This marks the start of my second full year as Cub Master after stepping up from Tiger Den Leader in May 2009. I plan to be Cub Master till my son crosses over in 2013. I am very excited for this year. We have a great program setup and a great set of Den Leaders and Committee.
With a year under my belt, I have learned a few things and using more resources. As part of my Wood Badge ticket, I pledged to be a better Cub Master. This year, I am use the new 2010 Pack & Den Meeting Guides. I am also working up the meeting plans sooner than later.
It is a habit of mine to procrastinate and quickly put something together. This year I am not. This year I am putting together an agenda and sending it out to the Den Leaders and Committee so they can see what I am planning to do. This will allow them to coordinate their Den Meetings better.
So, this month we kicked off using Den Yells, singing Cub Scout Vespers and having a Cub Master’s Minute. I am using the 2010 Pack Meeting Guidelines to help guide me. While I might not use the the guide note for note, I did use a lot of the information. This is much the same guidelines that I used for the Join Night.
The night flowed very well. Gathering Activity, Flag, Opening Comments,Quick intro to Nothing but Nets and Hornaday Award projects, Popcorn Kick-off which included shooting marshmellow guns and three Door Prizes, Cub Master Minute, Cub Scout Vespers.
The Popcorn Kick-off also included the Trails End Popcorn Video, which helped keep the boys enteretained and parents informed. This was good since it was our desire to split the Join Night and Kickoff due to all the info being thrown at the parents.
The unexpected part of the meeting:
The boys are squirrly, but that is to be expected. I am working on keeping them more engaged by engaging them to think and respond. Not just sit and watch. I have taken to reminding the older boys that we need to show how Cub Scout act for the Tigers and new Cub Scouts. I give the new Cub Scouts and Tigers more slack since they do not know.
We had a birthday annouced by a Tiger. So, we did the best we could. We all sand happy birthday! It was a good moment!
The feedback thus far from the Den Leaders/Committee is that the meeting went very well. A lot more controlled, organized and on-point. Yes, there are things to work on, but that is normal. I have already communicated the Pack 221 October 18th Pack Meetings Plan. It has been received well and there are adjustments. So, next meeting is to have all the new Cub Scouts get their Bobcat Badges. I am currently working up a great ceremony for them. It’s their first Rank Advancement! It does mean a lot to them and their parents.
Until next time…….. Create Fun at your Unit Meetings! The boys deserve to have fun and learn at the same time!
A note about the suprise birthday at your pack meeting. Our pack kept a Google calendar of every boy (and leader) birthday. I’d make a quick check before every event to see if there were any nearby birthdays that should be mentioned. I also made mention of upcomming birthdays in the pack newsletter. Finally, we bought a stack of generic scout themed cards at the Scout shop, had every leader sign them, and mailed one to each Scout.