2026

Program ideas, handouts, and district updates from our Cub Scouts roundtable meetings in 2026.

April 2026 — Equipment and Program Material Swap (Cub Scouts)

This month

April roundtable is a combined session for all programs. There is no separate Cub Scouts or Scouts BSA breakout this month.

Equipment and program material swap

This month's roundtable is built around a swap meet for Scouting gear and program materials. Bring what you're no longer using. Take home something another unit can put to work.

What's eligible:

Ground rules:

How the evening runs:

Location note: We are using the unfinished room on the north end of the building. Entry and setup begin at the north parking lot.

District Announcements

Camp cards — Early Bird Deadline April 10

Camp cards sell for $10 each. Units that settle with the council by April 10 keep $6.00 per card. After April 10, the split drops to $5.00 per card. Sale ends May 15. All cards and final payments due to the council May 22.

Unsold cards may be returned by May 22 with no penalty.

Questions: Nick Harman, Nick.Harman@scouting.org. Details and Leader's Guide at https://hovc.org/camp-cards.

May 2026 — Annual Roundtable Program Planning

James River District roundtable — May 7, 2026

New James River District Executive

Matt Connors, Heart of Virginia Council Vice President of Operations, introduced Zach Hite as the new James River District Executive. Welcome, Zach.

Cub Scouts Roundtable Commissioner transition

Dave Ansell, outgoing Cub Scouts Roundtable Commissioner, announced the transition of that role to Donnie Gladfelter. Thank you to Dave for his service to the district's Cub Scout leaders.

Commissioner minute: recording your unit's program in Scoutbook

District Commissioner Charlotte Pemberton reminded leaders that units are doing the hard work — running great meetings, planning campouts, completing adventures, and delivering real program for their Scouts. But unless those activities are recorded in Scoutbook, the district and council have no visibility into them. That work cannot be reflected in how Scouting America reports the reach and impact of Scouting in the community. If your unit is doing the work, record it.

Tonight's breakout topics

This month: annual program planning

This month, we used roundtable planning as a working model for the process that Pack Key 3 should run before the fall (likely starting in June). What follows is the framework from that session.

Before your planning meeting

Pull these together before your annual program planning meeting:

Running the annual planning conversation

A blank calendar is intimidating, but you're not starting from scratch. Your unit ran a program last year. Some of it went well, some of it didn't. All of it is a foundation to build on.

Looking back isn't about criticism. Everyone did their best with what they had. What worked, build on it. What didn't, take a moment to understand why before you decide whether to fix it, drop it, or pivot to something different. All of those are valid answers. Not every new idea lands, and not every tradition earns its place forever. The program belongs to the Scouts and families in your unit today, not its alumni. Plan it that way.

What worked? What should we repeat?

Leaders at roundtable identified:

What was missing? Gaps in topics or attendance?

At roundtable, the gaps were:

What would you like to see?

At roundtable, leaders asked for:

The annual program year rhythm

The anchors that belong on the calendar before anything else gets planned:

Four roundtable dates have recurring attendance risk worth noting:

Worth knowing when you're planning pack events too.

Handouts

June 2026 — Designing a Year Families Want to Return To

Your pack calendar is easy to fill. Pinewood Derby, Blue and Gold, a campout or two, and pack meetings every month. The harder question is whether the year you are building is one your families will want to come back to. These are the ideas from this session worth bringing into your planning conversation.

Pack operating rhythm

Ask a parent who joined your pack three months ago to describe how it works. When dens meet, where information comes from, and what happens at a pack meeting. If their answer would surprise you, that gap is worth closing before fall recruiting brings in a new wave of families who have to figure it out the same way.

Communication

Most packs have settled on a primary communication tool, or think they have. Band, GroupMe, Scoutbook, email. The question worth asking is whether your newest families know which one to watch. Experienced families figured it out. New families usually did not get told.

Learn More: Communication Tools for Units

Five Signature Experiences

Before your planning meeting, ask your leadership team to name the five experiences families in your pack would miss most if the pack disappeared. Not events on a calendar. Experiences families talk about afterward.

A parent at the session described her son's first campout, a dads-only trip where the kids ate cheese puffs for breakfast instead of real food. That story still gets told in her family. Nobody remembers the date.

When you have your five, the follow-on question is what has to be true about how those events are run for a family to walk away with a story worth retelling. That question produces better planning decisions than a blank calendar grid.

Parent connections

Scouts arrive with names. Adults arrive as somebody's mom or dad. In a lot of packs, they stay that way for years, which means when a family gets busy or loses momentum, there's nothing holding them except their Scout's enthusiasm.

