Scouting Anniversary Week Ideas by Chris Sears

November/December is the time to plan...  Scouting Week!

Some Anniversary Week Ideas

1. If possible, have the Blue and Gold Banquet during Anniversary Week, the week of BSA’s birthday: Feb 8.
2. In Den Meeting that week have a birthday cake and talk about the history of Cub Scouting.
3. Consider having an annual Parent Meeting during that week. It is an excellent time to both honor the parents who support the pack and to inform them of how Scouting works. Perhaps give a little thank you gift to the parents.
4. Have the boys wear their uniforms to school that week, or particularly on February 8th.
5. Offer to the local City Council for the boys to perform the flag ceremony at the city council meeting that week. Then bring a “Scout Birthday” birthday cake to share with the Council as a thank you for their service.
6. Suggest to the pastor of your church that for the Sunday of Anniversary Week the scouts offer the opening and closing prayers and be a youth speaker.  The scout leaders could be the main speakers.
7. Prepare a photo spread on posterboard of your pack or troop, and have the pictures on display as members enter the church so that they can see what the Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts have done during the year. Then take that same poster to the local grocery store and request that it be put on display there.  If possible, coordinate with other units in the area to do the same and create a larger effect.
8. Conduct a service project work day that week.

1. There are often many projects that need help at a church, library, club, school, or other meeting place for your unit, and Anniversary Week Saturday morning may be a great time to do some of these as a thank you.
2. There may be a service project that could benefit the city or the community.
3. Consider the Cub Scouts and/or Boy Scouts clean the church that week.

9. Consider using BSA clipart on your Sunday Service program cover that week, and quote from a religious leader regarding Scouting.
10. Look into creating a store window display of Cub Scouting, or at school, or in a leader’s front window.

Silly Cub Carols with Optional Santa Cub-style Songs Insert

Here is a tri-fold with songs about Cubbing, set to familiar Christmas carol tunes.  Print pages 1 and 2 back to back, then fold into a tri-fold brochure.

Also included is an optional insert. This is the reverse: Songs about Santa, put to tunes familiar in Cub Scouts.  Print pages 3 and 4 back to back, then cut into 3 strips and insert a strip into the tri-fold.

I have updated these Silly Cub Carols to fit the new Scouting USA program as of November 2018.

Musical Instruments for Wolf and Bear Adventures

To complete an optional adventure, Wolves are to make a homemade wind instrument and Bears are to make a drum, sistrum (Egyptian rattle), mbira (African thumb piano), and rain stick. Here are instructions to make all of them.

The total price will depend on what you
already have on hand and what you need to
purchase. I have many of the purchase
prices listed with the materials needed for
each type of instrument. After the title of
each instrument I have put in parenthesis
the actual individual price for making that
instrument for one cub.

I am  not big into arts and crafts.  When I need to do them with cubs, I teach, guide, and assist as needed, but I would rather move on to the next project for them to earn more awards than give them time to decorate in our meeting.  However, in preparation for teaching this class to other cub scout leaders, I took different colored electrical tape and wrapped them around my paper towel tube rain stick then added a leather lacing with a feather hanging on the end.  Surprise!! I now see the value in decorating! My heart wasn’t into it … I didn’t even make sure it looked perfect, but I am so proud of it! Even more proud than the other instruments that I didn’t decorate. When I am finished with them, the other instruments will be no problem to disassemble, but I admit that I will have a difficult time letting go of my decorated cardboard tube with foil and beans, and I am a lot more likely to pick it up to play with it for fun or to show to somebody. The moral: Let them decorate! They’ll take ownership and are more likely to actually get use from it after they get home!

A Well-Trained Leader

Several years ago I was asked to provide a list of steps and a timeline for cub scout leaders to become well-trained. Recently at Roundtable somebody asked just such a question, so I am bringing this forward again. I did my best to put together a list as requested.  Get excited for knowing where to get training, not overwhelmed for the list. Just start at the top and work your way down, like a checklist.

Akela's Council is only offered in the Utah National Parks Council, and I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY suggest attending, no matter how new or how seasoned you are in Cub Scouting, as well as no matter what District, Council, or state you live!!! Akela's Council would be described as a Woodbadge specifically focusing on actually presenting Cub Scouts.  (It is being considered by National BSA as official, but is still in the process of being watched similar to a pilot program.)

When One Pack is One Combined Den

Is your pack small enough that you need to combine all dens (Wolf/Bear/Webelos) into one combined den?  I was in such a pack October 2017. To boot, we only had one set of den leaders, who would do a Wolf activity one week, Bear the next, Webelos the next, and then we had pack meeting and nobody has completed a full adventure.  I happen to know that with the old Cub Scout program books, BSA provided a very not well-known alternate program combining all 3 dens every week, Plan A and Plan B, for alternating years.  Now we have all new programs and no new alternate c9mbined den program, yet.

Rather than just sit back, knowing what I know, and watching these boys earn one adventure award every 3 or 4 months, and watching these leaders working as hard as they knew how to in order to keep everyone happy, I went to work assembling this admittedly unpolished but very functional lesson plan.

I took a look at the Wolf, Bear, and Webelos required adventures for similar subjects being learned, and I put them together, because as long as you are aware of age appropriate safety guidelines, there's no problem with these cub scouts dabbling in others' activities.

If you choose to use this plan, it will take a little more work on your part to prepare and plan your den meeting.  You will need all 3 books, and I suggest the Den Meeting Planning Book as well.  But, I did the work in letting you know what adventures naturally work together.  You're welcome. ;D Here it is!