Membership Woes

[Eamonn]

I kind of touched on this some time back.

My big concern is that we are just growing in size way too fast.

For those who are new.

A couple of Boy Scouts met a couple of Sea Scouts at the Jambo.

They thought it would be a cool program.

We chartered the Ship in November of 2005.

Most of the Sea Scouts are also Boy Scouts, we do have a few ex-scouts, a few girls and a couple of Lads who never were Scouts or girls.

Add this lot up and we have 32 Sea Scouts.

Sea Scouting has a requirement that each Sea Scout has to introduce a new recruit.

The guys we have working at Summer Camp have gone wild.

They have been wearing dress uniforms to colors and really selling the program.

One Lad came to the house today. He'd asked if I had any membership applications. I hadn't asked how many? When he arrived he said he wanted 20!!

One retiring Boy Scout Activities Chair, had been up at camp and the Sea Scouts worked on him!! He phoned with an offer of a boat, his services and five more members.

It seems that we have approx. 40 prospects.

I know that not all of them are going to join.

But there is no way we can manage a Ship of 50 Sea Scouts.

Sadly we are the only Sea Scout Ship in the Council, we have one in West Virginia and there is one in Pittsburgh, about 45 miles away(I don't know how active they are, the West Virginia Ship is really active, but its a good 90 minute drive.)

The general feeling that I got when I said we were starting the Ship, from the Scouter's in the Council was that I was off my rocker!!

OK I admit I'm enjoying rubbing their nose in it!!

Still I'm unsure what to do with so many Scouts?

I really don't want to turn them away.

I don't believe in waiting lists.

I'm not going to go through all the hassle of starting another Ship and even if I did I don't know where I'd find the adult leadership?

I'm not doing anything to recruit new members, even though I'd like to see a few more girls!!

I don't have the time to split the Ship and run two meeting.

We don't have a SE and the DE is about as much use pockets in your underwear. In fact the new general feeling seems to be "You knew this was going to happen and you asked for it!!"

Sure I knew it was a good idea. But I didn't think we would grow this big, this fast.

This year we only lost one Lad to college, next year we should lose four more.(They can remain on the charter but aren't going to be that active-This years loss has gone to North Dakota, he might be around for some activities.)

We still have 4 more weeks of camp left, if the Camp Staff "Press Gang" keeps this up.

I think we will have no alternative but to start another Ship and hope in time that we find the adults.

Eamonn.

[Aquila calva]

Congratulations, Eamonn! Three cheers.

 

Membership Success!

 

Adult Leadership Woes.

 

Carry on.

[Eamonn]

Sadly I don't see it as something to cheer about.

It shows bad planning on my part and it seems all that good stuff I was supposed to know about being Prepared got lost along the way.

My vision when we started was to have a bunch of about 20 -24 older kids and just go out and have fun on the water.

I was worried when we got 30 Scouts.

Now I'm really worried.

I never wanted to do much more than just provide a program that would be fun to a small group.

I really like the idea of knowing each and every Scout and I fear this is going to get to get lost.

If these youth join and then don't get what they expect to get, they will be gone and at this age they will be gone for good. I really don't want to the one who ruins what could be a good thing for them, because we can't deliver the goods

Eamonn.

[wojauwe]

Eamonn

Have you made contact with adults connected with these new recruits?Adult leaders from the troops and parents.With 40 youth prospects there should be a few good adult prospects who might catch the Sea Scouting bug.Sounds like you have some good salesmen for the program.Direct them in direction of the adults as well.

Hang in there.Sounds to me like you've done an awesome job of starting what could become far more than you ever dreamed.New ships may come out of this but this need not be your job.You can train the leaders who will take this dream to next level.

I'm sorry to hear that you have little support from SE or DE.That could change quickly if they become aware of the numbers you are adding to the scouting program.their jobs are directly linked to these numbers.

Good luck and you do deserve cheers.Your only mistake was not being able to predict this unexspected success.

