Recruiting new kids into the pack - more than just tigers 1x/year

[mdlscouting]

Most of the packs in this area do all of their training via athe annual cub Roundup for 1st Graders.

 

We are a new pack, still trying to figure this out, and establish ourself. But it seems like if we only recruit tigers, as they get older, the dens will get smaller and smaller each year, as one or two kids leave each year.

 

Do any of your packs actively recruit older kids?

 

Do you do your recruiting at other times of the year? I've heard of some spring recruiting drives at the end of the school year that work well for packs that are active over the summer. (Even if they don't have the formal meeting each and every week)

 

Do you use other methods besides the cub roundup through the schools? Any tips you can share?

 

Thanks,

Tony

[tdk101]

Our pack did a Family Game NIght in the fall as a recruitment tool. Each den built some type of game to play: miniature golf, Polish horseshoes, etc. We had our Pinewood Derby track set up and the kids brought their cars to race. It was pretty successful I think. We gained 7 scouts in the Webelos I den - 2 were transfers from another pack as their pack folded. 2 of the 7 have since left Scouting due to conflicts with other activities. I think we have about 15 Tigers from that event and a few wolves and bears also. The Webelos 2 den is the only one that did not gain any new scouts.

 

In 2 weeks we will try to do the same thing to recruit scouts for the following year so they can participate in our summer activities. We have never done a spring recruitment before so we are not sure how well that will work.

 

Good luck with your recruitment.

[GKlose]

As a district membership chair, I've been keenly aware of what the packs in our district have been doing for recruiting.

 

Yes, the primary source of recruiting has been to try and get new Tigers in every fall. But flyers (for pack open houses, or "sign-up nights") go out to every boy in an elementary school. Parents and Cubs are encouraged to bring friends and siblings.

 

Two initiatives we've tried this last year:

 

"It's Not Too Late To Join" -- a second round of flyers going out to schools in the Oct/Nov timeframe. Pretty much fell flat with the packs in our district. Most felt like they had recruited enough already, or were already too full. One of those packs only had 24 Cubs total, which I found rather frustrating.

 

Spring recruitment - Kindergartners are eligible to join (as Tiger Cubs) as of June 1. They can then participate in a pack's summer program. So far this has fallen flat in our district because most packs "suspend operations" over the summer. Which I think is tragic. Summer is the best time of year around here to be outdoors and doing something, and the majority of the packs don't do anything between June 1 and late September.

 

So our district is trying to assist units on several fronts. One is encouraging them to have some kind of summer program. The other is to get the details of fall round-up taken care of before school starts (after Labor Day). Most packs have been waiting until school starts before they even start planning their roundup, so September becomes "sign-up night" time, and the first full pack meeting is in October.

 

Guy

[ScoutNut]

First of all, your dens should not be shrinking each year. If you provide the boys, and their families, with a good, fun, program, not only will they stay, but they will bring in their friends too.

 

Having your boys, and their parents, talk up Cub Scouting to their friends is one of the best recruiting tools you have! We had a den of 3 Tigers grow to 7 Wolf Cubs just thru the parents and the boys talking to their friends about how much fun they were having.

 

Our council has tried district Spring Tiger Roundups, but they just never seem to work well. Even if we manage to have a good turnout at the event, most don't sign up with a Pack until Fall. Pack level recruitment seems to work better.

 

We invite the boys in our school, in grades K-4, to our last Pack meeting in May. Some will sign up then (mostly siblings of current Scouts), some will wait until Fall. We have a table at school registration in early August with information and fliers for the boys in grades 1-5 for our end of August picnic and rocket shoot. The first week of school our Cubmaster and District Executive do "Boy Talks" in grades 1-5. We then hold a Roundup on the next Friday evening for any interested families. We continue to recruit throughout the year through word of mouth. This has worked well for us.

