KISMIF_Works

As I see it, accountability is the problem. I think most parents in a Pack recognize the CM as "upper management", and hold the CM accountable if something goes wrong with a Pack event. They don't want to hear about how the CM delegated something to somebody else, and it's that person's fault that something went wrong because that person didn't take care of it. I think the parents see it as Basementdweller put it...it's up to the CM to "keep an eye on things". In this type of program that is entirely volunteer-run, we expect that when a person volunteers to do something, his/her own se

In late summer we hold a program planning meeting where we try to flush out events and dates for the upcoming year. The output is our calendar for the year that we present at our fall recruiting night and our September Pack meeting. I disagree that a Pack must "keep coming up with fantastic and fun new ideas" to keep the boys engaged. Our annual program is pretty much cookie-cutter: - Fall family campout (Halloween) - Halloween party at October's Pack meeting - Raingutter Regatta (November's Pack meeting) - Winter cabin campout (December) - Holiday party at Decemb

We usually have about 50 people at a Pack campout, and spaghetti is one of our easier and cheaper meals to prepare. I agree with an earlier suggestion to use penne instead, since it holds up better. You can buy a very large bag of frozen, pre-cooked meatballs at Sam's Club or Walmart that can be warmed up in the sauce. We dish out the pasta and sauce separately because it seems some like lots of sauce, some like little and some like none. At last year's summer campout we had sloppy joe sandwiches and mac-n-cheese for dinner, and that went pretty well. We prepared the sloppy joe in adv

At our dedicated sign-up night in the fall (when about 80% of the families in attendance are planning to join) we hand out a folder with the following information: - BSA Cub Scout Parent Information Guide (linked by ScoutNut) - a 2-page info sheet for our Pack - a 1-page uniform info sheet describing our Pack's uniform policy, anticipated costs, basic patch placement and nearby stores - calendar of events for the year - youth application and medical record form - parent talent survey/volunteer form Our 2-page info sheet gives some background on our Pack, how it works in ver

I'm going to chime in now, having come fresh off of the Webelos trail with my older son. Many great ideas have been posted here already, and I'll be echoing some of them. These are merely my opinions based on my 20 months with my Webelos den of about 8 boys. - Go camping as a Webelos den! The best fun the boys (and parents) had during these past couple years was camping as a den. Discourage siblings from attending for two reasons: 1) helps prepare the Webelos for Boy Scouts, and 2) allows you to keep the activities age-appropriate to the Webelos. - Try to get a Den Chief from a n

Thanks for elaborating on the situation. I guess one positive thing to keep in mind (unless he has a younger son) is that since the current CC is also the Webelos DL, then he should be expected to move on some time next year. Depending upon when your 2nd-year Webelos typically cross over, this could be as early as next February. So my first suggestion is to see if there is a way to keep things friendly and ride it out. Personalities aside, it seems like a majority of the issues stem from all of the leaders not being on the same page. Like ScoutNut mentioned, many discussions are b

A bit more background about the difficulties the DLs are having with the CC would be helpful. It sounds like your COR involvement is similar to ours. For us he just signs the paperwork when necessary. He is supportive of our Pack but doesn't have the time to be involved in the planning and execution of the program. So far I see that you are in your first year as CM and he is in his first year as CC. Changing the top two leadership positions simultaneously can be a big adjustment for a Pack. How much experience have you both had with the Pack prior to these positions, and how much

That sounds like great news! Hopefully together you can generate some positive momentum for your program. In my experience, positive leadership combined with good organized events seem to be key in getting other parents to want to pitch in. During my earlier years in the Pack, when it was more dysfunctional, I could see parents distancing themselves from the "sinking ship". Now that the program is humming along it seems we have more help than ever. This might sound weird to an outsider, but I think others here can relate to what I'm about to say...just be careful not to get too em

I believe that a Cub Scout program that is repeated annually but well-executed is superior to one that mixes things up but is poorly executed. Repetition is not necessarily a sign of complacency. If the leadership still gets excited about planning and executing each event, and the events are popular with the boys, then everybody benefits. It's easier to plan and to identify where help is required in order to recruit volunteers. It's easier for new leaders who are transitioning into the program to succeed because they know what to expect from the events they are now helping to execute.

Hi and welcome to the forums! I have found this place to be a great source of information and ideas, and I hope you have the same experience. I read and then re-read your post, and could still have missed this already but how many scouts do you currently have in your Pack? How many Den Leaders do you have? This is my experience only, it may not follow the ideals presented in the BSA materials, but here goes... When I first volunteered to be the Den Leader for my older son's Wolf Den 4 years ago, I was informed by the CM at the time that I should attend the monthly Committee Me

We have done this type of survey the past two years now. We offer a paper version at the Blue & Gold Banquet in February, which seems like a good time to reflect back on the scouting year and has a great percentage of parents in attendance already. Last year I replicated an online version of the paper survey using zoomerang. We had about 30 paper entries and 10 online entries. What I noticed last year was that the paper entries were overwhelmingly positive feedback, so much so that perhaps none of them were negative. We received a few negative-type online entries, however. Perhap

