{ Den Meetings }

So, you've agreed to open up your home to a group of c-r-a-z-y cub scout boys! Yay! Before you change your mind, let's set the ground rules so your home doesn't get destroyed. Just kidding...sort of. It may seem "unfun" to lay down the law, but trust me, out of control boys are chaotic, and chaos is not fun. They need structure!

1. Sit & Stay Seated!

When the boys arrive, you'll want them to have a certain spot to sit, and STAY seated until you're ready to start. This can be hard, especially if the boys are already used to playing at your house with your kids. You have to make bedrooms, backyards, etc off limits during den meetings- they're here for SCOUTS, not to PLAY. Assign a couch, a table, or rug to be the designated sit & stay spot.

     2.  Respect

One of my favorite teachers, my 7th grade math teacher, had only one rule, and that was RESPECT. You respect the teacher by listening and raising your hand to talk. You respect each other by keeping your hands to yourself and speakly kindly. You respect the classroom by sitting quietly and not goofing around. R-E-S-P-E-C-T.


Den Meeting Structure:

Let's start with Denners since they'll be coming up frequently. A Denner is a cub scout who is the 'assistant manager'. He can be one of your scouts, or even an older one you recruit. He helps take role call, do the gathering activity, opening exercises, pass out papers & supplies, etc. Basically whatever you want him to do. All cub scouts should experience being the Denner, so you'll need to switch it up. You can go by whoever is oldest, or just trade off. Usually a couple weeks to a month is long enough.

There are 6 parts to a Den Meeting: before the meeting, gathering, opening, program, closing, and after the meeting. I'll leave 'before and after the meeting' to the Organization section.

Gathering:

This is any sort of activity or game to entertain the scouts while waiting for everyone to show up and until the meeting begins. It can be as simple as giving the Denner a joke book to read out loud from, a word search, coloring pages, puzzle or game

Opening:

The opening is the beginning of your meeting. You can start with a flag ceremony, prayer, song, cheer or just matters of business. Here is the Opening & Closing Flag Ceremonies, just right-click and print:

Don't forget to pass out any Progress Beads that your scouts may have earned (yellow for wolf, red for bear!).

But the absolute most important part of opening is ROLE CALL. Keeping track of who showed up to what activity is imperative. If there is a discrepancy in the boys' progress sheets (or heaven forbid, you lose them!), then you will always be able to go back and double check the attendance records to see what activities they were present for, and what they have signed off. Having accurate attendance records will save your tush time and again! Its best to have one Den Mom in charge of the records, so they are being continually updated.

Then your Denner can lead the opening exercises, which are basically just repeating everything they memorized for their Bobcat: The Cub Scout Promise, The Law of the Pack, Webelos meaning (WE'll BE LOyal Scouts), Cub Scout Sign, Cub Scout Handshake, Cub Scout Motto, and Cub Scout Salute. All of which is found in the beginning of the handbook. I like to put everything on one paper to make it easier. You can print it out and laminate it on cardstock or put it in a sheet protector in your notebook. Just right-click and print:

You can also have some sort of reward system for the boys, for things like coming to scouts on time, wearing their shirt, bringing their scout handbook, and good behavior. I do a Bead Jar.

Program: 

Go do whatever your activity is for today! :)

Closing:

You can close with the closing flag ceremony, a prayer, cheer, whatever. Don't forget to send them home with the monthly schedule, field trip permission forms, or whatever else. And the most important part of closing....TREATS!