How to host a “virtual” Blue & Gold or Crossover Ceremony during COVID
At last week’s Cub Scout Roundtable, we presented some really insightful ideas to help our Cub leaders prepare for the upcoming Blue & Gold/ Crossover season early next year. Most packs are planning a virtual presentation amidst the COVID pandemic- definitely unchartered territory. We wanted our presentation to be home-grown so we sought help from a few Mission Peak Cub leaders who shared their pack’s plans. Here are some of the helpful tips they shared:
- Plan for a 45-minute video presentation. Creating an online outing much longer than this and you’ll have a hard time keeping the little ones attention.
- Have your families offer to do a skit. This gives Scouts a chance to move around and show off a bit. Acting silly is something most Scouts do well with.
- Keep things moving. Create short 3-5 minute segments that keep everyone’s attention. Once you get past the opening, there’s no rule on what comes next
- Invite a guest speaker. Having someone from the local zoo or animal shelter share a video clip of the featured animal of the week.
- Invite a magician or comedian. Scouts love these people in person and not much of the fun will be lost online
- Play a game of Kahoot. This game has become a staple for many packs so make the topics fun and educational.
- Make them laugh. If you do silly things, tell jokes, or even make a silly mistake (purposely) you’ll entertain both the Scouts and their parents
- Always have a backup plan. Things don’t always go as planned so have a Plan B. Technology often doesn’t work on the first try so do a trial run with friends or neighbors to make sure you’ve worked out all the possible kinks like audio levels and segment transitions
- Learn all the features that your video software has to offer. Zoom and Webex have features called Breakout Rooms where you can send people off to a different virtual room to talk, learn about something, then they can exit that room and be joined with the main group. There is also a plugin to the Zoom software that allows you to allow a popup window that polls the audience. Example: How many people are still in their pajamas? The whole group gets to see how many people answered each question. Cool stuff!
- Inject short video clips from the internet. YouTube clips offer cool shorts on things like local insects or animals that roam the area at night.
We also asked leaders what they have planned for their Crossover/Bridging ceremony and they gave us even more creative ideas. Here are some of the highlights:
- Hold a separate ceremony for your AOL Scouts. Combining the Blue & Gold with your Crossover can create for one long night!
- Record the segment (with everyone’s permission) and hold this ceremony in advance of your Blue & Gold. Then playback short clips of the ceremony at your Blue & Gold. This gives your AOL’s another spotlight and gives younger Scouts something to look forward to.
- Get outdoors! Again, with permission, film the outing at a local park, socially-distanced, and give your ceremony the outdoor treatment that it deserves.
- Keep it as real as possible. Get an actual wooden bridge and have the Scouts crossover the bridge into Scouts BSA in true ceremonial fashion. Many Packs already have one so getting it to the park and assembling it may be the only hard part of this exercise.
- Get help from your local Scouts BSA troop. Many older Scouts really enjoy being part of these ceremonies so don’t let them down. Give them a call and ask for their help.
If you’d like these notes in a formal fashion, click below to download the PowerPoint presentation. download it here
If you have great ideas that you’d like to share with others, please send us your comments via email to . Until we meet again, Keep Scouting Strong!