Want to find out what requirements you can cover during that activity at your next pack meeting? This “Cub Scout Connections” resource identifies common themes and shows the requirements for each rank that fit each theme. Great tool for planning multi-rank events and activities!
Back in the “olden” days, Cub Scouts had something called the Academic and Sports program (aka belt loops). The program offered belt loops for everything from soccer to science and from golf to good manners. Boys from all ranks were eligible to earn these.
Day camp had sessions that helped the boys from Tigers through Webelos earn the loops. Pack meetings could center around a particular belt loop, and everyone could participate.
When the Boy Scouts of America made their major change to the program in 2015, the Academic and Sports program was discontinued, and a lot of the activities were incorporated into the new adventures.
Many of us are concerned about program planning for multiple ranks. We couldn't just offer one program for all ranks because the new adventure program wasn't set up that way.
Dr. Nisha Zoeller, who attended one of the Philmont Training Center classes prior to the introduction of the new program, identified that need and created a program planning resource. She wanted “to show the connections and common themes among Adventures across ranks to encourage the continuation of pack-level and multi-age programming.”
Her Cub Scout Connections guide groups cross-rank adventures into 15 themes such as Cooking & Nutrition, Plants & Wildlife, STEM, and Camping. For example, you can see all rank requirements related to health, safety, and first aid. So, if you're having a first responder at a pack meeting, you'll know what to include for each rank's requirements.
Nisha's document was updated and modified by Jack Mitchell to reflect the program updates that were effective in December 2016.
Nisha and Jack kindly agreed to allow me to share this helpful guide with you. Click the link below to download the guide.
Cub Scout Connections
One thing to note: This is not an official Boy Scouts of America document. A concern about the document was that packs using it may plan activities that don't reflect the skill level of all boys. For example, a Webelos may be able to easily hike 3 miles, but a Tiger may not. Please consult the Guide to Safe Scouting and the Age-Appropriate Guidelines for Scouting Activities to ensure the safety of our boys.
If you're planning a hike or campout, check out my Hiking for Cub Scouts and Completing Cub Scout Rank Requirements While Camping documents. They may be of use to you too.
I would love to hear about the connections you find. Share them in a comment below.
Yours in Scouting,
Sherry
P.S. Sign up below for more Cub Scout resources!
Mike
Sunday 2nd of October 2016
Thanks for this guide. As noted above the loss of activities that can be achieved by boys of different rank is a major challenge for small - especially new packs. need to be careful not to develop these new programs for idealized settings. 8 appreciate these guides how to manage the changes in the reality of multi age settings.
Richard
Monday 30th of September 2019
I love the guide I am with a fairly small pack have you thought of updating this for Lions also.
Brian
Thursday 21st of January 2016
I've been trying to do some research to find advancement ceremonies that we can use at our blue and gold banquet that tie into the new 2015 advancement requirements. Have you come across any good resources for this? Almost everything still ties back to old requirements and structure rather than the new adventure concept.
Jason Akai
Wednesday 10th of February 2016
I'm actually nearly done with my re-write of ours. When it's done I'll post a pdf link here and you can feel free to use it
Sherry
Wednesday 10th of February 2016
Hi, Brian! No, I haven't seen any for the new program, but I haven't specifically looked for them either. I have some posted for Arrow of Light and crossover, but not for advancement. I'll put that on my list--it would be a good thing to research. Thanks!
Rachel
Thursday 7th of January 2016
This will be a big help for my unit. It is very small with only 2 boys working on each rank. I don't have any leadership except myself to lead meetings so being able to combine items to cover for all ranks is very helpful. Thanks for doing this!
Sherry
Thursday 7th of January 2016
Great! So glad it will be helpful!
Ken
Tuesday 22nd of September 2015
I wish you and the boys you work with an excellent year. :-)
Jason Akai
Tuesday 22nd of September 2015
To be clear - it's a pack event where a specific den rotates through 5 stations. So it's planned in a macro state but is participated in using the den small group method. Very similar to a summer day camp program.
It still is not the best position to take in discounting work like what we see on this page just because it wasn't designed by the committee or BSA. We all do our best to make the scouting program work for our scouts so they can have the best Cub Scouting experience and move into Boy Scouts. I believe it is more prudent for BSA to realize that Scouters need this sort of material. We make no small plans. We expect scouts to achieve and experience everything scouting has to offer. We can't do that blindly.
I applaud this work and any others like it. I treat this document as my first reference for scouting material, followed by meritbadge.org and then scouting.org.
Thinking outside the box helped design the new program. Let us promote further outside the box thinking to ensure it is implemented fully.