Programme Planning: Hints for Happy Meetings

ACTION – VARIETY – PURPOSE ~ the Three Musketeers of all Troop, Pack and Lodge activities.
ACTION ~ not talk, is what keeps Scouts, Wolf Cubs and Beavers interested.
RECIPE FOR A GOOD MEETING :
Something old (a couple of the old favourite games);
Something new (a brand new game, a new song, new Scoutcraft);
Something surprising (a special stunt or treat);
Something true (a story based on the Scout, Wolf Cub or Beaver Laws, a story of a hero).
Scouts, Wolf Cubs and Beavers have a thousand muscles to wriggle with and only one dozen to sit still with. That dozen gets mighty tired mighty quickly.
Keep every moment busy. Crowd things along, and you will have no discipline problems, or uncontrolled rough-housing. Ignore the show-off, do not hold the meeting up with a long telling off, just move the programme on.
As a general rule, allow no more than twenty minutes (ten/fifteen for games) to any one activity.
Plan for more than can be accomplished rather than too little. Better to leave some good things un-done than to have the meeting ‘peter out’ a half hour early.
Shift to something else before the Scouts, Wolf Cubs and Beavers tire of what they are doing.
If the planned programme doesn’t work, be resourceful. Throw some out, if necessary, to suit conditions.