District Membership Chair

[Basementdweller]

Well my big mouth has written another check.

 

I was handed a single page copy of a job description.

 

So could you more experienced guys fill me in on the real deal.

[UCEagle72]

How many "one hour per week" do you got?

 

;-)

[GKlose]

I'm a district membership chair, having been in the role for almost two years. I'm not very successful at it...and I still have a lot to learn. Part of the reason I'm not so successful is that I am a membership committee of 1. I should be recruiting others to join me, but I still don't have the contacts for that.

 

I have a lot of other people telling me what they think the district membership chair should be doing. For example, one UC keeps sending email to me, the DE and the district commissioner, saying that he needs "membership resources" to recruit scouts for two of the three units he services. What he means by that is that at public events that his units attend (church yard sales, breakfasts, that sort of thing), he wants me to staff a table for recruiting for those two units.

 

I get email from the district chair telling me that our district has lost units and enrollment, and what our current half-life is, but I have an extremely difficult time getting historical membership data from our DE. There isn't a single place where I can look to find enrollment trends, let alone those trends correlated with the council and national.

 

Here's another example -- if a parent calls the DE, and asks about having a son join Scouts, there isn't a single source that the DE can point this parent to that lists all the units in the district, with contact information. One UC says "that shouldn't be difficult, it's all in Scoutnet" but I can't easily get that data. I have a half-finished web page, with serious chunks of missing data. Email queries to some units go unanswered. One unit leader -- and I had counseled his son in a merit badge not two months previous -- sent email to a UC asking "who is this guy, and why does he want this information?"

 

I have a ton of other stories, but they will all just come across as me complaining. :-)

 

I was warned, by an old trusted source, to beware. A DE's priorities will not necessarily be the same as your own. It is easy to get overwhelmed -- my DE and others keep trying to pull me in on spring and fall recruiting, Webelos transition, Tiger Cub recruiting for summer Pack programs, faltering units, Scoutreach, Learning for Life and starting new units. And yes, all of this is meant to be handled by the membership committee. But a committee of 1 can focus on only so much.

 

Guy

[GKlose]

I just thought of something else, since I think this might be practical advice: for starting new units, there is a 12-step process outlined in the Membership Committee manual. In my experience, it is like pulling teeth getting everyone to follow it.

 

Practically-speaking: I think it is pointless to try and start new units, without those units having basic support, such as a unit commissioner or some kind of mentor. But it seems like the district commissioner would rather support the units that already exist, rather than water down resources to assist a new unit.

 

And, on the other hand, I have a second-hand report that a council executive scoffs at the notion of a 12-step process, saying "there's only three steps -- find the leadership, get the applications and get the money."

[Eamonn]

Like a lot of positions the District Membership Chair can be as big or as not so big as you want it to be.

While membership is about both retention and recruitment, in our area most of the energy is put into recruitment.

When I was District Chair. I looked at what the Membership Chairs in our other 3 Districts were doing. Sadly it seemed to me that they really weren't doing very much. More than anything they didn't have a working committee and the Chair was just one guy who just seemed to be there to sell and pass on whatever the Council plan was.

More often than not the Council didn't have any real plan and seemed happy to just recycle what had been done in the past.

We went about selecting and putting together a real working committee.

Working closely with the Assistant District Commissioners for both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts we found a "Semi-retired" Commissioner, who was well liked and respected. He was in charge of the Webelos Scout cross over plan and tracking.

He was in touch with the Council Registrar, who provided lists of names of Webelos and where they were. He tracked where they were going and if any were undecided contacted them to offer a very friendly nudge. He also contacted leaders to see if SM's had invited Webelos to visit and Cub Scouters to help arrange meetings.

Our big recruitment is the Cub Scout Round-up (School Night) in the fall.

We had several Scout Friendly Elementary School Principals and all the School Superintendents sit on the Membership Committee. This helped a lot. Ensuring that everyone was on the same page.

The Superintendents made themselves available for photo opportunities in the local press and became the go to person helping making working with the schools a lot easier.

Before the end of the School year we invited everyone involved with the Fall Round-up to a lunch where we laid out what the plan, the theme was going to be and tried to find out what problems we had the year before that could be ironed out or fixed. We did try having this meeting when school was out but it just didn't work.

