Spring Roundup?

[shark]

I am looking for ideas from units who use or have used spring roundups. Pros and cons wanted.

[Robin]

Please can you explain to a British Cub Leader what a spring round up is?

[shark]

A Spring Roundup is used in the school system to recruit new cub scouts. In the United States, we will sign up new scouts at the beginning of the school year. Usually, several Kindergarten age boys ask about joining the Tiger Cub program. They are turned away because they are not in the first grade. These boys usually don't get the opportunity to join until the next fall when school starts. If signed up in the spring they could participate in activities over the summer break that would provide the Fun of Scouting.

[Robin]

Thanks for the explaination. It sounds better than having them wait. We let kids join at any time during the year, but it makes badge work harder as they don't all join at once.

Also boys come up to Cubs from Beavers when they turn 8 years old. We try to get them to come up in smal groups with their pals but it can be difficult.

Do you run a program all year round? We don't do a lot during the school holidays ( but we are busy for the rest of the year)

[shark]

All of the BSA programs are considered year round. Some packs do not meet in the summer much. The BSA created the Summertime Pack Award to recognize those that do run active summer programs. I prefer to run a program that is totally year round. Dens should meet weekly and the pack once a month even in the summer. All other activities can be run between these times. Many packs send their boys to Daycamps that are organized by the Districts in each Council.

[Krippe]

Shark,

 

I know you were looking for spring roundup ideas awhile back, but I just found this discussion link.

 

This year our pack is doing a first time ever all cub roundup for the spring. Last year we did a Tiger roundup in the spring to let them join in on our summer Pack activities. This worked out great! It let the parents and boys get a taste of Scouting and got us in their routines before school started.

 

We are planning a school night for this spring but not like we do in the fall (we just invite parents to come and sign up and answer any questions they may have). This spring we are going to do like a mini carnival with hands-on Scouting activities. We are going to cook hot dogs and after they eat (if they choose to), the boys will be able to go around to stations and get a taste of what we do in scouting. We will have a knot tying station, a bird house building station, a tin types station. For the new Tigers we will do some age appropriate activities (i.e. pine cone bird feeders, wind socks, puppets).

 

Hope this helps...

[Saxun]

We will be having 2 pack activities per month during the summer to get the summertime award. We need more scouts!

I am the leader of 3 Wolf Cubs and I will be losing one at the end of the school year. All of our Tigers have dropped out and the Bears are down to 6, sometimes 7. Our CC wants to go with the recruitment in August but not this spring. It seems to me that camping and outings during the summer would attract a lot of boys. It is really hard to have a den meeting with only 2 boys in attendance at any one den meeting.

 

Sounds like some good ideas for getting more boys to join. I will bring it up at the next commeitee meeting. Wish me luck!

[Krippe]

Saxun-

 

I feel for you. I know how hard it is to run a den with only 2-3 boys in attendance.

 

Last summer our Cubmaster would only let the dens do Pack activities. No den meetings were allowed durring the summer. This made getting the boys back into Scouting real hard. Our Committe Chair and actuall the whole committee was non-active in our Pack. The Cubmaster ran the show. This year we have a new CC, Committee, and CM. They feel that we are a year round program and we try to recruite all the time. We work on the boys to get their other friends envolved. When we started at the first of this school year we had only two Webelos-I and the Webelos-II were moving into the Scout Troop in February. The CC and CM were concered that this would be hard on our Pack and that the younger Cubs would not have any older boys to look up to. The Webelos-I now have 7 in their den. One of the boys it took him 3 months to talk his mom into letting him join. I don't think that it is the boys, but the parents. This year our Tigers have struggled. We have lost several, some due to the new Tiger program (no body to help assist and check up on the leadership like they should have - we just now our looking for a Pach Trainer that would have caught this problem). Also, I think that it is this age group of boys. I have talked to several teachers that say this is a hard group of kids to get their parents envolved.

 

I agree with you that the outside activities gets the boys. As a Pack we are camping twice this summer, attending a Council trail (hike)activity, and I am sure our dens will come up with other great things also.

I wish you luck in your recruitement effort. Hang in there...and remember its not always the boys fault why they don't join.

[mschwartz]

Our Pack does a spring roundup for both re-registration of continuing Scouts and registration of new Scouts (mostly Tigers, but we pick up a few at other levels every year). We hand out the books, the summer newsletter, and whatever other information is at hand, and then basically say "see you in September".

 

Pros: we get a sense of how many Scouts to expect in the Pack in the fall, the boys get their books and can work on achievements and electives over the summer (especially the sports-oriented ones), and having their materials for next year seem to keep them interested over the summer. At least we very rarely lose a Scout who registered in the spring.

 

Cons: can't really think of any! Our Pack doesn't try to have a lot of summer activities, as there's just too much else going on (summer camps, sports, vacations, etc.) although we do hand out information on the local Cub Scout summer camps.

 

We also run a Fall Roundup to catch those re-registrations and new registrations that didn't happen in the spring.

 

Works for us, anyhow.

[shemgren]

In my Council, they do a mailing to boys who of Cub Scout age, but not involved, inviting them to Day Camp. Once there, the boys are signed up and assigned to the local pack. The Cubmaster recieves an update with boys recruited to the unit a few weeks latter. This program gains the unit several new boy each year. In addition my local pack has a partnership with the local Boys and Girls club, netting a few more boys for involvement.

 

Also, we do School Night for Scouting on the third Thursday of September.