First Scout Parent Meeting Blueprint

Congratulations on becoming a scout leader! We need more people like your in the world. Now that you have a group of scouts, it is time to host that first scout parent meeting. This first meeting is a great way to get all the parents together and share information about the scouting year. It is time to set the pace for the year and get the parents to buy into scouting. A successful first scout parent meeting will help your develop a wonderful scouting experience for your den or troop for years to come.

Planning the Venue For Your First Scout Parent Meeting

I find that this meeting is best done somewhere that you can have the parents full attention and have an area for the scouts to play. Plus, we also love a space where you can have a little food and some drinks available for both parents and scouts. We have had success both hosting this first meeting at one of the leader’s homes as this allows for a comfy area to sit and chat as well as the option to provide some snacks and at a local park.

If you are lucky enough to have some nice weather, we have also loved meeting at a local park. We actually prefer this to meeting at a home since cleanup is much easier and you have less people in your home. The kids have somewhere to play and if there are a few picnic tables, the parents can have a nice place to chat as well. Other options can include meeting at a local school, the library, a meeting place within a bank or even a restaurant.

Material Preparations

For this first meeting, I always start with planning the food. Food is a great way to bring people together and allows conversations to begin. Fresh fruit, veggie trays, chips, and popcorn are always nice to have available. If you really want to go all out, light sandwiches seem to please as well. For drinks, we usually bring lemonade, but anything non-alcoholic would probably work too. And you can always ask people to bring a refillable water bottle to be eco friendly too!

Along with food, you should bring lots of pens and some paper for parents to take any notes. If you want to go all out, make some Scout notebooks for the parents. Making some kind of handout is always nice so that parents have a reference about the scouting year. I highly suggest offering both paper copies and e-mail copies. It is extremely nice to search for information in your e-mail instead of having to keep paper copies.

And finally, bring samples of any scouting wear or equipment that the scouts will need. If you do not have physical samples, bring pictures so that parents know what to buy. It’s extra nice if you have the expect cost for uniforms and equipment too. Oftentimes, we have given parents the cost of the equipment and uniforms, let them write a check or pay cash, and then we have gone to the scout store to pick it up.

Consider the Scouts too for your First Scout Parent Meeting

Always plan for an activity for the scouts too. Any parents who bring children will need something to work on so that the parents are able to focus during the meeting. If you are meeting at a park, the playground offers a great space for the children. However, I also bring crayons and paper for any shy kids who need to be close. I do set this up at a table away from the parents though to encourage the children to be near but not at the meeting.

If you are meeting elsewhere, this is a great time to ask for an older troop to help out with an activity. They can teach the scouts a few songs, a special scout game, or even supervise a craft. When all else fails, I print off some coloring pictures of different things outdoors and provide a coloring table.

Regardless of what you choose to offer, be sure it is an activity children can do with minimal or do guidance from adults. If guidance is needed, try to include as much picture support as you can because the scout’s reading abilities are limited.

Agenda for Scout Parent Meeting

I always start our meetings with introductions. All the leaders introduce themselves and their interests/passions. Then, ask each parent to introduce themselves to the group as well. This is a great time to make a list of interests and passions to assist you when planning your scouting year. During introductions, try to match parents with their children. Ask their scout’s name and for them to share something special about their scout.

Calendar and Goals

After introductions, I like to discuss the scout calendar. This goes over the plan for meetings – days, times, location – as well as big events that you know are coming. I always let parents know that more events will come so keep an eye out for reminder notes and emails. Our scouting service unit, packs, and councils love to add events by the season or month so calendar updates are necessary throughout the year.

I also discuss any weekly dues, start up fund money, uniform costs, equipment costs, and meeting snacks here as well. Best to get the most important details out of the way when you have the best focus. Families will need to know how you expect them to pay for any fees. Should they plan to purchase on their own from the scout store or will you purchase for the group and parents can write you a check or pay electronically? We will dive more specifically into uniforms and equipment later in the meeting, but I like to cover all fees together.

Next, discuss your goals for the scouting year. These may be helping the girls feel like sisters, providing lots of outdoor activities, earning lots of badges, or even just having fun while trying new things. Let the parents share their goals for their scout too. Sometimes these will surprise you and help to drive your year as well. If parents have specific goals that you think might be a little hard to accomplish with your area of expertise, use some time to brainstorm with the families on ways to meet the groups’ goals.

