Cub Scout Recruitment

[CarlaB]

Hello Everyone,

I recently signed up our Pack for a Recruitment booth at a Family Fun Fair our town is having, and then we will have our Spring Recruitment at the beginning of May. I have done recruitment for other NPOs and we have some ideas for the Fair and Recruitment Night, but I was wondering what tried and true methods other Packs may have?

 

For the Fair our ideas so far include:

Giving away popped Trails End popcorn in small bags

Having an area where boys can make a few small crafts with their parents

Having the movie Down and Derby playing

Have all four Rank books on display for people to thumb through

We have Welcome to Our Pack Letters that give a very basic overview

We also have a Parent Orientation Handbook (have not decided whether or not to do a live Parent Orientation following the fair whereas we have one coming up on May 10th)

 

For our Recruitment Night:

Have each Rank set up a booth of sorts where they can have some displays of things they have done, and crafts or games going on.

Have a few copies of that Ranks Handbook at their booth

Have a Registration Area where the parents can register their kids while they are hanging out with the Den they will be joining

Have Down & Derby or a promotional video playing on a large projector screen

Having the Welcome to Our Pack Letter to give parents

Information on Parent Orientation

Current Newsletters or a list of Upcoming Events

Information on our Arrow of Light/ Crossover Overnight Campout where they will Officially be inducted into our Pack

 

I know that probably sounds like a lot, but if there are things here that you have tried and they did not work, or if anyone has any suggestions at all I would love to hear them.

 

Thank you all for your help

 

[John-in-KC]

To me, the best recruiting tool is the kids themselves having FUN.

 

Bring the PW Derby track, let prospects race. Borrow Cubs' cars.

 

Have a charcoal stove going just outside the building. Have the Cubs make and give away S'mores, hot dogs, or foil dinner samples.

 

Have tug o'wars... invite the prospects to join the Cubs.

 

Don't forget to use Den Chiefs to help!!! Older boys in Boy Scout uniforms saying Scouting is cool can overcome the resistance of Cub aged kids/parents.

 

KISMIF.

[ScoutNut]

While Down and Derby is a fun movie, it can give the wrong impression of Scouting if the entire movie is not viewed. A better idea is to put together a DVD of pics of your Pack at different events throughout the year.

 

Boys interacting with other boys is a great thing!

 

Have Pack calendars to give out. Be sure to include Summer events on the calendar.

 

[SctDad]

This is the idea that I was leading to when I asked about Cub Scout Music. I have a bunch of pictures from a day camp and I can also see a lot more coming from the campout next weekend. So what I wanted to do was to make a video of pictures showing the things that we have done. So if you could, does anyone have any other ideas for music for this video.

 

Carla

 

I like some of your ideas. Maybe for the crafts you could do a beaded necklace making station. Beads are cheap and you have a small craft they can take home as a reminder. Maybe have some colors for the rank they would be going into.

 

Don't forget plenty of handouts in reference to the camp activities and trips that you and your district are doing.

[CarlaB]

Thank you everyone for your answers. I love the idea of setting up the Derby track and cooking food, unfortunately for the upcoming fair we only have a 10x10 indoor booth to work with, but perhaps for our Spring Recruitment we could have an "Outdoor Area", that would be fun.

 

As for 'Down and Derby' I have not yet seen it myself, just heard a lot of great reviews. We also have a promotional video that our District has put together, so I am thinking that will be the direction we will go in. Thank you for letting me know that the movie may not be such a great idea.

 

Unfortunately our Pack does not have many pictures of our events as of right now. As I mentioned my husband and I are trying to revive it, and to our knowledge not many fun things were done in the last 2 years at least and what was done no one took pictures of. We now have a Pack Historian who is working on putting together a Scrapbook.

 

Thank you again everyone! I hope to hear more.

 

SctDad, I have made a few promotional videos in the past (non for Scouting yet, but have seen some) and the best advice I can give is to use high paced up beat music that does not have words. If it does have words you should only use a piece that has something like, "So you wanna have fun?" repeated or even mixed in with wordless music. Techo-y music tends to work really well. Disney soundtracks usually have some good ones, just be sure to list the who's and what's in the Credits. If I run across anything I'll pm it your way.

[Oak Tree]

Down and Derby is a fine movie, but it take a long time to watch. But certainly having something there to grab people's attention is good. I've seen packs do videos of their activities - or even a video of a collection of still photos. Also getting some type of big backdrop - a banner, a tri-fold display, something to make you look organized is good.

 

We would set up a tent and have a fake campfire sitting there. Make your pack look active and fun. At these activities I generally found that we were selling the parents, not the Scouts - although it can't hurt for the Scouts to have fun.

[CarlaB]

Oak Tree,

You made a really good point about selling the parents not the kids. I had been gearing most of my stuff towards the boys. I will work on coming up with a good balance so the boys will want to join and the parents will want to sign them up.

 

Thank you so much!

[ScoutNut]

If you want to show a video, check out YouTube. There are quite a few Scouting promotional videos you can download. You might also take a look at some from the 100th Anniversary. You might not want to use them, but they are very nice!

[CarlaB]

I am currently on dial-up so I tend to stay away from internet videos but I will check it out. Thank you!

[DenZero]

I did this last summer. Fortunately we had an outdoor booth with more space, and were able to set up the Pinewood Derby track (except for the last section) and borrowed some boys cars from last year. Without this, it is unlikely that we would have got any boys to stop at the booth. If you can't do that, you need some kind of game, maybe with prizes (marked with contact info). A video probably won't draw people to the booth. We also had a quick craft project that they could take home, and set up a small tent.

 

Though it won't be a problem indoors, the first time I tried this, I had a big problem of brochures blowing away. I made a literature rack to prevent this.

 

Try to get another parent to relieve you, it can get pretty tedious sitting in a booth all day.

 

Be sure to get contact information from everyone who shows an interest, and follow up regularly with them.

 

It was a lot of work and expense, but it would have been worth it if we got any new recruits out of it.

 

[SctDad]

I just thought of something that I saw at a Day camp around here that you might be interested in. It was a little game. The camp personell took a 2x4 and cut a groove down the middle the long way. Big enough to have a clay target to stand up in. Then the set it up on a table with a tarp under it and let the boys throw golf balls to break the clay targets. Boys love breaking things. Have a bucket of candy and let every boy who plays get a piece and every boy who breaks a target gets 2.

 

There are also some other things that I saw that were pretty cool.

[CarlaB]

That sounds like a neat game idea. I'll talk to my husband about it.