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All about Denners


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How is a denner chosen? How long do they serve? What does a denner do? How do you remind a denner of his role? Do you have to buy the rope thing for the uniform? (Our pack doesn't have those.) Does being a denner count toward anything in webelos? We attempted having denners in Bears- gave each boy a month (to fulfill the bear achievement) and it didn't go so well.

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If someone wishes to follow the format that will be eventually used in Boy Scouts, the den members can select their denner however they wish. Consensus or vote or whatever THEY want. The denner is trained in his duties and then (if it were my boys) would stay in that position until the boys decided differently. If the boy is not doing the job, he's out, if he does a good job, then keep him there. If his is doing a bang up job, then have the boys pick an assistant denner for him to train up the next guy. Rotating denners on an adult determined formula is a recipe for disaster. Usually the boys are not trained nor given enough time to work out their leadership style. Even if the boys are never denners themselves, they at least get to see how a good one works, so when their time comes to be considered for PL, he'll have a heads up on what a good one is.

 

Stosh

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I did denners last year for my Webelos I. Rotated a new denner every 3 months. I let the boys vote on who would be denner and who would be assistant denner. Never let the same boy do it twice in a row, so more boys would have an opportunity to be elected. Had them all get up and give a speech on why they should be denner to give them some public-speaking practice. I was surprised what a good job they did in their impromptu speeches. Unfortunately, the denners selected were never the boys I would have chosen, the ones who really would have been most helpful to me. I didn't really work them into the program as much as I could have, but I did try to give them a few responsibilities at each meeting. Not sure if I will have a denner for my Webelos II. If I do, I will probably have one boy serve the entire time.

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I started denners in the bear year. I think achievement 25 has something about it. Denners can easily be started earlier. One den I know started them the tiger year (denner brought the snack and his parents where the program leaders for that meeting.) I agree with the link above that elections are hard on the younger guys. By Webelos time they can handle it better. We ran 4-6 week terms (length of term set by den calendar). Assistant denner was denner in the next term. One of the main items that helped me is I had the denner make the phone calls reminding the scouts of an event and what they were supposed to bring. -- Really improved attendance, and gave the scout some telephone practice.

 

I WOULD invest the $3 in the denner cords (or make your own for less). They boys loved them and it enhanced their ability to lead. A tiny ceremony at the end of the den meeting to "transfer the cords" was important to the boys at the end of the terms.

 

As the 2.5 years moved on, the denners had more responsibility and could do more.

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I use them in all the ranks... near the beginning of Tigers we have a foosball tournament and the winner gets to be the first Denner, after him they go in alphabetical order. Beginning in Webelos, they have elections instead... I strive to make the duties fit the boy. All Denners, though are required to either lead the flag ceremony or ask someone else to, and to stay until cleanup is finished. The other thing I usually ask of them is decision making. Many things that I want the Scouts to decide, I ask the Denner for either a decision or a suggestion on how to decide. Hope this makes sense. Decisions such as, are we doing this activity outside or inside, what snack will we bring when it is our turn to host the Pack meeting, etc., etc.

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Do you vote on all boys or only the ones that want to be denner? I know one of my boys doesn't want to be denner. (He doesn't even want to be there.)
Only the boys who want to be denner should be voted on. I'm thinking about maybe adding some minimum criteria this year for my Web II's. Because they have to learn the Scout Oath and Scout Law, I'm thinking that only the boys who have learned those by the election meeting can be eligible to be denner. Gives them some incentive, since all my boys want to be denner.
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We went with the pull the name out of a hat method - actually a clear fish bowl with 2 name tokens (plastic poker chips with their name in sharpie) per kid in the den. Boy whose name token chosen was the denner for the meeting. This way if he had to be there to be chosen, we also tried the month version, but when a kid skipped - his parents thought he should get to make it up the next month, that caused lots of hard feelings and harsh words between parents that this kids might get short changed. A weekly draw worked better....like the lottery, 'ya can't win if ya don't play'. The boys were responsible to put their chips in the bowl at the start of the meeting (they were kept in an egg carton)

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