Important Pack 722 Organizational Changes

A Cub Scout Pack does not operate independently, but rather as an extension of a host organization by way of a charter.  These host organizations can be churches, civic groups, schools, or whatnot.  In our case, the Boy Scouts of America have granted a charter to the Greenwood Union Church, which gives it permission to execute the Cub Scout program.  Our charter was originally granted in August, 1991 and it must be renewed annually.

Last fall, as we were wrapping up the charter renewal process for 2013, the church leadership informed us that they would not renew the charter for next year, 2014.  In response, our Pack Committee decided that we would find a new chartering organization in time to start up again in September, and if possible, even earlier than that.

Greenwood Union's decision to drop our charter was disappointing and surprising, but truthfully, a bit of a relief.  Thanks to you, our Pack has grown and is thriving -- we currently have 62 scouts -- and we have outgrown our meeting space. Parking, storage, and calendar conflicts with other organizations have also been recurring problems. The Pack Committee has discussed these issues repeatedly over the last few years but we have been unable to address them to our satisfaction.   So while we were surprised with the church's decision, we weren't completely troubled by it.  In fact, we viewed it as an opportunity to solve some long-standing problems.

In January, our Pack leadership reached out to several organizations in Wakefield to gauge their interest in chartering our Pack.  We were thrilled to be presented with some wonderful options, and after a long deliberation, unanimously chose the First Parish Congregational Church as our new home.

First Parish, the "stone church by the lake", has a long history of supporting Scouting in Wakefield, including chartering Boy Scout Troop 701 since 1926.  They also chartered a Cub Scout Pack until about 10 years ago.  First Parish has a wonderful facility with a great location and they really know what it takes to execute the Scouting program successfully. They will be a great partner for us.

While this is a big change for us organizationally, in practice, however, not much other than our meeting location will be affected.  We will still be known as Pack 722 and have our monthly Pack Meetings on Thursdays.  We are also looking forward to the opportunity to be more engaged with First Parish (for service projects and other community events) than we were with Greenwood Union.

Our first meeting at First Parish will be our Blue and Gold Banquet on Friday, May 17. We think that having our end-of-the-year celebration in our new home will be a perfect way to celebrate both the end of the year and a new beginning going forward.  More details on the Blue and Gold Banquet will be coming in a separate email.

If you have any questions regarding the transition, please contact your den leader or one of the Cubmasters, Ben, John, or Henry.