When parents have friends in the pack, the dynamic is different. A mom's group or a regular informal gathering outside the meeting schedule gives adults a chance to become people to each other before anyone asks them to volunteer for anything.

The workbook

The Pack Program Planning Workbook was the primary resource for this session. Find it in the Annual Program Planning Guide alongside guidance on timing, who to include, and how to run the meeting.

August 2026 - Welcoming New Cub Scout Families

A family may choose to attend your next recruiting event because their child saw camping, Pinewood Derby, fishing, rockets, or another exciting activity that caught their attention.

Our job is to help that family recognize Scouting’s larger value, take the next step with confidence, and experience enough of the program to want to return.

New families do not always leave because they decided Scouting was not for them. Sometimes they simply encounter too much uncertainty, too many unanswered questions, or too much effort between one step and the next.

The goal is not only to recruit families. It is to reduce the unnecessary friction that keeps interested families from participating.

Why is Scouting’s value harder to explain?

Parents often understand youth programs by the main outcome they associate with them:

Activity

Familiar value

Sports

Fitness and teamwork

STEM

Academic skills and problem-solving

Arts

Mastery and expression

Scouting

Belonging, responsibility, leadership, service, outdoor challenge, and long-term growth

Scouting’s strength is that it supports many parts of a child’s development at once.

That also makes it harder to summarize.

The activity captures their attention. The experience reveals the value.

Do not only describe what Cub Scouts do. Help parents see what those experiences can do for their child.

What is a parent deciding?

Most families are not ready to understand all of Scouting. They are deciding whether it deserves the next step.

The child needs

The parent needs

  • Something real to do
  • A small success
  • Someone to connect with
  • A reason to want more
  • Evidence of value
  • Confidence in the leaders
  • Clear logistics
  • Safety and trust
  • An obvious next step

Listen before explaining

Use questions to discover what caught the family’s attention, what they hope to gain, and what might make participation difficult.

Ask the child

Ask the parent

  • What about Scouting caught your attention?
  • What are you most excited to try?
  • What kinds of things do you like to do for fun?
  • Do you know anyone here already?
  • What made you decide to come tonight?
  • What are you hoping your child finds in Scouting?
  • What kinds of activities does your child usually enjoy?
  • What would be helpful to know about how our Pack works?
  • How does our meeting schedule fit with your family’s week?
  • Is anything about participating still unclear?

Follow the answer

Ask enough to understand the family, then connect their answer to a real Scouting experience.

Do not ask every question. A natural conversation usually needs only:

  1. what brought them in
  2. what the child or parent values
  3. one practical concern
  4. one clear next step

The three yeses we need to earn

Registration may place a family on the roster, but participation and belonging develop only as the Pack earns a yes to three questions:

Each question is also a place where confusion, uncertainty, or unclear expectations can interrupt the family’s journey.

1. Will we try it?

At Join Scouting Night, families are deciding whether Cub Scouting feels like something they can picture themselves joining.

Let the evening feel like a small Cub Scout meeting:

The activity does not need to be elaborate. A simple paper-airplane activity can show families that Cub Scouting is hands-on, welcoming, and built around learning by doing.

Reduce friction: Make the experience easy to enter, easy to understand, and easy to act on.

Avoid: Asking families to make a decision based only on a presentation about ranks, uniforms, Pack structure, and future activities.

Do not make Join Scouting Night a meeting about Cub Scouts. 
Let it be the family’s first Cub Scout meeting.

2. Will we show up?

After registering, the family is deciding whether the next step feels clear and manageable.

Send a personal follow-up that points the family to a parent-ready calendar invitation. Event descriptions in Scoutbook, or your Pack’s preferred calendar app, should answer:

Use the Pack Calendar and Event Description Templates to create parent-ready calendar entries for den meetings, Pack meetings, outings, campouts, recruiting events, and other common Pack activities.

A new family should not need to search old messages, understand Pack terminology, or contact a leader before they can participate.

Reduce friction: Put the information where the family will look for it and answer the questions before they have to ask.

Avoid: A bare listing that gives only the event name, time, and location.

An event listing tells families that something exists. A participation-ready invitation tells them how to join it.

3. Will we come back?

At the first meeting, the family is deciding whether the experience felt welcoming, worthwhile, and manageable enough to repeat.

Explain only what the family needs right now. The rest of Cub Scouting can be introduced over time.

Reduce friction: Do not make the family figure out where to go, whom to talk to, or what happens next.

Avoid: Assuming registration, a name tag, or simply being present in the room automatically creates belonging.

