Spring Tiger Recruitment

[Lisabob]

Tell me about how you do spring cub recruiting, in particular for new Tigers (who can go to day camp with the pack they join in June).

 

Traditionally in our district we've handed out fliers to boys finishing kindergarten, through the schools. This year we have one school district that won't allow us (or anyone else) access to the school. Another is allowing us to leave fliers in a magazine rack near the main office, but not to distribute them. This isn't a good strategy for getting little kids' attention!

 

We've talked about distributing fliers in local churches and other community groups but it gets expensive since we would need to print many more fliers and might not even reach the same # of eligible boys (a church of 200 families might only have a handful of cub-aged boys).

 

So I'm interested in brainstorming some effective, fairly targeted, and inexpensive ways to reach our audience without going through the schools, because I see this as a problem that is likely to grow.

 

Things on my list so far:

*public service announcements on local radio/TV

*Short "Join Cub Scouts & Go to Day Camp" blurbs in the PTO newsletters (more than half of our packs are sponsored by PTOs)

*ads in local newspapers (but this gets expensive)

 

The problem with the above is that they all target parents - not boys.

 

This is all in addition, of course, to peer-to-peer recruiting, which works great. But our district is experiencing a very rapid population growth as people move here from our nearby, dysfunctional cities and older suburbs. And these new folks tend to have no network to tap into, so peer-to-peer recruiting misses an increasing # of people.

 

Any thoughts?

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Hi Lisabob,

 

You could contact some of the neighborhood homeowners associations & see if you can get a short blurb in their newsletter.

 

In the Atlanta suburbs where I live, most homeowners assn's usually send out something near the end of the school year about the summer swim team, end-of-school party, etc. Which is pretty close to the timeframe you're looking at. Our subdivision sends out an email/PDF, so there's no concern about xerox/paper expense.

 

Good Luck,

 

NC

[scottteng]

I've not seen a Tiger den at day camp. All our recruiting is done at school nights for scouting in the fall. Tigers would present a challenge in day camp, remember they are to be accompanied by their adult partners at all times. Day camp is usually the first time the new wolves have done anything with just a den leader. I would check with your day camp director before pursuing recruiting a den of tigers for day camp.

[Lisabob]

Thanks for the word of caution Scott, but in our area we are strongly encouraged to recruit new Tigers in the spring with the explicit purpose of going to Day Camp. I've worked with our DE and our Day Camp staff on this in the past and it is certainly do-able, though as you say, it can be something of a challenge for these young guys. Done well though, it is a really great intro to cub scouting for the boys and their parents.

 

NC - good idea, not something I had thought of. I'll see if we can do that.

 

[ScoutNut]

The newspaper option does not have to be expensive. Most local papers have a "Community Events" page where they list things that different community organizations are doing. It is usually free. Contact your local paper to get their info on what they need from you & how far in advance they will need it.

 

Also for your local churches, do not do fliers. People coming out of church will not pick them up. What they DO pick up is a copy of their weekly church newsletter or bulletin. Contact your churches and find out how to go about getting a notice printed & how far in advance they need the info.

 

Find a family from each school who has a copy of the school contact list. Many schools print them up & include them with the yearly registration packets. Since only those families who have given their permission will be included, the list will probably not include everyone, but it will have some. Mail out invitations to all of the kindergarten families to attend the event. Put on the invite to please spread the word to any families they think might be interested.

 

 

 

 

[Tami the Mom]

We really target incoming Tigers as well. Several reasons - #1 - it gets them into the pack a few months early, so they can start having fun right away, #2 - they are guaranteed adults at daycamp, #3 - we can get their parents trained over the summer and hit the ground running in the fall.

 

Ok, so since our school also will not let us send home papers either, we look to other ways. We got permission and will distribute papers at the little league field. I am going to check with VBS to see if we can also recruit through them. (Shouldn't be hard, the pastor involved is a big Scouting supporter.) We'll also be out and about for the Memorial Day and Independence Day parades, and we'll pass out flyers then too. And we are holding our crossover ceremony in our town park, inviting the pubkic to join us for a bbq and ice cream social, in hopes of gathering some new kids.

[moxieman]

What I have seen several local packs do is involve younger siblings in the crossover ceremony (up this way they're usually held in February/March).

 

First the 2nd year Webelos cross to the Boy Scouts.

First Year Webelos move to where the 2nd year ones were.

Bears move to where the First Year Webelos were

Wolves move to the Bears.

Tigers to the Wolves.

 

Then Akela calls out to those families present who have boys who will be old enough to become Tigers and ask them to step forward and take their place.

 

Many times those new Tigers will talk about what happened at crossover to their friends in school and some of those friends will then join.

