What would have helped you most as a new Cub Leader
A compilation from Scouts-L
This is simply in the order my mail reader placed the articles in. There
has been no attempt to order the information in any way. I have removed
the quoted sections etc. and most of the mail headers for ease in reading.
I also removed one or two posts with line lengths not set correctly as
they were too difficult to edit.
The original request from Jan Mussler was as follows.
I'll be teaching a class at Akela's Council in the Fall and I'd like to
pose a question for discussion....
For those who are Cub Leaders and those who can remember back that far.
What, in your opinion, would have been the most helpful thing to know in
your first year as a Den Leader, that you know now that you didn't know
then?
From: "Settummanque, the blackeagle (MAJ) Mike L. Walton"
<blackeagle@HCC-UKY.CAMPUS.MCI.NET>
I really had to go back that far, Jan!
There were several most helpful things to know:
* That you get a bead and the Progress Toward Ranks plastic patch thingy
after the completion of THREE requirements toward Wolf (yellow beads)
and Bear (red beads), not after *each and every one*. It wasn't covered
during Cub Leader Basic, nor at the Pow Wow, and it was only another
Den Leader that was starting out (and whose son transferred from another
Pack in a different Council) that told me this fact.
* That you need to SAVE JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING you may
throw away in a large box in the storage room. This includes paper tubes,
plastic (drink, not Clorox {tm}) containers, cardboard from shirts, egg
cartons. Anything that a school teacher would save up, you should save
up because sooner or later, you will need them as part of a craft project,
and there will be at least ONE Cub that won't have them!
* That a piece of paper with the names and phone numbers of each Cub
in your Den attached to your refrigerator (in my case, it was on a pegboard
in my dorm room!) works wonders!! It helps those looking for their sons
that "somehow" decided to go stay at a denmate's place after the meeting;
it helps you in calling everyone to remind them of things they need to bring;
and it helps significant others in getting important messages to you if you
have to take a Cub Scout to his home (or in getting in touch with Mom,
Dad, or Meema if something unforeseen happens!).
Yes, you should also have a binder with individual Cub Progress sheets
with that information...but when a worried mother or concerned father
calls you, do you *really* want to put him or her "on hold" while you
search through pages for other Cubs' numbers??
(someone suggested that we give parents a copy of the list. Don't work
out....for some reason, parents tend to put things that are given out by
the Den Leader in the same group as things given out by school teachers.)
=================================================
From: "Richard L. Axtman" <axtman@CASTLE.DRC.COM>
Hello Jan Mussler,
My suggestion is to have all new Den Leaders and Webelos Leaders read the
boys book cover to cover. Then select all outdoor activities and start
them first thing this fall. So that they can be completed before the bad
winter weather hits. I know up here in New England most packs don't get
to work on these items until spring. But then in the Spring you have the
problem of sports (baseball, socker, etc...) taking away the boys
attention from Scouting. Get all you can done in the Fall, such as nature
study and hikes, bird watching, bird feeders, etc... Save all the indoor
items for the bad weather months. The problem with the Cub Scout Books is
you don't get that far into the book until your in the Winter Months. So
I recommend changing the order of the book's chapters to fit the season.
We learned these things the hard way.
One other point. Tell all new parents to buy their boy's uniform right
away, as soon as they register. You'll have less problem getting the boys
outfitted later if you do. And the older families that still haven't
bought a uniform will want to keep up to the New Families.
Best In Scouting To You,
Richard Axtman
Cubmaster Pack 6
Lowell, Massachusetts
====================================================
From: Kevin Williams <akhwts1@PEABODY.SCT.UCARB.COM>
This is great topic !!
New den leaders should attend training ASAP.
Read the Den book (wolf, bear, webloes) from cover to cover and know it in
AT LEAST a general way.
I had two new wolf leaders with me this weekend, and was going over
achievements with the boys, and one stated "I didn't even know that was in
there" !!! Same leader constantly ignored the "no scouts within 20 feet
of the road" rule.
Plan meetings over the summer with your den to work on the outdoor
activities such as fishing, museum tour, school lawn cleanup. This keeps
those requirements in the warm season and also keeps the scouts interested
in the summer. Next year out pack is switching to a 12 month, fully
planned program, summer months being no different.
Plan a written schedule of the next years activities, what achievement and
elective to be done at each den meeting. Give this to the parents at the
advancement meeting and tell them, any other achievements they want to do
have to be done one on one with parents and scouts. Plan Achievements
thru the summer and thru October, then electives only after that, in case
meetings are canceled in the winter. (In WV we lose 1/2 of DEC and JAN to
storms).
This keeps the kids from repeating achievements and electives and being
bored at the den meetings.
Recognize achievements and accomplishments ASAP, the kids really need this.
I follow the three month rule, if a child start missing meetings, talk to
the parents and the child, then call and inform them of all activities
for 3 months, and then give it up as a lost cause. The time limit here
is optional depending on your beliefs.
Plan to start the new year after kickoff and recruitment with activities
that keep the new boys interested and coming.
