DenZero

What I did was personally address the letter to the boy, inviting him and his family to an upcoming event or events such as pack meetings, picnics, etc. I then went on to explain about the pack, and about Cub Scouts in general. I enclosed the letters in a large envelope with a miniature copy of Boys Life and a recruiting brochure (I got these from the district exec.) with stickers with pack contact info on each. All this stuff required extra postage, but increased the chance of being looked at. I sent these to all the first and second grade boys at our school for two years in a row. I didn't send letters to boys that I knew were in other packs or had older brothers in other packs (though the other pack did send recruiting letters to the boys in our pack a couple years earlier). I think I received one response, but wasnt able to sign up the boy, as there were no other boys his age in the pack.

It might be worth trying if you dont have many families in the pack, but it will be ignored in favor of a direct invitation from one of the boys classmates or buddies. So the best way for a pack to grow is to already be bigger than the other packs in the area, and have the ability to engage in word of mouth recruiting.

Here is one of the letters we used:

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Dear Your name,

I would like to invite you to join Cub Scout Pack XXXX. Cub Scouts participate in many fun activities such as crafts, games, building and racing model cars, carving pumpkins, hiking, camping and much more.

Our next activities are:

First Pack Meeting of the school year. Sept. 11 (Thursday) 7:00 PM at XXXXXX. This meeting will be an introduction to Cub Scouts for boys and their parents. Boat kits will be passed out.

Raingutter Regatta. We build wooden toy boats from kits and will then race them on Sunday September 14 at 1:00 PM at XXXXXX Park. Please contact us in advance, and we can get you a boat kit to bring and race. If you can't get one ahead of time, we'll have some at the race if you want to try putting it together in a hurry. It's best to enter the park from XXXX St.. We plan to serve hot dogs and snacks.

Cub Scout Pack XXXX has been providing activities for boys at XXXXX School since 194X.

Pack meetings are held at XXXXX, which has graciously sponsored the pack and Boy Scout Troop XXXX for many years.

Pack XXXX is small, friendly and family-oriented, and ready to welcome new members. Visitors and siblings are welcome at all pack events, and are invited to join in our activities.

This year we will be doing some joint activities with other packs in the area, including soap box derby, bicycle rodeo and some combined camping dates.

Cub Scouting provides the opportunity to have fun while developing new skills in crafts, games, outdoor activities, field trips, camping etc.

Cub Scouting is for boys in first grade through fifth grade. (Boys entering sixth grade and up are invited to join the Boy Scouts).

If you know of anyone else who would be interested in Cub Scouting, please pass this on to friends, relatives, neighbors, etc. If you know of former scouts or others who could help us with activities and events, we are looking for adult volunteers to help us plan events.

Please email to XXXXX, or call XXXXX at XXXX

For a schedule of upcoming events, visit our web page at www.packXXXX.org.

Sincerely,

XXXXX XXXXX

Cubmaster, Pack XXXX

While a good program is important to keep the recruits, the most effective way I've seen to build up membership is to have a strong feeder pack. Troops with large and strong feeder packs get 20 Webelos dropped on their doorstep each spring. Troops without strong feeder packs end up having to work very hard to recruit very few boys, and are usually struggling to survive. Packs go through leaders faster than troops, and a period of weak leadership can kill a pack. Once the Cubs are gone to a larger pack, there's no getting them back. For this reason, a troop should take an active interest in the running of their feeder pack, at least providing a member or two of the pack committee to provide guidance.

The Question and Answer page doesn't address Chartered Org. Representatives. The COR of the pack where I was CM took the position providing he wasn't bothered more than once or twice a year for signatures. If this includes CORs, this unit, and many others are going to be scrambling to recruit new CORs when recharter time comes around.

You might try finding an old struggling troop to partner with. They may have plenty of equipment that you can borrow and they could benefit by being able to do some joint activities.

[Deleted - double post](This message has been edited by denzero)

A small pack has the flexibility to do things that a big pack could never consider. Take advantage of that. Meetings and activities could be scheduled when it was convenient for all the families. Individual attention is a plus, too. None of the boys was able to fall behind on advancement. When you have more lanes in your Pinewood Derby track than boys in the pack, you can run lots of extra heats. An outing doesn't take a lot of planning, and things can be rescheduled on short notice. We moved our Blue & Gold banquet several times due to sports conflicts.

