Welcome to the Pack!

Ok, ready for a super quick, easy to read web page that is 100% geared toward your success as a NEW Tiger Cub den leader?

Well, you've found it!

My name is John Greathouse and I was my son's Tiger Cub den leader for 2005 / 2006. Regardless of the year, the Tiger Cub trail is the same. Below I outline what I think you should focus on for your Tiger year and give suggestions based on my experience as a "First time" den leader with no prior experience.

First off, I had no experience. I was a Cub Scout growing up, but I had absolutely no real training on how to run a Den.

You will be fine... just read my suggestions for success and you can build off that to develop your own den strategies.



# 1 - The Tiger Badge - Understand that your working toward the Tiger Badge. Look at the back of your Tiger cub handbook and try to complete the tasks for all of your Tigers to receive their Tiger badge. (page 18)

Face it, everyone loves getting patches and the badge.

# 2 - Here's some of what I did in the beginning:

> My first den meeting was the Meet and Greet. I outlined to the parents about how this whole thing was going to work and past out flyers that I made relating to those items.

> Get an American flag so you can do the Pledge, Salute, so on.

> I made a Den flag. I put together a flag and had the kids paint their hands and put those hands and names on the flag... pretty easy and cool.

> We focused on being good people. Respecting the Earth. Respecting animals. Being a good Cub Scout. We took trash collection journeys. Each Tiger got a trash bag and we walked around the neighborhood picking up trash. We taught the lessons of littering while doing an activity that was fun.

> We created a Pinecone bird feeder (pinecone, peanut butter, birdseed), Christmas wreaths with wire, sticks and pine needles. Ribbon, so on.

 Keep it simple and you'll be fine.

# 3 - Tiger Paws and Track beads - You can get your Tigers moving quicker by doing the requirements for the Tiger paws. Tigers can then do the electives to get beads. Easy and fun. (page 19)

# 4 - Parent involvement - Get your parents involved. Don't feel as if you can not ask parents to help out. As you're doing something in the den, have parents supervises and or help out in any way. Otherwise you'll be doing ALL of the work while people just sit there watching you and wondering why things are moving slow.

# 5 - Get your meet dates out to all of your parents in advance - Make sure everyone has the dates and times. One of the worse feelings I had when I was Tiger den leader was when a parent missed an activity because of a date and time mess up. Calendars are good.

Email the web master your dates so they can be posted on the Packs web site. You can then always point your parents to the web site for any dates or times of future events. Everyone has a central location to obtain information.

# 6 - Boys will be boys - 1st graders in a room being asked to be still probably isn't going to work. Focus your "talking" toward "asking" them questions being sure to have them raise their hands to speak. It keeps them active and not chit chatting with others.

Also, have a break where they can "run" off some of that energy. It worked for me... I usually did that at the end of the meeting prior to our Den closing ceremony.

# 7 - Being disruptive isn't Ok with Akela - What does this mean? Well, sometimes Tigers get out of control playing or running. This can be an issue if not dangerous. Tell your "excited" Tigers that they must listen to Alkela ( you, the Den leader ) if they wish to be apart of the den meeting. Feel free to ask the parent to help their child "slow" down as I can it. We can have fun and be excited... but being disruptive isn't being a good Cub Scout.

Hitting, name calling or anything that is deemed not being a good Cub Scout / person for that matter is not acceptable. Please let the young Tiger Cub know right at that point that we do not do such things. Period. You might want to have a meeting with the parents to address the issue.

# 8 - Meet with the Pack leader to discuss Den leading - If you haven't been a Cub Scout den leader... then the Pack leader has some important information to share with you. Cub Scouts have formal training ... the Pack leader will forward / train you with that information. This is important!

# 9 - I always did the Pledge, Motto, Promise at the Den meetings - I always stayed consistent with a couple of items that we always did. At some point, your Tigers will know and jump right to it. It's fun to watch when I say everyone line up for the Pledge of Allegiance and they want to do it right. Good stuff!

#10 - For the "Go See It", make it simple - One problem I had in the beginning was "over thinking" projects. I would want to do some grand thing and found that the boys just wanted to be "doing" something. That's why I LOVED the environment / trash collection around my neighborhood. Easy and the kids loved it.

Also, ask a parent to get a "Go See It" together. Let someone else do the heavy lifting. Go to the beach, park or.... something outside! :) Easy fun!
 

The Tiger Cub Uniform
Outdoor World on 41st Ave keeps these items in stock.

Please note, in the past Tiger cubs would wear a Orange T-shirt. As of two years ago, the Cub Scouts have changed this policy to have our Tigers to wear the standard Cub Scout Blue shirt with a orange neckerchief.

The Tiger hand book
Outdoor World on 41st Ave has this book in stock.
 

Helpful links
http://www.bspack618.org/general_tiger.shtml


More to come!