Recruiting

[Eamonn]

Venturing seems to be the program that is the one that is the most misunderstood.

When Councils and Districts could make Quality by showing 2% growth, some units that ought to have been in the LFL program were placed in Venturing.

Even now DE's who need to end the year +1 in units will look at a Troop with older Scouts and see if there is any way that a new Crew can be made to spring up.

Still despite these misunderstandings and abuse, there are Crews that are doing a good job and are helping to work toward the vision and mission statements of the BSA.

While it seems to me that many work in the High Adventure Area, I'm sure that there are others that work in other areas.

I'm really interested to hear how these successful Crews go about recruiting Crew Members.

So far the best thing that has happened in Sea Scout Ship 777 is girls. They seem a lot happier to invite their girl friends along than the boys do. Without any effort we now have 4 female members.

Do First-nighters really work?

I send out 48 letters to High School Students that had in the survey that our Council sends to the HS, said that they had an interest in nautical activities. So far the response has been a big fat zero!!

While I'm sure that some of the Crews that are off-shoots of Troops do make it. Sadly in our area the Crews either only last a year or the youth are all Boy Scouts and don't really do anything as a Crew.

I have read nearly all if not all the ideas that National has put out. I want to know which ideas work and which don't.

I'd really love to hear ideas that you have tried and do work no matter how far "Out of the box" they are.

Eamonn.

[scoutldr]

As long as the professionals are judged by the numbers, there will be creative bookkeeping.

 

I think peer-to-peer recruiting is the most effective. In my house, if it looks like "junk mail", I don't even get to see it.

[purcelce]

Howdy Eazy E.

 

This is what worked for our crew, and my opinions.

 

Survey letters are a waste of paper. Also "First nights" and open houses aren't that great either. Word of mouth amongst the teenagers works has been working for recruiting in our crew. Also invite potential members to your crew activities and meetings. That way the recruits get to see the crew in action. In the past six months I've only had one kid not fill out an application. This young man only showed up because he was "chasing" one of our female members.

 

You can check out http://groups.msn.com/BSACrew805 it may give you some other ideas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EagleInKY]

DE's driven by numbers drive me crazy. I have a great relationship with our DE. He gives our pack and troop a lot of good press and always sends good prospects our way. But he has been hounding me lately about starting a venture crew. We only have a few guys old enough to participate and frankly, they aren't that interested. Adult leadership is a little thin in this area as well. I don't think the CO will go along, but the DE is going to try and sell it to them anyway. Time will tell.

[Eamonn]

EagleInKY

I really think that it because of DE'S like yours that we have so many Crews that only last a year. Of course he may be under pressure from his bosses to bring home new units.

purcelce

I had a nose around the web site!

It seems like you have all got it together.

I have been giving this subject a little thought and have come up with:

A lot of youth this age have out-grown being cool!! In fact the coolest things they do are things that they want to do! Many are happy to let everyone know that they enjoy things that are viewed as not being cool.

They really want to be doing stuff and having fun. They will do the boring stuff if they see that it is the means to an end.

We need to spend some time training the officers and at times provide a nudge.

When someone volunteers or is in charge of something follow up is essential. Some people this age have made procrastination into an art form.

Our Sea Scouts set a membership goal for the end of the year, they have "Ownership" of this goal. That way they want to see the Ship grow and it isn't me harping on all the time.

When they bring a pal to an activity we the adults have to make sure we go out of our way to make him or her feel very welcome. Just because kids go to the same school doesn't mean they know each other, very often the only person he knows is the pal who brought him. The sooner he feels part of what is going on the better.

Long term plans provide the carrot.

Kids don't use e-mail.

Adult made plans without their input fail.

Structure isn't a bad thing.

Parents still want to know what's going on and will help if asked.

A wide age group is a good thing.

Doing things is the big thing. The more stuff they do as a group the more fun they will have.

Listening is vital.

Not doing things will kill the group quicker than anything else.

Membership is on-going and never ending. If you stop one day you will wake up and they will all be off to college.

Cutting ties with the Troop isn't a bad thing.

Just helping at Camporees is not what the program is about.

Eamonn.

[AwHeck]

Our former DE said that if a group of boys came to her and said they wanted to form a Crew, the first question she asked was "where are the girls?" From what she had seen when a few older scouts get together and form a crew, without recruiting any girls, it will be functional until they go off to college. If they have a mix of girls and boys, however, the synergy is there and recruitment happens and the crew has a better chance of long-term success.