You will need a strong core group of dedicated families committed to making it work, otherwise, you will be on the road to burnout.

Unfortunately, a small pack has to deliver twice as good a program as a big pack, and work ten times as hard on recruiting. People just assume that a big pack is better, and assume correctly that a big pack will require less parental involvement.

SctDad wrote:

"Before you know it you will find yourself saying, "What ever happened to my small pack" Trust me, I went through this."

I went through it too, I busted my tail on recruiting, but it was impossible to get new families to join and to stay. The last year, We got some really dedicated and experienced people to start a new Tiger den, but they couldn't make a go of it either.

Most of the really old units in our area have changed chartered orgs once or twice in their history. Often, they were sponsored by schools that don't charter any more, another was chartered by an army base that closed after WWII. One of the exceptions is one of the oldest units around, which is self chartered.

That sort of thing happened in my son's pack. I was a small pack that had been recovering and was up to over 20 boys.

Unfortunately, they never got to the point that there was a functioning committee, so the Cubmaster ended up doing almost everything. When he started working longer hours, events didn't get planned properly, and things got disorganized. No one was there to back him up.

Over the summer, several families were frustrated with the lack of organization and decided it was easiest to move to the very large pack nearby where they wouldn't have to get involved.

By fall, the small pack was down to 7 boys.

In my son's Webelos den in the large pack, about 12 of the boys haven't done the Citizen requirement yet. I would like to plan a special den meeting to get as much of it done as possible. Does anyone have any suggestions for activities that the boys will think are fun, and will fulfill requirements for the Citizen pin?

The most important thing is to have a Committee Chair who is activiely involved and is not the same person as the Cubmaster. You are supposed to have 3 committee members on the charter (including the CC); ideally they should not be den leaders as well. Regardless how many committee members you have, someone should be in charge of publicity and recruiting (maybe the CC?). You have to keep recruiting or you will be back down to 7 boys. It is critical that there be leadership meetings on a regular basis (at least quarterly, but preferably monthly). There needs to be an expectation that these meetings will happen, so that if the person responsible for calling them doesn't call it, someone else will call it. A regular time and place helps with this. Someone needs to be watching, so that if one of the leaders is not doing his/her job, someone can step in and try to fix things. In the small pack that I was involved with, it got up to over 20 boys, but never had a functional committee, so that when the guy who was doing the jobs of Cubmaster and Committee Chair essentially stopped doing both, nobody noticed until it was too late.

It's probably inevitable that large units get larger and small units get smaller. A large unit has more people to engage in word of mouth recruiting, and at least appears like a better unit to prospective Scouts. Having a big feeder pack is a key to growth for troops. Where I live there are 2 packs and 2 troops, a pair at each chartered org., and each about a mile apart. In the 1990s, the units were all about the same size, about 40 boys each. Starting about 10 years ago, the North pack started having weak leadership. The South pack was able to step up its recruiting to take advantage of the situation, and is now about 90+ boys and the North pack is all but dead. The South troop doesn't need to do any recruiting; they get 20 Webelos from the feeder pack every year, so they have about 70 or so boys and continue to grow. Boys want to go there because that's where their friends are. The North troop doesn't get any Webelos, and has to recruit hard for older boys. They are down to about a half dozen boys, and might not be around for much longer. If any of the long time leaders leave, there aren't enough parents to recruit replacements from. They have recruited an occasional older Scout from a large troop with the offer of the opportunity to be SPL.

If trends like this continue, eventually, there will be just a few very large units. This is probably a more efficient use of resources, as one Scoutmaster and committee can do the jobs of three or more.

Reading about the scout at the beginning of the thread reminds me of my own son. He is very similar in his pickyness. He is a second class Scout, and at summer camp and weekend campouts he is able to get enough PBJ and Pop Tarts to subsist on. I worry about him going on longer backpack trips, that he would get bogged down once his poor nutrition catches up with him. He might be able to pack enough of his own foods to make it, but his load will be heavy and his nutritional variety will be limited.

