Cub Scout den leader? Me?
My son, Nathan, is seven years old and in the second grade. He attends a magnet school outside of our neighborhood, so we don't live near his classmates. So we decided to introduce him to the Cub Scout pack in our neighborhood and see how he liked it... the beginning of September was their yearly recruitment drive.
They meet every week, and every week someone different led the den meeting. (The pack is 1st through 5th grade, but they break up into grade-level dens.) It was obvious that each leader had not prepared for the meeting, at least one of them didn't know they were leading the meeting until they arrived, and I'm pretty sure a couple of them didn't want to lead the meeting, but did so because they were pressured with "there's nobody else here tonight." They didn't introduce themselves, they didn't clearly communicate the activities, and they more or less failed to engage the kids. Den meetings "happened" but they weren't really "led".
When Nathan joined, I assumed I'd get involved as a volunteer. At the Cub Scout level, they require a parent to accompany the child anyway, so I'm going to be there whether I have a job to do or not. So last week, I stayed for the after-meeting five-minute leader meeting, thinking I could volunteer to assist the den leader.
The Cub Master (the guy who runs the whole pack) asked, "Who's the Tiger Cub den leader?" Someone raised their hand and he handed them the October activity sheet and said a few things about it. Then he asked who was here from the Wolf den... my son's den. I knew none of the previous leaders were there. Then he pointed at me and asked what den my son was in, and when I answered "Wolf," he handed me the activity sheet and explained what my den would be doing the next meeting.
Pow! I'm a Cub Scout den leader, just like that. I called the Cub Master to talk about it later in the week, and he said one of the two official Wolf den leaders was moving to another pack and the other had been transferred to third shift. "Someone" would be there to back me up, but he wasn't sure who.
So last night, I ran my first den meeting. It was a little crazy... 2nd graders, craft foam and glue don't always mesh smoothly. My son tried to glue the glue bottle to the table, and one kid is a little snotty, but otherwise they did really well. The third-shifter was my assistant (with two hours of sleep), but he hadn't seen the activity sheet until he walked in the door. And while he'll try, he says he can't be sure he'll be there every week.
So it looks like I'm in charge of the den. Guess I need to finish filling out the volunteer application so they can do the background check and all. :)
I'm still wondering what I've gotten myself into... leading a meeting every Tuesday night, leader meetings on first Thursday nights, monthly weekend outings (pumpkin patch this Saturday), leadership training sessions, and so on.