New CubScout program

[moosetracker 132]

I am going into the District training, and it's all abuzz about the new program for cub scouts. Training for will start middle of this month, and the program will start in the Fall.. But, I know some places have test piloted this program. If your area has I would be curious about your views.

 

I am going to not be doing the teaching, but the trainiers of my district will be looking at me to help organize the training program for it. Some guidence is out of a book, but alot is from my trainers having had personal experience, which they will no longer have. I just wonder if any of you have answers to questions I myself have. Positive feedback would be great, since I know we must put a positive spin on things.

 

The Pack meetings themes moving from "Magic" or "Adventure" or whatever to being that of "trustworthy" or "Honesty" doesn't seem like you can make it a fun for the boys. How do you make these as fun as the old themes?

 

Also I glanced the fasttrack programs they are suppose to be one for each den meeting you hold and be followed exactly. Yet the ones I read seemed to cost alot and take more time then a typical den meeting.

 

I read 2 from weblos one was on nature, which should be just going to the woods and identification, this would have been fine alone, but they added a travel Activity badge during the same meeting. You are to take the scouts out of state on a bus trip to do identification in the woods. Well being from NH, this seems rediculous to travel out of state to go to the woods, also what bus trip would end in a forest? How do you deal with the cost for this? What is the time?

 

The very next meeting is to go to a museum. Well that would make more sense to take an out of state bus trip for since Boston has better museums then our small cities. But, even if you don't travel, the cost of the museum ticket is more then the child's $1 a week dues. In today's economy, how do you sell the parents on the extra cost?

 

Most den meetings are on a weeknight, both seem like all day events.

 

So for those of you who have piloted the program, do you truely follow the den meeting suggestions to the letter? If so how do you manage to get it done in a 1 or 2 hour evening meeting, or have you started to do all day events?

 

I have heard the majority who have piloted the new program love it.. I need people to sell me on it I guess, because I foresee issues, yet I need to sell it to my trainers, who need to sell it to the adult leaders, who need to create a great program for the boys.

[jhankins 10]

Your council has the Cub Scout 2010 program elements already? We were told that they won't be in the office until June, after the national meeting.

 

Oh, how I wish for consistency.

[Eagle92 110]

I want a copy!!!!! yeas I was first told MAY, now hearing June or July. Would really like ot have it before Fall when the new leaders come aboard.

 

Also I do hope the new format takes into account that soem roundups don't start until Oct./Nov. I know I was following the PH and i wound up doing a GO SEE IT inthe middle of RU and it caused some challenges.

 

The secret will be to adapt what is suggested with what is currently occuring in your area. To be honest for hte first 2-3 months I followed PH to the letter, but learned that I can play with the meetings to adapt to local events AND my boys needs.

[moosetracker 132]

Not officially, "The Program", but we had a meeting for the district volunteers that had an in-depth presentation, this told us about the overall changes of the program. Like the change of themes for the the Pack meetings. But "The new Den & Pack Meeting Resource Guide" we were told would be available by April 13th or 15th.. But the web site below says May. This link also explains the new program in such detail it,gives you 2 den meetings per month for a full year for every for each rank. I do not know if the den meetings will change, or stay the same forever with the assumption that the scouts will move up through the ranks, so never revisit the same meeting again.

 

http://media.scouting.org/cubscouts/fasttracks/

 

 

I don't know of anyone, personally, but I heard that some dens are already using them, even if there areas aren't in the piloted program.. Simply because it is available.

 

Next Saturday we go to a full day training, and training is at whatever position you are volunteering for, so advancement staff will be trained with something important to them, Activity what is important to them etc. It is promised that the volunteers for training will be trained about this new program.. So I will have more then.

 

But, quite a few places have already piloted the program. So they know the most first hand.

[ScoutNut 147]

Do you have a definite position yet, or are you still simply doing "something" on the District Training Committee?

 

Since you are asking questions about Cub Scout training, have you been assigned the Cub Scout Training Chair position?

 

You state "Some guidence is out of a book, but alot is from my trainers having had personal experience". Actually while experience is great, and can help when answering questions from those taking the courses, ALL training should be done DIRECTLY from "the book". That "book" is the current BSA National Training Syllabus for each specific course. These should be followed so that everyone, across the country, gets the same training information. This cuts down on the "Scouting Urban Legends" that are spread as fact.

 

This is also why you really do not need to get into the basics of how to make the Cub Scout Values "fun" for Pack meetings, what specific kinds of trips to take the boys on, how to keep den costs down, and how to sell the parents on the new program. That is something that the Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner staff will be helping units with. I am sure National will be coming out with a Roundtable guide that covers those things. Have you been put on Roundtable Committee?

 

Since you have no District Training Chair as yet, and do not, as yet, know what you are responsible for in your District, I would contact your Council Training Chair and find out if he/she has received a new Cub Scout Specific training syllabus from National yet.

 

From what I understand, this training (Cub Scout Specific) is going online, hopefully, by the end of May, and councils will be getting training materials then also.

 

A note - the actual new delivery program is supposed to be a bit different from the Fast Tracks Pilot program. The pilot program was supposed to be very structured because they were trying to evaluate exactly how it preformed. The actual program is supposed to have a bit more flexibility.

 

Is the training you are referring to next Saturday the District Committee Training?

 

Hopefully you will get some solid info on the new Cub program, but I rather doubt it. I bet it will be mostly an introduction/overview of what's coming.

 

 

[moosetracker 132]

I'm glad to hear that the true program will not be so rigid. That is a relief thank-you.