At home he ends up making his own meals after refusing to eat what is prepared for the family. He is so strong willed about eating that he would go for days without eating if he could not get food that is on his short list. We pretty much gave up on the contest of wills when he started on ADD medication, which makes things worse by suppressing his appetite. From time to time we try to provide incentives for him to try new things, but it almost never works.

Believe me, it can be really hard to get a super picky eater to change. We are seriously considering taking him to a specialist in eating disorders.

I should add that despite his poor nutrition, he is strong and has good stamina, but I am concerned that if he goes on a week long backpacking trip and discovers that the patrol leader packed a week's worth of Mountain House Stroganoff, he would skip meals long before he would touch it.(This message has been edited by denzero)

Jon -

I suspect that almost any den that you visit will have some aspects of what you obeserved, with a few rare exceptions. Most den leaders are doing the job because no one could be found who really wanted to do it. Since you are concerned about doing things by the book, I think you won't be satisfied unless you are the den leader. You ought to ask around to find a megaden that needs to be split, or a den leader who wants out, and offer to take over the den.

That's my $0.02 anyway.

In our council, the recharter period runs from January to December. The District Executive tries to pass out recharter packets at the October roundtable to any units that have representatives there. Not having been to a roundtable myself, I don't know what the attendance is, but having spoken with other unit leaders, I suspect it's pretty sparse. Then, the DE makes arrangements to drop off the packets with the unit leaders. The rechartering is mostly online, but the signed recharter and leader applications need to be turned in to the DE. The units are supposed to be done by the end of November. The timing is bad on this, as it is about the same time as the popcorn sale. The second week of December the DE or the District Commissioner sends emails to the unit leaders that haven't turned in their packets. If it's not in by the beginning of January, the DE will track down the unit leaders and fill out the paperwork for them. I assume that in units with a functioning committee chair, the unit leader will pass on the packet to the CC for completion.

If your organization already is Chartered Org for a pack, won't this new pack draw members away from the pack you sponsor? By sponsoring them (even if only on paper), you are furthering the demise of the unit you already charter. I suspect the leaders of the existing pack won't be happy to hear your organization is chartering a competitor.

Does your organization provide meeting space? If so, will you be able to handle to competition for meeting space? Or are the units on their own to find a place to meet?

John-in-KC,

We use it for the really big events den meetings and pack meetings. The way this pack has been struggling, its a big achievement that den and pack meetings are still happening. Over the last 10 years, its come within a hairs breadth of not rechartering about 4 times.

The flag is a little worn in spots, but it's got character. And the pack is threadbare too.

Our tiny pack's flag has homemade letters that just say "PACK XX", without a city. It has a commercially made "CUBS BSA" logo in the middle. So at least at one time, the logos were available for homemade flags, and the flag police didnt care if the city wasnt on it.

I did a little searching, and the "CUBS BSA" logo on our pack flag was superseded with a new style in 1948, so it was made before then, and things may have changed since our flag was made.

Ill second what GKlose said. Do whatever you can to build a real pack committee. It will add much stability to your pack and reduce leader burnout.

The small pack that I had been involved with hasnt had a functioning pack committee for about 10 years. Back in the old days when it was larger, it usually had a pack committee. In recent years, the Cubmaster has ended up doing the duties of the Committee Chair and the rest of the committee by himself. The paper committee was just names on the recharter; they were either uninvolved, or were serving as den leaders. When the Cubmaster reached burnout, no one was there to back him up, and the pack nearly folded. This happened a couple of times.

Some new leaders have stepped up, and are trying to rebuild the pack starting with a new Tiger den. They are a couple and want to serve as Cubmaster, Den Leader and pack committee. They dont want any help from the old timers. Though they have plenty of experience delivering Cub Scout program, I fear that they will be heading down the same path of burnout as their predecessors. As long as they recharter, the District Exec. will be happy.

After the popcorn sale I made up a simple Excel spreadsheet showing which portion of the popcorn profits were allocated to each boy, and sent it to the treasurer. When he issued a check, the disbursement was added in a column and the New Balance column would update by a formula. This pack was small enough, though, that I could remember each boy's balance. It was well worth it, because there were boys that would not have been able to go to winter camp without popcorn profits. To simplify things, one rule was that the only disbursement method allowed was a check payable to the council. This reduced the risk of misappropriation.

