Frequency of tiger den meetings

[scoutdad82]

My son is a tiger cub this year. Since joining we have only had one den meeting. Is this normal for Tigers or am I just expecting too much. I know their requirements are not as demanding as the older scouts. At our first meeting the den leader asked the other parents for any ideas they might have. I shared some ideas to meet their requirements. The den leader also told me he couldn't sign off on any of their completed scout requirements such as the bobcat ones. He said the cubmaster would do that. I just don't want the kids to fall behind. I'm sure the committee would take action if they noticed something was not right.

[amg4814]

One meeting is ok, but the meeting should run about 90 minutes if it is one meeting a month. The Den Leader is responsible for letting the CM know when the boys have completed all the requirements. The CM then signs off on everything. My son's den meetings are 45 minutes twice a month. In my opinion, 90 minutes is too long for 6 and 7 year old boys.

[CubScoutIdeas]

Like all of the ranks, Tigers are expected to complete 7 adventures, and each adventure will take 2 or 3 den meetings.  In my opinion, the boys won't be able to complete all the requirements meeting only once a month.

 

If your den leader is new to Cub Scouts, it's likely that he's a bit overwhelmed.  I know I was as a Tiger leader!    My suggestion is to pick one of the required adventures and tell your leader that you would be willing to lead the adventure for him.  You can download one of the den meeting plans here.  https://cubscouts.org/library/welcome-to-tiger-cub-scouting/ 

 

I would even give the leader your rough draft plan.  "We'll do requirements 1, 3 & 5 at the first meeting, and 2, 4 & 6 at the second meeting.  I looked at the calendar and November X looks good for meeting 1 and November X looks good for meeting 2.  If this is ok with you, let's email the other parents to schedule."

 

The committee likely doesn't realize that there's only been one meeting.  If the leader is resistant to your offer of help, I would contact your Cubmaster and let him/her know that you're concerned about the lack of meetings.

 

The Guide to Advancement has this to say regarding who is allowed to sign off on Cub Scout advancement:

 

4.1.0.3 Who Approves Cub Scout Advancement?

A key responsibility for den leaders is to implement the den meeting plans as outlined in the four den leader guides shown within this topic. For Tiger through Bear ranks, if the activity is completed outside of the den meeting, the parent, adult partner, or another trusted adult should sign in the boy’s handbook, indicating the Cub Scout has done his best to complete the requirement. The den leader then approves that requirement after consultation with the family or the boy to confirm completion. If the requirement is completed in a den meeting, the den leader signs in both places. Den leaders may, however, ask an assistant or parent who helps at meetings to play the role of “Akela†and assist with the approvals. For Webelos and Arrow of Light ranks, the den leader signs for approval of all requirements, unless the den leader delegates this responsibility.

 

Here's the link to this information:  http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/GuideToAdvancement/MechanicsofAdvancement/CubScouting.aspx

 

After the den leader (or his designee) approves the advancement, the information needs to go to your advancement or awards person. 

 

Hope this helps!

 

[meyerc13]

Welcome!  Since this is a Tiger Den, does the Den Leader have previous Scouting experience or is he just another parent new to Scouting?  With my old Pack, we met every Monday that school was in session.  One meeting was our Pack Meeting, the rest were Den Meetings and Outings.  If an Outing had to be scheduled on a weekend or alternate night, we might skip a week, but in general we had three den meetings per month.

 

If this Den Leader is new to Scouting, he may be in over his head.  If he hasn't completed training or looked through the requirements, he may not realize that one meeting a month probably isn't sufficient to complete the advancement requirements.  Look into the new leader training and Roundtable schedule for your District.  Perhaps you can plan to attend, and invite him to attend along with you.  Tiger Cubs should be using a Shared Leadership model, so ideally he'd assign each family one Adventure to work on, and establish a regular meeting schedule.  Beyond that, a Tiger Den Leader shouldn't have to do much except encourage and support the parents who are going to be leading each adventure.

 

Good luck, and hopefully you can inject some enthusiasm into your son's Tiger Den!

[JasonG172]

Our Tigers meet Weekly, I do know some other units in the area only meet twice a month.

Edited November 8, 2016 by JasonG172

[Ranman328]

I would recommend meeting weekly and keep the meetings shorter as the younger scouts are harder to keep focused.  I would also recommend doing some weekend events to make it fun to have the boys do some outings.  Most local fire and police departments are more than willing to conduct tours of the facility.  Several grocery stores will do the same.  Having more meetings gives the boys something to look forward to and also makes it possible for families to spend time together.

