Recommendations to help fix a bad day camp

[Eagle92]

BW,

I thought that the Sea Scouts did away with press gangs to Shanghai "volunteers" around 1915 or so .

 

Seriously though unlike the metro council I grew up in and was first a volunteer in where you could be selective in volunteers, for whatever reason this council is always desparate for volunteers, so 99.9999% volunteers aren't turned away. And in two other councils I was in, they also took all volunteers willing to help out. Maybe it's because the three councils in need of volunteers were mostly rural, I don't know, but that is what all three have in common.

 

I give you an example, when I worked CSDC in my old council, we had 150-200 CS in 15-20 dens. And that was when CS was a four year program. Adults and den chiefs were no problem, and folks were turned away from staff psotitions. We even had female Explorers working a tot lot for the siblings, so overall we had from 180-230 youth and siblings at camp. When I moved to the current council the first go around, I was concerned that only 32 CS were registered with day camp, with a max space of 35 cubs, they were desparate for both adult staff and den chiefs, and that most DEs spent all day working at their CSDC. Since I was the COPE Director that summer, I wasn't around to help.

 

Point is different areas of the country do things a little differently based upon the resources available. Some areas have lots of volunteers beating down the doors to serve, while other areas are desparate for volunteers. Again there is a 99.999999% that a volunteer willing to help WILL be allowed to help.

 

Heck I was at a AOL/Crossover ceremony last nite, and listened to the CM talk to a parent who wants to get more involved, and he was practically all over her encouraging her to register, get trained, etc. I think if their UC had any more adult apps, their new venturing crew adviser got them all prior to the ceremony, she would have been signed up that nite! So this problem isn't just on the district level, but the unit level as well.(This message has been edited by eagle92)

[Bob White]

Eagle 92,

Are you suggesting every single good person in your community is already volunteering in the Scouting program and there is no one left?

 

Or are you saying that most people in your scouting community are not good at selecting and recruiting more volunteer members?

 

See I am betting that the problem is not the volunteers you don't have, it's that the volunteers you do have don't know how to recruit. And recruiting is a skill, and skills can be learned.

 

What your scouting community lacks is not volunteers, it lacks someone to teach the skill of recruiting.

 

Unless of course you believe that there are no good people to recruit from your area?

 

 

[Eagle92]

BW,

Are you suggesting that we go to that time honored nautical tradition of impressment to get volunteers :0 I know Sea Scouts need to learn nautical history and such, I did get as far as Ordinary once upon a time and was a Skipper as well, but I don't think national would like us getting folks drunk and signing paperwork, or banging them upside the head and forging their paperwork to get volunteers

. Now getting them drunk and having them fill out FOS pledges is a different story, at least in this council

 

As for what I am saying, I think it's obvious from what I posted. some areas have an abundance volunteers, and others don't.

 

As for recruiting, yep it's an art form, and some folks do have it, and others don't. But as you mentioned previously you don't try and recruit everyone, otherwise they will start to avoid you. Part of the challenge is finding the right people. You need to be selective. But at times, you can't find the right person, nor someone willing to become the right person. So you adapt, improvise, and overcome.

 

On a district level, you are right in that part of the problem is that we are not doing a good enough job recruiting volunteers to run events. Part of that problem does lie with the district committee. Part of the problem is also due to lack of guidence from the council level. To use a natautical metaphor, the district has been as sinking ship, with the captain and succeding mates (the various DEs) jumping ship, leaving all the crew (committee members) to fend for themselves. And trust me it's been everyman for themselves.

 

Hopefully the new District chair, who came to us from another council and has lots of experience in the job, will stem the flooding, allows us to make repairs while underway, and achieve our mission of a successful Scouting program.

[SctDad]

I have been kind of sitting back and reading what other have posted tin the past 48 hours. But some new things have come to light in that time also.

 

EAGLE92 - You are right, in our area we are strapped for volunteers, as many people lead busy lives and always look for someone else to do it. I have been fortunate and managed to recruit 2 non-parent leaders to help out. I had one other, but due to scheduling conflicts, has asked to not be reregistered. That is just for my pack.

 

On another note, I talked with someone the other day. Eagle, you know him from the seabase. This weekend he showed me a program that he is working on "Cub Scouting On Demand" Look into this eagle for your pack/family campouts. THe program looks good. Anyway, we talked for about an hour about different things with Cub Scout Camping. He asked me what I thought about the day camp. I told him and he also asked me what could be done to improve it. And yes BW, this is a person who is much higher in the council food chain, asking me a Cubmaster for suggestions. We also talked about the upcoming programs and he asked if I had any input on the topics and what we could do. He said that it was apparent that he and I were on the same page in that we were both trying to get the Cub Scouts back outside and camping. He asked me to serve on an upcoming committee with specific regards to Cub Scout Camping. He said that it would meet about once a quarter. I told him to keep me in mind and I would consider it.

 

So that is an idea of what is coming up with what I am doing. I think that the CS program will be improving soon.