 

In summary--the packs recruit the young siblings of current cubs. Those siblings then get friends excited about the prospect to be a cubby.

[mtinney]

Ok I am new at this both the website and scouting itself. However Our local pack has discussed having a recruitment event at our local park. We are thinking of making signs You can pin them on community boards and around town. We are planning on having "rocket race" put on by the dens. We are going to have hot dogs and drinks available. Plus your close to the ball fields (Normally) and may be able to recruit some of the little league boys. Hope this helps!

[LongHaul]

OK Here is something I've run into and have never really gotten a definitive answer from our professional staff. How can I do an efective Spring recruitment for Tigers at all? The joining requirements are that the boy must already be 7 years old or be in the First Grade. Now with all the other ranks the requiremetn is "be x years old or have completed x grade" Boys comming out of Kindergarden are not in First Grade yet and most are not 7 years old.

 

I think Spring Recruitment is a BIG plus because it gives the Pack all summer to get the parents on board so that in September the Den is off and running and not trying to deal with beginning First Grade and get a Tiger Den off the ground.

LongHaul(This message has been edited by LongHaul)

[infoscouter]

For BSA's purposes, boys who have finished Kindergarten are considered to be in 1st grade (just as Tigers who have finished 1st grade are considered to be in 2nd grade, and automatically become Wolves on June 1). They are finished with Kindergarten - the school has promoted them to 1st grade, so we can consider them 1st graders.

See - "The Cub Scout Cycle":

http://www.directservicebsa.org/pdf/13-027.pdf

 

[LongHaul]

I started to reply to infoscouter and explain the wording of the Tiger Scout application age requiremetns when a friend and fellow forum member called be and told me to actually read the Youth Application forms I had been passing out. National has reworded the requiremetns for Tiger Cubs to address this issue. They have added "have completed Kintergarden" so now the requirements reads "Must be under the age of 8, have completed Kintergarden or be in the First Grade, or be 7 years old." When Tigers was first introduced we were told specifically that recruiting Kintergarden boys was forbidden. We had to wait till September. Then a few years later Council wanted to include Tigers in the Spring roundup and we were told "Recruit them and we will sit on the applications till September" Good for Council bad for the Pack liability. With this change howevr my whole issue is mute.

LongHaul

 

Almost forgot to second Tami's suggestion to use any local Little League opportunities. Our T Ball teams were all 5 and 6 year olds and with the boys and parents there it is a great opportunity. I'm sure there are many Scouters that are also involved with LL.(This message has been edited by LongHaul)

[WDL Mom]

Hi,

 

Our school district doesn't do flyers in backpacks anymore. Not for outside groups or many of the school functions.

 

Instead they use email. They send out the fliers via email to the whole school list.

 

I like the idea of Little League, might also check out spring soccer.

 

We have never done a spring recruitment. Seems like our district waits until fall for some reason. They do allow Tigers at Day Camp, but we usually only have a handful, and typically they are siblings of existing scouts.

[scottteng]

My only concern is day camp and shooting sports. Wolves typically have a lot more trouble cocking and loading a bb gun and drawing a bow than the older dens. To add Tigers in the mix would be a challenge. Tigers get their chances to shoot at the family camps the district puts on where we have an adult with each one to assist. If the day camp is equipped to keep the boys busy without shooting sports great, but typically we provide almost half of their program .

[DenZero]

We would also appreciate any advice on spring recruitment of Tigers. We desperately need to get an early start. Last year the nearby larger pack recruited all the eligible boys from the school we traditionally recruit from before we got to them. We got no new Tigers, but managed to add 2 Wolves, one in the fall, one in the winter. Still, it's hard to recruit the older boys, you really need to get to them first. Therefore, we need to put all of the pack's resources into Tiger recruiting as soon as possible. Please keep the ideas coming.

 

Paul

[Lisabob]

These are great ideas. I'm on our district membership team and we're looking at an increasingly difficult recruiting environment so a little creativity is really the key. Please keep the thoughts flowing my way! Some we can use at the district level, others I can pass on to pack leaders for their local consideration. I like the T ball/LL idea especially - never thought of that since my son didn't play, but yes, that's exactly the right group.

 

Scott, I was "Range Master" at our cub day camp for three years, though I ran the archery ranges and not the bb ranges so I can't speak to your specific point about cocking & loading. Yes, it can be a challenge to work with Tigers on the range. But actually I found that they were sometimes easier than some of the older boys who felt "too cool" for their own good and desired to show off/not follow basic safety rules & instructions. I don't recall ever having to excuse a Tiger from my range, though I did do that with a couple of webelos-aged boys. Plus you had those Tiger parents right there - extra eyes and hands - which was a good thing most of the time.