The child needs a reason to return. The parent needs confidence to bring them back.

Reduce friction between each yes

At every step, ask:

Families should not have to overcome our operating system before they can experience the value of Scouting.

Make sure someone stays connected

Clear information helps, but families also need a person who knows who they are and helps them find their place in the Pack.

Scouting America’s New Member Coordinator role is designed to support that connection. In your Pack, that person may:

The New Member Coordinator does not need to do everything personally. The important thing is that no family is left wondering who knows them or what happens next.

Before your next recruiting event

Ask your Pack:

Who will personally follow up with each family?

Does the first meeting invitation answer the questions a new parent will have?

Who will expect and greet the family when they arrive?

Improve the next handoff, the next invitation, and the next first meeting.

Additional resources

Heart of Virginia Council

Scouting America

September 2026 — Welcome to Cub Scouts: We Really Hope You Stay

A family can register for Cub Scouts and still spend the next several weeks feeling like a guest.

Becoming part of the Pack takes a little longer. The Scout starts knowing other Scouts. The parent knows people well enough to ask questions. Meetings become familiar. An activity that first seemed intimidating becomes something the family can handle. Missing a meeting does not make coming back awkward.

Eventually, the language starts to change from your Pack to our Pack.

Scouting America's own research with former Cub Scout families points to several reasons families leave, including problems with unit leadership, a child losing interest, not feeling welcome, lack of communication, cost, and competing activities.[1] Research from other youth programs finds a similar mix of program, relationship, organizational, and ordinary family-life factors.[2]

There is no single retention problem to solve.

A useful goal is much simpler:

New families become part of a Pack by successfully participating in it.

They joined. Now make it easy to come back.

Keys to Retaining Cub Scout Families

Scouting America's Keys to Retaining Cub Scout Families gives Packs a practical starting point for the fall.

The resource focuses on four areas:

  1. BeAScout.org — Keep the Pack's information current and respond promptly to inquiries.
  2. Calendar of Activities — Give families at least six months of meetings and activities so they can see what is ahead.
  3. Recruiting — Continue inviting families through schools, friends, community events, and normal activities where people can get to know the Pack.
  4. Onboarding — Have friendly adults notice, greet, and engage new families, help them understand how the Pack works, answer questions, and help them through their first meetings.

It also recommends getting families into a fun activity early.

DOWNLOAD
Keys to Retaining Cub Scout Families

That is good guidance. The opportunity for us is to make sure the family experiences what we intend.

Friendly isn't the same as easy to join

Established families already know where to go, who to ask, how meetings work, and which Pack traditions need no explanation. New families do not.

First-year 4-H research found that some newcomers felt disconnected from other youth, did not feel welcomed, or felt left to figure out expectations that returning members already understood.[2]

Research outside Scouting adds an interesting wrinkle. A 2026 study of 49,378 food-bank volunteers found that experienced volunteers generally helped newcomers stay involved, but that benefit disappeared as familiarity among the experienced volunteers increased.[3]

That is not Cub Scout research, but it gives us a useful question:

Are our experienced families helping newcomers into the group, or mostly interacting with one another?

This does not require a formal buddy program.

A good introduction gives the new family somewhere to go next. Connect them with another family in the same den. Introduce them to somebody who remembers taking a young Scout camping for the first time. Make sure they know a person they can comfortably approach when they have a question.

One useful check is simply:

Does this family have somebody?

Friendly isn't the same as easy to join.

Let them do Cub Scouts before you explain Cub Scouts

The family joined because Cub Scouting promised something worth doing: Adventures, friends, outdoors, building, games, exploration, Pinewood Derby, camping, and experiences their Scout may not find somewhere else.

Our early meetings need to begin delivering that promise.

Scouting America calls the den meeting "the most important part of Cub Scouting." Its Den Leader resources give leaders Adventure plans, activities, safety information, preparation steps, and supplies needed for the meeting.[4]

A Den Leader does not have to invent Cub Scouting on Tuesday afternoon.

A good meeting does not need to be elaborate. Scouts should get to participate, interact with other Scouts and caring adults, and try, make, move, explore, practice, learn, or accomplish something.

Let them do Cub Scouts before you explain Cub Scouts.

The first meeting matters, but so do the next several. A great welcome cannot carry a program that never quite gets around to the Cub Scouting the child expected.

Good Cub Scouting is part of the welcome.

The next step beats the whole map

Clear logistics are only part of helping a new family find its way. The other part is deciding when information becomes useful.

A new parent may eventually need to understand advancement, uniforms, Pack and den structure, camping, Scoutbook, dues, event registration, volunteering, and plenty more.

