Planning the Cub Scout year

1. Planning the Cub Scout year For Cubmasters and Wolf and Bear Den Leaders

2. Why Plan? • Life is so much easier when there’s a plan • Plan your work, and work your plan • Today we’re going to discuss planning at the pack and den levels, as well as budgeting for what you’ve planned.

3. What is the objective? • Good planning always starts with an objective, a goal. • From lds.org: “Scouting for boys 8 through 10 is a learning, happy, fun-filled home-centered, activity program.”

4. Objective cont. • Cheryl C. Lant, Primary general president, has said: “Scouting is fun and has an important purpose! Woven through all the fun is an inspired program that really works. Scouting is about learning and living the gospel. Scouting can reinforce positive character values and leadership skills that are taught in the home.“Scouting prepares boys to become righteous men who hold and honor the priesthood of God. Scout leaders have the responsibility to help each boy connect what he is learning in Scouting to his priesthood preparation and his future as a covenant keeping missionary, husband, and father.”

5. Purposes of Cub Scouting • Character Development • Spiritual Growth • Good Citizenship • Sportsmanship and Fitness • Family Understanding • Respectful Relationships • Personal Achievement • Friendly Service • Fun and Adventure • Preparation for Boy Scouts

6. KISMIF • Keep it simple, make it fun!

7. Planning the Cub Scout Year • Annual Pack Program Planning Conference. • Mostly involves planning Pack Meetings, Pack Activities, and Summertime Activities. • Should happen over the summer. • Takes a couple of hours!

8. People Who Should Attend: • Pack Committee Chair • Cubmaster and Assistant Cubmaster • Den Leaders and Assistant Den Leaders • Webelos Leaders • Anyone else you’d like to invite—parents, other committee members, etc. • Primary Presidency member, bishopric counselor?

9. Things to Bring to the Meeting: • Pack Program Planning Packet • Program Helps • Council, Ward and Stake Calendars • School Calendars • Guide to Safe Scouting • Cub Scout How-To Book • Cub Scout Leader Book • Pack Roster (to know how many boys will be in the program in any given month)

11. Steps to Planning the Year • Go through the council calendar and decide if there are any council or district events that the pack needs or wants to go to. • Review the other calendars for any relevant events, holidays, school breaks, etc. • Then, go month-by-month, deciding if you want to do the BSA theme or something else, when you want to have derbies, etc. • Take input for ideas for guests or activities for pack meetings or pack activities. • Once you’ve got your plan, make a printed calendar for the year, and ask parents to help with planned activities.

12. Summertime Activities • Cub Scouting is a year-round program. • Den and Pack meetings can be hard in the summer! • Pack Summertime Activity Award helps encourage packs to stay active. • Requirements:Plan and hold 1 pack activity during each of the summer months—that’s it! • Awards include:Ribbon for pack flag for meeting the pack requirementsRibbon for den flag, for those dens that have at least 50% of their boys in attendance at each eventPin for boys attending all three eventsSegment • Typical Summertime Activities:HikesDay Camp (if your whole pack goes together)PicnicsDerbies such as Raingutter RegattaHelping with a Quarterly Primary Activity Day

13. Now, Let’s Get to Den Planning • What do you do from here? • How do you plan your year?

14. The Ideal • BSA training suggests--Den meetings are for fun, theme-related activities, and electives • Parents work with their boys on most achievements

15. The Reality • Cub Scouts is “conscripted” in the church. • Parents don’t understand the Cub Scout program.

16. The Compromise • Den meetings include achievements. • Homework assignments and communication. • Increased achievement leads to increased retention • BSA is moving toward this model with their “Cub Scouts 2010” program.

17. Cub Scouts 2010, f.k.a. Fast Tracks • A program with a prescribed set of meetings, designed to enable each level of Cub Scouts to achieve their rank between September and February, along with achievement of electives, belt loops and other awards. • Includes homework for families, field trips, and more, in two den meetings and one field trip a month. • If Fast Tracks can…so can we!!