On the committee we also had representatives from the local cable TV company and local newspapers. This helped get the word out, not only at Sign-Up time, but year round.

We tried very hard to get Troops to hold "Open House Nights" something along the lines of the Venturing First-Nighter, but we never seemed able to crack that nut.

The Council has been and still is big on trying to recruit Tiger Cubs at the end of the Kinder garden year when the little guys graduate and move into First Grade. We had some success in signing these little guys up with events like kite flying and Tiger Fun Days, but we found that the Packs didn't do such a great job in keeping these guys. So we recruited them in May and all too often by September they were gone, never to be seen again.

The Membership Chair needs to work closely with the Council Registrar, tracking what the membership is, especially after rechartering.

He or she also needs to be willing to work with the DE and anyone else who is open to starting a new unit. The new unit plan that the BSA puts out really works, but does need to be followed step by step. Bringing in people who are knowledgeable about the workings of the organization that is thinking about starting a new unit is a big help. At times the Membership Chair does need to tell the DE that we are going to slow down and do this the right way and not allow the DE to rush ahead and just get the paperwork in. This means that the Membership committee needs to work hand in hand with the Commissioner Staff and the Training Committee.

The Membership Committee does need to work with units that are failing, helping them rebuild their membership.

I would strongly caution anyone who thinks that they can do this job and wear other hats.

Membership is to my mind the most important role of the District, without members finance doesn't work, without members camping and activities are a waste of time. We do live and die because of membership and the Membership Chair needs to commit 100% of his time and energy to doing a good job.

Good Luck.

Eamonn.

[JerseyScout]

Maybe its just me, but this whole thing sounds a bit nuts, how could one person, or even a committee be expected to do all that? And why would any Pack or Troop worth its salt leave its recruitment to a district committee?

 

Why in the world would a District Membership Chair run a recruitment table at events that troops attend? I was handed a stack of recruitment flyers from district for "the Scout Zone" to pass out at schools. It took about thirty seconds for me to look over the flyer and throw the entire stack out. One of my co-workers saw them and asked how I was involved in the Computer Club, and she wasn't making a joke. The signs I've seen posted up all over my town are also a joke, no kid is going to say "that looks cool!" and want to join.

 

Enter new recruitment strategy: a flyer with "Does your life need a little ADVENTURE?" in big, bold letters followed by a very short spiel about all the awesome stuff that the troop does. Keep it simple, simple, simple, and make no attempt to make the flyer look hip to the Internet generation with graphics or attempts to appear modern. The internet generation laughs at you when you attempt that, and they can do much cooler things in that vein at home. Instead, hit on what they can't do or won't do on their own - climbing, canoeing, backpacking, hiking, whitewater rafting, long range cycling, wilderness survival, etc. These are timeless and still very much awesome, is there really that big of jump between the Western trappers, Tom Brown, and Bear Grylls?

 

As for all of those events that a troop attends and wants a recruitment table, all you need is a) flyers with how to contact the troop complete with e-mail, phone number, and meeting location/timn b) a huge fold-out display like the kind that you see at science fairs plastered with colorful 7" by 5" pictures of your Scouts whitewater rafting, hanging out of trees, shooting guns, backpacking up a mountain, etc (GET YOUR SCOUTS TO MAKE THIS! THEY KNOW WHAT KIDS THEIR AGE WILL REACT TO) c) a list of all the awesome trips that are coming up and d) two or three Scouts with big mouths to stand in front of the table pulling people in. If you have the space and time, also include e) a 10-15' high tower with your troop flag and American flag lashed to the top, backpacking equipment strewn about the place, an area set up where kids can cook something, or, if you are insanely lucky, a large fire. End results of year 1 of new recruitment strategies- last year we pulled in the same amout of "new to Scouting" scouts (8) as WEBLOS crossovers (8) with a transfer from another troop to boot after years of awful recruiting "efforts". My next goal is to save money for one of those tiny digital camcorders and start collecting footage of Troop events. This is what TROOPS could be doing.

 

Looking at the issues that you poor District Membership Chairs face, and placing myself in your shoes for a moment, my priority would be getting that information website going and online(ScoutNet is no good). The site should ideally link potential Scouts and parents to troops/packs/crews through e-mail, phone numbers, and websites, perhaps even including meetings days and locations, and decorated with a colorful array of awesome pictures from local packs/troops/crews doing fun things so that potential Scouts feel encouraged to join.

