Just finished my first ever week of camp.

[lizzygo]

I just finished my first week ever of CSDC. Our theme was cub scout investigators (CSI.) It was well done. Boys life magazine came to photograph it on Thursday

 

Our den was quite large 16 boys. 3 tigers, 13 wolves and a bear. 2 boys were autistic. Does that seem big?

[scottteng]

To answer your question yes that is a very big den. My range staff would have winced to see them coming as we only had 8 positions at each venue. The boys would have to share range time. How many adults were with the den and how many boy scout helpers? The tigers are required to have their adult partners with them at all times that is why do not have tigers at day camp and they are recruited only in the fall most packs take the summer off having only one activity per month.

[John-in-KC]

Our District Day Camp builds groups of Packs such that we have about 40 kids at any one program area. Of course, our annual planning factor is 800 Cubs a day for day camp!

 

Two-Deep leadership is an absolute mandate for each Pack. 1/1 for Tigers is an absolute mandate.

 

We design our program areas with sufficient workspace and tools to support the size of our wandering groups.

 

I submit any child with special needs needs a 1/1 ratio to get the most out of camp... be it day or resident!

 

Scott, we encourage newly registered Tigers to come to Day Camp. It helps them get started in Scouting with a burst of FUN!

[lizzygo]

Thanks.

 

I did not know that Tigers had to have an adult with them. Ours did not. Nor did the special needs boys, one of whom was a Tiger.

 

I appreciate the feedback.

[John-in-KC]

Lizzy,

 

Allow me to clarify:

 

Tiger Cubs being 1/1 parent to child can be sourced from several places. The age-appropriate guidelines appendix to the Guide to Safe Scouting is a recommendation, not a policy dictum:

http://www.scouting.org/pubs/gss/ageguides.pdf

 

Here's another comment to the 1/1 ratio of Tigers to adult partners:

http://www.scouting.org/cubscouts/activities/meetings/den.html

"Tiger Cub den meetings are also attended by each Tiger Cub's adult partner."

 

Special needs are a different story, and much depends on the nature of the special need. That's why I stated it as an opinion vice a policy. The Pack leader supervising 5-20 Cubs needs help with his/her charges; if the leader doesn't know how to provide for a special needs child, he/she is going to be tired, frustrated, and burned out before weeks' end. Yes, seeing these children do great things is a joy, but the leader has responsibility for all of them, not just a few of them!

[lizzygo]

Thanks John in KC.

[Scouter&mom]

At our CSDC, they seperate the boys into dens by age, regardless of the pack they are a member of. So all the bears are together, and do things appropriate for their age. Each den then has adult volunteers and one or more youth den chiefs. This has been one of my son's favorite jobs, being a "cat herder". He has even volunteered to ride the bus and help there too.

 

Yes, I firmly believe getting CS age boys where they need to be at the right time is like herding cats... almost impossible.

[ScoutNut]

WOW! 800 boys in your District Day Camp!! You must have an enormous amount of room! Not to mention one VERY active District!

 

My District uses a local town Park District facility and we don't have the capacity for anything even close to that. This year we had just around 80 boys attend our 3 day Day Camp.

 

I would say the 16 boys in a Day Camp den was an awful lot. It would be really hard to keep that many boys actively involved in the stations activity unless you had about 3 staffers at each station. Perhaps the Camp Directors were trying to keep a Pack together in the same den. The minimum standard for adult participation is 1 adult for every 5 boys. With 16 boys you should have had 4 adults with the den.

 

However, no matter what program they are in, Tigers MUST have an Adult Partner with them at all times. It is not optional. It is the way the Tiger program is written. Perhaps 3 of the 4 den adults were Tiger Partners.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

ScoutNut,

 

Our District rosters over 50 Packs and 50 Troops! We're a two county District in a middle to upper middle income burb region of Kansas City. Our Professional staff is DD, Senior DE and DE.