Getting everything all dusted off and ready for the new year. What do do, and how to do it.
Transcript:
One of the great things about planning for the scouting year is that each year you can start with a clean slate. If things worked out well last year you can repeat events or activities, if things didn’t work out so great you can learn from it and carry that with you into the new year.
But in each of the cases you are starting fresh.
If this is your first time going through the process of planning out a year for your troop or pack then it may seem like a daunting task. But unless you are a new unit, you have the history of the past year, two or three to use as examples, so ask your scouts, parents and leaders about what worked and what has not in the past.
For the rest of this video I’m going to speak in generalities, but looking at it as a troop leader is different than looking at it as a pack leader. In a troop, the boys are supposed to drive the program, on what to do. In a pack, you are designing the year for the group.
Now while the boys are supposed to choose, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do some homework ahead of time, and plan things, adjusting for the wishes of the boys or girls.
I usually start by laying out a calendar. I have included my MS word calendar for the upcoming year in the show notes for this videoCast, but you can just as easily do this on a printed calendar, or print out pages from Google Calendar or something similar.
From the calendar, lay out all the local school holidays, religious holidays, and troop or pack meeting days or special events.
I also like to add council events such as Camporees, Webelos events for the cubs, and OA days for the boy scouts.
This gives you the framework for days to avoid when planning your events.
On the boy scout side, we plan for a camping trip per month, with the summer months reserved for summer camp. On the cub side there are more local events, especially if you are trying to earn the summertime award.
This is where your research, and local exepectations comes in. In the pack we would plan one camp-in experience at a venue like a battleship or museum per year. On the boy scout side we do something similar, where we go on a historical trip usually to another city.
For both of these we would rotate on a 3-4 year schedule, so during their time in the program the boys would have the opportunity to experience it as a younger scout, and then as an older scout. It also gave them a second opportunity if they couldn’t make it the first time.
It’s important to begin this process early, as many troops and packs do similar things, so early planning tends to have better results and not have you get shut out of things.
You continue this pattern until you get all the campouts, trips and events you would like to have for your unit. And when possible, booking these events lets you set your pricing for the experience in advance.
It also gives you the opportunity to publicize it in advance, so families can mark it on their personal calendars giving them the opportunity to plan around the scouting events instead of moving plans around to accommodate them.
This is also a good opportunity to have others in your pack or troop to help you in a low impact confined way. If they suggest a trip, have them plan it. You will have someone booking it who is invested in it, and take some of the load off of yourself.
The more folks who can help you research, plan, book and attend, the better off you will be, and the stronger your unit will be. But this is what works for us.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this was a bit on yearly planning.