18. Getting Started on Planning • After the Annual Program Planning Conference, it’s time for the den leaders to meet to plan out their year of den meetings. • Gather your materials:Assistant den leaderHandbook for your den levelFaith in God book and correlation chartsProgram Helps (or Fast Tracks)Cub Scout Leader BookCub Scout How-to BookCouncil, ward, and school calendars

19. Now… • Plug in the big events first—any council or district events, pack meetings, etc. • Now work on your den meetings. You can use the Program Helps or the Fast Tracks helps to help do this. • Remember that both of these resources are designed to help the boys achieve rank between September and February…you can stretch some of this out if you want.

20. Now…cont. • A field trip once a month or so is a good idea. Program Helps and Fast Tracks both offer ideas for these. Some field trips can be planned for days off from school. • Don’t forget to work in Faith in God requirements whenever you can. • Use the How-To book for lots of ideas for games, crafts, etc. You can also use the internet for more ideas. • Use the Guide to Safe Scouting as a guide to make sure that any field trips or outings are safe and age-appropriate. • Remember that LDS Cub Scouts do not go camping as a pack.

21. Tracking • Den leaders have responsibility to track each boy’s progress toward rank, arrow points, etc. • Methods: old-fashioned paper charts, or computer—options include free Traxspreadsheets, or various subscription online tracking methods • As soon as a Wolf or Bear has completed 3 achievements, make sure to give them a “Progress Toward Ranks” bead in a brief ceremony at the very next den meeting.

22. Service • The LDS church is big on service, and so is the BSA. • It’s a good idea to include a service project of some sort at least once a quarter, at either the den or pack level. • The council and district provide several opportunities for service projects: Scouting for Food, Goodwill Good Turn Day, Tree Plant. • Don’t forget to do some kind of service for your chartered organization every now and then! • There are lots of other ideas out there too. Sharing time! • Bell-ringing caution

23. Combining Groups • What do we do about small Cub Scout groups? • Need to combine Wolf and Bear dens? • See “WolfandBearTogether” in my folder for this class for a complete example of a way to combine these two dens. • Don’t combine Webelos with any other group • Consider “correlating” with another ward if “critical mass” is a constant rather than a temporary problem.

24. Planning Philosophies • Do it once and repeat—I’m recommending this approach, for several reasons: • All the boys will be able to advance fairly uniformly no matter what time of the year they come in. • Once you get through the first year, you will be able to re-use materials and cut down on planning/prep time in future years. • With the new Cub Scouts 2010, you Cubmasters might be able to do something similar with pack meetings.

25. Budgeting • Budgeting guidelines from church. • Just keep in mind that any activities you do, other than the summer week-long day camp, need to be paid for out of the ward budget. • Keep activities as low-cost as possible. It is quite possible to have a great program that hardly costs anything. • If using Fast Tracks or Cub Scouts 2010, it may be necessary to substitute some activities.

26. How to Make a Budget • Don’t just give the Primary President or Bishopric a vague number. Work out a detailed budget. • First figure out awards. • Include amounts for Pinewood Derby, Blue and Gold, and regular pack meetings, expenses for Day Camp Prep (and Day Camp if that comes out of your ward budget) • Give dens an amount per boy per meeting. $.25 per boy per meeting for Wolves and Bears, and $.50 per boy per meeting for Webelos seems to be adequate. • When you submit a detailed budget it is more difficult for the Primary or Bishopric to just cut your budget arbitrarily.

28. Fundraising • Fundraising guidelines from handbook. • Remember that fundraising is the third option, but that doesn’t make it out of the question—check with your bishop. • If your Cubs do fundraisers, what kinds of things have you done? • Popcorn is OK—quote from letter • Intel and other corporation matching funds—should probably be counted as a fundraiser and used for camp and equipment, rather than going into the general ward fund

29. Resources—Where to Get Ideas, Help, Etc. • Roundtable Meetings • Pow-Wow—Coming up November 14th! • Websites • E-mail Lists: Scouts-LDS and LDS_CSL on Yahoo Groups • Other websites. Usscouts.org, theideadoor.com, and many more. I do a lot of Google searches when I am looking for Scout info.

30. Conclusion • Remember when planning to keep your objectives in mind, and pray for the help of the Holy Ghost • Keep it simple, make it fun! Make those boys want to come to Scouts! We are the first step on their road to Eagle and Duty to God!