Planning a Volunteer run Round up

[SctDad]

I am thinking about running a volunteer run Cub Scout Round up in the fall right after school starts. The reason why is that our DE plans ours so late in the school year that it has effected our program for the past two years. This year the round up was conducted 10 days before our pack went to the Council Family Camp.

 

What kind of things would you suggest if I start pursuing conducting the round up ourselves? Want to make it successful. That way we can also hand out literature so that the parents have a little more information about the program. My DE has told me that I am not allowed to hand anything out other than contact information and calendars because she wants them to sign up and not get scared away by parent expectations.

 

Any help.

[EJCrimmins]

We've always done our own roundup, Fall and Spring. The DE has attended some of the School nights but his part in them for the most part has been being introduced, he waves, thats about it then he takes the paperwork to council at the end, if hes not there we take it or drop it at his house. He's done a bit more in the boy talks hes attended but thats because he is very high energy and does a good job getting the boys excited but then he still doesn't come to all of those and only once, due to illness, has ever actually just done one for us. When I first started with Scouts I thought this was what all packs did, I was amazed when I went to another pack to help out the DE with a roundup and I did the packs roundup for them. No one knows your pack better then your leaders, you are the best ones to do your roundup in my opinion.

 

First key to success if you are allowed to do them where you live is boy talks. Schedule with the school early to get into the schools you normally recruit from a few days before your school night signups. Don't just recruit from the first graders, speak to all that are eligible, 1st through 5th. Keep it short and sweet with the boys, they don't care about the details, just the fun stuff. And thats what gets them excited and gets them wanting to talk their parents into taking them somewhere in the evening. Make sure there is a flyer getting into the parents' hands at least several days before the signup, but don't make it a week ahead, you want them to have a bit of notice so it isn't tonight but don't want to give them time to forget, especially at the beginning of the year when they are being flooded with info. Will the school let you have announcements made the day of the signups? Will they let you put up posters? Can you put up yard signs around town? Make an announcement in the paper?

 

The roundup night. We figure the boys are already excited or they wouldn't be there, this is your time to talk to the parents. While people are showing up, we have displays around the room, pinewood cars, raingutter boats, trophies, patches, slideshows from previous years events running, and a SIGN IN SHEET just in case we don't tear all the unit copies off the applications or they don't transfer well. Everyone gets a packet of papers when they come in, our packet includes a youth membership application, our pack annual calendar, a front and back sheet we prepared that includes the; aims of scouting, some specifics about our CO, where to get uniforms, our registration cost (we charge $20 no matter when you join to keep it simple, we will be adjusting this to 25 for the fee increase,) the contact info for the Cubmaster and a spot to write the Den leaders info we give them; the BSA sheet on Character Connections (this is what we consider our major selling point to the parents to get their commitment,) and the leader responsibilities sheet (lets them know who does what and sets expectations if they choose to volunteer.) Tiger parents also receive a sheet on Tigers explaining the expectations of parent participation in this program. We always have adult applications on hand. We have never driven anyone away with a few sheets of paper.

 

After brief introductions we dismiss the boys and siblings to go have fun if they like, we run games, outdoors if possible with them while their parents do paperwork and ask questions. Our presentation is pretty brief to the parents, we focus on the benefits of the program and touch on parent responsibilities, the fact it is a family program not baby sitting, what they can expect from our program (we're very active) and open up to questions. We guide them through the paperwork, let them know their first den meeting (with in a week,) the contact info of their den leaders, talk to the Tiger parents if no Tiger leader has come forward from last Spring or existing families.

 

Afterwards we get all contact info to the respective den leaders, they follow up with the new families sometime prior to the next den meeting to welcome them and field anymore questions.

 

Certainly not saying this is the only way but it has worked well for us.

[DYB-Mike]

I think your DE is not being fair to both the parents of potential scouts and to the existing Pack leadership by directing you to keep mum about parent involvement. Parents should be told up front that parental involvement is necessary to make the pack go. They dont have to be den leaders (but that would be nice), but they do need to understand up front that they are expected to help in some way.