I have an advantage here, I take my son to school everyday, and my wife
picks him up, and we both make it a point to talk to all of our scouts
everyday, show them we are interested in how they are doing, and let them
know what we are doing that week, and build interest and enthusiasm all
the time. This is also a great way to recruit new boys.
This is what I think a new leader needs to know, but I'm sure there is more.
==================================================
From: "Mark F. Vonderschmitt" <markfv@PUBPRESS.COM>
Personally, I think that you need to be as ORGANIZED as possible. Others
have mentioned binders and lists of names and number for the scouts. Great
way to start. Keep it all in a nice 3 ring binder from day one and you
will be less likely to lose things. Track attendance in it. Track dues in
it. Don't worry about writing too much. It will all be helpful later when
trying to figure out what happened when.
There seem to be two big sayings in cub scouting in dealing with this sort
of thing --- KISMIF and Fail to plan, Plan to Fail.
KISMIF is Keep it simple, Make it fun.
Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail is only so true. After a while, you can get away
with planning less for some meetings than for others, but you ALWAYS need
to plan. You can't just show up and open the book at random and start off
on a project. You need to get materials ready, try it at home first and
work the kinks out before letting the boys do it. If you can plan out
weeks or months in advance, even better.
One word: ROUNDTABLE
Roundtables are fun, they are very informative and I actually think you
can absorb a lot of scouter wisdom from just being in the same room with
some of these people.
Get a Den Doodle for the Den. My assistant den leader made a great
thunderbird for our den. Plenty of room to hang a totem for each kid (they
decorated them) on it with a leather thong about 3 feet long. Every time
the cub completed an achievement, he got a big bead (about 1/2 inch) to
put on his totem. Each elective got him a regular pony bead. Instant
recognition patches for the uniform are good, but by the time a cub gets
done with his totem for one year, he will have a dozen big beads and
possibly up to 50 or more pony beads (this works out to 5 arrowheads for
his uniform too) and will he be proud of those beads!!! Each year, we add
a new leather thong. It really looks impressive to show the den doodle at
pack meetings and other events too. Ours showed up at Scout o Rama as part
of the pack's booth this year.
I have tried to do a monthly newsletter for the parents. This lets me tell
them what needs to be done at home and by when. It also lets me remind
them about up coming events which a cub might "forget" until the last
minute or later. I have access to a PC and a printer so it doesn't take a
lot of time to kick out a 1 pager which includes when the meetings are and
that sort of stuff. It doesn't need to be professional, just informative.
Always include your name, address and phone at the bottom. I even put my
email address on it. Save them from one month to the next on disk and you
can copy in all the repetitive stuff from the last one.
Hope I was helpful.
===================================================
From: Glenn E Schwartzberg<gschwartz@EARTHLINK.NET>
The Four things I would have liked to have known are
1. The best resources for information... especially the How-To book
2. A list of knowledgeable people that I could get a hold of to help
when I got into a jam and needed help (gee just like this
discussion list)
3. for Den metings
a. preplan the meetings
b. try any crafts prior to having the boys do them
c. Have a backup plan when things don't go right
d. That if it takes you 20 minutes to do a craft it will
take the boys either 1.5 hours or 5 minutes to do it.
e. If you don't keep the scouts busy during a meeting they
will find things to keep themselves busy (and you
probably won't like it)
f. you tend to be harder on your own son that everyone else
4. If you have fun, the scouts will have fun. You are allowed to be
8 years old again (at times) If you think of this as fun it
will be. The 1 hour you volunteered for is just that the rest of
it is play time :-)
I could go on and on,
==============================================
From: Murphy Peter <MurphyP@RND3.INDY.TCE.COM>
At first I wasn't going to suggest TRAINING since the question was what to
tell the new den leaders at training - by being there they are already
sold on that idea.
But to lend support to other unit leaders trying convince new leaders to
go to training, here is a true story. A few months ago, at the end of my
tenure as CM, the retiring Webelos leaders came to me just before
crossover and admitted that it had NOT been a fun two years. He thought
he could do it on his own but was in over his head. He realized then that
all of the advice he had ignored from me, from the CC (who had been a
Webelos den leader), and my wife (district cub training chair and former
Webelos den leader) was actually pretty good and he should have taken it.
Specifically, he realized he should have gone to training and should have
set up a schedule for the parents in the den to take a month each to teach
one of the activity badges.
===================================
From: Kim Jarvis <kimmyj@FLASH.NET>
Don't be afraid to ask questions and ask for help. Help can come from
your parents in scheduling field trips, speakers (i.e., Police Dept. visits,
person from the zoo to show snakes, etc).
Don't be afraid to ask for help from folks at Roundtable. We had one
leader that didn't "like" to go to Roundtable. After a while, only 2 boys
would show up at his meetings. He said he "couldn't do a meeting with
only 2 boys" so he'd let them play Nintendo the entire meeting time. His
den folded, I got the 2 boys and kept them thru Webelos. One is still
with me (his son) and the other is working out personal/family problems.
His parents tried to get him to stay but he wanted to drop out.
