When a requirement becomes tradition and leaves the boys behind.

Last April, Our pack went family camping and had a fishing derby.  The Webelos Leader at the time, had asked that the pack buy groceries for a Pancake, egg and bacon breakfast.  It was approved and was a hit.  What has been lost in the short time since  April 2008  and this past weekend is  the requirement and the boys.

Webelos Outdoorsman Activity badge has a requirement for  outdoor cooking.

8. With your accompanying adult on a campout or outdoor activity, assist in preparing, cooking, and cleanup for one of your

den's meals.

Sitting on the bottom of the what matters pryamid, I am amazed at how quickly this evolved.  It took three Family camping events  to go from where it should have been to doing it because we did it before.

From what I can gather here's how it broke down.  April 08:  The 3 or 4 Webelos made breakfast, probablly with some adult intervention and supervision. October 08: The 7-10 Webelos started  making breakfast and the parents started intervening to get breakfast moving. April 09: the leaders and parents did everything.

I am pretty confident I need to fix this because it needs to be about the boys.  After all it was boys fulfilling a requirement that started this. Yet how do I fix this? I don't want to outright stop this, if it is wanted or needed. It has been Sunday Breakfast when we are all packing out. Maybe moving the requiement to only the Webelos.  It was appreciated that they initially fed the whole pack but not required. Or changing the meal maybe  having the boys make Saturday lunch rather than breakfast.  We can deal with an abligatory  mac&chesse with hotdogs or hamburgers lunch.  Then again the boys only need to do this once a year. 

Along with Webelos Outdoorsman requirement 8, Bears  could participate with requirement 9g, or  Wolves in requirement 8e.

The thing is  we need to make sure  a den fulfilling a requirement does not become a senseless tradition that puts extra load on the parents and leaders. Let's Keep it fun.