story because I took a week of my summer and went to the Philmont Training Center.  There I took the Effective Roundtables course, so now I've been educated on everything I've been doing wrong over the past year, and know what I'm supposed to be doing to do it the right way.  If I were you, I'd highly encourage my Roundtable Commissioner to attend that course next summer (along with his or her family).  I have a lot of great Scouting memories from over the years, but this one was truly the best.  It also ranked at the top as far as a family vacation - right up there with a week we spent on the beach at Galveston a few years back.

 

Sadly, that won't help you this year so perhaps a more direct approach would work.  Find your Roundtable Commissioner and explain that as a new Cubmaster, you need to share ideas with more experienced Cubmasters.  Ask if you can facilitate a Cubmaster breakout session for Roundtable.  Now, this probably means you'll be added to 'Roundtable Staff,' and ideally this would involve some planning and coordination on your part each month... but since you'll be busy Cubmastering, even if you keep it really simple it would still probably have immense value for your fellow Cubmasters.  Here's what I would do if the Roundtable Commissioner is willing to have you help:

• Look over the 2016-2017 Pack Meeting Plans.  Understand that since you don't know when in the month that a Pack will hold their Pack Meeting, for the September Roundtable you really should be discussing the October Pack Meeting Plan.  So always work one month in advance.  Put this down on paper to create a schedule of the Roundtable date and theme that will be discussed on that date.
• Work with your District Executive to get the names, phone numbers, and email addresses of the Pack Committee Chairs and Cubmasters.  Start by calling all of the Cubmasters and explain that going forward you are going to have a Cubmaster breakout at Roundtable.  Tell them that it will only be successful if they attend.  Ask them if you can count on their support.  All they need to do is show up and bring some ideas for next month's Pack Meeting Theme (email them the schedule you created above), bonus points if they bring something to show and tell.
• Next call all of the Committee Chairs.  Let them know you've already talked to the Cubmasters and again explain how important it is that their unit send a Cubmaster (or Assistant) to Roundtable each month.  Also, since that Pack delegate will be busy learning Cubmastering... they might want to send an alternate to Roundtable to learn the other stuff from the Roundtable Commissioner.

That's really all you need to do.  Longer term, if you can bring something for show and tell each month you'll have something in case nobody else does.  But to start I'd wait and see what the other Cubmasters bring, and focus my efforts on getting them there.  Even if none of you prepare in advanace, by just having 5-10 Cubmasters in the room you can brainstorm together using the Pack Meeting Plan as a conversation starter.

 

Be careful... while this will certainly help you become a better Cubmaster, when the District Commissioner and/or District Executives see what an awesome job you are doing getting Cubmasters to Roundtable, you might find yourself in a Commissioner role.  ;-)

[ramsemaj]

Thanks Chris for your help.  Last year, I started meeting with other CMs and CCs.  I have also been to other pack's pack meetings.  We also have very low turnout at our RTs.

 

My focus right now is for my position as CM.  I think the structure of our pack meetings is good.  I just want cool/fun activities for my scouts during my pack meetings.  

[SSScout]

Yep.  A good Cub RT is run like a Pack meeting, giving the model for other folks to emulate.  Breakouts (so called.  Our Cub RT is usually too small and so is one meeting, one theme, one "Big Rock")  can be viewed as Den Meetings....

 

It does take advance planning, more so because Packs have (very often) the new parents who don't necessarily know what to expect. 

 

The Scout Law/Promise  game can easily take 15 minutes if done right.  

 

Another game:  Den competition:

For each Den, You need two  five gallon buckets, one  Labeled "FIRE"  the other labeled " WATER" , a Big Spoon,  and finally a bag of cotton puffs, separated and LAID (not stuffed) into the "WATER"  bucket.  Count out puffs?  Maybe 25? 

The empty  "FIRE" bucket is at one end of the room.   The FULL  "WATER" bucket at the other., maybe a line 25' away, not too far.     Den lines up behind the "WATER" bucket. First Cub holds spoon, on signal(GO), Den Leader places  ONE  cotton ball on the spoon, and Cub walks to "Fire" bucket and deposits cotton ball in to EXTINGUISH the fire.  , runs back, gives spoon to next Cub, Den Leader puts another cotton ball on the spoon, etc.   If CB falls off,  Cub should pick it up right there, and continue. NO HANDS WHILE MOVING!   NON-SPOON HAND BEHIND BACK!    First Cub goes to end of his Den line, continue.   First Den to EXTINGUISH their fire (no more cotton balls!)   wins.  Appropriate prize awarded....  Cub Master/Cheerleader can demonstrate proper technique!   "Don't waste water!  Don't  spill any!"

Outdoor version:  Use real water, measure amount somehow.....

[ramsemaj]

Thanks again Chris.  

 

For the law game, to me, it would just be more of a show for the kids...and then maybe having the kids yell at the parents when I have them join in.  Preferably, I'd like the scouts to get up and do something.  Still, I think it would be very fun to do and I do plan on doing it.

 

Love the fire idea.  Will add that to the list.