I really like to plan ahead. When I try to do things at the last minute it just doesn’t work out for me. So whenever I finish up a year as a den leader, I lay out a plan for the next year right away. We had our last Bear den meeting last week. Our Pack Pow Wow is on Friday. My den will be receiving their Webelos neckerchiefs. So it is time for me to plan.
My main concerns when planning ahead are setting our meeting dates and laying out a play to help my den achieve their next rank badge. I set my meeting dates in advance for two reasons.
- I need to reserve a meeting location at our parish, which is our chartering organization. It is a busy location and reserving rooms well in advance means I get my choice of place and time.
- I don’t have an assistant den leader, so the parents have to take turns being my “second adult” at meetings. Setting the dates means they know exactly when they need to be available or if something comes up, they can look at the schedule and make a trade, knowing the date they are trading for.
Our Blue and Gold banquet always corresponds with Scout Sunday, so I am setting my goals accordingly. My first goal is for all of them to earn their Webelos badge by February 2011. My second goal is for all of them to earn their Arrow of Light award by early January 2012.
After setting my meeting dates and reserving rooms, my next planning step is to make a list of the things I plan to work on at the meetings. I usually choose an activity badge to focus on at each meeting. At some of these meetings, there will be additional time to work on other Webelos badge or Arrow of Light requirements. I like to build in some time for a game or craft related to the activity also, especially if the activity badge is one of the less “hands on” ones.
Here is the plan I have laid out. I know this might seem a little crazy, but laying out a whole rank like this has worked for me as a den leader in the past. And sometimes as things go along a date gets changed or a topic swapped. But overall, I will probably stick to this plan. When parents sign up for which meetings they are helping with, they will know which activity badge we are working on. That is helpful if they have a job or hobby related to one of the badges.
Webelos 18 Month Plan
June 10, 2010: Start Traveler
July 8, 2010: Finish Traveler
Aug 12, 2010: Start Craftsman
Aug 21, 2010: Visit nature center, start Naturalist and Forester
Sept 2, 2010: Start Citizen
Sept 9, 2010: Finish Citizen
Oct 7, 2010: Start Fitness
Oct 14, 2010: Finish Fitness
Nov 4, 2010: Start Communicator
Nov 11, 2010: Finish Communicator
Dec 2, 2010: Start Engineer
Dec 9, 2010: Do a Craftsman project or two (Christmas presents!)
Jan 6, 2011: Finish Engineer
Jan 13, 2011: Start Scientist
Feb 3, 2011: Start Sportsman (basketball season)
Feb 10, 2011: Finish Scientist
March 3, 2011: Start Showman
March 10, 2011: Finish Showman
April 7, 2011: Start Athlete (hoping for nice weather)
April 14, 2011: Start Outdoorsman (might be close to Camporee time)
May 5, 2011: Do a Craftsman project (Mother’s Day present)
May 12, 2011: Finish Athlete (it has been 30 days since we started)
June 2, 2011: Finish Sportsman (baseball season)
July 7, 2011: Makeup session – finish up odds and ends of badges which they didn’t complete due to missed meetings or not doing “homework”, get some additional Boy Scouts to work with them individually. Those who don’t need to make anything up can work on supplemental awards
Aug 11, 2011: Scholar
Sept 1, 2011: Start Readyman
Sept 8, 2011: Finish Readyman
Oct 6, 2011: Start Handyman
Oct 13, 2011: Finish Handyman
Nov 3, 2011: Start Artist
Nov 10, 2011: Finish Artist
Dec 1, 2011: Finish Outdoorsman
Dec 8, 2011: Makeup session and Troop visit
Jan 5, 2012: Troop visit with parents. Troop will hold new parent orientation.
Jan 12, 2012: Make Arrow of Light awards
As you can see, I plan on doing many of the activity badges with them. Some of the badges (Aquanaut, Forester, Naturalist, Geologist) are done completely or in a large part at summer camp. But even if they miss a few meetings or don’t go to summer camp, they should be able to earn their Webelos badge and Arrow of Light on schedule. Then they will be ready to cross over to the Boy Scout troop.
I’m trying to plan the same way you are since my scouts don’t do well with homework. How do you handle those who don’t show up often? Do they just get advanced with the others regardless of the work? I want to make scouts fun, and I have advanced all of them together in the other ranks, but giving them the highest rank you can get in cub scouts without fulfilling the requirements seems unfair to me. Does anyone else have that situation?
Some just don’t get their badges. I send them occasional reminders about what they need to do to catch up. If getting the badge is important to them, they can do the requirements they missed at home. But there always seems to be one or two who are OK with not getting the badge. It wouldn’t be fair to the ones who met the requirements to give the badges to the ones who didn’t do the work. They all move on to the next program level whether they earned the badge or not.
In regard to your comment: Some just don’t get their badges. I send them occasional reminders about what they need to do to catch up. If getting the badge is important to them, they can do the requirements they missed at home. But there always seems to be one or two who are OK with not getting the badge. It wouldn’t be fair to the ones who met the requirements to give the badges to the ones who didn’t do the work. They all move on to the next program level whether they earned the badge or not.
Please note, that if the boys do not earn their arrow of light, they cannot move on to Boy Scouts unless they also meet the age requirement of being 11 years old …….. There are some scouts who are still 10 years old who achieve the arrow of light and can move on early, but those boys that do not complete the Arrow of Light must wait til they reach age 11 before moving on.
BSA req’s state 10 and 1/2 with AOL….or 11 without to enter boy scouts…we had a boy earn his AOL but he just turned 10…..he was not allowed to registered as a BS until 6 months after his Bday…..
Where does it say they have to be 10 1/2 I’ve looked all over for it? If you look at the BSA application and the boy scout handbook it says “or has earned the Arrow of Light Award and is at least 10 years old.” No where does it say wait 6 months after you turn 10.
The way I read it is at least 10 years old means you can register the boy the day the scout office is open after their birthday
In this program how many meetings do you suggest a Webelos can miss in the program if we are doing 2 meetings a month for 18 month?
They must earn at least eight activity badges to get both their Webelos badge and their Arrow of Light. There are some requirements about which groups the badges need to be from. They must all earn Citizen, Fitness, Readyman, and Outdoorsman. So when I sent out my meeting notices, I reminded the parents that those badges were required and if they missed the meetings they would need to do them at home. For the other meetings, they can miss quite a few and still get to Arrow of Light. It is really important to try to communicate the requirements to the parents so they can help their Webelos track their progress and understand the consequences of not getting Communicator vs Aquanaut.
The Webelos book states that a Webelos 1 must be active 3 months to earn his Webelos Badge…and a Webelos 2 must be active 6 months to earn his AOL. I would say they must attend at least 1 meeting a month if Web 1 but Web 2 would have to make most meetings in order to satisfy req. You might also go by which pins you are working on….such as the fitness pin can be earned by completing req at home….so missing meetings is not harmful…but the Readyman or Outdoorsman are more in detail and missing those req would keep them from earning their AOL…..Hope this helps….
Excellent! We are merging our two Webelos 1 dens and wanted to offer all 20 activities not only for the Scouts who want to work toward the Heavy Shoulder/Twentier/what every you call it, but also to make sure all the Scouts have an opportunity to try them all if they are interested. I really think Scouts is so much about exposure to the incredible variety in learning. This schedule does a nice job of getting almost all of them. Thanks for providing the resource!!