Cubmaster Pete

Nope.  You got it to work, so I am perplexed why the emails never show up when my.scouting says they were sent....

I mean it seems really slick, and a good way to keep track of things, if it worked...

Will give it a shot. Was only doing one at a time...

Does anyone have a Powerpoint or ideas on what to discuss at a den leader orientation ? 

Hmmm I wonder why it's not sending them then....

Do you use the Invitation Manager to actually send an invite? 

I ask because I can't get it to send an invite to a valid email address. 

Tesomas is a nice camp, but very large. They have a lot to offer. Its a dining hall camp, but offers some cooking in campsite.

Can you answer why the boys don't get to choose where they go?

I would suggest R.S. Lyle Scout Reservation in Elcho WI (where i spent my summer camp experiences), but it closed a few years ago.

Does anyone use this? If so, does it seem to work ok, or are most doing paper ones?

Also, anyone use the Invitation Manager on my.scouting? Any success there.....

Every one of my pack meetings is not a meeting, its an "event". Aprils pack event is a "Fishing Clinic" where the boys will learn about types of fish native to Wisconsin, get to cast and catch some fish,  learn about lures, etc.. Yes there is time for announcements and awards, even a flag ceremony. 

September was a bike rodeo. October was a Halloween Event. The troop in town puts on a Haunted Trail and collects canned goods for admission. The pack has a short opening, awards and announcements, then over to the park for the trail where we get a guided tour. Then a halloween skit after. 

November we make centerpieces for a Thanksgiving meal for low income families (troop makes the meal)

February is B&G which is a huge fun event. PWD is March so thats the pack event there.

If your pack meeting is boring, then its what you make of it, its boring because nobody is trying.  Try something different. Nobody says that the pack meeting has to be just awards, announcements, and a game.  Get outside for them if you can, do non-meeting stuff. I get near 100% attendance with this method. The kids enjoy it and so do the parents.

Yes it takes more work, but get other parents involved. I have 3 different stations at my April meeting and I don't even have to run one of them. Don't ask with a blanket request, make a specific request of someone "Rich, do you have a tackle box, can you discuss the contents at our April meeting?" Boom, done. 

Another pack program item that works is Hiking Club, where once a month we go on a hike. Gets the kids and adults outside, and I keep track of mileage and award as appropriate.

Maybe I am fortunate because my parents are always ready to help with whatever I need. But it got that way because I cultivated an atmosphere of fun and family. It took time but it was worth it.

There is no how to or recipe book on how to do this. You just gotta come up with ideas. Have a "Parents Meeting"  in August to plan the year. Ask them to bring ideas. Be unconventional, because all of us know the old tired boring pack meeting does not work. 

I wear mine to CoH, B&G, but that's it. Cub Leader to everything else. I think it's totally fine and acceptable. I get requests, mostly to inspire young guys.

Exactly what I was looking for, thank you!

We do weekend den meetings, as that's when myself and other leaders are available. So these work great.

It may not be me wearing them, but my boys are wearing my Cub scout neckers and my webelos colors from when i was a kid.

I would wear the "fun" ones.  Everyone has the standard CSP, why not wear the unique ones?

Yay! Another scouter from Wisconsin!

1. We don't sell popcorn (unit), so that always makes me happy!

2. Last year took 5 kids to CS Resident Camp, this year taking 11!

Are you talking about Cub Scouts? Is this summer day camp? Or a week-long summer resident camp for Cub Scouts? (Which as far as I know, does not exist.)

3 night Cub Scout Resident Camp

Just got word that our council summer camp sign up has been pushed back to revamp the registration to accommodate girls at Camp in the 2018 season which starts June 1.

So my council has recognized June 1 as the start date per their email.

If you are running a one room schoolhouse version of cub scouting (all dens in one room cause you only have 1 or 2 scouts in each rank) this is probably going to be the hardest to implement as coed.  Because you will not have enough parent/leaders to make separate accomodations for gender. In that instance a suggestion would be to do a different night of the week for the girl dens (whether all the same pack or two different packs will depend on if you get enough core committed adults).  To help get more adult leaders, require all scout applications to come with an adult application attached with ypt certificate.  Then you work on the next trainings and get those adults running dens or whatever.

 

If you are running a full program of cub scouts with all den levels with training, it may be easier, if you have room in the building you all meet in to accommodate girl dens in the next room over. or if the dens meet in different people's houses then you need more houses.  the separate dens come together for inter den competitions and pack meetings but each den is able to meet on their own.  I think that is best case scenario for larger size packs. 

