Re: Denner/Assistant Denner
John A Robertson (john_robertson2@JUNO.COM)
Tue, 31 Aug 1999 05:54:05 -0400
>Date: Mon, 30 Aug 1999 11:20:15 EDT
>From: Lorena Josephs <LorenaJ@AOL.COM>
>Subject: Denner/Assistant Denner
>
>This is my first year being a Bear leader. Previously being a Wolf Den
>Leader I was reviewing Bear book and it has a requirement of serving as
a
>"denner" and "assistant denner". I have looked up in the leader
handbook,
>among other references but still don't have a good picture of exactly
what it
>is the "denner" should do. Is he just basically a helper during den
>meetings?
That gets the jist of it. We let them lead the opening ceremony with
putting up the flag and leading the prledge of allegiance, cub scout
promise, etc. If a line was made then they were the line leader.
If our Den was in charge of an opening ceremony, then they were
the ones leading that. In other words, if we had a job to do from a
cub, then they were the boys we could assign a job without having
to pick from a sea of hands.
>Or is there more to it than that? Also, those of you who have
>done this before, did you have the boys elect who should have this
position
>or did you just assign it?
We had 11 boys and everyone wanted to do it at the same time. Some
boys were not as far up the social ladder as some and it became
apparent that these were never going to get a chance. We went to
drawing names out of a box so as to let each boys know that he had
an equal chance. Whereas there was always someone who was
not happy initially, they knew that it was fair and quickly let it go.
>How did you describe to the boys what the "rank"
>means, responsibilities, etc. to make them interested and wanting to
acheive
>and fulfill this posiiton?
We just described it as being a job of responsibility and as one of
helping out the Den Leaders. We went into the stuff of what I mentioned
earlier. After that stand back! You most likely will not have any
problems
getting them interested in this.
>My den currently has 12 registered boys and we
>will not have enough time in the year (we don't have den meeting in the
>summer, only pack activities)for each one to be the "denner'" for a
month
>(think that is what I read), how do you solve this problem? Do you have
more
>than one serve as denner at the same time?
We explained to them that if for some reason they did not get a chance
this year,
then they would get first chance the next year. We also reduced the time
down to three weeks. I would not have more than one of each Denner or
Assistant Denner serve at a time. Seems like that would create
conflicts.
>We have talked about splitting
>the den into 2 dens, but we hate to do that since we have such a "close"
den
>and many of them have been together since Tiger Scouts. I feel like
this is
>ONE of the reasons why they continue to come and want to come, to be
with
>their friends. We also talked about splitting the den within the den?
I
>know some one out there has had this same problem (a large den), what
did you
>do? And do you have any good suggestions?
I would suggest going ahead with the split. That is what we are doing
this
year. Last year we did not do this and we noticed several things. One
was
that it got hard to manage sometimes. Another is that sone of the more
timid boys never got a chance to do anything. Think of the positive
benefits
from "small group dynamics." Small groups of 4 to 8 people interact on a
more personal level than those of larger numbers. Besides, somewhere
along
the way you are probably going to have to anyway. Our group increased in
size this year from 11 to 18. Something like this happens and you have
no
choice.
By the way, we are Bears too! Sounds like we are in the same boat.
John Robertson
