Open Up A Box of Cheer

Hello fellow Scouters,

Is your pack meeting in need of some pep? Do you have downtime transitioning between events? Are you looking for a way to spice things up? Then consider opening a box of cheer!

Cheers (and their cousin Run-On’s) are great ways to mix things up and keep the pace of the pack meeting going. The last thing you want to do is to have one long, drawn out program – you will generally lose the attention of the boys. Having short program segments and mixing in cheers and run-on’s between those segments are a great way to keep things fun.

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There are many great resources for cheers, including:

Bill Smith’s New Roundtable site (link updated 8/22/09):

http://rt492.org/dl/cheers.html

Baloo’s Bugle:

http://usscouts.org/usscouts/bbugle.asp

MacScouter:

http://www.usscouts.org/macscouter/Campfire/Cheers.asp

Merit Badge.org:

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Scout_Cheers

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If you are looking for a place to keep these, consider a box of Cheer! I have an actual box of Cheer detergent that I store cheers. You can store them in small envelopes by subject, or just write some out, throw them in the box and pick one at random (or have a Scout pick one at random). In the end, you will be mixing things up at your pack meeting, and this will keep the attention of your boys.

And a note to Assistant Scoutmasters and other leaders: Please keep an eye on the room during the pack meeting. If you see a slow transition between events, and the Cubmaster is busy preparing for the next event and the boys are starting to get restless, just reach in the box and grab a cheer. This is a great way to help the Cubmaster keep the pack meeting fun. And fun pack meetings will keep the Scouts coming back.

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Here’s to a fun, exciting pack meeting!

In Scouting,

 – Scouter Jeff <><