Tiger Den Success Stories

[CubsRgr8 10]

Well, the title says it all. I'm looking for some packs to share the strategies they use that result in Tiger den success stories. I've noticed over the past five years the chaotic life cycle of Tiger dens in my pack. They start off in the fall with a big bang and large numbers, consistently shrink over 50% by Thanksgiving, and die with a whimper come spring. Something isn't working in my pack/district/council. So, let's hear from you!

[Eagledad 2784]

Hi All

 

>>Something isn't working in my pack/district/council. So, let's hear from you!

[ScoutNut 147]

After 6 years of being a Tiger Den Leader, the one thing that I have found to be the major incentive for the boys staying in Scouts is the parents. If you can capture the parents the boys will stay.

 

That is one of the main reasons for using shared leadership in Tigers. The parents have to feel like they are a part of the whole process. Of course there will be some who are happy being just a tiny part of it, but that's ok too. As long as they feel included, feel like it is THEIR Pack too, and have FUN with their son, they will be more likely to champion Scouts over (or at least along with) sports and other activities.

 

My first year was pretty dismal due to many different factors. After that, by getting to know the parents, and making it fun for both the parents and the boys, things have gone great. The boys stay in and the parents stay involved. I also firmly believe that the new, more structured Tiger program has helped a lot.

 

My first Tiger group to go all the way thru will be crossing over to BS in February. My son has been their Den Chief from the start so I know that there will be much sniffiling on my part! One bright spot is that the Pack is still keeping 2 of the families. One has a boy in my Tigers this year and the mom is high on my list for Wolf Leader. The other family has 2 boys who are still Cubs and the youngest who will be one of my Tigers next year. The dad is one of the current 5th grd Webelos leaders and I have already let him know not to get to comfortable being denless!

 

 

[EagleInKY 14]

Barry and Scoutnut both give some great advice. Three things that I see in their comments:

1. Consistency in leadership from year to year.

2. Training/support for new parents/leaders. (I love Barry's idea of the fishing outing to get everyone oriented).

3. Creative use of making the program work for their unit.

 

We've been fortunate that for the three of the past four years, we've had a parent already involved in the pack who had a younger son coming up into Tigers. In each of these cases we were able to recruit them to be the Tiger Leader. This helps by having someone who has been through the program to lead the others through it. I've found it's much more difficult in the years where everyone in the group is new at it.

[fotoscout 15]

 

 

I think that there are plenty of success stories out there.

 

They all boil down to leadership. The first thing I did with my Tigers was to have a meeting with the parents, no kids. We talked about the program, what the requirements were, when we would meet, AND, I passed around that ubiquitous piece of paper for the parents to sign up for an achievement. They went home with a schedule, and an understanding that they would be a part of the program. No parent, no kid! I had meetings every other week, (some were den meetings and some were go see its), and kept the meeting to 1 hour. Difficult as it was, the parents were not allowed to coffee klach during the meeting. They had to work with their son. Each meeting was planned out, and the parents recognized that from the beginning. We focused on the den portion of the achievements, and then electives. These parents understood that I had taken the time to learn the program, and thats what we were going to do. We were not going to have fotos version of a play date every other week. I started that year with 18 boys, and finished with 17. Sixteen of them were back as Wolves, and I still have 12 of the original boys with me today.

 

On the first day I asked myself, What should this meeting look like?. I continue to ask myself the same question today. If the meeting looks like a Cub Scout meeting then it will be successful. On course I am not talking about men and boys in uniforms, Im talking about meeting structure, cadence, focus, and choreography.

 

The biggest problem I see with Tigers is leadership. We let our newest, untrained, most naive adults run this program. Most often, without a lot of oversight from more experienced leaders.

 

I think it is unrealistic to depend on existing pack leadership to perpetuate the Tigers year after year. It might work for one group of leaders but next year the leadership will change and it might not work for them.

 

It would be great if the Pack lays out (on paper, not requiring participation of the existing leadership), say 3 or 4 months worth of program for the new Tiger Leaders. After that, the Tiger leaders are on their own. During that time it should be mandatory that the Tiger leaders get trained.

 

Although Im still not sure that the boys get very much out of the Tiger program, it has potential to be a great bonding experience for people who are serious about the BSA program, when it is done right.

 

One last thing, certain death can be guaranteed, by allowing the boys to run wild while waiting for someone else to bring them under control. You are the leader, you are the one tasked with controlling the boys. The parents expect this to be a controlled experience for the boys, they do not expect a free for all that lasts 60 minutes.