When I saw the heading, I thought you were talking about the Council Popcorn Kickoff. In our council, this year to motivate attendance at the Kickoff, the unit gets docked 8% commission if they don't send a representative. Since our pack leaders are too busy to waste an evening on a popcorn kickoff, our commission would be less than 20%. Not much motivation to sell popcorn. Though we signed up, we probably won't bother with the popcorn sale and will look for another fundraiser that provides more value.

Ask your district executive. The recharter printout shows how many months since the last time the charter lapsed. The DE can look up when the unit was established. For example, our pack's recharter gives the tenure as about 55 years, but the pack was established about 10 years before that. The tenure bars you can put on your sleeve are only from last charter lapse, so we would wear 55, not 65.

Fuschiafox,

To summarize, we had tried everything over the last 2 years to bring new people into the pack, without any success. Recently, however, there is a glimmer of hope. We have a new family in the pack, who are starting a Tiger den, and have already recruited 2 new Tigers in addtion to their son. The father was a Cub Scout in our pack in the 1970s, and both parents have been leaders in Cub Scouts and Venturing with other units. If these people can't help get things rolling again, no one can.

denzero

Here are my thoughts on Cub Scout leader training. The way training is done in most councils is adequate for those who are Scouting / training junkies and have very understanding families. At this point, Im the only leader in my pack who has gone to basic leader training (the others did do the online YPT, though). When I did the BLT, I didnt really get much out of it that I hadnt figured out from the online training and reading through the Cub Scout Leader Book.

Our council does a university of scouting. I looked through the syllabus, and there appear to be some sessions that would help improve the program in my pack. Unfortunately, it takes a whole Saturday, and is in the middle of soccer season, and there is no way I would get permission to go. The same thing goes for BALOO training; it appears to be offered once a year in my council, at a random time, and theres no way Im going to get to go. If I had a whole day I could spend on Cub Scout stuff, I would plan a pack event instead, rather than sit around with a bunch of grown-ups. So if I want to take the pack camping, I would need to call it not a pack event, or wait until they all are Webelos.

Online training is great; I can squeeze it in at lunch or late at night. Maybe the more popular UOS / Pow-wow sessions could be repeated on various evenings through the year. If they did that, they could junk Roundtable. Ive never been to Roundtable (its on a bad night), but Ive never seen a topic announced that seemed worthwhile anyway). If they keep the sessions to a couple of hours and have them on different nights of the week, more people would have a chance of dropping in. And move them around the council, no one wants to drive 45 minutes to get to a session. Maybe BALOO could be split over a couple of evenings, too.

On the other hand, we could all just get our training from online forums :-)

Yes, John-in-KC, I know how its supposed to work in theory. In reality, most Chartered Organizations are not enthusiastic about their Scouting units. Someone probably was enthusiastic 50-60 years ago when they agreed to take in some homeless Scout units. Now they continue to do it because they have always done it. Most are willing, and will continue to host the units as long as they dont cause too much trouble. What Im recommending is that a unit needs to judge how involved a Chartered Org. wants to get before you get pushy about them getting involved in the running of the unit. If most Chartered Orgs. actually read their obligations in the agreement, many would drop their units.

The DE supports units, because his performance rating is affected by losing units.

You and the outgoing Cubmaster ought to sit down with the two dads and figure out what they would be willing to do. You could offer to remain as a committee member until next recharter to be available for consulting. Theres plenty of time for the new leaders to take at least the online training and read the books, and maybe go to the basic leader training if its offered in your area.

If the Cubmaster is doing the job of Committee Chair as well, try to get someone else to do the duties of Committee Chair so one person doesnt have to do everything. When you recruit more boys in the fall, it will be a good time to build a functional pack committee (something our small pack hasnt had for several years).

Its not necessary to know how to run a pack to be a pack leader. Most of us never did this before we stepped up. Thats why theres training materials. Being around to help with the transition will make it easier (better than my transition, when the keys to the hall were dropped off at my house by the soon-to-be-former Cubmaster on the night of the Pinewood Derby).

Before you try to involve the chartered orgainzation, find out how cooperative they are. Most chartered orgs don't want to be bothered by their scouting units except to sign the recharter and leader applications once a year.

If you need more help, call your District Executive, it's his job to help keep units on their feet.