New webelos den leader needs help

[mallway]

I am a newbie to being a den leader(Webelos). We are also a brand new pack(that is getting no help or training from our council)

Needless to say I am completely overwhelmed. I have had four den meetings and I have a total of six boys. The material that we have to cover seems to be so much and my cubmaster wants the boys to achieve one activity badge per month.While I agree that I want the boys to be awarded badges at the pack meeting, I also know that we would have to meet twice a week to accomplish covering all this material. I feel like a schoolteacher with no lesson plan. I have no materials like what is provided for the Bears, Tigers etc to plan my meetings by. I feel like I just wing things all the time and alot of the meeting is boring classroom stuff. Currently we are working on our fitness badge. Food pyrimids, safety notebooks...blah...I have boys that want to run and DO stuff with their hands and feet. Can anyone help?

[Torveaux]

Is there a rule that says you must finish one badge before another?

 

I guess I would try to mix some of the 'sit-down' requirements with some of the more active ones.

 

Fitness seems to blend nicely with Athlete and Sportsman. Perhaps they could do parts of each at the meetings.

[Cubmaster-Fred]

mallway,

 

Take a deep breath cause all is not hopeless. First of all get yourself the Webelos Leaders Guide, this will help you more than you realize.

 

The other important thing I can tell you is plan, plan, plan!!!!!!

 

I just finished showing my Webelos Leader last month on how to best run teh program and her and the boys are having a blast.

 

Remember you do not have to do everything at the meetings. Save the fun stuff for the meeting and the not so fun stuff you can give them to work on at home.

 

Using the Fitness Badge as an example, I would invite someone to talk to the boys about drugs, alcohol and smoking and then have the boys go home and discuss it with thier parents. I also would design and have them give their family members a small questionaire or ask them several questions.

 

Get copies of the Take a stand against drugs booklet from your scout store and have them read it at home and then discuss it at the meeting.

 

As for the fun stuff and running around, try incorperating a belt loop into the meetings. There is the Physical Fitness belt loop that could go along with the Fitness Badge.

 

I guess what I am saying is that you just need to keep it fun and the boys won't mind doing the boring stuff. Also remember that it does not have to all be done at your meetings.

 

I hope this helps!

CMF

[Bob White]

"I have no materials like what is provided for the Bears, Tigers etc to plan my meetings by."

 

Sure you do! Your problems are 1) no one told you what resources were available to you when you were recruited,

and 2) Either no one told you of the training that was available, or you knew but chose not to go.

 

There is a program planning and skills manualspecifically for Webelos which your pack should have provided you with. It is called the Webelos Leader Guide.

 

Using this Guide with the Webelos Handbook and a few hours of training you will be just fine.

 

By the way your cubmaster needs to be informed that not all Webelos activity badges can be earned in a month...some take two. You will find which ones they are in the Guide.

 

Please go to training. You will need New Leader essentials if you have not taken that yet, and Webelos Leader Job Specific training. Your cubmaster should be able to get the dates and locations for you.

 

There is also a monthly Cub Roundtable meeting hosted by your District Commissioning team where you can learn hands on activities to do with your Den.

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Eamonn]

As far as the District not helping goes.

Ask the Cubmaster for a copy of the Council Calender. This should list the dates of when training's are being run in your district and in other districts near by. This information might be on the Council Web Site.

You might also want to mention to the Cubmaster how you are feeling and ask him or her for help and advise.

While the material that you are presenting may seem kind of dry. You need to find ways of presenting it to the boys in a fun way. Rather then meeting twice a week which will be too much for many boys and many parents. Use that time to plan fun meetings. Ask yourself how can I get this information across in a fun and interesting way? Can I turn that Food Pyramid into a game? What would happen if I had two pyramids cut up like a jigsaw and made it into a relay race? Plan your meetings so that there are times for the boys to be boisterous and let of steam and energy but then follow that with a time when there is a quite activity. Look at the more active pins and do a little bit from them requirements to help break things up. Use your parents. They can work with their boy on pins like the Traveler.

Try and look at the meeting through the eyes of the boys in the den. Ask yourself "How would I like to do this?" If the answer is that you wouldn't then think about making it fun.

Scouting is a game. Sure it is a game with a purpose. But if it isn't fun the boys will walk away from it and the purpose will be lost.

Eamonn

[Greeneagle5]

Mallway,

 

Another helpful suggestion would be contacting a local Troop's SM (your CubMaster can assist here !)about getting a Trained Den Chief assigned to your Webelos Den. These older Boy Scouts can be a tremendous tool in assisting you with your program.

G5

[Bob White]

Having a Den Chief is a great thing, but even a Den Chief can't help an untrained leader. Another resource available to you is a brochure on "Selecting Quality Pack Leaders" available from your unit commissioner, District training team, local professional or council service office. It will outline an extremely effective way to select and recruit an Assistant Den Leader. You could buddy up and get trained together.

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[BadenP]

Great advice Bob. When I was a webelos leader, years ago, roundtables were invaluable as is the training, so go and get trained. I also obtained some old scout books from a used book store that were full of ideas, the kids loved trying things like in the "olden days", all of them were applicable to their badges, so have fun and don't be afraid to be creative and try new ideas.

