Our Join Night was on a Tuesday after the PTA Back to School picnic and meeting on Monday. Normally it is a week later on a Monday. We split it up for two reasons.
1) Explaining the Cub Scout program to the boys and parents with all the seasoned scouts and parents is tough. We need to talk to the new people and answer their questions.
2) Have Join Night and a Fundraising speech all at once, is information overload and can scare parents away. I had it happen when I joined and know others that were overloaded with info. The first year my son did not do Popcorn. We just paid the money and joined.
As a Pack Committee we wanted to make sure that we answered any and all questions and not overloaded anyone. Then we would bring in the entire Pack and have the summer awards, popcorn talk and kick off the year correctly. This would also allow the new parents to have their questions from the Join Night answered after they had thought about it for awhile.
So, to the night……
We started off the Join Night with a Flag Ceremony by the Bears and the Pledge. Opening comments my yours truly about the agenda. Which was DVD, Cub Master Talk, Parents talk by Pack Committee in Libaray while Den Leaders helped boys earn the Art & Marbles Beltloops. We then end the night with awards, Cub Master Minute and Cub Scout Vespars.
I had welcomed as many parents and boys as I could. I shook every hand, asked their name, age, grade, school and thanked them for coming. I did this while squatted down on my knees at times since I wanted to look directly at their eyes on their level.
I am not a parent. I am Cub Master Adam, their Akela. I am here to guide them down the Scouting Path on their journey.
We then started with a DVD from the BSA. It was “100 Years of Scouting: Celebrating the Adventure-Continuing the Journey” It was seven minutes. (Note to self, bring speakers…;) ) Laptop speakers in a Gym does not work. But everyone was quite and listened.
Cubmaster Skit. This was just for the boys. It was not for the parents. However, there was a lot of information for them.
I had this recorded so I knew what I did and how it came across. I am always looking to see how I improve.
As you can see from this long video, I packed in lot of info. I also made a few mistakes, but nothing major. I got down on their level after getting them all working together. “MAKE THE PACK GO” I did not use any of the old Cub Scouts since it was not their night. I wanted to include every boy.
After the talk, we broke into groups and got the parents out of there. I went with the parents. That went very well since we had parents signing up to help the pack in other activities during the rest of the year.
So, now the winding down of the meeting and sending the boys home. They were fully of excitement and parents need them in bed. In comes the Native American Flute. I got up on stage behind the curtain and started playing. Just jammed for about 2-3 minutes lovely tunes. I just let it flow. I could hear everyone get very very quite. They did not know what was going on.
I stepped out from the curtains and joined them at halfcourt in the gym and talked about what was happening next. Cubmaster minute and vespars. I told them that I was very happy that they all came tonight and joined Pack 221 and started their Scouting Journey with us. I then explained Vespars and why we held hands. We all sang and hummed a verse and it was over.
ONE HOUR START TO FINISH! (Yes, it’s a goal)
I can tell you that this rocked. It’s what I wanted to happen. Even since going through Wood Badge I realized that traditions start the first meeting. You set the tone. Wood Badge gave me the tools (and Native American Flute) to pull this off.
It’s going to be a great year!
This is the flyer that was created through our Support Services at Cascade Pacific Council in Portland, Or. Completely wonderful!