 

 

 

[Eamonn]

A little time back a ASM in the Troop that my son is in thought it would be a good idea to start a Crew.

He didn't have to do any recruiting he plucked 5 Lads from the Troop, one being his own son.

They started off with much enthusiasm.

They designed a Crew T-shirt.

They started working on a set of by-laws!!

So far other than meet in the room next to the local police holding cell they haven't done an activity

Then Basketball season started and the Advisor's son was on the team. They started missing meetings.

When the son got fed up warming the bench (He wasn't a very good player -A nice Lad, but nothing Magic.) He was given the job of videoing the games. This meant that he had to be at all the games.

I flipped out when I found out that the Crew had gone to a meeting with no adult and found that they couldn't get into the meeting place and had met in a local bar!!

I know the bar owner, he is a nice fellow and ex-Cub Scout. But the bar is a little rough. They didn't try to buy a drink and ordered pop and chicken wings.

Five months passed by and they had done nothing but write by-laws, design a T-shirt and eat some wings.

They made plans to go skiing, at the last minute the Advisor backed out. So I ended up taking them.

Soon after it died.

The real shame is that these are five really good kids.

I feel that we have let them down.

OJ, is now in Sea Scouts. The last time I seen the Advisor he informed me that he was "Taking a break"?? (From what?) His kid is into four-wheeling and has the dirtiest old Jeep you will ever meet. One Lad just received his Eagle. He will be joining the Ship soon. (His Mom said he will!!)One has gone off to college. I'm not sure about the others. I will have to try and find them.

The Crew was a one year wonder.

Maybe someone looked good the year it came in. But the next year it meant that two new units had to be found.

Eamonn.

[scoutldr]

I've been toying with the idea of spinning off a Crew/Ship from our Troop. In order to form a Ship, do you actually have to have one (or boat?)?

[sweetspiritpamh]

My daughter was the vice president in charge of the Crews first nighter. In the past they had always gone to the movie and then gone to a boy scout building and played games and eat the rest of the night away. They always had a great time but this year the building was not available and because they are planning a international trip this next summer we have tryed to be cost minded in their plans. In contacting many other buildings it was apparent it was expensive to rent a overnight place. So the advisors were not overly excited by my daughter used her connections and asked a family friend who had a home theatre and then polled crew members what they wanted to watch. Everyone brought snacks to share, movies of all kinds played ALL night, board games,basketball, cards, dominoes, and old fashioned sitting around and talking happened, Over 30 youth came from over 100 mile radius and even though they are a high adventure based crew this was a great way to start the year relaxing and having a great first nighter with out the headaches and cost.

[Eamonn]

No you don't have to have a boat to be a Sea Scout Ship.

Some Sea Scout Ships are into other water activities(Canoeing, Scuba) Our Scouts decided that they wanted to be an all purpose ship. We now have a 16 foot Fireball which was just donated, so we will be sailing, we have a few canoes and I have to try and make arrangements for us to pick up a 27 foot power boat that another Ship is giving to us.

I had thought that donations would be hard as we are in land locked Pennsylvania, but that hasn't been the case. We have made arrangements with the YMCA to get our Scouts certified in Scuba.

I have been really amazed at how supportive and nice other Sea Scouter's have been. In fact they are just outstanding.

However it isn't cheap. I have been working on a budget and it's mind boggling. Even with the donations. The power boat is in good shape but will need about $3,000. I spent $1,000 in the marine store the other day on stuff that didn't fill the back of my SUV. The guy running the Scuba course normally charges $350.00 But is doing it for $200.00 and the Scouts are paying $20.00 a session. Sea Base for 2007 looks like $1,200 per person.

Of course once we get better at it and find out more I'm sure the costs will go down.

So far the expense hasn't been a problem.

sweetspiritpamh

Sounds like my kinda night.

We had a lot of fun Cosmic Bowling. Nearly all the kids there that night went to the same HS as the Scouts in the Ship. Soon after we had 3 new girls join the Ship.

It was an all night bowl. I was tired but didn't hurt nearly as bad as I did after caving.

Eamonn.

The Boys that we have that were still in a Troop found it very difficult to be in both the Ship and the Troop. We lost one really super Lad, he went back to his troop full time. He says he will be back when he completes his Eagle. He is 17.

I think if I were to try and be active in both programs, I just couldn't do it.

(This message has been edited by Eamonn)