 

Currently our training committee has alot of trainers and no one doing any of the other position, training chair open, VP to training chair open, registrar of training records open, Troop/Pack/Venture coordinators open/open/open.. Then lots of trainers. And no one has been interested in these positions for years, and no one currently is interested in any of these positions but me.. Oh yes and we have no District Chair.. So currently I am unassigned to anything, until the district gets someone to take DC.. And yes I am green, but what ever position I get, it will only be me, myself & I in a position above that of the trainers..

 

But I have taken all the training for committee and Scoutmaster positions not once but 3 or more times in a person-to-person class and multiple times since on-line for those on-line. The reason I return for another session? Because of the impact the training has on knowledge I receive due to who is delivering, how they are delivering it, and their personal experience they bring to it.. Also the questions asked by the participants has alot to do with the knowledge I got out of the training.

 

There have been trainers I disagreed with totally due to their viewpoint and the effect it had on what they taught & how they taught it. Every single class I went to was very, very different even the third time I took the class.

 

Even the on-line youth protection I have taken multiple times, and when the update the video, what I learn from it is different. The on-line unit commissioner training is 90% personal viewpoint and experience from unit commissioners video-taped.

 

You can not answer the questions from the audience out of a textbook, if the textbook doesn't address it. And they may get the flow of the training from the book, but no one has memorized anything word for word out of it, or sit there and read to us from a book.. Of course a personal slant is going to be placed on the training you get.

[bbender 21]

On the new Cub Scout Program, we've been following this fairly closely, having always "done advancement in the den meetings" in our pack. We were intrigued by "fast tracks on the advancement trail" when we heard about it, but also found that the pilot program, as you note, was restrictive -- see, for example, the thread here:

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=251353#id_251353, where we shared a revision of fast tracks that added in more fun and more flexibility. (Note: this addresses den meeting elements, not pack meetings and those theme changes).

 

On the "new delivery system" of Cub Scouts 2010, there is an updated (3/31) version of the PowerPoint presentation (see

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/cubscout2010/ppt/orientationpresentation3-31-2010.ppt), which confirms that the new materials (Den & Pack Meeting Resource Guide, CS Leader Book, Fast Start Training) will be available on April 30, except that it notes that a full online Position Specific Training module won't be available until June 2010. However, on another site, there was a note that the only change in the training modules is to replace references to "Program Helps" with references to the new "Den & Pack Meeting Resource Guide" (see http://groups.yahoo.com/group/scouter_t/message/11672).

 

More on the timeline of the rollout was revealed in various places, such as http://usssp.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html, which notes "National Council has announced the following via E-mail sent to council execs and others . . . Development of materials to support the rollout of Cub Scouts 2010 is well under way, and we are now in a position to confirm that the leader materials and training needed to support the change in delivery method will be completed and in local council service centers between April 30 and May 7, 2010."

 

Now, as to what the CS 2010 program will look like, from what I've seen, the origin of the Den Meeting Plans are indeed from the "Fast Tracks" advancement program pilots, though (from what I've seen and heard, such as comments from National representatives at certain Pow Wows this spring), the program will add in flexible alternatives and additional ways to cover the advancement work in fun ways (pulling in ideas from multiple sources and Scouter's tips). There will be more meeting plans (for those who want to meet every week or all year round), and those who do meet every week and all year round would, I am sure, proceed in a more leisurely and fun pace than those who are meeting twice a month, so I would imagine that some of the "packed with activities" meeting plans would be spread out over two meetings.

 

One of the issues noted in that prior thread (and reflected in that alternate view of fast tracks found at http://atlanta631.mypack.us/node/1005) is to make it more fun and more flexible (as noted about doing a museum trip). All Scouting is local: not every local Scouting unit will have access to, say, a bowling alley (or one you'd take little Tigers to!), so it appears that what will come out in the upcoming Den & Pack Meeting Resource Guide will, in large part, reflect those sorts of changes in the delivery plan for the Program.

 

On the question of "do you truly follow the den meeting suggestions [in the Fast Tracks Pilot] to the letter?", I am sure many did. But that shouldn't matter. Just as "Program Helps" was called "helps" (as in suggestions to help you), and not "Program Dictates" (as in you must do this in your meetings this month), so too I hope that there will be a rule of reason and creative application of the ideas in the upcoming Den & Pack Meeting Resource Guide, so that all leaders apply meeting plans that are successful for them. The only orthodoxy should be adherence to the achievement requirements (which are themselves subject to the "do your best" caveat, of course!).

 

I suspect that Roundtables and other resources will look to add further fun and flexibility about ways to stick to the core (advancement and values) and supplement with fun ways that help achieve those goals in ways that will be easy to conduct for parents and make Scouts want to come back for more.

 

Hope this helps.

 

Bert Bender

Pack and District Trainer

South Fulton District, Atlanta Area Council

 

[moosetracker 132]

Thank-you BBender.. You have eased my mind. I believe the power point you mentioned is what I saw in the Council roundtable (or whatever you call it, I still am unsure of the actual names of things), forgive my greenness.

 

The statement you made about

 

"...and we are now in a position to confirm that the leader materials and training needed to support the change in delivery method will be completed and in local council service centers between April 30 and May 7, 2010"

 

Also sounds like what I heard at the meeting.. The statement wording sounds familure.. But I really thought it stated April 13 or 15.. I must be wrong though..

 

Hmmm.. disappointing, because I am sure they planned on rolling out more information to us at the District Training that is this coming weekend. I hope they can scurry and come up with something else to occupy us for that meeting. They may replay the power point for the benifit of those not at the other meeting, but this took an hour. They have a full day to fill up.

 

You sound knowledgable enough to have been one of the people in your council that presented the powerpoint.. If not, you took good notes.