Greetings from OFallon MO

[semperfiscouter]

Good morning everyone! I'm currently a Wolf Den Leader and looking to get more involved in some of the leadership roles open within my Pack. Some of the problems I'm experiencing; and voiced by many others within the Pack; is that we seem stuck in a rut of doing the same events every year with little, if no change to the line up. This is already boring and tiresome hence my interest in shaking a few things up to get out of the rut. I'm curious as to what other Cub Scout Packs do during their Scouting year? We do, in no certain order: rain gutter regatta, ONE camping trip in the fall, a fishing derby, PINEWOOD!, a swim event, Popcorn of course (that's a whole other issue), SFF, and really not much else... The Pack meetings are mostly awards to Dens and informational purposes for attendees and that's about it. If you could please let me know what YOUR Pack's do throughout the year I would really appreciate it as we really need some change. Thanks in advance!

[drmbear]

We combined the Cub Scout Magic idea into a Halloween event, with costumes, snacks, etc. The Bear Den hosted, since they have an elective centered around magic, but anyone in the pack, boys or adults, could get on the schedule to perform tricks.

 

As for Pack meetings - stop calling them meetings! Meetings are boring and not something a CS aged boy wants to be a part of. Call them events, extravaganza's, shows, galas, or anything else you want to that signifies it will be something fun! We also removed all semblance of announcements or business from the Pack Events. That's what the newsletter and emails are for. If the boys don't care about it, then don't include it in the Pack Event.

 

We have a handful of Boy Scouts that show up about half-way through our Pack Events, and when we are done and close, usually withing 45 to 50 minutes of starting, then the Boy Scouts take the Pack for 15 to 20 minutes through games and activities. They know what they are doing and do a good job. That gives me, the Committee Chair, Den Leaders, etc., a few minutes to cover anything important with the parents. Works out great.

[pchadbo]

Greetings form a fellow wolf den parent who felt the program a little stale. sit back grab a cuppa and enjoy the virtual campfire.

 

As for what we do: We also do our Pinewood, raingutter regatta come June, SFF, Popcorn and maybe a camping trip or two. In addition we are heading to to the Boston Museum of science for a sleepover next weekend, a planetaruim sleepover in april, we went snow tubing at a local ski area, we just had our Blue & Gold with our cake auction for Friends of Scouting and are looking at going to Battleship Cove ( a fairly local museum that houses and allows groups to sleep on the WWII battleship USS Massachusetts). We also have an added bonus here in NH of putting on the second airshow in August this year featuring the USAF Thunderbirds. If you want to see our whole schedule the pack website is www.pack83nh.org

 

I would suggest some research, find the local museums and zoos etc and go to thier websites and look for scouting programs, a bunch have them, and get some info and bring it back to the Cubmaster "offering some suggestions of some cool things you have found" I know when I did that, the other leaders were as tired of the same-ol same-ol as everyone else but did not have time or energy to look for replacement activities.

 

[semperfiscouter]

I really like the idea of incorporation some of the (future) bear requirements into a Halloween event, and COMPLETELY agree that "meetings" are not good names for the events, and I for one, after sitting through 5hrs of meetings every day sure don't want any more As far as the Halloween function, how did you pull it off, planning wise, expense, stations, volunteers etc? I'll check your home page shortly to see what other good ideas there might be. I'm in the works of doing research for stuff as I know that if something is brought up without a plan it won't get done. As far as Pinewood - does anyone have a tried and true method for hosting it, the one I've been to the past couple years is entirely about the dad's, the leaders run it, officiate it, place cars etc...I'm thinking about asking for the Boy Scouts to come and volunteer to officiate it, and run it and get some of the more hard-core leader/dad/pinewood participant out of the mix...

If you keep most of the business out of the Pack events, what do you all do with the boys prior to the BS's showing up towards closing? Games, guests?

[drmbear]

The Halloween event was easy. We held it on a den meeting night, not a Pack Event night, which was earlier in the month. So we also ran it within the time frame of a den meeting - 1 hr to 1:15hr. It was "bring treats to share" and I made jugs of lemonade, brought cups and napkins, and set up the tables with tablecloths. I just let everyone know that we were doing it and that anyone that wanted to perform a magic trick or two should get in touch with me. Of course, with the Bear Den, in the previous several den meetings we practiced multiple magic tricks, learned some songs, and overall got everything ready. On the night of the event, the Bear Den set things up (hosts), I served as the MC (as Bear Den Leader, not CM), and we had a blast. Most wore costumes, we had great treats, it was easy and fun, and most of the Bears completed what they had to for several of their Electives.

[acco40]

Do what you want to do for the den meetings. For the pack meetings, advise the pack during a committee meeting that your den will be doing TBD during the upcoming pack meeting. Then put on a skit, do a magic trick, sing a song, demonstrate how to fold a flag or whatever you feel your den would enjoy.

 

My guess is that the rest of the pack would enjoy another den stepping up to the plate.