Cub Scout Program Updates Starting June 24, 2024

[Eagle94-A1]

1 hour ago, mrjohns2 said:

The presentation said that ONLY the AOL is intended to be prep for Scouts (6 months for AOL) vs. previously all of Webelos (18 months Webelos and AOL) being prep. 

Going back to the 1980s and earlier.

On a different note, from everything I am hearing, packs are already doing this essentially. Watch retention at the Scout level continue to drop.

[DannyG]

On 11/27/2023 at 7:58 PM, mrjohns2 said:

The presentation said that ONLY the AOL is intended to be prep for Scouts (6 months for AOL) vs. previously all of Webelos (18 months Webelos and AOL) being prep. 

In reality, neither Webelos nor AOL is prep for Scouts. But they are learning skills throughout Cubs that will help them as they progress. Webelos and AOL is the culmination of that. It's the closest to scouts but it's still a Cubs program. Really there is no prep until they join a troop and become part of a patrol. 

[Eagle94-A1]

3 hours ago, DannyG said:

In reality, neither Webelos nor AOL is prep for Scouts. But they are learning skills throughout Cubs that will help them as they progress. Webelos and AOL is the culmination of that. It's the closest to scouts but it's still a Cubs program. Really there is no prep until they join a troop and become part of a patrol. 

If you look at how the pre-2015 structure was created, as well as the older pre- CS Position Specific Training syllabus circa 2007 and older, Webelos was created and expanded to an 18-24 month program with the purpose of preparing them for Scouts.  Parents no longer signed off on advancement, guest experts in different Activity Badges were recommended to come in a teach a few meetings to simulate MBCs, utilizing the Patrol Method with a Denner with duties, wearing the Patrol medallion instead of den number etc.

 When they went from CS Basic Leader training, a day long class covering all positions, to each position having their own training, I thought it was a mistake becasue people think they are "Trained" in one POR, think they know what to do in another. WDL is a completely different creature than a CSDL. And online training has made it worse IMHO.

And we are Seeing new Scouts who are confused and uncomfortable with the differences between CS Scouts. Worse off are the parents.

 

[DannyG]

1 hour ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

If you look at how the pre-2015 structure was created, as well as the older pre- CS Position Specific Training syllabus circa 2007 and older, Webelos was created and expanded to an 18-24 month program with the purpose of preparing them for Scouts. 

Correct. The Cubs program has not been run this way in a decade or more. Those scouts are long gone.

[Eagle94-A1]

On 11/29/2023 at 4:12 PM, DannyG said:

Correct. The Cubs program has not been run this way in a decade or more. Those scouts are long gone.

While the Cubs may be gone, You have a few, and I stress a FEW, who still treat the Webelos/AOL program like it was originally intended to be: a transition program from Cubs to Scouts. Usually those Cub Scout Leaders are long time Cub Scout leader who were Cub Scout basic Leader trained, or newer leaders who have either trained under, or been mentored by, older Leaders who have been around a while.

IMHO, the training for WDLs is the problem as I got rid of that information.

 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

I'm trying to get my Bears to start learning how to plan an outing with their peers, and I can see we have very far to go. So many social skills to master before they can plop down and get to business in a functional way. They will need to talk over each other quite a bit more, I think, before they really get why they functionally need to all wait their turn to speak. They 100% rely on adults to silence and control people, and while that might be fine for now they need to feel the reins before they will be able to actually steer with them.

I didn't go through this scout program so I have no comparison picture, but it looks to me like even from 4th grade it takes practice to sort through oneself enough to be ready to contribute to a patrol. Quite possibly more than 6 months even with another year of development.

I think an interesting question to ask is "how scout-led can you be at each age?"

Whatever the answer is, we should then do that.