Troop invited to Pack event, help needed

[DuctTape]

Since you say the troop relies on the pack as a feeder, I would recommend that when you do have the Key 7 meeting. One of the things you keep in mind is that the cubs have no obligation to go to this troop when they join Scouts BSA. I would also encourage the Webelos dens to visit other troops. One reason the troop culture is not great is b/c they do not have to be. They keep getting scouts and have no competition. Introduce competition and they will have no choice but to change or dissolve.

[ParkMan]

13 hours ago, karunamom3 said:

Our pack & troop have the same CO & meet on the same night. They have rarely interacted together over the 40+ years they existed. As I became involved with pack leadership I was shocked to learn that AOL Cubs are supposed to camp with & go to a troop meeting.  Never happened before I stepped into CM role & pushed the envelope. Our troop relies solely on this feeder pack for membership! We have been working hard to change this odd dynamic and have forced the troop into having the AOL's attend a meeting. The troop is not very active & we thought this would be fun for all to help build a relationship between the 2 units. 

Your comment that the troop is not very active jumped out at me.  I'm going to guess that this is part of the issue here.  I've found that often Scouters get discouraged in their volunteer roles.  That discouragement leads to volunteers scaling back, not being as on top of activities and requests we'd hope they'd be.

I think you are in a unique position here.  As Cubmaster, your Scouts will become the driving force that makes this troop go.  Your parents will become the volunters in this troop in the future.  I'd encourage you to keep raising expectations.  Keep building a great pack program.  If the troop doesn't help out now - keep putting the opportunities out there.  Your pack could help generate the momentum that leads to this troop getting more active.

[mrkstvns]

One way to build tighter bonds between the pack and troop is to involve more Boy Scouts as Den Chiefs for the cubs.  Encourage Den Leaders to have a Den Chief and let the Scoutmaster know that your pack wants more Den Chiefs. Because scouts need positions of responsibility for rank advancement, it's usually easy to enlist them. They then become de facto emissaries between the pack and the troop...

[karunamom3]

22 hours ago, DuctTape said:

 I would also encourage the Webelos dens to visit other troops. One reason the troop culture is not great is b/c they do not have to be. They keep getting scouts and have no competition. Introduce competition and they will have no choice but to change or dissolve.

Spot on. Thanks!

[karunamom3]

17 hours ago, mrkstvns said:

One way to build tighter bonds between the pack and troop is to involve more Boy Scouts as Den Chiefs for the cubs.  Encourage Den Leaders to have a Den Chief and let the Scoutmaster know that your pack wants more Den Chiefs. 

There are no older scouts. The oldest is 13, tenderfoot. We did train a few younger kids as den cheifs & it didn't work well. They just were not very helpful and were simply not ready to take that responsibility. Good idea though.

[Thunderbird]

@karunamom3  For the Cub Scouts who went fossil hunting, you might want to check out the STEM Nova awards.  I think this activity would fit under the Cub Scout Nova award: "Uncovering the Past" for Wolf, Bear, and Webelos Scouts.

Edited June 11, 2019 by Thunderbird

[karunamom3]

On 6/11/2019 at 12:09 PM, Thunderbird said:

@karunamom3  For the Cub Scouts who went fossil hunting, you might want to check out the STEM Nova awards.  I think this activity would fit under the Cub Scout Nova award: "Uncovering the Past" for Wolf, Bear, and Webelos Scouts.

Thank you so very much! I am a Nova Counselor too so we can easily complete that award over the summer.