forestengr

had one of my scouts call me one night crying telling me his mom and dad were getting divorced and needed to talk to someone, all he could think of was his Cubmaster (he first tried his den leader but she wasnt home).

I think I'm set and staying until my son bridges.

we enter a float in two parades and do a xmas party

When I reorganized my Pckwhen I tookover 2 years ago, w had 8 boys and 1 leader, now we are at 85 boys and 38 adult leaders. My biggest advice is to take into account when developing your program is to make it interesting to adults as well as kids. If you do events that are interestig to them, they will be come vested and take part

This is a litle different but we ride the boys on a float the pack makes when we go on parades. It is easier to manage the boys and we had a blast building it. It caught the attention of the judges as we won a $600 first place prize for best float at the last xmas parade.

On the virtual cub leaders handbook webpage there is an automated record spreadsheet that we use to keep track of all the boys and the Academic/Sports program.

There are den flags available for purchase but we use custom made den flags as we have a logo we have developed specific to our Pack. Each den flag is coor coded as to rank, i.e. tigers/orange, cubs/blue, and webelos/red. They have the logo and den number on them/ It cost us $5 for each one and we attached them to the walking sticks you can get at a scout store.

My Bear Dens joined together for a joint outing their first den meeting of the scout year and went to Montana De Oro State Park in Los Osos, CA and had a hike led by the Park Ranger. They visited areas of erosion on coastal bluffs, waded through a tide pool picking up starfish and sea urchins and ended the day visisitng a beach where hundreds of seals were feeding on a sardine school in the surf. the boys spent hours trying to save fish by throwing them back in the water when they got stranded by the waves beaching them!

There is alot of disagreement on the meeting frequency. However, the one common trait I have seen in successful packs and ones that hadtrouble getting going was the quality of the den meetings. If a den leader is motivated and wants to provide stellar meetings eek after week thats great. The reality is that can be an overwhelming burden and can lead to leader burnout.

Our boys dont forget what they learned but sure do hunger for that next meeting. Leaders have other lives in addition to scouts and that has to be respected.

Our dens shut down for the summer (of which the den leaders are very thankful) but the Pack holds a monthly event. Next years summer events are:

June : Cub Scout night at Dodger Stadium of which our Pack is sponsoring

July: Camping trip to Yosemite National Park

Cub Scout Day Camp for our District is also in July.

August: Induction Campout at BSA Camp(This message has been edited by forestengr)

What Boy Scouts need to do is not worry about boy's SSN's but start fingerprinting and background checking new adult leaders like the Girl Scouts do.

See my post in the trait of a successful Pack message string. It says it all on how to develop a good Pack program.

I was just like you 1 1/2 years ago when I took over a Pack ready to collapse. It took alot of hard work and learning and just plain creativity but it works. Lots of good advice here but one thing that wasnt said is format a program of interest to YOU and fit the scout model into it, not the other way around. My Pack is heavily involved in forestry because I'm a forester. Talk to every parent both existing and ones that will come into your Pack about being a leader.

Delegate...Delegate. A wel run outfit is one where it doesnt even know if the boss is gone. We have another Pack here in town that was the largest before mine ovepassed them. They lost their Cubmaster in the Spring and are now leaderless wth no direction and the families are leaving en masse. Problem was the Cubmaster did everything (he ACTUALLY liked it that way)and when he left, no one knew what was going on and were used to him doing it all.

I have mine organized so when I am gone in 2 years, they will keep on rolling as alot of parents are involved.

Contact me by e-mail if you want to discuss in detail.

I have 3 webelo dens in my Pack. They use standard patrol names but I give them a nickname based on the patrol they use.

My Flaming Arrows I call the Flaming Sparrows (They get a chuckle out of it and call me Flubmaster Dave in return)

My Flying Eagles I call the Flying Beagles

My Dragons I call the Whiskily Wagons

Sorry, I mistyped our URL in the last reply, it is:

http://lospadrespack93.tripod.com

I took over as Cubmaster of Pack 93 in Orcutt, CA 1 1/2 years ago with 8 boys in the Pack, my 3 included. Today we have over 80 boys, 27 registered adult leaders, 14 certified rangemasters, 5 certified water safety instructors and a waiting list to join so I consider our Pack successful. Here's what we did to change the Pack and create a highly desired program.

1. We switched from an indoor style Pack/Den meetings to almost exclusively outdoor oriented. Our total amount of time we spend in an indoor setting is 2 pack meetings a year. I cant stand indoor meetings and dislike cutsie songs unless they are around a campfire!

