WEBELOS troop advancement orientation

[blw2]

Our 2nd year WEBELOS den is, well in a word, fragmented.  We have a split in our pack that goes back before my time where some didn't like something about our CO's troop so they split off and formed or joined a troop across the street at a different church.  Now, some of those folks who are leaders in the other troop, have younger son's that are in my den.  Of course, their loyalty goes to the other troop with their dads and big brothers.

A couple of the boys plan to stay with our CO's troop though.

 

Our CO's troop has changed I think for the better and now seems to be running fairly well, it has grown, and seems to be a good troop again.... so I'm happy that my son wants to stick with our church's troop.

 

Because of the split though.... and since the boys finished most of the AOL requirements last year, and some negativity brought in by some of the dads, our DL hasn't been really energetic this year... and it has been contagious to me too.  there hasn't been any interest in doing troop visits as a complete den, camping as a den, etc...  It's a shame too, that this adult junk gets in the way- but very interesting to me as a side note, that the split is pretty much even and not splitting the groups or cliques in the den, except for one boy.

 

Anyway, Because of several 'excuses', We have not done anything along the lines of forming a "patrol" or really preparing the scouts for troop life.

I was thinking about leading a meeting, or really part of a meeting, to orient the boys a bit with what to expect.

• Perhaps give them a list of the new requirements for SCOUT rank, so they know what they are going to have to do
• Let them know that it's going to be on them, and not the adults to make things happen
• make sure they understand it's no longer parents doing the sign offs
• and include a discussion about troop structure (patrols, boy lead, etc).... The boys going to the other troop know better than me how that troop runs so they can likely chime in a lot.

The DL and I have discussed it.  I was thinking just a simple 5-10 minute discussion, not a lecture but a discussion.  I think it could be productive.  He was thinking it would be fun to make it into a game out of it.

 

So my question is this:  Any ideas or suggestions on how to make the discussion more fun or interesting?

 

 

 

 

 

[gumbymaster]

I don't really know the numbers of boys you are talking about; however, one approach that we considered simply because the den was too large, was to let a single den be organized as two patrols.  There are things they can do together, there are things they can do as friendly competition, there may be things they do separately - as long as there is sufficient qualified leadership.

 

Like your pack, our Webelos usually split into one of two Troops, and for at least 2/3 of them, which one has been determined long ago by parent involvement and siblings.  But for that last 1/3, they still like the resposibility of being able to make the choice.

Edited November 25, 2015 by gumbymaster

[qwazse]

What I think worked well for us is that I brought a couple boys (brothers, it turned out) from our troop to the den meeting. After introductions, the dad and I took all the parents to one room and left the scouts to talk to the Webelos. My thinking: no matter how much of a fun guy I am ... those boys are five times more fun to talk to on their bad days.

 

All of those Cubs crossed over to a neighboring troop, but this year we decided to merge. And although the adults are making that difficult, the boys are doing fine. And the older brother who visited that den was just elected SPL. (We're ignoring any concerns about paperwork to be processed or numbers on sleeves.)

Edited November 26, 2015 by qwazse