If You Were on the Council CS Committee....

[PACK15NISSAN 10]

Our district is the largest in our council. I am not sure exactly how many packs we have but at least 20. Several packs come to RT and are very involved with the training, no problem with support there. Others come when there is a big training they need, and others I have never heard of because they don't attend anything. I am hoping to either go to a Pack meeting for these hard to reach Packs or at least sit down with the CM and talk to them about what training really is and what we offer to help them and their leaders.

 

Obviously I will push our 2 trainings a year, and the training at U of S, which I will be a part in. I am hoping to attend our Council Scout Show, at least pop in for the UC training and get to as many other Council/district events as I can. I want people to know who I am and for me to know who they are. I don't want to come across as some district guy you can't talk to, I would rather have people running up to ask me questions I know that I am easy to talk to.

[Lisabob 13]

Sounds like a good plan, Nissan. Your district and mine sound similar in size. We have about 30 packs, 16 troops, and a couple of crews. Reaching those packs that don't attend anything - I think you might do better at a committee meeting than a pack meeting. I don't know what your pack meetings have been like, but I recall ours being pretty busy. As a leader, I wouldn't have had much time to talk with you at a pack meeting, and our parents and kids would definitely not have wanted to hear from some training guy at THEIR meeting. While you're visiting those packs, see if they have anybody who would like to join your training team. That's the surest way to guarantee their attendance at future trainings!

 

 

 

 

[DenZero 10]

Here are my thoughts on Cub Scout leader training. The way training is done in most councils is adequate for those who are Scouting / training junkies and have very understanding families. At this point, Im the only leader in my pack who has gone to basic leader training (the others did do the online YPT, though). When I did the BLT, I didnt really get much out of it that I hadnt figured out from the online training and reading through the Cub Scout Leader Book.

 

Our council does a university of scouting. I looked through the syllabus, and there appear to be some sessions that would help improve the program in my pack. Unfortunately, it takes a whole Saturday, and is in the middle of soccer season, and there is no way I would get permission to go. The same thing goes for BALOO training; it appears to be offered once a year in my council, at a random time, and theres no way Im going to get to go. If I had a whole day I could spend on Cub Scout stuff, I would plan a pack event instead, rather than sit around with a bunch of grown-ups. So if I want to take the pack camping, I would need to call it not a pack event, or wait until they all are Webelos.

 

Online training is great; I can squeeze it in at lunch or late at night. Maybe the more popular UOS / Pow-wow sessions could be repeated on various evenings through the year. If they did that, they could junk Roundtable. Ive never been to Roundtable (its on a bad night), but Ive never seen a topic announced that seemed worthwhile anyway). If they keep the sessions to a couple of hours and have them on different nights of the week, more people would have a chance of dropping in. And move them around the council, no one wants to drive 45 minutes to get to a session. Maybe BALOO could be split over a couple of evenings, too.

 

On the other hand, we could all just get our training from online forums :-)

 

 

[Twocubdad 665]

Not sure of the trends either, but here we do both. UofS tends to be more formal training -- position specific, BALOO, NLE or what ever the call the new course. It also tends to be more Boy Scout oriented. Pow Wow is strictly for Cub leaders (including den chiefs) and focuses on Cub program topics.