Increasing Attendance at District Recognition Dinner

[moxieman]

This past week we had our end of the year district meeting to discuss what has gone well and what could be improved at district events.

 

One of our biggest challenges is getting the volunteers to attend the District Recognition Dinner. I know one of our problems is that we are a very large district area-wise (over 2 hours north to south and close to an hour east-west). So, to be fair, we rotate the location of the event to a different part of the district each year.

 

Our district's population is large enough that we are allowed to award up to four District Award of Merit awards per year. Yet, with this many volunteers we're lucky if we see 45 at the district banquet and its almost always the same 45. It gets harder to surprise the new "DAM" recipients when they look around and realize most everyone else in the room has already received it.

 

We send out flyers to all registered adult leaders announcing the event MONTHS in advance with reminders every month in the district email newsletter and having it posted on the district website. We remind them that this is their recognition dinner and we want to recognize them for the hard work they do.

 

We've tried different times of the year to try and work around other folks' schedules. It doesn't matter if we hold it in winter, spring, or summer (haven't tried fall as we've got too busy a schedule in the fall). Overall, it doesn't affect the number that attend.

 

On the food side, we've tried:

 

Potluck

Reasonably priced catering (and excellent food)

Light refreshments

Appetizers/bowling

BBQ

Dessert buffet

 

 

Other things we've tried to encourage people to attend:

 

*GUEST SPEAKERS

*DOOR PRIZES--lots of donated door prizes from gift certificates to area restaurants to scout patches (and even a rare 1968 Jackman, Maine Camporee Neal Slide this past year)

*OUTRIGHT BRIBERY--well, we give away Three FULL camperships--two cub day camp and one boy scout camp, but your unit needs to be present to win--donated by the local scout camp association group (Bomazeen Old-Timers)

 

We've also tried combining it with the annual program kick-off.

 

 

What else can we do to increase attendance short of grabbing volunteers by the collar and throttling them into attending?

 

What works for your district?

[scoutldr]

IF it's the same 45 people attending every year, then rotating the location isn't working. I would prefer to have the same location (centerpoint of your District) every year. If it's 2 hours from north to south, that means the longest drive for anyone would be an hour one-way.

 

With events of this type, I think you have to assume the 80-20 rule. The same 20% of the people will attend 80% of the events. I have observed the same thing with RT and OA meetings.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Ten ways to get people out for the District Dinner.

1. Each person must bring two others with them. (45 + 45 + 45)

2. Have a hero speak.

3. Get a real chef to cook part of the dinner, such as the dessert.

4. Invite several Scout units to stage stationary demonstrations.

5. Have the dinner outside around a campfire.

6. Have all of the SPL's plan and execute the event.

7. Invite the press. Make sure that plenty of pictures are taken.

8. Give all program Chairs for that year fancy do-dads.

9. Give Wal-mart gas credit cards with $10.00 as door prizes.

10. Get everything donated so the tickets are free.

FB

[Lisabob]

While we're on the subject, let me add a couple of things from the perspective of a (former) cub leader.

 

1. Cub packs are part of the district too. So why is it that these district award ceremonies are almost always for, and about, boy scout leaders, and yet people act surprised that not very many cub leaders attend? If it is because you don't have (m)any cub leaders involved in district affairs, then maybe your district leadership needs to re-visit this issue as you look for staff for next year.

2. If the above describes your district and especially if you have a large district then more than likely, most of the people who are earning these awards will not be known to most cub pack leaders. Not surprising then, that they don't attend.

3. Cub leaders usually have young children. These awards dinners are often long, drawn out, (sorry, but it's true) boring, indoor affairs with nothing for kids to do. So now the cub leader either needs to hire a babysitter to attend a long, boring event where she or he will likely not know anybody anyway, or else bring the kids and constantly "shush" them, or leave them home all evening with the kids' other parent (which may just not sit well, domestically speaking). Set it up outside with some fun family-oriented activities and where noise is allowed and you might get a better response from cub leaders. Better yet, do it at your council camp (or somewhere like that) and encourage families to come early and go fishing, toss a football, go for a hike, etc..

 

I don't know how you'd feel about this one? But I think around here, if we did this at our camp and had the archery range open (with qualified supervision, of course) then we'd draw a bunch more cub families because they have so few opportunities to do cub archery.

 

Of course you don't have to make activities this organized, but it might be a thought.

 

4. Around here, cub day camp typically costs about $25/boy, which covers three-four days, a T shirt, and a badge. To be honest, it is such a tremendous bargain that parents are more than willing to pay for their kid to go. Not to mention that if my unit wins one of these day camperships, now I have to figure out which kid gets it and which 25-30 kids don't...gee thanks. I'd rather you award certificates to the council scout shop so the pack can afford to purchase all those beltloops the kids will be earning at camp.

5. Keeping in mind that cub leaders' scouter networks are usually pretty limited by the fact that most cub leaders are new to the game, encourage troop committees to invite pack committees from their town to attend. You'll need to provide them with some contact info to do this. Help build those networks.

6. Give an award to anybody who brings a new participant with them. And to the new participant too.

 

7. Don't forget KISMIF. I really do not believe most people attend these events for the food, or the speaker, or whatever other "special" trappings you come up with. They attend for the camaraderie and because they love the actual scout program the way it plays out on the ground (all politics aside).

