EagleScout721

We had our sign-up and information night and despite the myriad of tools we employed, our results were very disappointing; we had 2 young men show up and sign-up. The good new, we got 100% of those that showed up, to sign-up. The bad news, we are still 3 short of officially chartering the crew. However, we did learn a few things. First, our greatest weakness is that we had no contacts on the ground with the youth we were targeting (the 8th graders at my daughter's middle school...my daughter is in 7th grade and continues to get girls in her grade excited about joining next year as they become old enough) so there were no energized and charged 8th graders getting more 8th graders excited and brining them along. The two young men we got were in 9th and 10th grade. They now understand that we need 3 more to start and are talking it up with friends. I would continue to do all of the things we did (listed above in this discussion) just to heighten awareness. If the kids at the middle school get used to seeing the term "Venturing" and begin to know what it is and associate it with high-speed, fun activities like white water rafting, rock climbing, zip lining, etc., that is, in my opinion worth a lot. The biggest lesson learned was that the two young men that showed up, were the two that I called and spoke with personally. Flyers to 240 8th graders at school and posters in the hallways, do not motivate people to action, direct contact does. Now I am going to go back to the list I got from council, with youth who left scouting and call those boys who might be enticed to join by the prospect of getting back on the trail to Eagle. The other big lesson learned is to hold the sign-up/information/first activity night, two-MONTHS before 8th grade graduation instead of 2-WEEKS. I have made a contact with a Girl Scout Troop that has a few girls interested but they are so busy with end of the year and graduation activities that Venturing has been pushed to the back-burner for now. While Ive heard people say that Spring is a terrible time to recruit, it is the best time to recruit 8th graders into Venturing because a huge chunk of them are just becoming eligible to join because they are just graduating. Grabbing these kids a month or two before they are eligible is the way to go. Back to work finding 3 more Venturers. : )

Thanks qwazse. That's a good idea. I had thought about having someone like that come and be part of our charter presentation or some other type of award presentation, but I like that idea a lot. A couple of the young woman they had speaking in the Venturing classes at our University of Scouting really impressed me and I'm sure would have the same impact on prospects and their parents.

Now that this tool has been out there for a while is anyone seeing much traffic from it? As a District Public Relations Director, I'm wondering if I should be heightening the awareness of it to the units in my district. My DD and DE don't seem to think too highly of it and I suspect that's because they receive so few hits from it. Thoughts anyone?

I'm not active in Sea Scouts, however I am a United States Naval Officer and I just had to say, that is a really great looking award. I hope it becomes part of the national program.

I'm starting a new Venturing Crew at my daughter's middle school. She and I have made the pitch to the PTO and they have agreed to sponsor the crew. Now comes the tough part, getting kids to join. We are holding an Information and Sign-up Night in 3-weeks and will hold a First-Nighter event at the local indoor rock-climbing gym a week later. While I have read and heard that this is not necessarily the best time of year (Spring) to recruit, Im inclined to disagree, at least a little. Since it is a middle school our target audience is going to be the 8th graders who will already be eligible because they are already 14 or will become eligible in a few weeks when they graduate. Next school year we will proceed to try to pick-up kids (next years 8th Graders) as they turn 14. I keep having this recurring night-mare of no one showing up to our sign-up night so we have been trying to do everything possible to heighten the awareness of the program in the school and surrounding area. Here are some of the things we have done: Weve setup a website where people can get more information Directly asking youth and adults our family knows in the area Weve put up professionally made posters throughout the school announcing the date of the sign-up night, with a VR Code (the bar codes kids scan with their phones) pointing them to a video about Venturing and another one directing them to our website We had really nice bookmarks printed with Venturing colors and color-photos of kids in action doing Outdoor Venturing type activities. They also have the same VR Codes mentioned above. We have kids at the school, as well as at the high school passing them out in class and at after-school activities The principal is going to announce our sign-up night in his weekly newsletter The school marquee will show JOIN VENTURING HERE, May 10th 6-7pm for a couple of days before the event We mailed invitations (including a 3-month look-ahead calendar of events and a bookmark mentioned above) to over 50 boys and girls who are of Venturing age in our zip code, who have left Scouting in the last 3-years, highlighting on the invitations to boys, if they made it to 1st Class or above in Boy Scouts, that they can get back on the Trail to Eagle in the crew. Mailed invitations including the items mentioned in the mailing above to eligible youth from the school, only limited to those we had addresses for. Hung 8x10 color flyers, using graphics produced by the National Office and the VR Codes mentioned above, in local grocery stores, coffee shops, restaurants and stores. Used Patch.com, a local on-line newspaper to announce the formation of the crew and will used that sites event calendar to post our sign-up event. I cant really think of anything else to do. Unfortunately, the most effective will be members talking to friends at school, but we dont have any members to do that just yet. If anyone has any other suggestions, I am very interested and will try almost anything to help my no-show-nightmares not come true.