Pack Trips

[ScoutNut 147]

The issue is not ADULT participation. The issue is FAMILY participation.

 

If you publicize Pack (or even den) trips as parents not necessary as long as you have a specific number of leaders/parents along, then you are going to get most parents signing up JUST their child. You are going to get stuck with not enough adult coverage.

 

Publicize the events as Pack FAMILY events. Have an expectation that the Scout will be their with at least ONE parent, if not his whole FAMILY. Make it the exception, rather than the rule, that a boy signs up without any parent. Also, make it known that if a parent can not attend with their child THEY will be responsible to make arrangements for another Pack family who is attending to be responsible for their son (including any transportation needs).

 

If you instill this family mindset into your Pack you will not have to worry about ratios.

[AlFansome 10]

 

Yes, exactly. It's all about expectations and mindset. For incoming families, set the expectations early to allow for a workable, fulfilling experience for the families (not just the boys). A nice side effect will be that once parents are actually at events where their boys are enjoying themselves, the parents also be more willing to step forward and help out once in a while, too, not only because of the experience they had, but also because they see all the hard work that the current leaders are doing.

 

 

[Karen_216 10]

We hardly ever have parents not go along. If we do it may be only one or two and it's Webelos. They're lettitgn son go with alnother family because families are good friends. We also usually have siblings too. Exception is resident camp as siblings can't go except to family camp. Wish our overnight on USS NJ was only 16.00pp. Ours was 45.00 pp. Just my son and Husband went. Almost everythign else we do as a whole family- as does everyone else in the pack.

[tdk101 10]

In our Pack we require all Scouts to have a parent present at all trips. We also encourage family attendance in all Pack events and generally our outings are well attended. An added benefit to the "family" approach is that it helps with recruiting as younger siblings get to experience scouting at an early age. Even for Den meetings, most of our parents stay during the meeting which helps keep them connected to the Pack.

 

I was a new Den leader last year and tried to come up with a variety of "fun" events that were designed to give our Scouts lots of chances to participate. Some of the Den events we held last year were:

* Baseball Hall of Fame (they offer a scavenger hunt w/ a patch for scouts)

* Another Pack's Snowbox Derby (Our kids built a giant cardboard tank they could all ride down the hill and had a blast)

*Bike ride/Family Picnic at local bike path.

 

On the Pack level we also offer a variety of events with the goal of giving the Scouts as many chances to participate as possible. For the camping events the Pack generally pays for the Scout with a small fee for Family members. Some of the Pack trips we took last year were:

* Fall camping trip

* AHL Hockey Game

* NYCBL Baseball game with campout on the field after the game

* Herkimer Diamond Mines

* Summer campout on "Scout Island"

 

Not everyone can participate in every event. If you offer a number of events each family can choose to participate in events they can afford or are interested in. Some of the most fun events for the kids are also the least expensive.

[backpack 10]

We've been pretty lucky with our outings, and have been able to go many places.

 

We too are not the wealthiest of packs, but we do manage to attend a lot of events at reduced costs, based on who we know, and our willingness to negotiate pricing.

 

We usually attend the usual things, such as sports events, swimming, etc. We also sponsor our own events. These are what we've termed Pow-Wow's. We take over the church we meet in for the night, and camp out family style. We'll usually have a guest speaker. Last year we had a guy from NASA bring down his space suit, and props, and gave a great presentation on the space program for free. We got a DJ at a reduced cost, the pack picked this up. The only thing the kids paid was $5.00 for food. We have game stations setup, they dance, watch a movie, and the next day do a neighborhood cleanup and have a guest.

 

We also family camp, at least once a year.

 

We, like the Boy Scouts try to do one big activity a year. Two years ago, we camped out at McKinley Museum, and they put on a show for us. This past year we went to Carnegie Science Center for a Boy Scout sleep in (the kids earned achievements). These are pricey, and are family member required, so not everyone can go on them. This year we want to go to D.C., but may have a conflict with the Boy Scouts caving trip. A lot of us have boys in both units.

 

We sponsor several kids, so we try to get everyone to go, and expect those to pay what they can.

 

We've also found out that popcorn sales has helped us with funding.