 

The next priority would be to find out from the troops who recruits well and find out what they do. Then share that information with all the troops and tell them that you will photocopy as many recruitment flyers as local packs/troops/crews might need. The DMC (especially committees of one) should be enabling and pushing units to do a better job recruiting themselves, not taking it on themselves to micromanage.

[Eamonn]

JerseyScout,

The job of the DMC would of course be a lot better if all the units were willing to do what it takes.

 

However in the area where I live it just don't happen.

I really haven't spent anytime looking at a reason for this.

 

I kinda think many SM's have the mindset that we just don't have to do anything, what we have and do is just so outstanding that it will just happen.

Packs, seem to have a "Sell by date". A Pack will for a number of years have a group of adults who work well together and get things done. But as their kids age out things start to fall apart. That super pack we had ten or twelve years back, that was so wonderful is now not so wonderful and is falling apart.

Web Sites are great, but for the most part are only used by the people who are involved in that unit. Sure some people stumble across them by accident.

I kinda think we all know that Scouting really happens at the unit level. The retention part of membership is really in the hands of the Den, Pack, Troop and Venturing adults. That is where the rubber meets the road.

Given enough money and enough resources, I think I could get a lot of people to sign up for Scouting, but if the program is terrible it would all be a waste of time.

 

The best "Salesperson" for Scouting is the little Lad who is having a wonderful time. No kid wants to hear an old codger like me harp on about how great it all is and then join a unit that doesn't deliver the goods.

Ea.

 

[GKlose]

Here is (I think) a fairly good description of the membership committee:

 

http://www.ctyankee.org/resources/membership/districtmembership

 

There are five aspects of membership: new Scout recruiting, retention, program transition, abating dropped units, and starting new units. A well-staffed committee might have a prayer at doing all of that. As a committee of one, I tend to pick and choose where my effort is best spent.

 

An example -- the Council Membership chair recently asked me to join a Scoutreach committee, but I feel I don't have the time for that. Practically-speaking, he is attempting to start units in an area that is sorely lacking in unit commissioners and the district commissioner prefers to make UC assignments to units that already exist. I don't think the Scoutreach idea will be successful, at least for now.

 

Guy

[GKlose]

One more quick comment -- as far as fall roundups go, there is an annual marketing campaign released by national. All of the flyers that my DE has given me have been from that campaign.

 

Last year, I recall it was NASCAR-related. This year is different. This next fall will probably be something else.

[NJCubScouter]

If my district has such a position or committee, I don't know about it. Each unit does its own recruiting. The functions mentioned by GKlose seem to be done by a combination of the professionals and the commissioners.

[jhankins]

Do you have a copy of the membership committee book? You can request it at the scout store, or look for it online -- there's a new edition in pdf floating around somewhere.

 

Our committee here is made up of:

 

Venturing recruitment

Webelos to Scout Transition

School chairman (one for each area, we have 6)

New Unit Transition Staff: NUTS -- haha

Special Event Recruiter: Malls, Bass Pro, etc..

LDS Rep

Catholic Rep

 

Having people to help you tackle the many avenues of recruiting is important. Having your main organizations involved is helpful, too. In my district we're 70% LDS so having someone to help us with recruiting from within the church is important.

[Basementdweller]

hmmmm, sounds like a lot of work. I already hold 5 different positions with in scouting plus some adult training course instruction.

 

 

Sounds like too big a commitment.

 

Thanks for all the responses.

[rkfrance]

Different POV.

 

In an ideal world, there would be a nominating committee for prospects and you would receive support from your District Chair, District Commissioner and DE. Then there's reality. You get to recruit your team. Now the good news, you get to recruit YOUR team.

 

There are expectations from all sides. The ultimate purpose of a district or council is to support the units, leaders and youth within the district or council. The DE's are generally focused on increasing the numbers. The District Commissioner should be interested and focused on supporting the numbers. The District Chair / Committee should also be focused on supporting the numbers and the needs of the Commissioners to support the units. It sounds a little confusing, but it's all perspective.

 

If a District Commissioner isn't interested in supporting new units, he/she isn't doing his/her job.

