Planning the Pack Annual Program is an opportunity to pull together many resources - published, internet-based and human - to plan an exciting year of activities for all of the families of your Pack. The program as a whole must be build on the collective goals of the Pack Leadership team. Pack Leaders should define their goals for the year built on annually recurring events like the Pinewood Derby, the Pack Blue and Gold Banquet, Raingutter Regatta, Space Derby, Pack Family Picnic, Day Camp and Resident Camp. A great resource at understanding and setting annual program goals for a Pack is the BSA Journey to Excellence Program.

The goals that your Leadership team establishes become the Key Areas upon which you will build your program. They may be areas defined as advancement, outdoor activities, faith, service, just to name a few. List all of the possible and suggested activities that you have for the year, and measure them against the key areas that support your Pack goals. If the activity directly supports a key area - participation in your local Council Scouting For Food service project as an example - then that activity becomes a program priority.

If you divide your Cub Scout Program year by quarters beginning in September, you can fill in the calender for each quarter - recruiting, popcorn sale and Scouting for Food in the Fall Quarter; the Pinewood Derby and Blue & Gold Banquet in the Winter Quarter. A camping outing in the Spring, along with a Spring Recruiting event; and the big event of the Summer quarter - Cub Camp. Once you have these items in place, fill in the monthly Pack Meeting, the Leaders Planning meeting, and you have a great start. Don't try to plan every detail at this point, just the big events and meeting dates. The details can be hammered out at the monthly Leaders Planning Meeting.

Planning in this way also allows the Pack Leadership group to define many of the support jobs needed to facilitate a smooth program. Many of the activities planned will require an event coordinator. Many Pack parents will be more willing to accept a well defined discrete job, rather than an abstract titled position. When parents of the Pack see that there is an established plan with well defined goals and a means of achieving those goals, many will be more willing to accept Den Leader and Pack Leader roles.

Measuring your Pack's success throughout the Scouting year then becomes as easy as measuring your success using the annual Journey to Excellence Pack Scorecard.

Journey to Excellence Program	The 2018 JTE Pack Scorecard

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