Cub Scout Recuitment Booth

[SeattlePioneer]

That's very attractive!

 

 

Usually I find that passers by tend to be reluctant to come up to displays unless they have a clear interest. If you have someone acting as a carnival barker out front to steer people in, you attract a lot more people.

 

Were people attracted to your booth on their own? What specific things did you do or have to attract people in to talk to them?

 

When you say you "signed up 8 new Scouts," did that mean signed applications or what? What follow on activities did you have for your eight new families to come to?

 

In short--- you did very well! Can you provide some additional detail on your methods?

[infoscouter]

For future reference - since I'm late to the topic

 

I've worked at our council booth at the state fair for several years. We always have an interactive hands on activity. One year we did catahoops. They were the biggest hit. Had to peel kids away so more could play. You can find directions here: http://www.cubroundtable.com/assets/rt-newsletters/ae-oct-edition.pdf (see pages 4 and 5).

 

The hands on stuff gives kids and parents an idea of what they have to look forward to.

[catdaddyxx]

We were limited in what we could do at the booth because of space. However I was glad after the fact that I didnt plan a bunch of activities. Since no one stayed at the booths long. This was a day at the YMCA and full of competitions. So, the kids were already very active and mostly came to the booths when they were resting between events.

Some of the exposure was sending the scouts in class A out to compete. They would have performed better with athletic wear of course but no one would notice another T-shirt. We won a few medals even in scout gear. Lol

The kids we have a so fired up and excited. We may not have a lot of scouts but every single scout we have showed up that day! Every one of them. I was stunned.

I had myself (CM) barking and then had the SM and ASM of our towns troop and the SM of our towns new troop there as well. I put my wife (treasurer) and Den Leaders behind the table with the paperwork.

The biggest draw was the videos and the pictures. I also made sure that it was clear that all of the pictures were from this year. I had two laptops playing 100 years of scouting and the cub scout promo dvd. Then lots and lots of pictures. We were definitely the most eye catching display. Even had some girls that we had to point next door to the girl scouts booth.

On the 8 new signups. 2 are kindergarten and will be joining us on the 29th after school is out, 4 are supposed to show up tomorrow, and 2 that signed applications and paid in full. The group of 4 were mostly in the custody agreement cesspool that I deal with, with my son. So, I totally understood where they were coming from.

We have a bunch set up for the summer and the list we handed out to parents seemed to impress them. As a rual TX town they kids are bored in the summer and dying for something to do.

We are doing two resident camps, Day camp, Twilight Camp, one to two den meetings per month, pack meeting each month, a service project for the elderly, a big parade, raingutter regatta, and some geocaching. So, theyll be as active as they want to be this summer. We wont start the program till school starts, so if they want to miss out on the fun and start in August they can. But, they wont be bored this summer unless they choose to be. =)

 

[catdaddyxx]

Also wanted to add that the summer activities are 75% requested by the pack's parents. I sat them down and asked them what and how much "they" wanted to do. I let them know that I wanted to give them everything they wanted to do this summer but not so much as they burn out. So, I made it thier choice.

 

I had a few hands on things for them to pickup and look at. i.e. compass and such.

 

That meeting on the 29th that the new tigers are comming to is also going to be a big outdoor pack meeting. With a graduation ceremony (bobcat bones) and campfire/weinie roast, water gun fight, races, and what ever other crazyness I can come up with.