 

Lisa'bob

[featherbear]

Our District suffers the same situation. Our last banquet was painfully vacant. It used to be more active, but there seems to be a rift since the merger of our district with the neighboring district, a "trench" we're trying to fill in.

 

Pertaining to LisaBob's #3, there's a District in another Council whose Roundtable I frequent, that solved that problem with Cub leaders and younger kiddos. One of the Venture Crews, which happens to be largely female, volunteered to run a child care service during Roundtable so that more leaders could attend and get their monthly training. They take the kids in another room for fun and games, juice and cookies, and from what I've seen it's been very effective - they always have a nice-sized group of youngsters.

 

Maybe that's something that could be employed in some fashion at District Awards? Make it more of a family event and more inviting to attend?

[scoutldr]

In my district, there are usually more Cub SCout awards than anything else. Sounds like a local problem. Having sat on the awards committee, the real problem is that we can't award someone if they are not nominated. Nominations have to come from individuals...there is no "nominating" committee. Every year, we have awards that do not get awarded, simply because no one took the time to submit a nomination. Frequently, all we get is a name and unit number, and the rest of the form is blank. Sorry, but we can't do anything with that. So if you know of a deserving leader, YOU need to take the time to submit a complete write up detailing the person's accomplishments. The same applies to Silver Beaver and Vigil honor in the OA.

 

I like the idea of a unit volunteering to provide a child care service.

[moxieman]

Thank you for all your suggestions. I plan to pass these onto the Key Three and the rest of the District Committee.

 

However, there are a few things I feel I need to respond to as I was a bit vague in areas of my post.

 

Scoutldr, I should ahve been a bit more specific about the population demographics in regards to our district. It is two hours north-south. Kennebec Valley District stretches from 20 miles of the state capital (Augusta) to the Quebec Province Border. However, the majority of our units are within 40 miles of Augusta. In the past we've rotated the event within that 40 mile radius. The few outlying units we have up near the border are use to driving (and we're happy they are--when others complain, we just point the Jackman contingent, and they shut up). We'd love to hold it once, just once up in Jackman and give them a break from the driving, but I fear it would be the smallest dinner attendance ever. We're talking an area so remote that the nearest McDonald's is 45 miles away...in St. George, Quebec. The moose outnumber the town's human population. (chuckle)

 

Lisabob, I assume you're describing some of the problems in your district in the past. Up here in rural Maine, in many towns, the cub leaders are also involved at the troop level. Our District volunteers are made up nearly 50/50 Cub Scout and Boy Scout Leaders. Just as many Cub Scout Leaders are recognized as the Boy Scout Leaders.

 

The Camperships we award are in the form of a certificate that the unit presents to the camp /council in question made out in the name of the unit and to bill the donors for the the amount in question ($90 for Cub Day Camp--wish we could charge $25! and $180 for Boy Scout Resident Camp). Most units don't give it to one boy unless they have one specific scout who couldn't afford to go otherwise. Usually, they apply it to their entire bill for all scouts going to camp--split it up among all the youth--so it's a discount to attend camp.

 

One of our longer dinners recently involved a new Cub Training Chairman who caught up on all the cub training awards that the previous chair had failed to award. He added 45 minutes to the program to many people's dismay. But it was important to recognize those cub leaders--some of those awards were so overdue that the recipients were now Boy Scout Leaders. I just wish we could have found a better way to do it without dragging out the program. Alas, we *ARE* a volunteer run organization and things like this can happen.

 

Also, because I didn't state it before, the "DAM" (District Award of Merit) award is kept secret only to those who are going to receive it. We make sure family and friends know when/where to be. To keep the recipient in the dark, if these family members would not normally attend the dinner, we 'hide' them in the next room and rush'em in as the recipient is tapped on the shoulder.

 

Again, thank you for the suggestions and let's keep them coming as I'm sure there are others on this forum who can benefit from them.

[Lisabob]

Moxie, it sounds like your district does indeed operate differently from some others I've seen, with regard to cub leaders. Glad to hear it!

 

Lisa'bob

[BrentAllen]

We have been working on this problem lately, as well. One of the local churches has a fairly new, large dining hall, which is perfect for the event. They have a large gym right down the hall, so maybe we could get a Troop to lead games in there for the kids of the adults.

We had Brad Range, one of the Antarctic Boy Scouts, speak at the banquet. His program was a huge success - we just didn't push his part of the program hard enough in the advertising - live and learn.

One idea I want to try this year is a District photo contest. Most everyone likes seeing slide shows with music, so this could add to the entertainment without taking too much time in the program. My plan is to get some nice photography equipment donated as prizes, and hope a large number of those who submitted photos will come to the event to see if they won.

The biggest reason for no-shows I hear is Scouters don't want to go spend an evening just watching others (who they probably don't know) getting awards.

[EagleWB]

I know a District that went to a Saturday Brunch for their "District dinner". They start around 10:00 and are done by about 12:30 - 1:00. They have increased participation and are up to about 90 from a low of 40. Maybe more people will come if it doesn't run so late at night.

[dancinfox]

You might try makeing special certificates for all the Quality Units in your district, framing them and awarding them at the dinner. Also, special certificates for all the program years Eagle Scouts and pay for the Eagle Scout's dinner and dad and mom will come along for the presentation. I chaired the district dinner last year and used some of these areas to increase attendance. People and Unit Leaders like to receive certificates and ribbons they can hang on the wall or the flag.

Dancin