Another vote for Grand Prix Race Manager here. We purchased this package this year and used it for the first time at our Derby a few weeks ago. Pros (in my opinion): - Current (installs/runs on modern operating systems, including 64-bit Windows 7) - LOTs of configuration options - Decent set-up wizard - Roster import option - Interfaces to many hardware packages, but also allows for manual results entry (good back-up plan option for technical difficulties on race day) - Lots of scoring options (points vs. time, tiebreakers) - Pretty nice Racing and Standings s

While it is fee-based, our Pack uses SOAR and the bang-for-the-buck ($99 flat annually for all the bells & whistles) value is so great that I'm sure our committee would consider cuts in other areas of the budget before this! We use it for the following: - Announcements - Pack Roster - One central calendar with events that are filterable by den - Weekly email newsletter - Customizable email lists - Event sign-up - File/photo storage - Den-specific pages - New member recruitment Having email lists is nice, but the weekly email newsletter is fanta

Twocubdad made some excellent points. Change the criteria upon which you are deciding success/failure. Is your son(s) enjoying himself? Do you have healthy-sized dens at each rank level, with enthusiastic leaders? Are you putting together a program that you are proud of? Learn a lesson from this summer and apply it towards next summer! Take advantage of that down time to recharge your batteries. Our Pack offered 6 events over this past summer, but we wouldn't come close to earning the Summertime Pack award because participation at each of them varied greatly. I'm not going

I also just used CallingPost for the first time this past week, after learning about it here. We first began using SOAR last year to establish a great website with email reminders, but it of course misses those parents who either don't use the web or rarely use it. CallingPost is going to work out great for getting out those last-minute phone calls for event reminders or change in plans. Learning about new things like this is why I love coming to this site!

Webelos are allowed to build a fire (Outdoorsman badge), and you can use the coals from the fire to cook a simple dutch oven cobbler.

I have a few questions for those who use the opt-out: #1: Is the opt-out voluntary, or is it required if the scout does not reach his sales goal? #2: If the opt-out kicks in when the scout does not reach his goal, is it implemented on a sliding scale (e.g., if he sells 40% towards his goal then the opt-out is reduced by 40%)? #3: If the parents opt-out then is the boy eligible for any of the incentives (e.g., pie in the face)? Just curious how this is handled. We have kicked the idea around for ourselves, but I struggle with how to implement it.

The boys in my den really enjoyed playing "Citizen Jeopardy". Inform them about the activity beforehand so that they can (a) watch an episode of "Jeopardy" to learn how it works, and (b) study the relevant section of their Webelos handbooks in advance.

CubsRgr8 - agreed, and I've witnessed it myself. We have an adult leader who stretched herself waaaaay too thin last year, and the result was that she became unreliable in the areas for which she was taking responsibility. One of those responsibilities was securing advancements, and failing to come through there simply won't do. This year I recruited a new adult volunteer to serve only as our Advancement Chair. This was met with resistance from the other leader, but I spun it as: - Isn't it great that we have another adult willing to help out? - The pack needs as much help f

scoutldr - that is an interesting way of looking at it. My question is what exactly are parents paying for? It seems to vary from pack to pack. In my opinion the $10 (soon to be $15) registration fee alone certainly doesn't cover a year's worth of *activities* - it doesn't even cover advancement costs. In theory, I understand the importance of offering a year-round program, and in practice our pack holds a single event each month during the summer to offer the boys something to do. However, these events tend to be loosely-organized because the volunteer leadership is trying to take a

Also consider spinning it as a positive - another parent in the den is so excited about the program that she wants to be an adult leader, too! How could anyone possibly have a problem with another parent wanting to be involved as well?

jblake47 - that was a great idea, and I bet it helped with retention within your den. I especially like that you didn't put the parents in a "Scouts vs. X" dilemma, which I've seen another Webelos leader in our den do. I think an approach like that works best at the den level rather than the pack level, because you can plan age-appropriate (read: fun, exciting, challenging) activities for your Webelos boys.

As a Den Leader, I can quickly group the other parents in my den as: - Not present (usually drops the boy off and picks him up at the end) - Present, but not really there (prefers to chat with the other parents) - Present and hangs back with other parents, but will help if specifically asked - Present, jumps in to help without being asked - Uniformed assistant, but does not want to plan/lead Finding somebody willing to help out as an assistant has been difficult. It sounds like you have a part-time assistant, and if it were me I would avoid forcing her to "step down" ("stepp

Hi JMHawkins, and thanks for the valuable feedback! Our pack does a separate recruiting night in September, and it is usually the week before our pack meeting. Our leadership has put a lot of effort into improving our recruiting (both advertising beforehand and the recruiting night itself), and it paid off - this year we more than doubled in size to 70+ boys! However, the problems came at our first pack meeting. We had planned to introduce all of the new scouts and present them with their neckerchief, slide and book, and stuck with that plan, but it took forever (in boy time) to ge

I've been a Den Leader for a few years now, and in our pack each den is on its own with regards to all meeting supplies, outing fees, etc. Each Den Leader decides on his/her own how to handle den dues to cover those costs. In my opinion the problem with this approach is that each leader must always keep meetings 'on-the-cheap', or else ask parents for additional money to pay for supplies (dues), or else fish around for donated materials. In practice for me it's been a combination of all three. One year I tried $1 per meeting (half of which was meant to spread out the cost of a bowl