2. Make the program attractive to parents, especially dads. The reason I say this is I have no problem getting moms to take part. And there is a false rumor out there moms dont like to camp, at least ours love it! Dads are the challenge. Dads dont like to do arts and crafts, Dads like to camp, fish, and explore. The more interesting to parents the more they care about the Program and will be come involved. Get them to head the committees and activities. We do a committee sign up in September. I do a talent ID sheet the beginning of each year to target potential instructors at events.

3. Develop a ceremony series based on an outdoor philosophy. I tweaked ours to incorporate the spirit of the wolf, deer etc.

4. Develop an outstanding Pack program. Ours is based on forestry but has alot of other interesting events. Geology field days, fishing trips, Parades, Sponsoring Cub Scout night at Dodger Stadium, airshows, wilderness excursions to national parks, beach parties etc. We teach wilderness skills such as orienteering, backpack camping, camp cooking, etc. We do a Pack 93 Funniest Video Night Night in February where each den produces the crazist video they can and we air them as a Pack meeting. The boys bring their sleeping bags and eat popcorn while scout executives vote on best video. In other words ANYTHING is better than having Pack meetings were the Cubmaster is up in front talking.

5. The more motivating the Pack Program, the better it is in the den programs. Encourage den leaders to provide outings in their programs. Dens are the most important and too much emphasis is placed on Pack evens, more needs to be done in helping den leaders produce interesting programs. We only have the boys once per month as Cubmasters, Den leaders have them weekly! Explore all training possibilities for them. We do a Leaders Retreat before every scouting year to assist den leaders in developing their programs and I prefer to train them myself and attend some of their meetings to get them going. Den leaders are a priceless commodity and should be made to feel that way.

6. Present most awards at the den level. We give all patches and belt loops at the dens. Only advancements, webelo pins, and big name patches like the WCB get Pack attention. Pack meetings are event based not sit downs.

7. Dont rely too heavily on program guides, official sources, and the standard spiel I see over and over again. Develop a program that interests YOU and incorporate scout requirements into it, not the other way around. I am a forester and developed it around forestry.

8. I see alot of talk about going to roundtable, selling popcorn, going to training, following program guides etc. Dont get me wrong, they are good things to have but we personally, have not found them to be very helpful. Packs reflect the local personality and I should make it clear to feel free to develop your program accordingly and dont feel married to those avenues.

9. Communication. Extremely important. We do a pack website as almost all of our families are linked to the internet. If you want to view it its at http://lospadrespack93.tripod.com. We also have an e-mail chain and Pack Newsletter. Dens also maintain den newsletters and have phone chains.

10. Schedule. Plan as far in advance as possible. We do over a year in advance. We meet in March and plan through August of the next year.

11. Make your program available to all family members. I see more sisters with Pack 93 T-shirts than I do the boys!

12. Den meetings. I have aways said, its better to have two well planned den meetings per month than 4 simple and boring get togethers. My den leaders do 2 meetings a month for 2 reasons;

1) They dont get burned out and

2) They have the time to plan two very good and interesting meetings.

A big complaint I get from families that try to transfer from another pack to mine is they say their kid meets weekly in a garage, they sing songs, do a craft and go home. It has no expectations, no excitement. Boys in our Pack meet in a manner that it is not weekkly so it doesnt get boring and they look forward to their meeting. Meet less and plan them better, the parents will appreciate saving their time. Also, parents take part in den meetings, no baby sitting service here.

13. Lastly good recruitment. I do a PSA on local TV, newspaper announceet, and letters are given to very parent in my home schools. I do not tell them where to go to sign up but to call me and I interview them. I weed out the baby sitter lookers and identify potential leaders and good involved parents. I let them know the nature of the program, the time committments, and the expectation I place on them to participate. After all that, and if they are still interested I then have them call the Den Leader to discuss whether the boy woud be a good fit. If they call the leader I know then the person is really interested and I give the den leader the final say.

(This message has been edited by forestengr)(This message has been edited by forestengr)

Atually, we have found it more useful to develop our own committees specific to the needs of our Pack. We maintain an executive commitee which is the Chair, Cubmaster, Secretary, Treasurer, AWards et al.However, we have all den leaders in the committee as well. Branched unde the executive committee are "operating committees" which adminster main functions of the Pack. They are:

Outdoors Committee: Develops the yearly pack program. We are a field pack and spend most of our time in outdoor activities.

Community Service Committee: Media reps, develops comm. service projects, scouting for food etc.

Other committees are:

Fundraising

Pinewood Derby

Blue and Gold

Den Support