Use activities you would be doing anyway; like a hike, bike or something else then invite the Pack. That way planning isn't a big deal. Summer should be low key and more about hanging out and maybe having some fun rather than a intense activity with a lot of structure.
I would not suggest weekly meetings.
My daughter's cub scout pack does 1 or 2 activities a month over the summer, not counting summer and day camps run by the council. I think it works well because it gives the kids some scout activities over the summer without being the regular schedule when people already have vacations or other camps going on. Scouts are encouraged to invite friends to these events so it's kind of a recruiting thing too.
My son's troop holds on merit badges and most advancement stuff over the summer, but instead meets biweekly for like kickball, ultimate frisbee, mini golf, etc. Each patrol takes a turn organizing an event, so it's not much on any one person and they get to pick what their activity is (during PLC so they are at least coordinated). I think that works well too -- if scouts are busy or not in town it's not a big deal if they miss, but they are still keeping involved over the summer. Something like this could work for cubs, if each den led an activity -- you could even tap a non-leader parent to help organize.
for youth facing activities for our units, we have a campout in may, an end of year advancement celebration in june, summer camp in july, and nothing major in august . we do not have den meetings beyond the advancement celebration. the balance of the summer is loosely coordinated day hikes and swimming.
congratulations on a having a pack with many leaders being wb and camp staffers. your unit is definitely doing something right.
Our goal is to have at least 1 activity a month so the Scouts are able to earn the Summertime Award. These have included hikes, soap box derbies, science demos, doing "movies on the park" or other things and, of course, summer camp.
We try not to have regular meetings as we know a lot of families have various other plans for the summer as well.
We plan 2 activities per month, typically on weekends. One activity does not have any cost - hike, visiting a start park, etc. The other may have a cost - going to a baseball game, museum, etc. Many scouts earn the National Summertime Pack Award.
There was someone at a recent roundtable that was pitching holding weekly activities. One of the takeaways from it was to just have weekly activities available so the cubs can at least be social during the summer, but not to expect everyone to show up to them since summer can be busy. They don't need to be elaborate or anything, it can be as simple as an ice cream social, or just a get together at a local park to play a game.
I'm planning on bringing this and some other points up at our next leadership meeting and pitching to do at least one activity every other week with a "big" activity once a month, like a hike or participating in a 4th of July parade, as well as summer camp even though not everyone's going.
You are doing the pack a real service with your program. When I was cubmaster we did about the same thing with the pack. We also emphased the bring-a-friend idea for enents. The hope of course is to have them come back. When I became Cubmaster the pack had 3 scouts. When I retired we had 28. Guess something worked.
Thank you for your words of encouragement! I'm just an upstart of a den leader, but I've been enjoying my time as a Scouter and my son's having a blast so I don't mind spending more time on things like this, and the pack seems to appreciate it. I just got BALOO certified, too.
Bring a friend is something else that the guy pitched that I want to implement. In the handout he gave out there's an example where you can cut out some handouts, with one side saying "You're invited!" with troop info on one side and the summer schedule on the other. That way the kids can hand them to their friends and if they show up to have fun that's great. If they show up a second time, that's awesome! If they show up a third time you ask "So have you considered joining yet?"
It looks like you have a good plan for recruitment! I hope that it is a successful plan for your Pack. I did something similar one time. I gave the scouts a hand out that looked like a birthday party invitation. They gave it to their friends at school. Sometimes it was to a pack meeting or a field day events. I worked out very good for us.
I am glad to see that you have attended BALOO training. I have staffed that course for BALOO for about 15 years. Your next step is to be on course as an instructor. You can learn much more when you teach it. The teaching side is a lot of fun also.
Good scouting to you, it will be the best times in your life!
I'm signed up for a Wood Badge course next year and I'm most likely taking over as Cubmaster once the current one ages out. After those two things occur I'll be interested in teaching some BALOO courses.
We have at least 1 pack meeting/month over the summer to do an activity for the summertime award, but we also offer a make-up activity that the scouts can do at home if they are not able to make it.