 

[DenZero]

Roundups should try to attract all Cub Scout ages, not just Tigers. While it's possible to recruit enough new cubs through roundups to sustain a pack if the competition isn't strong, it's not the most effective recruiting technique, just one of the tools. If the other packs recruiting at the schools where you do roundups are big and strong, roundups will not be successful. Our small pack has had zero success with the last few roundups we've tried.

 

Word of mouth is by far the best recruiting technique. A serious word of mouth campaign should be run year round. The families in your pack are your recruiters. They need to be inviting their friends and neighbors. Give them your pack's recruiting brochures to pass around. They need to keep talking it up. One invitation is not enough. Be persistent. Have everyone be on the lookout for parents that would make good leaders. Pack leadership should give extra attention to these people. Identify the parents that are influential in the school and community. Try to get these people to be your allies.

 

If you haven't started recruiting for next fall, it may already be too late. Rival packs have probably already claimed the easiest recruits.

 

Plan activities over the summer to keep the interest of those you recruit in the spring. Participate in community festivals, etc. in order to maintain visibility.

 

If your chartered organization has members with Cub Scout age boys, work hard to recruit them. They can turn out to be some of your most dedicated members. If they go to schools where you hadn't previously been able to recruit, they can provide a great foot in the door to expand your recruiting territory.

 

The better you do with word of mouth recruiting, the more people you will have to do word of mouth recruiting, and your recruiting will become easier and and more effective.

 

If you have more than 20% attrition, you need to talk to the parents to find out if there is some deficiency in the pack's program or organization, and whether they have lost interest or been recruited by another pack.

 

To summarize, successful packs use word of mouth recruiting year round. Packs that rely on roundups will likely fail.

 

[MarinesWife]

We are doing spring recruitment and we are staying active over the summer.

 

If you do spring recruitment then I think it's a waste if you do not have activities over the summer.

 

We recruit out of two schools, well 1 1/2 is "ours", and the main one is doing a Carnival this Friday. We have a game table there as well as information about Scouting.

 

Then at the end of the month we're having a Bicycle Rodeo and inviting all elementary children (Girl Scouts are helping for their own recruitment).

 

Since our pack hasn't done spring recruiting in the past, this is new, but not to me. I love recruiting time!! I'm already looking forward to fall.

 

Our Wolf den has gone from 6 boys to 9 and that is with one moving. Encourage them to bring their friends, provide incentives, it works!!

[wolfmama500]

Our Pack is going though a similar situation, we crossover 5 kids, which the parents were the leadership of the Pack,with the rest...in our case the Board of Education is not allowing recruitment at schools and we had to resort to only word of mouth. We offer a great year round program but our numbers are failing to a desperate low. From leaders having conflicts with CM and taking the kids they recruited to a new CM who openly advised leaders and Committee members not to recruit Tigers or any other dens, thinking that if we get new boys that should be alright but we are not encourage to ask or invite anyone new. We have now less than 20 boys and in risk to loose a few more due to military change of stations. Do we go behind the CM's back and recruit anyway for the sake of the Pack or just let everything go? Any suggestions will be great. I am a Committee member and den leader who work with a den of 2 boys from 10 I had last year.

[Pack212Scouter]

If your going from 10 boys to 2, there is an issue with the program somewhere. Is it mostly because of military moves? If so, then you definitely need a very active recruiting plan for the Pack. Figure out a way to get the word out to new families on the base & in the area. Maybe hold some Pack activities in places and on days where they are visible on a busy weekend or holiday at the Park. IF the Schools won't let you recruit, you are going to have to think/work outside of the box.

 

If most of those losses are not to moves however, you need to look at he program. Are they leaving because of the lack of activities? Is someone not making them welcome? Are sports drawing them away?

 

Now on the subject of recruiting outside of Tigers, we recruit all ages at once, both in the School and at our CO church. By default you should get about 60-75% Tigers and the remainder in a mix of grades. The biggest reasons than I have found that older boys don't join is conflicts with Sports as they get older. Show that Scouting can be compatible to scheduling with sports. As a matter of fact, see if your local league might let you set up a booth at one of their game days.

