Pursuing the Charter of Pack 2019 - Join Along With Me As I Figure Out How to Start a Pack

In November I wrote here on the Akela’s Council blog about my intention to start a pack. I had found some instructions that said successful new units are organized in these steps:

·      Identify the prospect.

·      Approach the prospect.

·      Make the sales call.

·      The organization adopts the program.

·      The organizing committee meets.

·      Help the organizing committee select and recruit unit leaders.

·      Help train the leaders.

·      Help the unit plan and organize programs.

·      Recruit youth members and provide parent orientation.

·      Complete the paperwork.

·      Attend the first meeting.

·      Present the charter.

This list is a salesman’s approach to starting a pack. It’s probably super successful. I have worked with sales people, and I like them; but I am not a salesman. I was determined to succeed anyway.

I had identified a few prospects, and even talked to one. My #1 prospect, the PTA president at my kids’ school, seemed interested and agreed that they would like to charter a pack. The principal agreed that would be a good thing. When I brought up the topic again in February, the principal had changed his mind and the PTA was not going to support anything that the principal didn’t support.

I went back to my friends with this sad news: my number one prospect did not adopt the program. Step 4 was a bust.

At University of Scouting I attended a class about chartering a new unit. It was fantastic to be in a room full of people who are going through the same process and asking the same questions – and who have answered some of my questions for themselves.

Julia, who was leading the discussion, showed the process that is recommended. She called it a top-down approach. Julia had success developing her troop and her venture crew from the bottom up!

She started in response to youth that asked her for a quality troop, and they knew she would do it right. The parents of those young men were happy to support their sons and were willing to serve as leaders. Once Julia and her committee were agreed on the plan, and she was willing to meet in her own back yard, it was easy to find an organization to support a charter. With time, as they grew, they were able to find a location that was better.

What a great story!

University of Scouting had ended a week before, and my good friend Valeriia was at my house. “Hey, when are we going to get going on our pack?” she asked.

We counted the leaders we absolutely knew were on board. We had five for sure, and six more interested.

We counted our youth. We had four for sure, and probably three more.

Let’s look at what steps should be taken, and what we already have.

Identify the prospect. Approach the prospect. Make the sales call. The organization adopts the program.	These are four steps to say, “get a charter organization.”
The organizing committee meets. Help the organizing committee select and recruit unit leaders.	Our organizing committee is going to include the adult leaders we already have.
Help train the leaders.	Most already have YPT and more.
Help the unit plan and organize programs.
Recruit youth members and provide parent orientation.	We have the beginnings
Complete the paperwork. Attend the first meeting. Present the charter.

I was open to Julia’s approach… so what do we still need to charter a pack? Minimum requirement is five adult leaders, five youth, a charter organization, and some fees. We had five adults. We probably had five kids. We still needed a Charter Organization and some registration fees. The new unit charter costs $40 plus the application fees of each founding member.

What does the charter organization have to provide? They don’t have to have a place, they just help you find one if you don’t have it. They don’t have to spend a lot of time or money. They do need to provide a representative, the COR, who is one of the key three and has an important role in the pack; but the organization itself does not have to take on significant risk or expense.

Furthermore, if we find an organization willing to charter that can offer resources like a building to meet in during the winter, then we can actually change our charter and COR without changing anything else in the pack.

“My husband’s company will do it. We already talked,” Valeriia told me. We got in the car to go start on the paperwork. At the scout office, we asked a few questions and got a pile of youth and adult applications. We filled out the New Unit Application, paid $40, and selected our pack number.

Pack 2019 seems a pretty auspicious and meaningful number. The year of our founding and the year that Scouts BSA welcomes all youth to participate. Our charter isn’t complete, but searchers on www.beascout.org will find our pack coming soon.

We left the scout office in high spirits, and I sent an email to our organizers. It was a long email with lots of details, but essentially I asked three questions:

1. Are you in?

2. When can you meet to plan and organize?

3. What role do you want to fill?

Most responses are in, and here’s what we for sure have now:

Five Youth

Seven Leaders (Cubmaster, 2 committee, 2 den leader, 2 to fill where needed)

One Unit Commissioner

One of the steps to organizing a pack is to help train the leaders. Of our eight adults, I know that seven have current youth protection training and most of them are trained for their current positions. Some may take different roles and may need to take additional position-specific training. Most have taken additional trainings including University of Scouting, EDGE, Wood Badge, and more.