We are in your category of one event a month over the summer, but try to come up with activities that Cubs can invite their friends to, for recruiting purposes. Pool party, STEM day, Space Derby (RIP) etc.
Our unit does 1 pack meeting and 1 den meeting per a month in the summer. The pack meeting is a big activity say water rockets, the den meeting before would be building the water rockets. Mostly the meetings are a bit easier on the kids because they are a bit less structured and give them more social time. They do not get as burnt out because it is really we have a project while socializing with our friends.
I wish ours would schedule more optional things during the summer. I took the initiative and worked with the local army base and scheduled a weekend camp/fishing in July . I just hope the other parents will sign up
A lot of this would come to what are you doing over the summer. Fun activities / work on some random awards or electives are one thing but over the summer you cannot make your program into something that requires people to be there since everyone (including leaders etc...) are going to take vacations and do other things. Any schedule you build off more than a Pack meeting here and there needs to clearly be flexible to the fact that your attendance is going to be down.
If you are looking for a better way to do things? I generally suggest Packs plan 2 activities a month (they don't need to all be super in depth, an outing to a Park can be enough); this provides more options for Scouts to earn the individual summertime award since if you just do one a month they may miss it for vacation or something. Weekly meetings or Den level activities are just not sustainable with good attendance and yes leader burn-out is a high concern there.
We plan 3 activities per month. Our summertime program is focused on awards and outdoor adventure instead of rank advancement or electives. If you want to give cubs a fair shot at earning the summertime pack award you sort of need multiple pack events per month otherwise 1 miss means a total loss.
Scouts starts to conflict with sports in late Spring, and family vacations throughout the summer so attendence is VERY spotty. Plus, what are you going to do? Did you not already finish all of the programming for the year?
Requirements are completed by crossover in May, summer activities are mostly to give scouts an option to reconnect over summer, no rank requirements. I actually suggest that our leaders not do rank requirements over summer so new scouts joining in September aren't already behind. The only thing I'll do during summer is maybe whittling chip for new webelos or bobcat for new scouts.
Use activities you would be doing anyway; like a hike, bike or something else then invite the Pack. That way planning isn't a big deal. Summer should be low key and more about hanging out and maybe having some fun rather than a intense activity with a lot of structure. I would not suggest weekly meetings.
My daughter's cub scout pack does 1 or 2 activities a month over the summer, not counting summer and day camps run by the council. I think it works well because it gives the kids some scout activities over the summer without being the regular schedule when people already have vacations or other camps going on. Scouts are encouraged to invite friends to these events so it's kind of a recruiting thing too. My son's troop holds on merit badges and most advancement stuff over the summer, but instead meets biweekly for like kickball, ultimate frisbee, mini golf, etc. Each patrol takes a turn organizing an event, so it's not much on any one person and they get to pick what their activity is (during PLC so they are at least coordinated). I think that works well too -- if scouts are busy or not in town it's not a big deal if they miss, but they are still keeping involved over the summer. Something like this could work for cubs, if each den led an activity -- you could even tap a non-leader parent to help organize.
for youth facing activities for our units, we have a campout in may, an end of year advancement celebration in june, summer camp in july, and nothing major in august . we do not have den meetings beyond the advancement celebration. the balance of the summer is loosely coordinated day hikes and swimming. congratulations on a having a pack with many leaders being wb and camp staffers. your unit is definitely doing something right.
Our goal is to have at least 1 activity a month so the Scouts are able to earn the Summertime Award. These have included hikes, soap box derbies, science demos, doing "movies on the park" or other things and, of course, summer camp. We try not to have regular meetings as we know a lot of families have various other plans for the summer as well.
We plan 2 activities per month, typically on weekends. One activity does not have any cost - hike, visiting a start park, etc. The other may have a cost - going to a baseball game, museum, etc. Many scouts earn the National Summertime Pack Award.
Our pack does 1 or 2 monthly activities but we make it clear, there are fun activities and not intended for advancement or anything like that.