[blw2]

old thread, but since it's bumped back in, I'll comment.....

 

My 2 cents is that it's best to have regular meetings.  Maybe depending a bit on the group but as a general rule weekly would be the goal.

I used to encourage our dens to meet weekly, except the week of the monthly pack meeting.... so 3x per month....but occasionally it would only be 2x because of holiday conflicts, etc....  Basically, the idea was to have a scout meeting or activity EVERY week,

 

We had one den that met far less often.  It was a very small den of like 3 scouts so they worked it out...but I'm convinced the lack of activity did nothing but hurt any excitement.  There was no momentum in that group.

 

My daughter's daisy, now brownie troop meets twice per month, but the meetings are 2 hours.  It works well enough

But what happens is that when a scout misses a meeting, a lot more material is missed and a lot longer time passes before they're at it again....

[Stosh]

One of the parents put out an email this past week that the parents have been discussing the Boy Scout troop going to an every other week meeting.  They will be voting on it to make it "official" this next week.  This gives one insight into how much or how little the parents know about the scouting program. 

 

After the vote, it will be announced that the SM will be there every week to work with the boys wishing to insure the program continues.  Any boy that misses one meeting will go a whole month without scouting because there is no need to plan any other outings because the infrequent meetings will be filled with housekeeping chores rather than program planning.  I can see where this will lead very quickly to an adult led program.  After all they are calling the shots with their "official" voting processes.

[blw2]

.....

After the vote, it will be announced that the SM will be there every week to work with the boys wishing to insure the program continues.  .....

I love it Stosh!

 

did you say once that every parent is registered committee in your troop?

Just thinking out loud here.... but perhaps that is a danger of having too many "un-trained" or under trained folks in official roles.  I have this gut feeling anyway, every time it comes up about adding another  inactive or unnecessary adult person to the rosters in our troop.

 

I suppose there's no real gain in fighting the mob....but I can't help but thinking you should fall back on your authority as SM and under no uncertain terms remind them that you are in charge of the program, and that your program is up to the Scouts (or whatever the case is).  I suppose this falls back on a necessary strong relationship with a strong CC though.

 

I'm reminded of a podcast, or maybe several different ones....but Clarke Green did a long while back where is was talking about adult heavy troops, and how he strongly discourages even ASM's from talking directly with scouts without his express and specific direction.  Or something to that regard anyway.  i just remember being a little taken back by the idea, but every now and then I can see a twinge of sound logic in it.

anyway, it took me a little digging to find it, but this is one of them (actually I'm remember another when he was a bit more blunt about it, but can't find that one)

   https://scoutmastercg.com/podcast-284-assistant-scoutmasters/

      skip ahead to 20:09, but the meat of this point started around 26 minutes

[Ranman328]

OK, I'm confused.  I thought this was a Cub Scout Pack?  Why is a Scoutmaster running it.  I thought we were talking about a Tiger Den?  I do realize that in a Tiger Den that all the parents are suppose to participate in planning and running a meeting but in our Pack, until each parent completed the Youth Protection, they did not participate as any type of leader.

[blw2]

it was a parallel thought, illustrating an opinion of less frequent meetings.  Applies to troops too.

[Stosh]

it was a parallel thought, illustrating an opinion of less frequent meetings.  Applies to troops too.

 

It applies to any organization or situation.  Take 3 months off in the summer and see how much educational retention is lost.....  Take a two-week vacation and see how hard it is to get back in the routine when one returns..... 

 

Frequency directly correlates to familiarity.

[blw2]

yeah, I think there are a lot of angles to it....

lost proficiency

habit of going

lazy habits developed in not going

 

but in my thinking, for scouts anyway, one of the more important considerations for frequent meetings is the occasional absence.  If a scout can't make a meeting (sick, sports, band, or whatever), he can always go next week.... if there are weekly meetings.  If meetings are monthly and a scout misses, that's 6 weeks of no scouting.  Easy to forget that you are even a scout in that time!

[Kdl]

I agree that if the meeting go less then once a week we would never get anything done. we have parents who wanna go to twice a month meeting cause its hard to come every week our cm said he would be there every week with the door open and hoped that the boys would show up and leaders would show up to help. I am a den leader and I show up every week unless I am sick and can not attend or have a doctors apt I make sure my nephews attend. how will the boys learn anything if they skip all those meetings or if you are in a pack that doesn't have meetings threw the summer.

[RememberSchiff]

@Kdl welcome to scouter.com