 

I could go on for days on this particular subject and branch off in multiple directions, but I won't. There's info available if you know where to look. Check out the latest The Commissioner newsletter http://scouting.org/filestore/pdf/522-975_Spring2010.pdf .

 

Rob

District Commissioner

[GKlose]

Rob -- I know what you mean, especially the part about being able to branch off in all sorts of directions. It is a committee's worth of stuff to handle (district committee, and membership committee) and it certainly can't be handled (at least handled well) by one or two people.

 

NJCubScouter -- I find that the units in our district pay little attention to the district committee. Most "transient Cub Scouters" (the ones who are in for only a couple of years or so) think of everything that isn't their unit as "the council", and don't necessarily understand the finance, advancement, activities, camping, membership, etc. functions of the district committee.

 

JHankins -- you're on the mark about the membership committee manual. There's lots of detail in it. Lots of stuff for one committee to handle.

 

JerseyScout, and others -- the district membership committee is not supposed to recruit! The point behind my story is that I have a UC hammering on me to recruit for two of his three units. In other words, his units have not figured out yet how to recruit for themselves.

 

But -- our committee (me; and the DE) assists with flyer production (which relates to the annual marketing campaign) and distribution. I've also suggested a multi-unit "school night" but the units in my town each want to do their own thing.

 

I'm trying to take the angle that with limited resources, my "committee" can only handle so much, and it is probably best spent in working on tools to assist with membership. For example, I realized that in my own leader position-specific training we spent close to zero time on membership. There is an opportunity for a district membership chair to develop a sort of into to recruiting for unit leaders that don't know how to handle it.

 

There are flyers on year-round recruiting for Boy Scouts, and Webelos-To-Scout transition (you can find them, not so easily though, on www.scouting.org); I've delivered similar information at monthly roundtables.

 

I also mentioned the fact that we don't have a single resource that lists all units in our district, with contact information, and maybe even CO name, and nights they meet. That could be a useful tool.

 

Same thing goes for membership numbers. We don't know how many scouts or units we've lost over the past, say, ten years. Nor do we know how that compares to the council figures or the national figures (everyone knows that membership is down, but how much? How is our district doing in comparison?). I have a district chair that keeps asking me "our half-life is XX years, what are you doing about it?".

 

Here is another real-life example: I didn't know, and local units didn't know, that Tiger Cub recruiting can start June 1 for Kindergarten boys. They are considered Tiger Cub-eligible at that point. I learned this from my DE last spring. So I quickly threw together a 10-minute presentation for the May roundtable that had a three-pronged theme: Tiger Cub recruiting from Kindergarten as of June 1, but that makes no sense if you a pack doesn't have a summer pack program. I then quickly went through some ideas to show how easy it is to throw together a pack program. Then, earning the summertime pack award.

 

Guy

[GKlose]

Sorry to keep overloading this topic, but I've been learning this the hard way over the last couple of years --

 

To put it simply, I find that membership has its seasons, so to speak. Fall recruiting is primarily Cub Scouts, and then the next major time is Webelos-to-Scout transition, which typically starts after the first of the year. Boy Scout recruiting is meant to be year-round, and it is (at the least the national organization point of view is) open houses, boy-to-boy recruiting and Webelos-to-Scout transition. New unit growth doesn't have a particular season, but in my experience it takes several months to get something going. In between the major seasons, I do my roundtable talks (and due to roundtable attendance, I know it is a limited audience; so I send out email messages, kind of on a quarterly basis).

 

I haven't mentioned Venturing, which isn't really big in our district, so I don't have a lot to add. However, I did attend a breakfast with my DE, a prospective crew adviser and the DE in our council that sort of oversees Venturing unit startup. I didn't have much to add to the conversation, other than "the committee" would help with publicity for an open house. My guess is that if you build a co-ed unit from the ground up, girls would not feel so uncomfortable about joining, and boys would flock to it, but maybe I'm naive. The prospective crew adviser didn't want to hear any of that. He is more concerned about talking to local Boy Scout troops and letting them know that their older boys would have an option for getting more high adventure. Although I'm not entirely sure, I would guess that most troops don't want another unit pulling away their older scouts. So I'm not sure how that will all go.

 

Guy