I'm the new Cub training chair for our district, and would like to liven up the NLE training a bit. I've read some good suggestions on this forum, but do any of you Cub trainers have some ideas that have worked well for you?

 

Thanks in advance,

Ann

Its too late a brand new NLE syllabus is due out in January. Why flog the expired equine? The new course is rumored to be an online one. Your best bet will be to master the new cub scout leader specific which is much longer and more involved than the old one.

I don't want to redo the syllabus - I just want to inject some (brief) ideas, fun, etc into the existing training.

How many times are you offering it b4 January. NLE like most BSA courses that require participation by the attendees is dependent upon them to participate or the instructors to force the participation. The only extra bell we do is we have an actual bridge built out of Styrofoam and each segments instructor places another piece of the bridge in place and our training chair has a rather moving poem about old men and bridges that he reads at the end. All of your work may be for naught though because they are changing the whole training. The current syllabus will be obsolete by the time we had planned to offer the course again in the spring.

You could include a list of hints for public speaking.

Brian

Class Names: (fill in curricula as necessary)

 

" Using the Media: Taking the Bushel off your Scout Candle"

 

" How to plan and hold a Cub Scout Day Camp" (Workshop not to supplant Camp School)

 

" How the Public Library can help your Scout Unit"

 

" Is your Charter Partner really a Silent Partner? "

 

" Den Chief: A key to successful Dens"

 

Round Table workshops???

 

 

Have the class (and make sure they know about them) and they will come!

My NLE session was last week, and it went very well. I went "outside" the box, not just following the syllabus, and got a lot of good feedback & discussion from the participants, all of whom had never taken any form of Cub training. Turns out they hadn't received a lot of information from their pack leaders, and didn't know about roundtables, etc. I brought numerous flyers, including many I've used with our pack (such as a condensed 6-page summary of belt loop requirements), and others I've made (such as a map of districts within our council on one side, and a list of district/council leaders on the other).

 

I've found with many new leaders, including those in the class, that they aren't being given basic information. At presentations, training, and roundtables, it is assumed that the participants all have basic knowledge about what is being discussed. Quite often this is not the case, and this really alienates the newbies. For instance, at our last roundtable, someone made an announcement about Klondike Derby. At our Cub breakout session afterwards, I asked how many of them knew what the Klondike Derby was. Only about half did.

 

So here's what I used in my NLE: Be lively and energetic! Bring stuff in writing that they can read later and/or share with their pack leaders and parents. Bring ideas, outing information, etc. Don't assume they know anything. Don't assume their pack leaders are mentoring them. Be goofy. Bring food.

 

Still haven't seen the new version of NLE.

Oh, and my CSLS session was two nights ago, and was a lot of fun. Had a great group of leaders help me with breakout sessions. We all gave a lot of "real world" information, suggestions, and ideas instead of the same old spiel, and it worked well. And we were done in 2-2.5 hours without having to rush. And nobody looked like they were falling asleep.

> Class Names: (fill in curricula as necessary)

> " Using the Media: Taking the Bushel off your Scout Candle"

> " How to plan and hold a Cub Scout Day Camp" (Workshop not to supplant

> Camp School)

> " How the Public Library can help your Scout Unit"

> " Is your Charter Partner really a Silent Partner? "

> " Den Chief: A key to successful Dens"

> Round Table workshops???

 

Wow, come offer those here and I'll sign up immediately.

This is probably beyond the scope of the original thread, but I have some thoughts about Cub Scout Basic Leader Training. Im wondering if it would make sense to combine the break-out sessions. Yes, it would make the training take longer, but there is probably still some overlap, and something else might be able to be shortened. When I took it, everyone had to choose a break out session for a specific position: den leader, cubmaster, or committee. The problem is that within a few months, a good portion of the people in each subgroup had switched to different positions in their packs. Unless youre a training junkie, youre not going to retake the training just because you are holding a different position. Besides, its good to know the other positions duties, tips and tricks for when you need to fill in, or for those of us who are doing the responsibilities for multiple positions.

Our council generally runs Cubmaster & Committee member together since they need to work so closely together.

My family has been involved with three different packs, and all three had a single CC/CM running the show (and yes, I know that's not proper!). I'm not sure how the chartering paperwork handled it...

 

Of course, if I were recommending to someone to start a pack, or to look for a pack to join, I'd suggest looking for one with a strong committee in place.

 

In any case, I would think it would make sense that CC and CM training be two sides of the same coin, so that they could each see that they have specific roles and responsibilities.