Okay, planning and running den meetings can be a bit of work, but it’s not that bad. Honest! Most den meetings only last an hour or so, basically the same amount of time as a single soccer practice. To save time planning the meetings, you should recruit the other parents in your den to help lessen the load — heck, I know some den leaders who have pretty much outsourced every meeting to their den parents, in effect, making them more like top-level management — now, who doesn’t want to be top-level management?
If you host the den meetings in your home, you don’t need to drive to and from the meeting, saving you loads of time, especially if your den meets far away. If you meet at a different location, have the other parents in your den bring the supplies and take care of set-up and clean-up. Remember, you’re all in this together.
Planning a den meeting can be a fairly low-impact process, especially if you stick to the book and use the BSA’s excellent pre-planned den meeting guide. As you become more experienced in running the meetings, you will probably find yourself customizing the meetings to your scouts’ interests and attention spans. I guarantee you that you will do more planning for the very first den meeting you lead than any other meeting in your cub scout tenure. Things get much smoother and easier in time.
You can do this!
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