 

But again, you may have to force each youth application to come with an adult application attached, and additional payments.  But that means your minimum amount to charge is $35x2 + any pack fees.  So $100 a year scouting before doing any activities or uniforms.  yucko, but reality.

I plan to be honest with parents on join night next fall, and let them know "This is only a success with your involvement, if you don't help, this wont work." I do not think it will be an issue at the Lion or Tiger level, but for any girl who joins above that. 

I have a small pack, and generally we do not have mixed den mtgs. I plan to keep it that way, no matter if I have girls or not.

In my experience, agreements among units about who will "take" what groups of incoming scouts only causes headaches. There are always exceptions and surprises with the membership.

 

So in talking to the other two packs, you might say "Our pack leadership has decided to accept girls, if you do not, please direct them to our pack."

 

I didn't clarify, but that was my intent. Thanks for bringing that up

Gotta walk away sometimes. I got burned out just before summer this past year. I had to take a breather and let some other people do things for a change. It worked, and you know what, that stuff ran just fine without me.

I think it's a control thing, at least for me. We have spent the last 2 years building our pack up from utter collapse and I was afraid it I was not there for EVERYTHING it would happen.  At the time I was the only one with scouting experience so everyone turned to me for how to run things. It was overwhelming. But now I have good adults that want to help, and are in it for the long term.  I have said no to things I have wanted to do (camporee, district stuff, Woodbadge, etc) because I want to focus on my unit. 

I had a conversation with another pack in our town and they are thinking about staying boys only. Both of our packs are closely tied to two separate public grade schools in our town. One option we just started considering was keeping one of our packs (theirs) as boys only and the other as coed. Then, any family that would want a boys only pack could go to theirs. Any girl in their grade school could join our pack. That way, we may have critical mass to actually implement some girls only dens. Not sure if this is how we will actually go but it may be a good option for the first few years as we transition to adding girls.

What does everyone else say about discussing with other packs? As mentioned earlier, there are 3 packs in our town. Long story short we are smaller because of school redistricting, and the former school we drew from closed 10 years ago or so, but we are building back and I have decent parent involvement. All my parents knew this was coming. So we have some room to grow and already have interest from some girls. So if one of them stayed boy only, I would take girls. Permitted that I would have parent involvement to run the dens. 

I think a lot the negative comments have been from the mistrust from National, rather than the girls being admitted. Not 100%, but some of it. 

Does your CO host a Girl Scout unit?

No they do not. There are 3 packs and 3 troops that draw from an area of about 10,000 ppl. I have only heard of one GS troop in the same area. There is also 4H (surrounding area around town is pretty rural)

Evidently Courteous is edging closer to the discard pile as well.

The thread was about what actions have been taken to date, so let's all move on.....

My parents have all known for the last year this may happen. I have been very honest with them. They are not fazed or running off, at least not yet. We have set no meetings about it, and it's business as usual.

This month we will have a q and a about it, and I have discussed this with the troop we feed into. CC and we agreed that we need to meet with our CO. We don't expect much dissent from them.

There will be hiccups but I thing we will be stronger when this is all done.

Agreed. Change is scary, and I see both sides of this issue. I think most of the negativity is because its human nature to resist change, and thats ok.

There will be those who refuse to change, and with a local option they can go that route. Some will decide to leave.

So be it.

Thanks for your input Snow. Glad to see one who is making it work with good results.

I was in this same spot a year ago. Was no real committee, except on paper,. CM was in name only, treasurer was running the pack, etc.....

I recruited adults, aggressively.  And it worked! Give them a general overview, that you need help at a committee level. Explain that this is NOT a leadership (Den Leader, ACM, etc) type position. Let prospective members know that it is help making decisions you need, and not being a den leader. I had much more success going that route. Then specific tasks come later. 

We have a small pack, and sometimes have to wear a lot of hats. But we make it work.

in my experience "join nights" only recruit those who were most likely interested to begin with. In other words, even without the join night, they would have joined scouting.

 

One doesn't fish successfully by tossing a line and hoping the fish come to it, instead they toss the line where the fish are. Instead of join nights (or in addition to) go to an event where the kids and parents already are and recruit them. Summer festivals, or events run by the chartering org are two suggestions.

 

I apologize if you already know and do these things, it wasn't apparent from your initial query, and others new to scout recruitment might benefit.

Something to try, thanks! 

Does anyone do boy talks in the classroom?