How to recruit for the ceremonies team

[eaglescout2004]

Does anyone have any tips, ideas or suggestions for increasing the size of a ceremony team? My lodge is small and we have various current methods, but they don't seem to work too well. We have each committee in the lodge present during jumpstart and the new members fill out a resource sheet and check the area they are interested in. The newsletter and werbsite always contain articles encouraging people to join, but we still remain in desperate need of people.

We usually only have 5 people on the ordeal ceremonies team at a time (4 speakers, 1 roadie). Anybody have some interesting recruiting ideas?

[VAordeal]

its funny that you should post this topic, I am currently in the process of recruiting new guys for my chapter's ceremonies team. It is a hard task. The only semi-decent way to do it seems to be emails or by good old fashioned snail mail.

[eaglescout2004]

I am waiting for my lodge advisor to generate a list of new arrowmen in the lodge, i want to try calling them instead of snail mail. Heck, I'm willing to try anything!

[mdutch]

What you need to do in your letter/e-mail/phone call is explain to them why they want to be on the ceremonies team. In my chapter some reasons would be:

1. It's fun

2. You get to go to sleep in a "ceremonialists only" cabin

3. If you are not on the ceremonies team you are pretty much automatically an elangomat (due to size of chapter)

[Mike F]

I liked the idea of a ceremonialists-only cabin! If only we were all so lucky to have cabins to tempt them with.

 

In the smaller lodge of my youth, we spread the belief that being on the ceremony teams was cool. Members would typically wear a bit of costume most of the time. Something like a choker or other beaded piece. This made them stand out just a little bit in the crowd. We didn't have a special cabin, but did all camp together and had a lot of fun, making the other guys want to be part of the gang. Some of those ceremony team buddies are still my best friends 30+ years later.

 

We also recruited heavily within our own troops. When a new guy from our troop went through his Ordeal, we immediately started working on him to get him to come join us. Friends inviting friends is always best.

 

I'm in a monster lodge now and have found it's harder to recruit. (Or maybe it's just harder to recruit anywhere due to changing times, increasing conflicts, etc.) Today we find the only method that works is 1 on 1 contact - usually in person. We've sent out the email and letter requests/invitations, but don't think we've ever had somebody pop up out of the blue and volunteer. Chapter Advisors can work over the SMs at Roundtable. SMs, Troop OA Advisors, and Troop OA reps can work on their guys. Existing team members can drag buddies into it.

 

Start them off by offering an easy part. Every ceremony can be enhanced by one or two extra torch bearers, etc. Once they see how much fun it is to turn some ratty costumes and barely-memorized lines into an almost magical event by firelight, they'll be hooked.

 

Team costumes available to borrow are also very important. If you don't have those, at least have some extra leggings, shirts with ribbons, etc., that someone can jump into with short notice.

 

And treat the guys special. Have a cooler with sodas, snacks, etc., available for all members after the ceremony. Take team pictures so they'll have something to remember. Recognize their efforts at Chapter and Lodge functions. Heck, at troop functions, too! (Like introduce and praise all ceremony team members, chapter/lodge officers at troop courts of honor, newsletters, scrapbooks, etc.)

 

Good luck!

 

-mike (Meechgalanee Sakima)

[eaglescout2004]

Thanks for all the tips that are coming in.

 

Next weekend is our fall ordeal and my first lodge event at chairman (outside meetings). I have already worked with the chief, advisor, and members of the team to build a group that will be attractive to arrowmen looking to join a committee and a better run team.

 

We will have a ceremony exclusive cabin for the first time.

We are working on developing a clothing item (hat, beret, t-shirt) that is for ceremony members only.

We are allowing the team to focus only on ceremony related projects during the ordeal.

We will start plans as a team of designing a new set of regalia.

 

Hopefully these changes will give more enthusiasm to current members of the team and will make us a group that many people will want to be part of.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Mike,

 

Seek out the Arrowmen who already like public speaking or acting. Young men who have this bent love the chance to make it happen for real!

 

Have you thought about asking Lodge Chief to have them stand up and take bows at either Fall Fellowship, Section Conclave, or whenever you have your lodge banquet?

[wojauwe]

At our ordeal's we always have a chapter orientation meeting,we will have members of our ceremonies team in regalia at this meeting to pump

new candidates up.We also circulate an interest survey to new members and have them filled out and returned on the spot.This helps us know who to target with calls for specific jobs.

often times our teams are running a ceremony multiple times,so we will invite the new candidates

to stay as observers for the next ceremony.They get to see the team in the relaxed time and experiance the comraderie that a good team developes and watch them move into their ceremonial mode.

DO NOT COUNT ON EMAIL ALONE,PERSON TO PERSON IS BEST WITH FOLLOW UP CALLS.Email is great for communicating information once you've gotten their interest.

[wojauwe]

Oops! I used candidates instead of new members in above post.