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

E,

 

I'd be lobbying that retiring Boy Scout Activities Chair who offered a boat and his services to start another Ship. Offer him as much advice and assistance as possible. Then you could really rub everyone's nose in it when there are two Ships up and running.

[CNYScouter]

My ideal size for a sip is also about 25 kids.

The Ship chartered on June 8th with 6 kids.

I just registered numbers 9 and 10.

 

Our CO and I are also worried about being able to handle a large number of kids.

 

The difference we have is that only one of the ship members has scouting experiance (my son)and the young ladies are turning out more (almost 2 to 1) than the males.

 

If we continue to grow at our current rate (and we haven't even started recruiting scouts yet) we will be in the same boat(pun intended).

 

A few things I do get from your post is

that there is a need and want for a high school age Scout program.

If you run a good program they will come.

 

I think it really shows how a poor job Troops are doing running older boy programs.

 

I also see that a uniform can make a difference.

The white dress uniform is impractical from a functional stand point but it does look sharp and seems to draw the kids in recruiting wise.

 

After reading your post and being involved with the program I can see why Sea Scouts is the biggest growing program in Scouting today.

[CNYScouter]

My ideal size for a sip is also about 25 kids.

The Ship chartered on June 8th with 6 kids.

I just registered numbers 9 and 10.

 

Our CO and I are also worried about being able to handle a large number of kids.

 

The difference we have is that only one of the ship members has scouting experiance (my son)and the young ladies are turning out more (almost 2 to 1) than the males.

 

If we continue to grow at our current rate (and we haven't even started recruiting scouts yet) we will be in the same boat(pun intended).

 

A few things I do get from your post is

that there is a need and want for a high school age Scout program.

If you run a good program they will come.

 

I think it really shows how a poor job Troops are doing running older boy programs.

 

I also see that a uniform can make a difference.

The white dress uniform is impractical from a functional stand point but it does look sharp and seems to draw the kids in recruiting wise.

 

After reading your post and being involved with the program I can see why Sea Scouts is the biggest growing program in Scouting today.

[emb021]

"I also see that a uniform can make a difference.

The white dress uniform is impractical from a functional stand point but it does look sharp and seems to draw the kids in recruiting wise. "

 

And this is why the Navy (and Sea Scouts) have different uniforms.

 

(btw, in Sea Scouts we have 'summer white', not 'dress white'. There is a difference.)

 

Ships around here summer white for meetings (and, yes, recruiting ). When sailing, its usually (depending on when/where you are) either t-shirts & shorts or blue work uniform (chambray blue). In fact, for SEAL the youth are required to wear the blue work uniform (the adults I understand wear the summer tan uniform).

 

 

 

 

[Eamonn]

OK, here I go sticking my neck out.

I kinda think one of the reasons why Sea Scouting is so attractive to young people is that they can understand it!

They get to use all the skills that they learn.

There are some really outstanding Venturing Crews that do a wonderful job and provide a fantastic program.

But a young person trying to read the Venturing Handbook ends up unsure about what is going on/

As to the dress white uniform.

Page 107 of the Sea Scout Manual states:

The national official Sea Scout uniform, youth dress white, conforms to the U.S. Navy enlisted specifications and consists of a white traditional jumper with flap on the back, white trousers, Navy-style white enlisted cover (hat)(no insignia on cover and identical cover for male and female)...

white uniforms are known in the Navy as undress whites.

The Sea Scout Manual refers to the white uniform as dress white uniform -Which is what it is in Sea Scouting.

The khaki uniform is the Adult Work Uniform (page 111)

We had our golf outing fund raising event today.

The Sea Scouts wore their working uniforms during the day and changed into dress white uniforms for dinner.

Everyone mentioned how good they looked.

A mother of twin girls didn't know that girls could be Sea Scouts- Our Scouts were telling her about our program. She said that her girls weren't getting much from the Girl Scouting program -We have two more girls going sailing with us on August 5!!

Beaver,

I'd love to do what you suggest, but right now I need all the help I can get.

The program is so very expensive that until we can get one Ship well equipped we would end up hurting each other if we had two.

