How to Hold a Den Meeting

Where: You can meet in your home or in another building, usually provided by your chartering organization. We met in our church because our group is WAY too big to fit in my living room.

When: Meet at the same time each week and the same location so it's easy for parents and scouts to remember.

What: Start with an opening activity so the early boys have something to do while you wait for the 5-minute late boys. We like to use simple games or word puzzles. Use the Denner and Assistent Denner to help you set up the flag and other items needed for Den meeting. We set out our Tracking Posters so the kids have a chance to come look and see how close they are to their Wolf or Bear award.

Ask a boy to lead the group in the Pledge. Sometimes we have a full-fledged flag ceremony. Sometimes we all just stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Then we recite the Scout Oath or whatever other scout thing we are working on memorizing.

Then we split into Wolf and Bear Groups, since we are large enough and lucky enough to have enough leaders. We work on achievements that the oldest boys need to earn their award. As we complete achievements or electives we have the boys open their books to the page we've completed so its an easy matter to sign off all the books at once.

With the remaining 15 minutes or so we like to combine again and play a whole group game or craft. We love to use ideas in the cub scout books, like Charades in the Bear book. We also like to let them get exercise so we'll do 16 Building Muscles from the Bear book or 1 Feats of Skill from the Wolf Book.

With 5 minutes left we go over the Positive Points earned for the day. We ask the boys to clean up the room and fold up the chairs. If they need us to sign off stuff they've worked on at home we ask them to stack their books by the door. They gather their books and coats and papers and we line up at the door. One of the leaders then leads them through the building and hands them a small treat as they leave the building. (We used to just let them leave but didn't like the idea of a small horde of boys running and yelling through the halls of our church.)

After scouts one of us takes home the books and the tracking notebook and updates our records and returns the books to the boys. (We try to update during scouts but it doesn't always happen.)

Whew! Then we go home, put our feet up and eat some chocolate. Or we wish that's what we were doing. But since our scouts is held from 4-5pm, we really go home and make dinner.