 

Do you have a Pack Handbook? We prepared one that covers the official program (aims, advancement, uniforming and such) as well as topics specific to our Pack (contacts, dues, location of Scout Shop, past activities, etc.). There is also a section on parental involvement. We found it most helpful to be able to give the handbook not only to parents who signed up but also those who are on the fence. It allowed them to digest a lot of important information at their leisure and also minimized a lot of generic questions.

 

Will you be able to distribute flyers in the schools? Dont forget to post them anywhere you can (church, supermarkets, etc.) Look into other ways of getting the word out (local newspaper, cable access). We have a local electric utility and we were able to advertise one of our Round Ups in the Community Bulletin flyer that comes with every months bill. One other thing we tried was to have existing scouts bring some invitations to class to personally invite their non-scout friends to the Round Up.

 

Like EJCrimmins suggests, have displays and activities aplenty. We had a slide show playing on a continuous loop on a laptop. Set up an old tent (or two, the freestanding kind) it makes for a great distraction, in addition to games and other activities, for the boys and their siblings. If you have enough leaders split the tasks of interacting with the boys and interacting with the parents so both groups of leaders can be completely focused on their assigned tasks.

 

Good luck!

 

YIS

Mike

 

[John-in-KC]

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG IN RUNNING A UNIT-RUN ROUNDUP

 

Go for it!!!

 

Recommendations:

 

1) Talk with your Principal. Do it early. Get some serious space, perhaps even enough to have your full Pinewood Derby track!

 

2) See if your Principal will let you do a recruitment as part of back-to-school night.

 

3) If your Principal says yes, go all out. Encourage all Cubs and Scouters to attend school in uniform! Get each Den to do something fun ... Pinewood, dutch oven cookery, games on the playground, and if the Principal does something like an Ice Cream Social on back to school night, volunteer to be the labor force!!!

 

This is one of the times for the Garfield era (1999) marketing: Too Much Fun is Never Enough!!!

 

4) Ask your friendly Unit Commissioner to attend and help with apps if anyone wants to apply on the spot.

 

5) There are a host of recruiting aids available as bin items, including mini-Boys Life mags. Use whatever you think will work.

 

6) PHOTOS!!!! and MOVIES!!! of kids having fun during the summer are a huge recruiting aid!

 

I wish you fantastic success!

[Scoutfish]

This is how my son became a Cub Scout:

 

 

One Monday, my son came home all excited about this thing called Cub Scouts. A guy came to school and there was an assembly just for the boys. THis guy then talked for maybe ( I sooo guessing) 20 minutes about what cub scouting was and what it was about and what they did. He even wore a tan and green unifrom with all kinds of patches on it.

 

This guy was the DE. He told all the kids to tell their parents that they all needed to show up at the school at 6pm for this thing called "roundup".

 

So Friday afternoon, my son remembered to tell me at 5:45 !

We drove the 12 miles to the school house and *I met one of the scariest guys I ever saw. H4e was the DE. Way to hyper, way too excited, way, way scarey!

 

He pretty much acted like he was 10 years old. I was starting to wonder aout this guy, but I as well as the other parents noticed that our kids loved it! In 15 minutes, every single kid new the Cub Scout sign, oath, and motto.

 

We are talking about my son here...The kid who cannot find his shoes 1 minute after he takes them off! Yet , he heard, learned and memorized the oath,law and sign in 15 minutes.

They learned two songs also. Then the CM's of 3 different packs each took a turn talking.

 

So we figured out which pack was xclosest to us and went 1 week later to pack "Roundup Night". Everybody went inside, The kids were taken outside for games and such and our CC stood up, Her very first words were:

WE ARE NOT BABYSITTERS! IF THAT IS YOUR PLAN....TAKE YOUR KID AND LEAVE NOW!

