Electing denners
William N. Dilla (sdilla@UMSLVMA.UMSL.EDU)
Thu, 6 Nov 1997 11:30:29 -0500
Holly wrote:
>Our Pack needs advise ASAP!! Our Wolf den has 13 boys in it, almost all
>are good friends, and no major behavior problems. As Den Leader Coach, I
>assumed that we needed to split them and began to recruit a new DL and ADL.
> But now the four leaders (the two original ones and the two new ones)
>aren't sure that they want to split- they see advantages in a big group of
>friends guided by all four active leaders, as well as advantages of two
>smaller groups where the boys get more personal attention, with two leaders
>for each group. I told them the BSA, based on years of experience,
>recommends 6-8 boys per den, but there are no hard and fast rules.
>
>Has anyone run a group of 13 Wolves? We need to find a big enough space-
>they plan to run activities in stations, round-robin style. I'll be helping
>them to make a decision and I told them I'd ask around to see if anyone
>else has experience one way or the other.
You have some brave parents there! I was in a Pack Committee meeting a few
weeks ago where Wolf den leaders were adamantly insisting that they did not
want their dens bumped up from 5 to 7 or 8 boys to handle new arrivals!
Don't know of anyone with experience with large Wolf dens, but I can tell
you how my older son's Webelos den did it.
Nominally, we had 2 Webelos dens. But, we almost always met together as if
we were one big den. It was only if we had an activity that required small
groups that we would split into our "real" dens. For example, Den 1 would
work on handyman for a couple of weeks, while Den 2 would work on citizen.
Then, the 2 groups would switch. After that, we'd go back into our large
group format and proceed as before. This also made coordinating
"Webelos-type" activities involving camping much easier. Not sure how this
would work with younger boys, but given the desire of your group to stay
together, it might be a solution.
One other thing--unless someone has a really large home, the group will
probably want to meet at your chartered organization site rather than at
home. Good luck!
YiS,
Bill Dilla
Scoutmaster, Troop 310
Treasurer, Webelos Den Leader, Pack 310
New Horizons District--Greater St. Louis Area Council
Ballwin, MO
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