[ronquera]

Did I "hear" wolfmama500 correctly?! The CM doesn't want recruiting??

Why in the world? Is the CM aware that they are down to 20 kids?

 

 

[ronquera]

Did I "hear" wolfmama500 correctly?! The CM doesn't want recruiting??

Why in the world? Is the CM aware that they are down to 20 kids?

 

 

[ronquera]

Did I "hear" wolfmama500 correctly?! The CM doesn't want recruiting??

Why in the world? Is the CM aware that they are down to 20 kids?

 

 

[wolfmama500]

yeah, that's right, our kids crossover in February and We, the CC, DL(myself) and the CM expressed to the parents that we will be with the Pack another year before we move on with our kids but let the Pack standing on itself. Our idea(the CC and mine) is to leave a healthy Pack with a working Committee for the better of the Pack but to her is that if we get new kids that will be fine, if not , don't worry about it because it won't be on her hands by then. At the "graduation/ crossover" last week we had 10 kids that are active, all the other ones have faded away/ dropped from Scouting or whatever but if we don't get any kids from tigers and up what are we going to end up with? We have some issues going on and I am hoping to present myself in front of the Committee with the situation. I am also a committee member.

[ScoutNut]

You state - "We offer a great year round program"

 

Yet your den has dropped from 10 to 2, and the Pack has gone from over 20 to about 10.

 

That does not sound like a "great" program to me.

 

You said that you (DL), the CC, and the CM have no kids in the Pack as of this past Feb 2009, but are staying on with the Pack for 1 more year. Are there replacements for all of you that you are helping and training? Or are there no parents willing to step up and help support the Pack?

 

It is possible that, if there is a lack of parent support, and families leaving hand over fist, your CM might not want to recruit because he sees the Pack imploding and does not want to subject any new Scouts to that. The CM also might just not want to be there any more. He might prefer to give his entire time and attention to the Troop but feels forced to stay with the Pack.

 

The question your Pack families (not the three of you who have one foot out the door already) have to answer is - Do they want this Pack to continue?

 

If the answer is yes - then they have to be willing to step up and make that happen. That means getting a new CC, CM, and leaders for every den (with the three of you either renewing your commitment to help and train your replacements or moving on). That means getting all leaders trained for their positions. That means recruiting new Scouts at all levels (working with the DE if your Board of Ed will not allow fliers, or "Boy Talks").

 

If the answer is no - then I would suggest the CC talk to the COR about shutting down this summer, and getting what boys are left registered in a new Pack.

 

 

[wolfmama500]

Yes, the numbers have dropped because we are not actively recruiting, just receiving kids that get referred to our Pack by other units as we end up taking a lot of scouts with disabilities that other packs in the area referred to us. Only a few webelos were added to our Pack this year and another problem was conflict with a leader, which cause a good number of kids to dropped because they were recruited by her.

We are looking for parents to step up and trained before we go, we don't want to leave and then the Pack fold from lack of leaders, and if it takes longer than a year, I'm willing to help as long as the Pack wants my help.Some have done so and are getting trained and others have been "informed" at the Pack meetings that they have being named for the empty positions.

The CM is the COR and I think one of the reasons for the lack of interest by the CM is all the isuues going on at the CO and their lack of commitment to the Pack.( That is another whole issue).

[MarinesWife]

An update on our spring recruiting. So it wasn't as big as I had hoped, however, we have recruited 10 boys from it. And our name is out there to many more!

 

I also think it opened up more doors within the school, so that our fall recruitment may be even more successful.

 

Our now Bear den has risen to 14. I really credit that to the boys though. We've taught them well with sharing with their friends and new neighbors. We live on a military base and every time we get a new neighbor my sons goes to see if they have any boys!

 

We will still do spring recruitment next year. There was a lot of interest, just not a lot of follow through (yet).