They rarely need all of it at once.

The first-year 4-H study found newcomers who described "feeling lost" even when information existed. Returning members seemed to know expectations and details that new members were left to figure out for themselves.[2]

A useful question is:

What does this family need to know to successfully do the next thing we're asking them to do?

Keep the calendar, parent guide, camping information, and other reference material available. Lead with what matters now.

For the nuts and bolts of making meeting and event invitations easier for families to act on, see August 2026 - Welcoming New Cub Scout Families.

The next step beats the whole map.

Solve the bathroom before you sell the campfire

First-time camping families may have questions experienced campers barely think about anymore:

Those questions help a parent decide whether the family can actually participate in the adventure we are inviting them to.

Heart of Virginia already gives families several ways to experience outdoor Scouting without making every first experience an overnight. Cub Adventure Camp programs include Day Camp, a half-day Lion & Tiger Rally, and Weekend Experiences that can be a morning, afternoon, or full day. Overnight camping can be added to a Weekend Experience.[5]

Creepy Hollow gives us an especially useful option this fall. Families can camp overnight or visit for the day.[^6]

That makes a much easier first invitation possible:

“Come try it Saturday. You don't have to spend the night.”

Solve the bathroom before you sell the campfire.

The important question is not whether we have answered every possible camping question. It is whether we have answered the question keeping this family from trying it.

Missing isn't quitting

Not every new family will settle immediately into perfect attendance.

Sports start. Somebody gets sick. School schedules change. Work runs late. Siblings have activities. Family schedules collide.

Scouting America's research with former Cub Scout parents includes competing activities among the reasons families reported leaving.[1] First-year 4-H members also reported lack of time because of other activities alongside relationship and organizational concerns.[2]

An absence may tell us something. It does not automatically tell us the family is done.

A message can be as small as:

“We missed you this week. We're doing rockets next Tuesday at 6:30 if you can make it.”

They were noticed. Nobody asked for an excuse. The next opportunity is obvious.

Missing isn't quitting. Make it easy to come back.

There is no need for an attendance-tracking system to make this work. If somebody naturally notices an early absence, one personal check-in can leave the door open.

Ask for help before you ask for a title

New parents can become part of the Pack by helping with it.

That does not mean their first contribution has to be an ongoing position.

Scouting America's Den Adventure Host resources give us a useful model. Families can choose a particular Adventure to help host using the same Adventure guides available to the Den Leader.[^4]

The same idea works elsewhere in the Pack:

A parent gets to contribute, learn how the Pack works, and get to know other adults.

Some of those parents will later become exactly the Den Leaders and committee members the Pack needs.

Ask for help before you ask for a title.

Let them discover that they can be useful here before Scouting starts to feel like another job they accidentally applied for.

A few questions to carry into the next meeting

There is no new onboarding system to implement here.

As new families move through their first few weeks, a few questions cover a lot of ground:

We do not have to make every first experience perfect.

We want enough good experiences that coming back starts to feel normal.

The best cure for a mid-year crisis may be preventing a first-week crisis.

They joined. Now make it easy to come back.

Scouting America

Heart of Virginia Council

James River District

Research notes
  1. Scouting America, 2022–23 BSA Market Research. The 2022 survey included responses from 1,338 Cub Scout parents. Reported reasons for leaving included poor leadership or problems with leaders, loss of interest, not feeling welcome, lack of communication from a leader, cost, fundraising, and competing activities.
  2. Lewis et al., Why Youth Leave 4-H After the First Year: A Multistate Study. The study examined first-year members across multiple states and found a mix of structural, interpersonal, and personal reasons youth might not return. Newcomers described feeling lost, not knowing when activities met, weak connections with other youth, and returning members seeming to know expectations that new members did not.
  3. Tipnis, Chen, and Gao, Enhancing Volunteer Retention: The Role of Experienced Volunteers. The study examined 49,378 food-bank volunteers over five years. This is not Scouting research and is included only as a useful comparison for how established participants can affect newcomers.
  4. Scouting America, Den Leader Resources. Includes Adventure-based meeting preparation, recommended activities, welcoming-new-family materials, and rank-specific Den Adventure Host sign-up sheets.
  5. Heart of Virginia Council, Cub Adventure Camps. Current program information lists the Lion & Tiger Rally as a half-day experience and Weekend Experiences as morning, afternoon, or full-day activities, with overnight camping optionally added.
  6. Heart of Virginia Council, 2026 Creepy Hollow. Current event information states that families may camp overnight or visit for the day.