The Cub Scout Pack is a Chartered Organization

Every Cub Scout Pack, Boy Scout Troop, Varsity Scout Team and Explorer Post belongs to an organization having similar interests as the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). This may be a church, school, community organization, or group of interested citizens, which is chartered by the BSA to use the Scouting program. Our Cub Pack, Pack 241, is an organization chartered to Bluffton Fire Department, Bluffton S.C.

Our Cub Pack is part of the Lowcountry District in the South Carolina Council, BSA. Local Scouting Districts follow school district boundaries. Lowcountry District includes all Beaufort and Jasper county school districts.

Pack Organization

The pack is a group made up of several dens and Tiger Cub groups. The pack includes not only the boys in those dens, but also their families and leaders.

Our pack meets once a month, located in in the gym of M.C. Riley middle school on Burnt Church Road. Pack meetings to be held in other places will be announced ahead of time. Cub Scouts, Webelos Scouts, leaders, parents, and other family members attend the pack meetings. The pack meeting is the climax of the month's den meetings and activities. It gives the dens something to look forward to and work toward. It gets parents and families involved with the boys, and is a chance to recognize boys, parents, and leaders.

The pack meeting program typically includes opening and closing ceremonies, recognition of boys who have earned awards, presentation of skits and stunts by dens to give Cub Scouts a chance to show off in a positive way, and exhibits of things the boys have made at home and at den meetings during the month. The pack meeting is planned and led by the Cubmaster, with the help of other adult pack leaders.

In addition to regular pack meetings, occasionally the pack will take trips and conduct service projects or money-earning activities. During the summer, the pack conducts outdoor activities such as Camp Haunted, Freeze-o-ree, Twilight Camp, Cuboree, Day Camp, and many others.

Important to the successful operation of the pack is the pack committee, a group of adults who manage such things as record keeping, finance, leadership, and re-registration.

Cub Scout Dens

A Cub Scout pack is divided into small groups of six to eight boys called dens, who meet weekly under the direction of adult den leaders and Boy Scout den chiefs. The den organization allows boys to get to know each other better and provides opportunities for activities which would be difficult in a large group. The den also provides leadership opportunities for the boys.

The Cub Scout Den is made up of boys who are in second and third grades (or 8 or 9 years of age). When they complete third grade, (or reach age 10), they graduate to a Webelos den. Second grade (or age 8) will be in a Wolf den, while third grade (or age 9) will be in a Bear den.

Den meetings are planned and run by an adult den leader, with the help of an assistant den leader and den chief. A Den Leader Coach works closely with all den leaders, coordinating den activities and plans for pack meeting participation and providing training and support. Den meeting activities can be planned around the monthly theme and include games, handicraft, hikes and other outdoor fun, practicing skits and stunts in preparation for the next pack meeting, and taking part in simple ceremonies and songs. Sometimes work on advancement requirements is included.

The Webelos Den

The Webelos dens are for boys who have completed third grade (or reached age 10). Webelos dens have a different program from Cub Scout dens.

Webelos Scouts work on activity badges in one of 20 different interest areas at each of the month's den meetings. Weekly den meetings also include games, songs, stunts, preparation for the Webelos den's part in the pack meeting, and work on other advancement requirements. In addition, Webelos Scouts have opportunities for overnight campouts and joint activities with a Boy Scout troop. One of the purposes of the Webelos den is to prepare boys for Boy Scouting and to graduate them into a troop.

The Tiger Cub Den

Tiger Cubs, BSA, is the program of the Boy Scouts of America for the first-grade boy and an adult member of his family. It is built around program themes, called big ideas, with suggested activities for individual families under each big idea.

The Tiger Cub group is part of the Cub Scout pack. Tiger Cubs may participate in as many pack activities as the pack feels appropriate, but should participate on a level that is appropriate for their age and abilities.

The Tiger Cub emblem is the head of an adult tiger and tiger cub, symbolic of the program's stress on equal participation. The motto of this program is: "Search, Discover, Share."

The Tiger Cub Promise is: "I promise to love God, 
my family, and my country,
and to learn about the world."

A Tiger Cub group coach  is appointed by the pack committee to organize and provide continuing support to the Tiger Cub group. Each group consists of the first-grade boys and their adult partners. The boy and his partner (who may be a parent or other adult family member) work together to do family activities based on the month's big idea in the "Tiger Cub Family Activity Book." Once or twice a month the group of boys and adults comes together for an activity built around the group suggestions for the big idea in the "Family Activity Book."

Leadership of the group gatherings is shared among the adult partners on a rotating basis with the guidance and support of the Tiger Cub group coach, so that each partner has an opportunity to develop leadership experience. This helps to provide a pool of leadership talent that can be utilized when the group graduates into Cub Scouting.

The "Tiger Cub Guidebook" provides more information about this exciting program.