Scout and Guide Week

I’m looking for some new ideas for Scout & Guide week. Currently we hold a pot-luck banquet in the place of our regular Cub and Beaver meetings. These banquets are poorly attended by both youth and parents. How could we breathe new life into this ? What do other groups do ?

Thanks

We do a pot-luck banquet that's quite well attended. The only issue we have is the sections that don't normally meet on the night chosen for the banquet, some of their kids sometimes have other commitments. My opinions and suggestions:

Make the banquet fun for the kids, don't make it something formal to feed the egos of the leaders. The kids need to want to come. Have the kids build things ahead of time that they can show/demonstrate to the parents. We have built pioneering jungle gyms and climbing walls. The Cubs have put on plays and skits. The Beavers have sung songs.

We have the group provide dessert. Before this we found there was not enough food. Make your own banana splits goes over really well. Last year the Venturers made cheesecake cupcakes.

The last couple of years we have had a Venturer MC the banquet and had the PLs and sixers at the head table instead of most of the leaders.

Do a colouring contest for the Beavers. Have word search puzzles available.

Have a display of historical Scouting items: photos and uniforms.

Display of any trophies the sections have won in area events.

Get some donations for door prizes. We did it where each number called had to pull a string pulleyed into a box to see what their prize was.

10 minutes slide show of the past 12 months of activities. This is the most liked part of the evening by both the kids and parents. Run it to music. I'll put some of ours on YouTube if I can figure out how.

No speeches. Focus on the kids.

Market the event. Don't charge. Make it the activity for the week rather than the normal meetings.

Don't go any longer than two hours, try for 1:45. Beavers need to to bed.

Photos from a couple of our banquets:
http://www.1stmerrickville.ca/venturers ... /index.htm
http://www.1stmerrickville.ca/cubs/pict ... /index.htm

Notice to parents:
http://www.1stmerrickville.ca/docs/Banq ... 202009.pdf


Allan.

Sounds like great ideas for a fun event. I have one silly question. When is scout/guide week? Is it around BP's birthday?

Aging - Yes, based on BP & Mrs. BP's brithdays ; from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scouts%27_Day

"In Canada both the Guides and the Scouts celebrate Scout-Guide Week which is the week (Sunday-Sunday) in which February 22 falls (not including the first Sunday). It is often used to have joint events between the two groups"

Allan - thanks for your great ideas. Does anybody do anything different than a Banquet ?

Thanks Chil. That's what I thought but I wanted to be sure. We have often celebrated BP's bday but not done anything for the week.

The banquet, in some form or another, is pretty standard. We've used the banquet during Scout week for awards, slide shows, announcing big trips, and a variety of other things.

Don't forget to invite your local Guides, especially if there is a Guiding group affiliated with your sponsor. Good way to build ties between the two Movements...it is Scout-Guide Week after all (although I continue to run into a brick wall when I try to convince the Guides that Feb 22 is "Founders' Day" NOT "Thinking Day".)

Banquets are all good, and most groups do something like this during Scout week. But don't limit the scope of your thinking to a banquet and nothing else. Scout Week should be an annual opportunity to showcase Scouting in your community, not just to celebrate within your own group. Here are some ideas:

- When I was growing up in Barrie, all the local Scout and Guide groups set up displays in the mall, with pictures, crafts, etc., to show what they've been up to. It was always a big recruiting draw (in fact, it was how I came back into Scouting as a leader). In Thunder Bay, we're contemplating taking the mall idea in another direction, having each section (beavers, cubs and scouts) run a meeting in the mall rotunda on a different day of the week. Troop night would include a big formal campfire routine, preferably with a fake campfire and a guitar.

- It's also pretty common in larger communities to have the city-wide Kub Kar Rally during Scout week, typically in a mall or other public venue.

- Feb 15 is Flag Day in Canada, which abuts Scout week. We've done a service project where the Scouts collect ratty Canadian flags fom businesses through the year, and do a formal flag retirement ceremony on flag day, which kicks off Scout Week.

-Some groups do their annual Church Parade during Scout week, though by all rights it should be done on St. George's Sunday (Sunday closest to APr 23)

- get out into your community and do some good turns. Shovel some snow for old people. Visit the children's ward in the local hospital. Do a food drive.

- Make an effort to get the local media involved in some capacity.

That's just a handful of things that I've been involved in, but the point is that, as a Movement, we need to be making better use of Scout Week as an outreach opportunity, not just another excuse to have yet another meal of lukewarm Sedish meatballs and chili.

Steve B.