Six of our leaders have attended Akela’s Council advanced training. One more is registered for Akela’s Council this summer. We will continue to recommend Akela’s Council for our leaders because it offers specific information on every aspect of cub scouts, including the vision, purposes, and methods. With highly trained leaders, we will be well positioned to offer a quality program for our children.  ** Akela’s Council is ALL ABOUT the Cub Scout program. If you are interested in knowing how to run a quality program that delivers the promise of fun, adventure and character development for 5-11 year-old Scouts, Akela’s Council can launch you in the right direction by immersing you in the purposes, methods and excitement of Cub Scouting.  In 2019, Akela’s Council will run June 19-22 and will fill in any gaps in your Cub Scout toolkit.  CLICK HERE 

Next, we will meet to plan our first activities, probably with the sketch of a year calendar, and to organize our vision, policies, and process. We will also to gather our applications to complete the charter.

Other tasks on the to do list: find premises. We need a park during fine weather, and a building during winter.

Stay tuned for more adventures as we pursue the charter of Pack 2019.

 ~ By Merinda Reeder who is a Cubmaster from Pack 466 in the Orem District, Utah National Parks Council.  She attended Akela's Council in 2017 served on Akela's Council Staff in 2018, and will serve on Akela's Council staff in 2019.

To see other articles by Merinda, CLICK HERE

I Have Decided to Start a New Pack - Now to Figure out How to Start a Pack

My kids love Cub Scouts, and I have decided to start a Pack that can include my children.  I have Lions and Tigers and girls in my family, which the local chartered organization doesn’t choose to include in their packs. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been chartering Wolves, Bears, and Webelos for more than a hundred years; but they are not chartering after 2019 and so there is a very well served population that’s about to be a very large underserved area.

As I tried to find a pack for my kids, we tried a pack about 15 minutes north of our home, and then switched to a pack that is 30 minutes to the south. It’s a pretty good fit for my kids, who are not eligible for any of the packs in my home town. (The bonus about this Pack is that I have many good friends on staff that I met through Akela's Council, and they truly understand how to run a good pack and make it fun for the Cub Scouts.)

For months, now, I’ve been saying that I’m going to help to establish a new pack in Orem, Utah. So far, I’ve been to a few meetings, and I’ve talked to some friends.

My roundtable buddies have agreed that we’re in. I’ve been talking to friends, and there are a couple people in my ward (area) that are ready to help and who want their sons to continue. A couple people in my neighborhood have said they are in although they have no children of Scouting age; but they love scouts and are eager to continue serving.

The Cub Scout year is recommended to begin as kids end school and begin summer break, and I want to be well established by June to take advantage of the fantastic summer opportunities.

I have been learning about community units (that's the terminology in our council for any pack not chartered by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Community packs that are chartered by any other organization can include girls, and younger kids in lions and tigers). One of the advantages of registering my children in a community pack is that I can learn. The pack leaders I am with now, know that I intend to leave them eventually, and they share wisdom all the time. They want me to succeed and are generous.

At roundtable I am still fully engaged in learning, and just volunteered to teach a breakout session. This gets me in to the roundtable planning meetings, and I am networking with other great Scouters.

I have been to Akela’s Council, and my husband is going this summer to get that level of training as well, since he is willing to be a leader in our pack.  He has been wood badge trained and has held Cub Scout positions; but he is sure that he will be better for the pack after Akela’s Council. I agree completely.  ** Akela’s Council is ALL ABOUT the Cub Scout program. If you are interested in knowing how to run a quality program that delivers the promise of fun, adventure and character development for 5-11 year-old Scouts, Akela’s Council can launch you in the right direction by immersing you in the purposes, methods and excitement of Cub Scouting.  In 2019, Akela’s Council will run June 19-22 and will fill in any gaps in your Cub Scout toolkit.  CLICK HERE

I will go to University of Scouting. I am part of several Facebook groups dedicated to scouting and Cub Scouting. I have gone to a couple meetings about the future of Scouting in Utah. I have been gathering information.

In August, somebody at a meeting mentioned the William D Boyce scouting award for starting a new unit, and they said there was a document online with step by step instructions for starting a new unit.

Here are links to three documents that I found, not sure which one they actually meant.

https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/commissioner/pdf/522-990.pdf

http://scoutingwire.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/522-025_WB_sm.pdf

https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/04-515.pdf

According to these guides, successful new units are organized in these steps:

• Identify the prospect.
• Approach the prospect.
• Make the sales call.
• The organization adopts the program.
• The organizing committee meets.
• Help the organizing committee select and recruit unit leaders.
• Help train the leaders.
• Help the unit plan and organize programs.
• Recruit youth members and provide parent orientation.
• Complete the paperwork. Attend the first meeting. Present the charter.

