Cub Scout - Really Big Pack

[Cito 12]

We live in a huge urban redevelopment project. Thanks to the attraction of new urbanism, our neighborhood is absolutely full of children. In the last eight years we've built three elementary schools along with charters.

 

I did a count of the 1st grade classrooms in the neighborhood and I would estimate that in 1st grade we have approximately 400 kids, so 200 boys and the real bubble is actually the preschoolers. Of that 200, only 12 are tigers. In total there are probably over 1,000 boys eligible within the neighborhood and hundreds more in surrounding neighborhoods that don't have packs.

 

4 years ago we did not have a cub scout pack. This year we had 47 boys earn their rank advancement. We did a couple join nights and had over 30 kids interested and my assumption is we'll have far more in the fall. There is really no reason that we couldn't recruit 200+ boys if we had the infrastructure.

 

I want to bring scouting to as many boys as possible, so its my goal to clear the roadblocks.

 

As you can imagine, the trick with this rapid growth is recruiting and training a group of leaders that grows significantly each year. The other trick that I just heard from the DE is that the council will fight us to split the pack if we have over 100 boys. In theory, I completely agree with not wanting a pack to be over 100. At the same time, I'm worried that we've been growing so fast that if we split the quality of the units will really suffer because so few leaders with experience will go to each one. I'd rather split based on having a plan than on a number based trigger. My guess is that's a 2 year process, but we could easily have 150 kids at that point.

 

Also, like many new neighborhoods we don't have established service clubs or churches in the neighborhood, so we'll have to really search for CO's.

 

So a few questions:

 

Has anyone had experience with a really large pack? How many kids? How did it function?

 

Has anyone been in a unit that had a successful split?

 

Is there an official policy on max unit size?

 

Can a CO have more than one pack?

 

If we get to 100 boys, should we really be thinking 3 packs and then be able to serve even more kids? There is a logic about one in each school.

 

When I was a cub we only had three grades in the pack, so naturally packs should be bigger now with five grades. Has anyone been around long enough to contrast that?

[Tampa Turtle 1011]

We had 150 kids--it was really too big but chugged along well. We were constantly bugged by the higher ups to spin off units--I suspect because they wanted more on paper. But no one was willing to do the heavy lifting; I mean in your case you need three times as willing adults.

 

In my experience around 50 cubs would be a good number. It is just easier to find places to have Pack meetings or campgrounds. You get really big and the choices get more limited.

 

You can make a bigger group work but you need really good Pack leadership, support system, and do some training.

[Fehler 118]

How is the situation on Dens? Are they kept down to 6-8 boys, or do you have mega-dens of 20+ each? What kind of meeting rooms do you use for den/pack meetings? Can you really do advancements (and make them meaningful) for a group this size, or do they just get handed them at the door without ceremony?

 

Mega Packs have no room to grow, and no incentive to keep boys interested/involved (if half your Den doesn't show up to the den meeting, your Den Leader may be relieved at the reduced work, but you just lost half your Den!)

 

Split, claim different meeting nights (the Packs in my neck of the woods are Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday), but foster cross-Pack ties like joint camps (well, camp the same weekend at the same campground), joint service projects or outdoor activity days/belt loop rallys about 3 times a year. It will be painful, and everyone will want to follow the "good leader", and you will have problems finding leaders for every level. But to not do it would be unfair to all the boys who need a "real" scouting experience.

 

The Belt Loop Rally is a great multi-pack event, since the leaders of each Pack can focus on one-two Loops, and boys from other Packs can mix-and-match which ones they want to try, skipping ones they've already earned. Get a park with three soccer fields and you have Soccer, Flag Football, and Ultimate all taking place at once.

[Eagledad 2779]

>>Has anyone had experience with a really large pack? How many kids? How did it function?>Has anyone been in a unit that had a successful split?>Is there an official policy on max unit size?>Can a CO have more than one pack?>If we get to 100 boys, should we really be thinking 3 packs and then be able to serve even more kids? There is a logic about one in each school.>When I was a cub we only had three grades in the pack, so naturally packs should be bigger now with five grades. Has anyone been around long enough to contrast that?

[Tampa Turtle 1011]

Cub Scouting should really be at the Den level so I say keep the Den size reasonable-2o is just to big; 6-8 is ideal.

[blw2 433]

interesting thread.

I think we are hovering someplace around 50 boys currently since the Web2's crossed over. To my inexperienced eye, it's a size that works well. Any larger would be too much I think.

I have no feel at all for how many Tigers we'll have next year, but I guess it will be on the order of what we had this year so the pack will grow slightly.

 

My son's Tiger den this year was a bit too big in my opinion with 14 on the roster, but it has worked out like a much more realistic sized active den might. Two are registered but have not been active, and most of the others are maybe 60% active... The average pack meeting was roughly 10 boys, the average Den meeting was maybe six to eight boys, and the average den turn out to camp outs was maybe 4 boys (The really active sons of pack leaders, and my son).

 

I don't like the idea of splitting the den up, because of the whole friend/click thing.... I like that my son interacts with all of the other boys in is age group.

[Cito 12]

We have two dens with 12 and the others have 4-10 boys each. The trick is that the dens with 12 each both had great years and its unlikely that we'll lose scouts but rather bring in a lot more friends.

 

In example, my son is a Tiger and we have 12 boys and 2 of us who really function as co-den leaders. He has already recruited a friend and has another who is likely in addition to 4 that we picked up on the last join night. So effectively we have 18 pre-fall recruiting. In truth we need to split it into 2-3 dens.

 

I've been pushing the idea that we achieve success when we have multiple packs with multiple dens and provide options for boys to join who can meet almost any night of the week. Our community really functions as one group, we don't have internal boundaries for the schools, rather you choose your school so there aren't clear distinctions on which pack you join. The bright side is having options, the tough part is that I imagine one pack will emerge as the favorite and potentially pull many of the families right back in.

 

In any case, we're driving the train to add scouts to the program so I'm happy to tell the council what we're going to do.