 

 

[gungho4scouts 10]

This was a much needed posting of the Tiger Cubs. I was the TDL and now a CMA, much for the reasons stated above. My Son and I are alittle ahead of others in the Den and having me as TDL with parents who are not ready to let go... Let's put it this way, I'm Gung-Ho for Scouting. I've read everything I can get my hands on, including the entire Leader Book. If you go by the "book(s)" and try to implement the Tiger Program accordingly, it will clash.

 

EagleDad hit the issues right on the head. My only two cents to this would be possibly creating 2 Tiger Dens, one with Parents ready to jump in, and the other that need to hold on a little longer...

[DougWaterfield 10]

 

Last year was my first year as an adult leader, after being away from Scouts since high school. My older son was interested and I certainly wanted him to be in scouting. I was also looking forward to following in my Dad's foot steps, who had been my SM and OA mentor years ago.

 

We all gathered at a recruiting meeting at the elementary school and -- after the usual spiel and paperwork -- we were told that someone must be the DL, and that person must be chosen that night. Adult applications were handed out. I was certainly interested but thought I should get my feet wet first, so I signed up for ADL. Later that night I got a call from the CM telling me I was the DL, because no one else was available and I was the only former Scout amongst the parents.

 

I had no idea what to do as a DL. I had not been a Cub Scout for over 20 years! I could only recall two things clearly -- winning the Pine Wood Derby one year and my first overnight campout as a Webelo. We had not even had Tigers when I was in.

 

Being a geek I surfed the net, bought every manual I could find, and attended the training at our District. I boiled things down to a few key things that helped me survive:

 

1) We met four times a month; two Den Meetings, a Pack Meeting, and a Go See It.

 

2) Parents attended all functions, period. The only exception was made for a single mom with a bizarre working schedule and she still attended 80% of things.

 

3) Den Meetings had a simple structure that we always followed. Pledge of Allegiance, Sharing, Fun, Discovery, awarding beads, closing (usually the scout promise). The scouts seemed to catch on quicker than the parents!

 

4) I made sure the Go See Its were fun and as different as possible from the field trips that they already go on for school, etc. We went to an Arena Football game, hiked in the woods, visited an airport control tower, etc.

 

5) Emphasized that Tigers was about participation as much as achievement. This seemed to go well with the parents who were concerned about their sons handling Scouts.

 

I graduated 9 out of 13 boys. Of the four who did not graduate, two never showed up to a single meeting (even though they payed their dues...I still don't understand that) and two dropped out in favor of sports.

 

Overall I feel good about how I did. Looking back on it I think I could have done better in the early months with the knowledge I have now. Which brings me to my questions.

 

Our Pack has its Den Leaders stay with their Dens as they progress through the program. The father in me likes this because I want to stay with my son, not to mention my other Scouts. On the other hand, we are basically getting a random adult leader each year for Tigers. As someone else pointed out this puts an inexperienced leader into a situation where it's important to indoctrinate the parents as much as the kids into scouting. How do most packs handle this? Do you have Den Leaders that stay at a certain level of Scouts from year to year?

 

I am concerned about this because in a few weeks I will be taking on the role of CM. I hate leaving my den but it's necessary. As I think about next year and recruiting, I want to make sure that the new leader for our Tigers is chosen in a process that is a little less random. One thought is to ask one of our experienced DL's to agree to be ADL for the new Tigers. They can help the new DL settle in, get trained, and plan the first few meetings. My other thought would be to have the first few meetings scripted out in advance.

 

What approaches have you taken in selecting / training a Tiger Den leader?

 

Thanks,

Doug

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ScoutNut 147]

As I said in my response above, I have been the Tiger Den Leader in the Pack for 6 years now. I started when my son was in 5th grade Webelos. I was his Asst Webelos Den Leader and decided that we needed someone in Tigers who had a clue what the program and the Pack were all about, so I took on Tigers as well.

 

It has worked well for us. By the time March or April rolls around, with a new batch of trainings coming up from council, I have usually picked out which parents would make good Den Leaders for the following year. I have never been turned down.

 

Our leaders stay with their Dens from Wolfs thru Webelos. It is a learning process. As the boys grow and develop, so do their leaders. My private goal (which may end up as a Woodbadge ticket if I can scrape together the cost!) is to get every leader in the Pack trained and to get them to act as silly as possible! It sure would have been nice at last night's Pack meeting, to have a bunch of pretend knights riding invisible horses to demonstrate the theme for this year's District Day Camp. Instead there was only one, & I forgot my coconuts!!