They say that you can’t skip steps and expect a long-lasting pack.
I honestly don’t know exactly what these steps mean; but I will learn. I intend to follow these steps and establish a Cub Scout pack in Orem, Utah.

I will share my efforts and experiences right here.

 ~ By Merinda Reeder who is a Cubmaster from Pack 466 in the Orem District, Utah National Parks Council.  She serves on Roundtable Staff, attended Akela's Council in 2017 and served on Akela's Council Staff in 2018.

To see other articles by Merinda, CLICK HERE

Dedicated Leaders

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced Tuesday May 8th, that in December 2019, it will end the long standing relationship with the Boy Scouts of America.  This article is in response to that announcement.

I arrived at my District Roundtable last night looking for allies, and I knew who to talk to. Becca referred to the big breakup: the recent announcement that the LDS church will stop chartering scout units after 2019.

“You’re going on into 2020 with me, though, right?” I said. “Transition team for 2020: from Calling to Elective. We’re going to establish some good community packs right here in Orem.”

“I think I might take a break,” she said. My inner jaw dropped. “It’s still a year and a half away, so we’ll see what it looks like then, but I’m kind of looking forward to something else by then.” Becca said.

I was surprised. This is my scouting nerd friend, the one who is on staff for Akela’s Council this summer, who collects silicone ice trays to make neckerchief slides. This is my scouting buddy who is on roundtable committee and who knows the intricacies of Scoutbook, and who was registering people at the University of Scouting. Becca went and got a job at the Scout Shop. Her people are scout people. Becca is dedicated.

My brain and my heart processed this over night, and I woke up with even more respect for scouters like Becca. A couple years back, a member of Becca’s bishopric asked her to serve on the Cub Scout committee, and she took the assignment.

She did her best and she tried to figure out how to use the online records tracker. Eventually she discovered monthly roundtable meetings. She felt like she still didn’t get the vision, so Becca took the recommendation to go to an extensive two-weekend overnight training: Akela’s Council. Becca got the Cub Scout vision and she used her vision and skills to magnify her calling. It took time to develop her skills; but she did all she could to help her pack and provide great experiences for the boys in her ward. She made scout friends and she started making plaster neckerchief slides. She took a job at the scout office and got super specifically particular about sewing patches on straight and correct. She ramped up the quality of the pre-sewn shirts in a significant way.

Becca became an eager, enthusiastic, educated scouter. Her guilty pleasure is scout stuff. She magnified her calling, and she is still doing it. She’ll see how she feels in 19 months; and in those 19 months she is going to continue to deliver the best she can.

I was honestly surprised. I thought she had transcended her calling to become dedicated to scouting for the sake of scouting.

Turns out she does love Scouting. She throws herself into the calling that she has. She magnifies her callings. She learns and she grows and she loves those that she serves, and she’ll give the same to her next calling.

Is Becca perfect? Probably not. I’ve painted a pretty saintly picture of someone that I really do respect… and the Church has a big contingent of people that serve like Becca. There are many LDS people who will continue to throw their hearts and souls into Scouting because they love the boys and because they love their savior. When released, some will quietly hang up their Wood Badge beads and maybe even resell or donate their scout shirts, never to return. They will be the people who will make the new LDS youth program work after 2019.

I am thoroughly grateful for those dedicated people who are disguised as lifelong scouters. They have carried a big, complicated program that hasn’t been easy. They have seen the value, they have caught the vision, and they have taught it. They have impacted lives for over a century and will continue to do so.

I am also really grateful for the friends at roundtable who fist bumped and said, “Oh yeah, 2020 and beyond,” and “I get to be Webelos leader,” and “My husband is ready to be scoutmaster,” and “Whatever you need, I am ready to help.” Utah scouts will need those folks, as will the entire BSA.

Some of our LDS boys will continue to January, 2020, and transition from scouting. Other good and worthy things will fill their time and space. Many will go on to magnify callings admirably without scouts.

Some of our LDS boys and girls will love scouting, though. Some will respond well to the adventures, the belt loops, the ranks, and the badges. Some will seek the enriching values of the Scout Oath, the Scout Law, the methods and purposes of Scouts.

In the next eighteen months, and for years after, we need both the lifelong scouters and also the scouters that have been disguised as lifelong scouters. Among them, we find dedicated disciples of Christ.

 ~ By Merinda Reeder who is a Cubmaster from Pack 466 in the Orem District, Utah National Parks Council.