 

Then she explained how the pack worked, the purpose of scouting, the parents roles in the program and how payroll worked(LOL!)

 

Then explained about the process of den leaders advancing with the boys and trhe eventual need of new leaders.

 

Well, two years later, I am an ADL for Bears, and about to be a DL for Webelos next year.

 

The DE turns out to be a really cool guy when you actually get to know him.

 

The leadership of my pack told the parents straight up what the game plan was, and even said that the plan and the actual result are not always the same thing...but such is life!

 

Basically, adult volunteers and additional leadership were recruited at the same time as the kids!

[Scoutfish]

 

 

Does the DE have kids? Have they ever played baseball, basketball, soccer, football or did anything outside scouting?

 

I have yet to see any organized kid activity where parent expectations as well as recruiting has not explaind and solicited!

 

[SctDad]

Thanks for the advise so far. I am going to start putting things together.

 

My DE seems to have the theory that we are to just take the boys and leaders will appear out of the woodwork. I have got a couple by sheer luck and some begging, but they have not really come from standard round ups.

 

I plan on making up some parent flyers to hand out for each grade level. And it will have parent expectations. If anyone has any examples they woud like to share it would be appreciated.

 

Thanks again for the advise so far. Keep it coming.

[infoscouter]

In 20 years of being affiliated w/ our Cub Scout Pack, I've never seen a professional have anything to do with our Join Scouting Nights. Our pack has always run its own, and units are encouraged to run their own. Now, assistance is available if a pack needs it, but it is almost never from a paid staff person. Our district has a group of volunteers who will go and help a pack, if their leaders request it. Only thing the DE does is collect the $$ and applications, and even then, most of that is done by the Commissioner Corps and handed to the DE at the end of the night.

 

Check your council's web site and see what support they offer. Do they print flyers? Do they provide handouts for parents? In our council, each unit gets a crate from the council with a parent guide book, applications (youth and adult), signage, brochures, posters,etc.

 

http://www.northernstarbsa.org/JoinScouting/Recruit.aspx

 

We also have special web site where we can post information about our pack, and our recruiting events. A special page on that site, controlled by password, allows us to order fliers and other promotional material.

 

http://www.adventureiscalling.org/UnitDetail.aspx?unitID=1089

 

Ideally, your district has a volunteer membership chair, whose team includes one or more volunteer Cub Recruiting coordinators. See if they offer a recruiting training session (we do). If not, perhaps they can at least meet with you and give you a plan for your sign up event(s) and other suggestions and resources.

 

If your council doesn't have a lot of resources to offer, there are some materials on this page:

http://www.scoutparents.org/Resources.aspx

which you can download and print. And I highly recommend this parent guide: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/520-259.pdf

[Scoutfish]

Althoughmy son ( nor myself) were involved as Tiger Cubs, I think that is where most of our leadership comes from.

 

The parents have to be involved. I think trhose who actually like it stick around as DLs and ADLs.

[Scoutfish]

Althoughmy son ( nor myself) were involved as Tiger Cubs, I think that is where most of our leadership comes from.

 

The parents have to be involved. I think those who actually like it stick around as DLs and ADLs.

[Pack212Scouter]

While our DE runs the "school presentation," we have done our own round-ups for years. And don't worry about scaring parents off. Let them know straight up that it is a parent run organization and relies on parents to be effective. Your DE is not being fair to your unit, to the parents, or to the Scouts by trying to "hide" that they need to be involved.

 

As for the roundup. Ours usually goes like this...

 

- Opening

- Some general "fun" information about Cub Scouts

- We then break the prospective Cub Scouts out to another room with some leaders for a cub scout game or activity and the Parents are given the meat and potatoes presentation during that.

- Cubs are brought back in for an overview of what the Pack will be doing over the next few months.

- Parents are broken out into rank groups to have smaller groups for questions, and to fill out registrations. Each group has a leader to answer questions and to draft new leaders.