No more themes or program helps

[pbmartin70 10]

There was a post over on kismif.org that referenced a discussion on the yahoo board about National discontinuing the Cub Scout themes and program helps after this next program year. I hadn't seen anything here, so I wanted to see if anyone had heard anything.

 

As a former den leader and a new Cubmaster I hope they are kidding. We recruit den leaders with the promise of all of this help and support and now they want to get rid of a huge chunk of it. The goal with the themes and program helps is to make it as easy a possible for the leaders. Now we're going to have to work to come up with our own themes for the whole year.

 

I really hope this doesn't come to pass.

[Eagle92 110]

i also hope they are joking. I know that the Program Helps are now online, and that may have cut into SG sales, BUT that was the #1 support I encouraged ALL leaders to get. And as a new TCDL, I was looking forward to getting next year's PH to help me out with my meetings!

[ScoutNut 147]

From what I understand from folks who were at the National Meeting, that is indeed the case.

 

Even though there are approved themes thru August 2011, BSA has said it will not support them with Program Helps after the 2009-2010 program year.

 

These are the same Program Helps that BSA states (on its new Website) this about -

 

"The annual Cub Scout Program Helps is such an important resource for Cub Scout leaders that it has often been called "the foundation for successful Cub Scouting." "

 

I get the feeling BSA is putting all of its eggs in the Fast Tracks basket.

 

 

[Eagle92 110]

On another note, maybe they will come out with something like the old Woods Wisdom: a book with 5 years worth of planning information that the packs can implement?(This message has been edited by eagle92)

[Eagle92 110]

Maybe I should start ebaying Program Helps? They were awesome and yes a "foundation for successful Cub Scouting."

 

And before they remove this link:

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34409.pdf

 

 

[pbmartin70 10]

I was just taking a quick through the fast tracks for Wolf since I am just finishing this year as a wolf den leader. For all of the den meetings I looked at the whole den meeting consisted of an opening, work on advancement requirements and a closing. No games, no crafts. Talk about taking the fun out. Why the push to do all of the requirements at the den meetings and none at home. I haven't looked at all of the fast tracks, but until they change some of the requirements it is impossible to do all of the requirements at a den meeting. One of the wolf requirements is to pick a program and watch TV with your family. You just can't do that at a den meeting. Cub Scouts is supposed to be a family activity.

 

My other concern now that I'm the Cubmaster is how are we suppose to have the den meetings build toward the pack meeting if all that is being done in the den meeting is advancement with no theme. I think the monthly themes are critically important to putting on a good program, otherwise every pack meeting will seem the same. The fast tracks provide nothing for the pack meeting planning in the way of ceremonies, games, activities, etc. Are they just going to leave us Cubmasters high and dry?(This message has been edited by pbmartin70)

[thoover 10]

Guess we'll just have to use the extensive archive of prior resources / themes and build our own schedule. LOT more work but, looking for the silver lining, might be able to build a more relevant / customized program for our packs. For example, might be nice to have a Camping Theme the month we actually go camping.

 

 

 

 

[ScoutNut 147]

The program themes were/are not written in stone, or mandatory. You could always make up your own, use them out of sequence, or use an old one.

 

Nothing stopping you now from having a Camping theme the month you go camping.

 

There is also Baloo's Bugle. It is a great resourse that uses the themes.

 

http://www.cubmaster.org/usscouts/bbugle2007-2008.asp

 

[DeanRx 69]

What is ther reason? Cost? They sell the Program Helps, right?

 

Why not just adjust the cost to reflect the actual price needed to break even on publishing them?

 

I don't know of a DL, CM, or committee what wouldn't be willing to pay 3x as much as face value right now for that resource.

 

Fast tracks is fine, but its ALL about advancement. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought advancement was only ONE of the cores of scouting, not THE core.

 

Great - less fun and games and more homework at the Den Meetings... we should have no problem with recruitment / retention after next year.

 

If this in fact TRUE - anyone know a POC at National that we can blast e-mails of complaint to?

[struax 10]

Heres one that is pretty funny, look to the General Information page of the Fast Tracks and look on the last page for the "Key Items for the Den Ledaers", you will see in very plan english Cub Scout Program Helps, No.34304.

 

As a Den Leader I can see the value of the Fast tracks, but I also look strongly toward the Program Helps and if they are going by the way side that is really going to put a crimp in the planning and scheduling of our fun in my Den.

 

But as a planning tool, there are several documents that are used for my den one of them being the Fast tracks, I find them convienent, helpful and guiding. They are by far not a complete listing of all the activities but than again neither are the Program Helps, or really any other plannign tool out there.

 

If i could be king, i would keep both the Program Helps as a primary resource and than augment it with things like Fast Tracks.

 

my .02$

[click23 66]

I remember last year there was an article in the Scouting magazine about a iron on patch that you could get if you did an online survey. I lot of the questions were about down sizing the magazine, and I believe there were questions about doing away with the program helps in the magazine and having them only online. They are currently online, http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Leaders/CubScoutHelps.aspx(This message has been edited by click23)

[mdlscouting 10]

Well, Next year's themes are what we really need...

[SctDad 10]

click

 

I know what you mean about the survey that they had us complete. I took it. I rememebr one of the questions that they had was would you still be interested in the Scouting Mag. if it was no longer provided for free. Would you pay for the subscription if you had to. Of course I marked NO. I already put a lot into scouting, why are they asking me to pay more. I think that a simple magazine for all of the registered leaders is a small cost for their time and dedication.

 

On the matter of the program helps, I think that you are all right, there is a lot of things that they are leaving out and the fact that the fast tracks is dedicated to advancement. I have been looking over some of the things but I am still up in the air about it. I have all the files downloaded and I am waiting to get a chamce to print them out.

[Pack212Scouter 10]

Fast Tracks is a good program for advancement, but the feedback that I got from my Den Leaders this year was that it was a poor program. They did not like the way that it focused on advancement and in a lot of cases threw the fun to the wind.

[fleetfootedfox 10]

I was part of the pilot before it was renamed to Fast Tracks and got the web site. At that time it was just a CD instead of a web site (and the web site still mentions the CD).

 

First issue I had with it was they spent all this time convincing us that the program would improve retention and then they made us sign a form saying we wouldn't share the information with anybody.

 

The other problem I had with the program is that if you follow the meeting schedules they lay out some significant activities are left out. In particularly, I was surprised to find that following the Bear program exactly we would never have done the pocket knife activity.