kittle 10 Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 It went OK, but not as well as I had hoped. We have 8 boys signed up and 3 showed. Two had to stay home because their sister was sick. It is hard to do much when this many don't show. They did all learn something and have a good time. Maybe it will be better next time. I got some new resources and will maybe have things better planned nest time. Maybe my hisband and I will have more time to discuss it. Katrina Link to post Share on other sites
LauraMO 10 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 Hang in there. For one of my Aug. den meetings (back when I "only" had 8 boys registered -- now I'm up to 13!), I, too, had 3 boys show. In many respects it was nice because the meeting wasn't too loud & the boys had a good time working on the meeting project, but I understand your frustration after all the prep you did for the meeting. Your next meeting may very well be different -- like all 8 show up & someone decides to bring along a friend or younger sibling to make things more exciting. One thing I do immediately after every scouting event is to send an e-mail to all my parents letting them know what the boys earned. In those instances when boys straggle in & miss out on portions of the meeting, I will individually list the achievements, arrow points, belt loop/pin credits that were earned in my message & then post the names of the boys who earned such. I'll usually get a response like, "Hey, my son's name isn't down for earning Achievement #__." My reply is, "We finished that activity before your son arrived." My meetings start at 7 p.m. & end at 8 p.m. It's hard to get everything accomplished in an hour. My parents are catching on to the fact that when their sons attend (and on time), they will earn more credits. I am seeing an increase in attendance since I started sending my post-event e-mails. Increased attendance helps everyone because 1) the boys do more stuff & earn more credits, 2) den activities are spread out among more boys; and 3) the boys gain more peer fellowship. Link to post Share on other sites
yaworski 10 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 A den of 13? That's a bit on the big side. I know a fellow who has a den of 12. He fought tooth and nail to keep it that size rather than split it and now he regrets its. I know another fellow with a den of 12 but he has three talented Assistant DLs who take much of the load off him. His den is having a grand time. Link to post Share on other sites
sctmom 11 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 A leader at our pack will tell you very quickly how much he likes his den of 12. The way he figures it, if he has 12 in the den, he will always have 8 show up for events because you can never have 100% attendance. Looks like I have 7 in my den right now. I would like to see a couple of more join. But I don't want to go over 10, then some boys are pushed aside and quit. It is frustrating when you only have 3 show up and you planned for 8. I experienced that before. You can't play many group games with 3. Link to post Share on other sites
kittle 10 Posted October 11, 2002 Author Share Posted October 11, 2002 We have 8 boys signed up, but I am only expecting 5 of them to ever show. I was told from last years leader that one of them showed up maybe 3 times, another one of them has moved and not told our Cubmaster, and the third hasn't been to a meeting all year. The two, that didn't show that I was expecting, are cousins that live together. They had a sick kid sister and the parent didn't want to take her out. She called the CM instead of me. I called her after the meetong and told her is something happened like this again ti give me a call and I would come get them. She was shocked and grateful. She lives about 6 miles out of town, but it turns out she is only @1 mile from my home. My main reason for being disappointed is that the other two leaders (my husband and another father) are not as excited about this as I am. They are great at the games part and at covering material and projects that I had together. But neither one of them planned a bit of it, or offered any suggestions for it. I like the idea of sending out e-mails, but that wouldn't work for our troup; 3 of the 5 boy's familis do not have internet access at home (or work) the 2 that do are my son and the assistant leader's son. Oh well, I have two weeks until the next meeting, this week is oue Pack meeting, to get thing together better. Kittle Link to post Share on other sites
sctmom 11 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 Kittle, It does seem that most of the men don't plan for the meetings. The moms seem to be the ones who have the next 3 months or longer planned out. I saw the same thing with my ex-husband when he was a leader, see the same thing with the other male leaders. They just don't plan ahead. They don't act excited. I'm so pumped before a Cub Scout event, that afterwards it takes me a while to calm down and go to sleep. The boys see the excitement or lack of excitement and follow it. Link to post Share on other sites
SR540Beaver 116 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 My son is in a Webelos 1 den with 14 I believe. I've only seen 12 attend so far. It is ultra noisy and the Den Leader had her sign up most of the meeting to little avail. We were trying to plan for our part in the Pack Meeting/Halloween party we are having in 2 weeks and asking the boys to think of games they wanted to run that were appropriate for Tigers on up. It was a disaster. They were all trying to be cute and one up each other on being silly. After 40 minutes of this, she sent them out with her husband to play so the parents could accomplish something. Twelve 9 year olds in a small room is too much. A copule of weeks ago we split them into three groups to work on differnt items for their Fitness badge and rotated them every 15 minutes and it worked pretty well. The Cubmaster's son is in the Den so he is in there and suggested last night that we approach future meetings the same way. For me, it feels like a wasted hour, but the boys obviously are having a blast. I think it needs to be split up into two groups of six or seven. Lord help me, I've even considered offering to be a Den Leader for another group. However, I think there are two things at play here. One is that I think the boys can be taught the limits and will rise to the level of expectation that is set. As a dugout coach of a baseball team for 4 years, our kids from the age of 5 to 8 knew what proper behavior was and we rarely had any problems that couldn't be quickly handled with just a look and a word or two. Of course they learned the hard way what the look meant from having to run to a far away fence at the practice field everytime they acted up. The other thing at play here is that the Den Leader is a woman and I think the boys feel that they can run roughshod over her where they might not with a man. Possibly not. There have been a few times that I have had to take a break and walk outside the room to regain my senses from all the noise. Kittle, you are not doing anything wrong, keep it up and don't get discouraged. The best recruitment comes from kids enjoying what they are doing in Scouts and trying to talk their buddies into joining. Make it worth their while and you'll grow. Link to post Share on other sites
sctmom 11 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 "The other thing at play here is that the Den Leader is a woman and I think the boys feel that they can run roughshod over her where they might not with a man. Possibly not. " Could be. My son feels he can manipulate all the women teachers. He is now in middle school and has 3 male teachers --- life is different. Yet, I've also seen men Den Leaders be run over. "For me, it feels like a wasted hour, but the boys obviously are having a blast. I think it needs to be split up into two groups of six or seven. Lord help me, I've even considered offering to be a Den Leader for another group. " Welcome to the club. Go now and get your uniform and books. hehehehe. That's why I became a leader. I got tired of sitting there watching my son and his friend fading away as the men tried to conduct den meetings by "winging it". That was with 10 boys, then we picked up a few more. I couldn't take it anymore, recommended a den split (they had been split a few years earlier), the men said "but we have no one to lead a second den". I raised my hand and said "ME". The rest is history. Link to post Share on other sites
SR540Beaver 116 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 sctmom, I swore to my wife when my son signed up that I was going to do my best to not get in the big middle of it like baseball. I wanted to be a fan and watch from the bleachers for a change. Buttt........we'll see. Link to post Share on other sites
sctmom 11 Posted October 11, 2002 Share Posted October 11, 2002 kwc, Get your wife to sign up as leader! Cub Scouting is about family, this isn't the same as baseball, so you just can't compare the two. Come on, you know you want to do it. Link to post Share on other sites
kittle 10 Posted October 12, 2002 Author Share Posted October 12, 2002 I am glad that we signed up (got drafted) as leaders. I am excited about it and think my husband will in time when he sees how much our son likes it. Thanks everyone for the words of encouragement. Kittle Link to post Share on other sites
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