[ScoutNut]

As noted previously, get the Webelos Leader Guide, and use the Webelos Handbook. You have 18 months (or more) for your boys to earn their Webelos rank and then their Arrow of Light (AOL). Don't push too fast or too hard.

 

First concentrate on the requirements for earning the Webelos Rank badge. You say you are working on Fitness. Much of this activity badge can be done at home. For the "tell an adult member of your family about tobacco, alcohol and drugs" part take your boys on a field trip to the local hospital and have them learn about it first hand. If you know someone who works at the hospital (one of the boys parents?) maybe they could help set up a tour for you. Then at a different meeting have the boys put together posters and/or other displays illustrating what they learned. Last, have the boys do a presentation at a Pack meeting using their displays. Hands on, fun, interesting and they actually will learn something!

 

For Citizen consider having the boys earn the Silver version of the United States Heritage Award.

 

http://www.nationstrails.com/awards/awards_USHSilver.html

 

Many of the requirements parallel those of Citizen, it is a nifty medal they boys will be proud to display, and they have some nice adult helps.

 

Webelos is a bridge between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. In Cub Scouts everything was able to be signed off by their parents. In Boy Scouts only the specific Merit Badge Counselors can approve work on merit badges. In Webelos the parents can do some of the things with their scout, but most should be done with the Webelos den. That does not mean that YOU have to do everything. Use your community resources.

 

Get on the internet and check out your local museums, nature centers, botanical gardens, quarries, county parks, sewage treatment centers, power companies, etc. Many of these will have scout badge programs that are already set up and waiting for you. Also, even if they do not already have something in place, many will be more than happy to work with you to fulfill badge requirements.

 

Use your parent resources. If one of your parents is a doctor, nurse, or even a dentist, have them work with the boys on Readyman. Do you have a woodworker in your parents? Have them demonstrate different tools and help with Craftsman. Librarian or someone working in the media field? Someone Disabled or not native to USA? Communicator. Someone in construction? Engineer. A die-hard camper? Outdoorsman.

 

Last of all, take a trip to your local council office. Meet your District Executive and find out first hand what is going on in your council. Pick up a council calendar and training shedule. You do not have to attend only YOUR district's training. Check out the trainings in other districts (and other councils if you are near to your council's borders). As others have mentioned, Roundtables can be a great source of information. When you talk to your DE find out when & where they are held. Some councils/districts have e-mail newsletters that are much more current than their websites. Find out and sign up if they have one.

 

There are people and resources out there to help you. Use them and HAVE FUN!

 

.

 

 

[dan]

WOW

You guys sure make this seem hard!

Within the scouter magazine is the monthly meetings all scheduled out for you, USE IT! TWEAK IT! CHANGE IT! But use it! When I was a den leader, I did not use it and I would take at least 4 hours every Saturday preparing for the meeting. I cut that down to less than an hour when I started using the programs help.

 

[Bob White]

Dan "Programs Helps" only covers Tigers through Bears now. The Webelos program in in the Webelos Leader Guide.

 

BW

[Eagledad]

Great stuff out there. A few other ideas that helped me was asked the parents to do a few activity badges. YOu would be surprised how much they enjoy this and some parents have great skills. Ask your DE to help you find some Scoutmasters who can help do a few activity badges as well. You can meet them at round table and they are usually glad to help because it can help their recruiting. Now you can spend more time organizing the meeting and less time on the activity badges.

 

Try to get out a lot. I usually tried to let the activity badges give me ideas on different meeting locations. Like doing the activitys badge at a local school track.

 

I tried to plan two activity badges per meeting (per month) so the meetings didn't get boring with the ideas the badges would take two or three meetings.

 

I did 2 one and a half hour meetings a month becasuse I found that gave me more productive time than three one hour meetings.

 

Leave at least 20 minutes for a action activity or game. Boys at this age love to run.

 

Great Question

 

Barry

[dan]

 

"Programs Helps" only covers Tigers through Bears now.

So what I gather out of this is that the Webelos no longer follow the monthly theme, with the rest of the pack. Or is the monthly theme also gone from Cub Scouts also, What a shame, sounds like the BSA is trying to separate the Webelos from the pack.

 

[Bob White]

The Webelos Program is different then the other three ranks. Some of its activity badges require a two month period and now there are a set of activity badges required for earning the Webelos Badge so they usually get scheduled first.

 

This does not impede the Webelos from participating in the Pack meeting in any way.

 

 

BW

[cubbobwhite]

"So what I gather out of this is that the Webelos no longer follow the monthly theme, with the rest of the pack. Or is the monthly theme also gone from Cub Scouts also, What a shame, sounds like the BSA is trying to separate the Webelos from the pack"

 

Actually the Webelos Den never did follow the monthly theme - they had their own program to follow - it was just in the back of the Program Helps. A few years ago they took all the Webelos information out of Program Helps and the Webelos Leader Guide was published.

 

In a way, I think they are trying to separate the Webelos from the Pack - or at least make the distinction between them and the Cubs.