CubScoutIdeas

Your pack earns the ribbon just by planning events. I verified this with National a few years ago. I have a screenshot of the email in this blog post.

https://cubscoutideas.com/6273/cub-scout-national-summertime-pack-award/

One note: the post only references boys—it’s on the list of ones that need to be updated. 

I have a post on my blog with 75 ideas. Hope it’s helpful!

https://cubscoutideas.com/6276/75-pack-activities-for-summertime-pack-award/

I have a blog post with lots of ideas. https://cubscoutideas.com/2334/pinewood-derby-award-ideas/

Hope that helps!

bbender, this is awesome material!  Would you mind if I share your 50 Ways document on my blog, Cub Scout Ideas (giving you credit, of course)?  

Like all of the ranks, Tigers are expected to complete 7 adventures, and each adventure will take 2 or 3 den meetings.  In my opinion, the boys won't be able to complete all the requirements meeting only once a month.

If your den leader is new to Cub Scouts, it's likely that he's a bit overwhelmed.  I know I was as a Tiger leader!    My suggestion is to pick one of the required adventures and tell your leader that you would be willing to lead the adventure for him.  You can download one of the den meeting plans here.  https://cubscouts.org/library/welcome-to-tiger-cub-scouting/ 

I would even give the leader your rough draft plan.  "We'll do requirements 1, 3 & 5 at the first meeting, and 2, 4 & 6 at the second meeting.  I looked at the calendar and November X looks good for meeting 1 and November X looks good for meeting 2.  If this is ok with you, let's email the other parents to schedule."

The committee likely doesn't realize that there's only been one meeting.  If the leader is resistant to your offer of help, I would contact your Cubmaster and let him/her know that you're concerned about the lack of meetings.

The Guide to Advancement has this to say regarding who is allowed to sign off on Cub Scout advancement:

A key responsibility for den leaders is to implement the den meeting plans as outlined in the four den leader guides shown within this topic. For Tiger through Bear ranks, if the activity is completed outside of the den meeting, the parent, adult partner, or another trusted adult should sign in the boy’s handbook, indicating the Cub Scout has done his best to complete the requirement. The den leader then approves that requirement after consultation with the family or the boy to confirm completion. If the requirement is completed in a den meeting, the den leader signs in both places. Den leaders may, however, ask an assistant or parent who helps at meetings to play the role of “Akela†and assist with the approvals. For Webelos and Arrow of Light ranks, the den leader signs for approval of all requirements, unless the den leader delegates this responsibility.

Here's the link to this information:  http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/GuideToAdvancement/MechanicsofAdvancement/CubScouting.aspx

After the den leader (or his designee) approves the advancement, the information needs to go to your advancement or awards person. 

Hope this helps!

I've been involved with our pack since 2009.  At first, the boys just voted for best design using a slip of paper as a ballot, and that was the only award other than speed.  Then for a few years, we had certificates for a bunch of different awards (best paint, most patriotic, etc.), and our den leaders voted on them. 

Last year, we put a plastic cup in front of each car with that car's number on it.  Boys were given tickets (I can't remember how many--3 or 5, I think), and they voted for their favorite car by dropped them into the corresponding cup.  They were told that they could put all of their tickets into one cup or they could divide them up any way they wanted.  We just picked up the cups and counted tickets.  It was easier because you didn't have to count every single vote--you could look in a cup and see that there were only 1 or 2 tickets and could put it aside.

By the way, if you're close to a Dollar Tree, they have rolls of tickets for just a dollar.  Of course, I discovered that after I had already bought a gigantic roll of tickets! 

I will say that if you don't have a lot of room, you may need to think about some other kind of container than a plastic cup.  Our table was pretty crowded...

Our troop does a zombie themed First Responder. It's the most popular event of our outreach program. Fortunately we have access to first responder personnel in our neighborhood.

 

Last year our sign ups got away from us and we had 70 Webelos show up, way too many didn't work out. This year we're limiting attendance to a manageable 25. 

That sounds so fun!  Could you give me a few more details about it?

I've been involved with our Cub Scout day camp as an instructor or director since 2009.  Our camp's policy has always been closed toed shoes--even when the fire department comes to hose down the  boys.

This one is just plain  ole good common sense! 

Thought you would all get a chuckle out of this. I found it on the BSA website:

"There's no guarantee that you will be selected for a leadership position right away. The selection process is fairly competitive, and you may be competing with a large number of candidates for a small number of positions. But packs and councils are always grateful for volunteers and should be able to find a place where you can help out until the exact position you're interested in comes open."

Seriously?!?

biggest benefits I got in being a leader and a coach... being a part of child's life and being final say on days/times so will better fit schedules.

 

another way that I got parents involved just to help out was to have them fill out a sheet of what they can do... it really paid off when we got to webelos

Promises of fame and fortune.

Tell them it's just an ~hour a week; it's worked on me over and over.

That's a really great idea! I agree with the other folks--have your parents take Youth Protection Training. To expand on what ScoutNut said, in addition to asking the parents what their interests are, ask them if they know somebody who is an engineer or scientist or geologist, etc. who would be willing to come help out.

One of the readers of my website, CubScoutIdeas.com, asked how to recruit parents into leadership roles. Another reader asked how to recruit boys into her pack whose parents are willing to help out. What ideas do you have?

I forget the exact wording, but I've heard it said that busy boys don't get in trouble. The other folks who've commented have some great suggestions, but if you need to stay with that den, help the den leader keep the boys busy. Have a very full plan/schedule for each meeting starting with some kind of gathering activity. And have supplies in your den bucket for games/activities that can be done if a couple of the boys finish a task early. Like Blw2 said, getting the boys out of their chairs is important. There will be some passive activities that need to be done, but make sure that they aren't too long and that you follow them up with something active.

Good luck to you!

I have been dealing with volunteer groups for over 40 years and they all basically function the same. They all have their 10% that do the work while 90% sit on their hands and reap the benefits. Sometimes this 10% is the Old Guard that circle the wagons rather tightly and won't let in any new blood. But on the other hand the 10% can be those dedicated few that will always step up to keep the program going. It varies from one group to the next which one applies.

 

However, I have always promoted the: "If-the-program-is-important,-here's-what-needs-to-be-done." approach. It's not all that difficult to introduce into any group. For example, the Roundtable has a flyer for the up-coming fall camporee. No problem. I would after opening flags, hold up the sheet and say, "There's the fall camporee flyer, who wants to take charge?" If no one did, I would crumple it up and toss into the trash. I never had to cajole, beg, plead, guilt, people into doing something they didn't think all that important. There were times that the boys "changed their minds" and stepped up after pulling the paper back out of the trash.

 

Too often we promote programs the people aren't all that interested in and then can't figure out why anyone doesn't want to work on putting them on. Just because we did it last year is not sufficient justification to doing it again this year.

 

Stosh

I think you have a very valid point about not doing something just because we've always done it.

Christineka, I am so inspired by your dedication! Do LDS packs have a pack committee? If so, do you think the committee chair could help you? I do like Dedkad's idea of meeting once a month with each rank then once with all ranks. Would that work for you?

Our pack is really not happy with popcorn sales. We used our extra show & sell to fill orders, but we had extras even beyond that! I didn't think we would EVER get rid of the cheese popcorn.

Our pack sales have been dropping over the last few years. There are a lot of reasons for that--timing of our Council's sale (beginning of the school year), expensive popcorn, not an impulse buy, etc.

Although our pack will sell again this fall, we plan to have another fundraiser for most of our expenses.