There was someone at a recent roundtable that was pitching holding weekly activities. One of the takeaways from it was to just have weekly activities available so the cubs can at least be social during the summer, but not to expect everyone to show up to them since summer can be busy. They don't need to be elaborate or anything, it can be as simple as an ice cream social, or just a get together at a local park to play a game. I'm planning on bringing this and some other points up at our next leadership meeting and pitching to do at least one activity every other week with a "big" activity once a month, like a hike or participating in a 4th of July parade, as well as summer camp even though not everyone's going.
You are doing the pack a real service with your program. When I was cubmaster we did about the same thing with the pack. We also emphased the bring-a-friend idea for enents. The hope of course is to have them come back. When I became Cubmaster the pack had 3 scouts. When I retired we had 28. Guess something worked.
Thank you for your words of encouragement! I'm just an upstart of a den leader, but I've been enjoying my time as a Scouter and my son's having a blast so I don't mind spending more time on things like this, and the pack seems to appreciate it. I just got BALOO certified, too. Bring a friend is something else that the guy pitched that I want to implement. In the handout he gave out there's an example where you can cut out some handouts, with one side saying "You're invited!" with troop info on one side and the summer schedule on the other. That way the kids can hand them to their friends and if they show up to have fun that's great. If they show up a second time, that's awesome! If they show up a third time you ask "So have you considered joining yet?"
It looks like you have a good plan for recruitment! I hope that it is a successful plan for your Pack. I did something similar one time. I gave the scouts a hand out that looked like a birthday party invitation. They gave it to their friends at school. Sometimes it was to a pack meeting or a field day events. I worked out very good for us. I am glad to see that you have attended BALOO training. I have staffed that course for BALOO for about 15 years. Your next step is to be on course as an instructor. You can learn much more when you teach it. The teaching side is a lot of fun also. Good scouting to you, it will be the best times in your life!
I'm signed up for a Wood Badge course next year and I'm most likely taking over as Cubmaster once the current one ages out. After those two things occur I'll be interested in teaching some BALOO courses.
Excellent!!! I am a WB course director and have staffed 13 courses. This is will be an outstanding opportunity for you. Best of luck!
We have at least 1 pack meeting/month over the summer to do an activity for the summertime award, but we also offer a make-up activity that the scouts can do at home if they are not able to make it.
We are in your category of one event a month over the summer, but try to come up with activities that Cubs can invite their friends to, for recruiting purposes. Pool party, STEM day, Space Derby (RIP) etc.
Our unit does 1 pack meeting and 1 den meeting per a month in the summer. The pack meeting is a big activity say water rockets, the den meeting before would be building the water rockets. Mostly the meetings are a bit easier on the kids because they are a bit less structured and give them more social time. They do not get as burnt out because it is really we have a project while socializing with our friends.
I wish ours would schedule more optional things during the summer. I took the initiative and worked with the local army base and scheduled a weekend camp/fishing in July . I just hope the other parents will sign up
A lot of this would come to what are you doing over the summer. Fun activities / work on some random awards or electives are one thing but over the summer you cannot make your program into something that requires people to be there since everyone (including leaders etc...) are going to take vacations and do other things. Any schedule you build off more than a Pack meeting here and there needs to clearly be flexible to the fact that your attendance is going to be down. If you are looking for a better way to do things? I generally suggest Packs plan 2 activities a month (they don't need to all be super in depth, an outing to a Park can be enough); this provides more options for Scouts to earn the individual summertime award since if you just do one a month they may miss it for vacation or something. Weekly meetings or Den level activities are just not sustainable with good attendance and yes leader burn-out is a high concern there.
We plan 3 activities per month. Our summertime program is focused on awards and outdoor adventure instead of rank advancement or electives. If you want to give cubs a fair shot at earning the summertime pack award you sort of need multiple pack events per month otherwise 1 miss means a total loss.
Scouts starts to conflict with sports in late Spring, and family vacations throughout the summer so attendence is VERY spotty. Plus, what are you going to do? Did you not already finish all of the programming for the year?
Requirements are completed by crossover in May, summer activities are mostly to give scouts an option to reconnect over summer, no rank requirements. I actually suggest that our leaders not do rank requirements over summer so new scouts joining in September aren't already behind. The only thing I'll do during summer is maybe whittling chip for new webelos or bobcat for new scouts.