Cub Scouts

My oh my. We had roundup on the 14th and had 5 boys sign up (out of 26 boys) to be added to my den. 3 of which are my son's friends. That brings my den to a total of 9 boys. My den is officially full. District added a new elementary school to the pack for recruiting and we had around 50 boys sign up as interested. Today is our back to pack picnic, so we'll see how many show up to get signed up.

The recruitment, though, bodes well for the pack. We just have to get some parents involved as well or the boys will fall through. What most parents don't seem to realize, is that it's an all volunteer organization (at least on the levels that the boys see). Which means that without more volunteers, we can't take more boys. Which is a shame since Scouting really is a family oriented program. We get siblings involved as well as parents in a good number of our activities. From the Tiger level where parents are required to participate to the Webelos level where if parents don't help out the boys won't finish.

I know of at least one parent that walked out on registration because we had to point out that we had to have help. I know that many parents are busy, especially those single moms and dads. But at some point you have to make time for your kids and if you do it while helping your son with scouting, you're doing a lot! I think parents are afraid of how much work is involved. To me, it's only work if I don't enjoy it.

As to the work involved, I've done all my planning which I'll happily pass on to any other Webelos I leaders that are getting started. But there are many district and council resources as well that are available. All which provide a guide as to what to do when. The how is up to the leader. So the only work is gathering materials and following through on the plans.

I dove in 2 years ago as a leader for my son and haven't regretted it yet. I had no clue what I was doing and I can't say that I'm totally sure I know now. I do know that my son loves my being there and his friends will have fun too.