I’ve been participating in my son’s Cub Scout pack since we joined three years ago. Owing to my experience as a Boy Scout, I was nearly immediately tapped to lead the Tiger Den Nathan’s first year. I’ve since continued to follow Nathan as his Den leader through Wolf and Bear.
For those not familiar with Cub Scouts, boys are members of Packs which are then broken into Dens by grade level. The pack we joined has had 20 or fewer scouts the whole time we’ve been there. Nathan’s den for the last two years has averaged 4-5 boys.
Toward the end of last year, it became clear that I was the most likely parent or leader to take the reigns for the pack as the Cubmaster. The other parents were either clearly personally uncomfortable with the idea of leading the pack, or in one case completely over committed with other Scouting activities.
So early last spring I told Dan, the previous Cubmaster, that I was willing to take the role, if he would help me transition into it during the end of the school/program year. He agreed, but honestly wasn’t organized enough to do much transitioning. He didn’t think far enough in advance to say to himself, “Hmm, I’ll bet Rick would like to learn how to do this. I’ll call him.” No, Dan flies by the seat of his pants 90% of the time, and as a result, I got little in the way of preparation for my role.
At our final pack meeting of the school year last June, Dan announced to the pack that he was stepping down (his son had left the pack in March to join a Boy Scout troop), and that I would take over as Cubmaster. I was tickled by the warm applause. Anne later told me that someone leaned in to her after Dan’s announcement and said “Oh good!”
I procrastinated most of the summer, choosing to fill it with vacations galore and other cool stuff. As the school year approached, I tried to touch base with Dan to go over final transition tasks. He told me he wanted to continue to help out as the assistant Cubmaster for a few more months. Was he crazy? Very likely, yes. Did I appreciate the help? Hell Yes!
When I was at a training class to learn how to recruit at elementary schools, a leader from a pack that meets 0.5 miles from us asked me if I would be recruiting at a school that was moving into the neighborhood. Well crap, I thought to myself. My kids go to that school! Why didn’t I think of that? After comparing sizes of packs (mine around 15, his at 50+) he agreed that I could recruit at the school, and he would leave it alone.
A few days later, I spoke to the principle, reminding her that I had kids there, and asked about various recruiting possibilities: talking to kids during the day, sending fliers home with the kids, and putting a yard sign in front of the school. To my astonishment, she said yes to all of them.
The principle suggested that I talk to the kids during the lunch hours rather than in classrooms since I would be less likely to miss a class due to their crazy schedules. At three different lunch periods, I waited until all the kids were seated and eating, then a teacher introduced me to the quieted cafeteria. I told the kids who I was and why I was there. When I told them about upcoming events like “shooting BB guns” I had them hooked. It was hard to get to “camping at the Crew Stadium” and “Halloween camping” without quieting the excited talking. When I was done with my spiel at one lunch, a woman teacher said “I’ve got just one question. Why can’t girls join!?!” to which many of the girls in the room loudly agreed “Yeah!”.
The flier that went home had an informational meeting listed for the next Wednesday. In previous years we’d gotten maybe 5 new scouts. I figured materials and information packs for 15 would leave me with extra for stragglers who would show up later. I arranged about 20 chairs in a circle, and had to add to it twice as people kept streaming in. I handed out all 15 information packs and had 4 or 5 parents who were left with only a promise that I would e-mail it to them (which I did, of course). I got 16 new scout applications that night, officially doubling the size of the pack. At the end of the night, after dealing with the money and paperwork, Dan looked at me with a broad smile and said “Well done, sir.”
That was a week ago. This week, the phone calls and e-mails continued to stream in from interested parents. “I’m sorry we missed last week. My son is really interested” several exclaimed. “Is it too late to join?” I reassured them it was not too late. We’d love to have them. As my spreadsheet of scouts passed 35, 36, 37, I got nervous about what little planning I’d done so far, and how little I’d involved the other parent leaders. We met on Sunday to plan for the coming Wednesday (today), and a few weeks out. There was nervous excitement about the new size of the pack–the kind of giddiness that comes from anticipating something new yet familiar.
Today we had everyone together in the same room for the first time–new and returning scouts. The returning scouts had been off in their own den meetings the previous week while Dan and I wooed new parents. Many of the returning parents were a bit stunned to see the crowd of new faces jammed into our smallish meeting room. We had 39 boys show up tonight. And some familiar faces were absent. We might be 42-44 strong before next week. Even if we lose some down to 35, that is still a very comfortably sized Pack. I don’t feel like we’re just barely clinging to the cliff-edge of existence.
To give you an idea just how badly I’d underestimated the size and enthusiasm of the new pack (it really does feel like a New pack), I created a sign-up sheet for the bb-gun activity with 12 lines on it. The form is overflowing with 21 families committed, totaling 42 participants (non-scout siblings are allowed).
In the previous years, especially the Tiger and Wolf years, I struggled with my role as den leader. I really didn’t feel like I was organized enough, was enthusiastic enough, or that I had enough help from parents. I lacked confidence in my ability to lead the dens. Today, with the help of 5 other parent/leaders, we had a great meeting to kick off a fun year. I’m actually looking forward to it.
