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First of all, hi and welcome to the forum. These guys and girls here really know what they are talking about. I found this forum a few months ago and they have been really helpful.

 

With that said, our den meets three time a month as a den. Then we meet with our pack at least once a month, some times twice for pack events.

 

Your den should be meeting as a den, not just with the pack.

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Den meetings should be weekly, or at the very least, bi-weekly. The meetings that are held monthly are the Pack meetings where all of the dens get together to have fun and recognize the boys for all they have accomplished during the month.

 

It sounds like you and the rest of your Pack leadership need to sign up for training ASAP!

 

BTW - Welcome!

 

(ARRGH - These chopped off posts are annoying!!)

 

 

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I strongly recommend the Wolf and Bear dens meet once a week, with a possible exception the week of the pack meeting. Ideally, you would meet the same day of the week as the pack meeting. Weekly meetings are easier to schedule, both for you the leader and the scouts' families. Also, if a scout misses 1 meeting, they don't have to wait a month before the next meeting.

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13.2 Hz.

 

Seriously, the Pack does not set den meeting frequency. That is the task of the den leader(s). I've seen dens hold meetings once of month for half a day (4 hours). I've seen weekly meetings of one hour. In my judgement, given the boys ages a one hour a week meeting once a week works our best. Back in the day when I was a den leader we would meet every Thursday except for the week we had a Pack meeting during the school year. During the summer months, we would attend either day camp, Webelos Woodlands, Parent-Cub weekend, etc. and meet once a month (July and August) before resuming back up in September. For June we met on the once a week schedule until about mid-June when school let out.

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The Pack and Den program is designed to work as a weekly scouting event. The Den meets for 60 minutes each week except for the week they meet as a pack. The problem with bi-weekly meetings is that while it may be more "convenient" for the adults, kids just are not wired to retain new information over so long a period of time. 2-weeks to a cub aged boy is f o r e v e r.

 

In order for lessons and skills of cubbing to be retained the scout needs frequent and regular exposure.

 

Check out the Cub Scout Program Helps for 12-months of meeting agendas, activities, program themes and advancement ideas.

 

And by all means attend training. New Leader Essentials and Den Leader Specific Training are a must if you want to do the best you can for the boys.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

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I just finished up a year as a Wolf Leader. And have been paying close attention to what goes on with the various dens in our Pack. General practice seems to be that the dens meet twice a month, plus attend the Pack meeting. That seems to strike a good balance, and we didn't have any problems getting the Wolf Badges finished up before the end of the Pack year.

 

My experience, FWIW...

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Ditto... dens should meet weekly. When I was in Cubs, we didn't meet the week fo the pack meeting. We also took off during summer break, Christmas break and spring break.

 

I knew of one group of dens that never had a standard time. Due to the schedules of their den leaders, they varied their time from week to week, often only meeting once or twice a month. Boy Scouts became quite a shock to them when they began meeting same time every week, year-round.

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Thank you all for the responses. When I started in Sept., I didn't think there was any way I could cover the 12 characteristics and get the boys through there Wolf patch requirements with once a month meetings. So I set up twice a month meetings. This worked out well, and all boys received there Wolf patch. However, the rest of the dens meet once a month, the Pack does not follow the suggested themes, or do any den planning at the beginning of the year. They also don't require wearing complete leader uniforms, and no uniforms are required for women leaders. I've been through leader training, but it does no good when the Pack leadership ignore a lot of the rules. Thanks again.

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all boys received there Wolf patch"

Good job. The boys really need to feel that they are work toward something not just meeting for the sake of meeting.

"the Pack does not follow the suggested themes"

Suggested themes are just a suggesting not the rule of law. I may be wrong but are there suggested themes for Packs? I though suggested themes were at the den level.

"or do any den planning at the beginning of the year."

This is the job of den leaders to plan the den meetings. I know I just spent two evening planning our den meetings for the next 4 months (all subject to change by my Boss, wife, flu, hurricane, ECT...).

"They also don't require wearing complete leader uniforms, and no uniforms are required for women leaders."

Do you attain pack committee meetings? May you should try to address this there. If the leaders are the ones on the committee, try going to CO or the COR (CO= Charter Organization, COR = Charter Organization Representative) If I'm wrong about any of my advice I'm sure you will hear about it from other posters.

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Dens follow a Pack theme that changes monthly.

 

While it is not required to do so, it is the best way to make use of the program resources available to you through the BSA. Your Cub Roundtables, Boys' Life Magazines, Scouting Magazines, and Cub Scout Program Helps publication are all coordinated on an annual basis around the national themes calendar. Why not use these resouces as they were designed to strengthen, guide, and enhance the Den and Pack programs?

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The dens in our Pack meet twice each month plus 1 pack meeting and 1 pack/den outing or major activity (pack campout, hike, sleepover, bike rally, pinewood derby, etc...). This means that the boys are "cub scouting" at least once a week (sometimes twice if the Den has an outing as well).

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