I'm sure when others see how easy this is??? That we will see a few more Ships in our Council.

The sad thing is that most of the adults that are in the program have got used to doing everything close to home. This while possible, is really hard when you are in a land locked state. The nearest floatilla is in the next state!! They see spending a week at Summer Camp as a big trip -I can drive to the camp is less than 25 minutes!!

Later in August we have booked the NE-Region Training Ship for a weekend -It's in Baltimore a 400 mile round trip!

Part of the attraction for our Sea Scouts is that they get to go to new places away from home.

I'm becoming very well well acquainted with the rest stops on Interstate 95 and all the fast food joints (Sea Scouts seem to prefer Wendy's!!)

Eamonn.

 

 

[wojauwe]

Wow! I had no idea you faced such a logistical problem.I was thinking you just had the normal need for adult leadership.You need some very special driven people.

We are so spoiled in our council,with a Seabase on the Columbia near where the Willamette joins up.It's closer to the main population center than any of our summer camps.

[SR540Beaver]

Ya know, you'd think the GSUSA would look at the older girls flocking to Venturing, scratch their heads and wonder where they made a wrong turn......but evidently not.

 

I'm not sure since I'm not involved, but I think the girls either equal or out number the boys in the crew our charter and troop just started.

[emb021]

"Ya know, you'd think the GSUSA would look at the older girls flocking to Venturing, scratch their heads and wonder where they made a wrong turn......but evidently not. "

 

Go take a look at their "Studio 2B" program...

 

Also, see if you can find any info on how the girls have reacted to the program...

 

 

[Eamonn]

Hey Beav,

I don't have the GSUSA. I have no idea what is happening with their membership.

I do know that Venturing membership here in the NE-Region is down by about 15%.

So if the girls are coming over to the BSA,the boys must be leaving at the same time in greater numbers.

I'm sure a lot of the growth that we are seeing is due to the fact that we are new and different, so there is maybe a novelty factor.

I don't know anything about the GSUSA -Heck I have a hard time keeping up with what's going on in the BSA!!

However it seems to me that the parents of girls seem to have a lot more input with the activities that their daughters follow than the parents of boys seem to have.

In our area GSUSA units seem to be here for a little while and then seem to disappear overnight. We (the BSA) might want to take a long hard look at the way we "sell" Venturing and Sea Scouting to girls. While all the material seems to be based on grabbing the interest of the youth, because they are of an age when they can decide what they want to do. (Which of course they are!) It seems to me we need to get the message out to the parents.

The parents of the female Sea Scouts seem to want to know every last detail about what we are doing, where we are going and all that good stuff and are far more protective than the parents of the male Sea Scouts.

Of course this could be due to the fact that many of the boys have been in Boy Scouting and the parents know that we are not going to do anything that would hurt or harm their kid.

We of course have one mother of a male Scout, who sits at home and worries herself silly, thinking up different ideas of how I'm going to not bring her son home!!

As we were kayaking in the middle of no where a blimp flew over. The Lad looked up and said "Oh No!! It's my Mom checking up on me!"

Eamonn.

[SR540Beaver]

OK, I admit it....I'm talking about something I know absolutely nothing about. All I know of GSUSA is what the good folks here at scouter.com who are involved in GS have said. It appears that Studio2B has a resemblance to Venturing in that it is something of a free form program for older girls that is designed by them. My point is that many of the GS folks I've heard discuss GS is that there is very less emphasis on outdoors or high adventure than there used to be. I'm sure that the "majority" of girls won't have the same interest as the boys. Heck, there are a lot of boys who are not interested in anything other than video games and skateboards or team sports. It "seems" that Venturing probably provides girls with more outdoor and high adventure opportunities than GSUSA does. GSUSA knows their core audience and plays to that just like BSA does. I don't know about you guys, but every summer camp I've been to has a good number of female staff members who are members of Venturing Crews. I believe they are members of crews because they can't find the same experience as readily in GSUSA. That is just my opinion and it and $3.95 will buy you a cup of coffee at Starbucks......if you order the small.