Read everything you can get your hands on. Experiment with games and
ideas that you find. If it doesn't work, try something different next
time. I kept a "Den Diary" for a while (before I got lazy). I knew who
completed what on that night, and what we did. I wrote down things that
worked here too.
Enjoy the boys. For the most part, they are a blast.
===========================================
From: "Gilbert C. Birgel" <birgel@GULF.NET>
I was fortunate that I had a friend at work that passed down a lot of
material to me, the most valuable being the Cub Scout Leaders book.
I think it would have been nice to have attended another den meeting and see
how they were run, my first den meeting I was a nervous wreck. My friend had
given me copies of a den meeting planning form and I had purchased the
program helps. By following the den meeting outline for planning purposes
and using the program helps as a guide, the den meetings went "mostly"
smoothly.
I think the most important thing is to plan ahead, let the scouts know what
your agenda will be so that they don't duplicate efforts at home. I feel
really bad when a cub scout comes to a meeting and announces that he has
already done a certain achievement or elective that the den is working on
that night, but the scout usually enjoys doing the project again or helping
the other scouts.
I always hand out a calendar of events to my scouts/parents so that they
know exactly what the game plan is. They also know that this is a "planned
agenda" and subject to change, therefore I update it weekly, also noting
what family is responsible for snacks each week, and advise of all leader
meetings, roundtables, pow wows, etc., in case any of the parents are
interested in learning more about scouting. (It also lets them see how busy
the leaders are outside of the den meetings.)
Patty Birgel
Den Leader
Pack 626
Pensacola, FL
=================================================
From: "Michael F. Bowman" <mfbowman@CAPACCESS.ORG>
One of the ideas that was mentioned in this thread was knowing about a
"den doodle" which is used to encourage good behavior, provide immediate
recognition of accomplishments, and to instill some pride & self-esteem.
Let me see whether I can illustrate an idea on a multi-purpose den
doodle (hope it comes out on your end similar to how I think its going to
look).
Anyway the idea is to build a yard-arm that is roughly "T" shaped using
1"x1"s. On each side you can use eye-hooks to suspend an American Flag on
the right and the den flag on the left. In the center and lower is a Den
made plaque with each Scouts name in a different color across the
bottom.
Under the name is an eye-hook. At the beginning of the year you hang a
yard of leather thong, thin shoe-lace or craft-strip of the same color as
the Scout's name from each eye-hook (this prevent confusion later, because
each boys names and thong are the same color). At an early den meeting
set some rules on awarding beads. Sample: Attend a meeting - get a blue
bead. Behave at a meeting - get a green bead. Complete an achievement -
get a red bead. Go on an outing - get a purple bead. As beads are earned
they are passed out. Announce that when each Scout reaches 25, 50, 100,
150 a prize will be awarded (Cub Scout Coin at 25, Cub Scout book marker at
50, Cub Scout key ring at 100, Cub Scout Frisbee at 150 - each is less
than $2.00 and can be paid for through den dues). Award the beads at a
special part of the meeting or closing.
Usually by the third meeting the Scouts are counting their beads and
everyone else's beads too. They learn quickly that behavior beads are
real important towards keeping up. As the strands of beads get longer,
the Scout can see his own progress. I saw one Scout with real behavior
problems (broke a chair at his first meeting) really work his hind-end
off to try an behave long enough to get two beads at every meeting. He
wanted attention and he wanted to be first to get the "big" prize (didn't
even know what it was). No guarantees, but it might work for some Dens.
/\
/ \ -- Cub Emblem mounted on stave
\ / (use Cub Emblem Sun Catcher)
\/
||
______________________||________________________
______________________||________________________
| | || | |
| US | || | DEN |
| FLAG | ______||_______ | FLAG |
| HERE | / \ | HERE |
| | / Plaque \ | |
|_______| / names along here \ |________|
=======================
| | | || | | |
| | * || | | |
| * * || * | * -- Beads on thongs
* * * || * * *
* * * || * * *
* * * || * * *
||
||
||
________||_________
| STAND |
|_________________|
In addition this rig can be part of the opening and closing ceremony of
your Den meeting with a place for the flags worked in. Then too it also
is great to show at a Pack meeting. Just some more recognition at work.
Speaking Only for Myself in the Scouting Spirit, Michael F. Bowman
a/k/a Professor Beaver (WB), ASTA #2566, OA Vigil Honor '71, Eagle
Scout '67, Serving as Deputy District Commissioner for Training,
G.W.Dist., Nat. Capital Area Council, BSA - mfbowman@capaccess.org
========================================
From: Frank Boals <frankboa@SPRYNET.COM>
What would have helped... first den meetings?
An understanding of the importance of the health information on the back
of the form.
Name tags for the cubs.
A good Pow Wow Book.
A local list of resources( people and things)
Scrap lumber (cabinet shops)
Leather?
Paint (hardware stores, mismixed paint)
Phone number of scouter familiar with learning difficulties
Phone number of anyone local running uniform banks.
Another good Pow Wow Book...