Parent Volunteers

Then I move right into asking parents for help. This is where I let the parents know my expectations of the scouts and their families. For example, if you want all families to volunteer some time for the troop or den, don’t be shy. If you want the parents to stay for the meetings, tell them this. If you have a specific behavior system, share this. Now is the time to recruit as much help as you want because it is always hard to get help later. Scouting takes lots of volunteers!

The best is when you can get each parent to take on a role to help out. I hand out my volunteer list, usually starting with the most necessary jobs. Then I ask for volunteers in a way that makes it clear I want every family to sign-up for a scouting role for families. Without their help, scouts is much more difficult.

This is also where I talk about any product sales that we will be participating in. I don’t give every detail as it is way to overwhelming, but let them know what things we sell, when the selling takes place, and any expectations for selling. If you need help brainstorming some good parent roles, see my post on scout roles for families.

Uniforms

Finally, I end the meeting by discussing any uniform and equipment fees. I love to bring samples so that parents can see what they need. When samples are not possible, I bring a sheet with pictures. I make enough copies for each family to have one so that everyone can get the right materials for our first scout meeting. Check out the scouting websites for official Cub Scout and Girl Scout Uniforms. Parents need to know exactly what to buy and when they need it.

It has worked best for us to offer to purchase all the supplies for the troop and just collect the money from the parents up front. If you do this route, be sure to have a price breakdown sheet with a final sum so that parents know what they are getting and how much to pay. My parents love that they don’t need to make a special trip to the scout store.

A few reminders about uniforms. For Cub Scouts, be sure to buy the uniform larger as scouts can where the same uniform from first grade to fourth/fifth grade. During Webelos Scouts they can transition from the blue scout uniform to the bigger tan scout uniform, but again where this uniform for multiple years. For Girl Scouts you will want to be able to wear the scout uniform over a winter coat. This is important during cookie season if you plan to host any booth sales. While scouts only wear the uniform 2 years in the beginning, you still want to buy bigger.

Ending Your First Scout Parent Meeting

Now that you’ve shared all your notes and essential information for your scouting year, it’s time to end your meeting. We do this in two parts: question and answer for parents followed by a scout game for everyone. While we encourage parents to ask questions throughout the meeting so we can build an open dialogue, we always want to provide extra time to ensure all lingering questions get answered.

During the question and answer it is especially important to write down any questions asked. Not only will you need to reference the answers you give so that you don’t forgot later, but you will want a list of questions that you need to find answers. It’s important to take the time to follow up by finding answers to questions that you were unable to answer and then returning a response. We like to e-mail the entire den or troop with the question and the response once we have an answer. Unless of course the question was child specific.

After we answer, or take note of, all parent questions, we ask the scouts to join us. For this, we begin by asking each scout to share why they are excited for scouts. Then we end with a game where all family members are invited to play. We like to plan a problem solving challenge where everyone works together.

Ending your First Scout Parent Meeting Games

One such challenge is to get a bean bag from one side of the part to the other. The challenge comes in when no one can move once they’ve touched the bean bag. A second part to this challenge is that everyone must hold the bean bag at some time. If the bean bag touches the ground, we begin again.

Another challenge involves asking everyone to line up in order of their birthday month and day with out speaking. This can be quite fun as parents and scouts intermix together.

One final challenge is to work as a group to move all the scouts to the opposite side of the park (or room) without their feet touching the floor. This gets parents right into the mix of the fun of scouting. There are different ways to solve this problem and each group can make their own.

Final Notes on First Scout Parent Meeting

This meeting is best done informally. It is a time for you to get to know your parents and for them to get to know you. You build a little trust and set up your expectations of both the scouts and families. It is always better to ask for more in the beginning, then find yourself begging for help throughout the year. Enjoy this time and don’t forget to take some notes for yourself.

We often ask for a volunteer to take notes that can be shared with everyone. This person then shares the notes with all families so we are all on the same page. If any family realizes something was left out, they can add it to the document if you use Google Docs, which is free with a Gmail account. This will help you remember anything you might have said when answering questions but may forget after the meeting.

Leave us a comment and let us know how your first scouting parent meeting went. We’d love to celebrate with you!

Hi, I’m Nicole.

Here at Creatingbutterflies we provide families with practical solutions to real life problems for everything parenting, scouting, dual language, and enjoying time outdoors. We are a family of 6 with 4 wonderful becoming bilingual children who loves scouting, camping, and hiking with their family. Mom is an educator and dad is a firefighter/paramedic.