Keeping youth interested and rebuilding a crew.

[trailfinder52@yahoo.com]

In the crew I have been helping since I have been in scouting there has been a great loss of interest and we are trying to keep a bare bones crew. A new crew has formed close by and a few of the guys are thinking about going to the new crew. At a recent crew meeting. The young man that is taking over for the president is one of youth about to head for the new crew. But in trying to keep the old crew going as much as we can we talked him into organizing a trip to Harpers Ferry and that was very difficult but he said he would do it one more time. How do we get more youth, and then how do we keep them? I talked to one advisor about program, but he said without youth no program, He is very set on youth leadership, I agree but I think that we need to have something to get the youth's attention. Dull crew business meetings just do not work. But no one has an idea. It seems like they want us to just feed them what to do. Help

[Beavah]

One of the hardest things for crews in our district is understandin' that recruitin' has to be a constant activity. It seems like many of the crews form around a "core" group that came in at startup, and once they move on da crew folds. Short-term high school clique kind of thing.

 

The other thing to look at is whether your program matches their schedule. Yeh mention dull crew meetings. Maybe you're tryin' to be too much like a troop. Crews seem to do best on a high school schedule. Activities, gatherings, and hangin' out more than meetings. Random more than scheduled. Maybe a "business meeting" a month with pizza.

 

Successful crews also seem to run hot and cold. They ramp up to a big activity then go quiet for a bit. Yeh got to remember that this is kids' lives... they ramp up for a paper or finals or homecoming and then go quiet for a bit. Yeh just need to help them have "the next big thing" scheduled down the road to ramp up for.

 

So I'd add some adult "push" for recruiting and some more adult support to help 'em plan the next big thing. Encourage activities more than meetings, and go with their lead on those things.

 

[Eamonn]

For a while in our District we had a fair amount of Crews springing up all over the place.

While of course each situation was a little different. What seemed to be happening was that someone wanted to do something to hold the interest of old Scouts in a Troop and in most cases using the same CO and Boy Scout leaders started a Crew.

These Crews really never had any idea of what they were about. If asked they would say they were a High Adventure Crew, but it seemed that there never was any adventure in anything they ever did.

I was talking with a fellow from Virginia they seem to have a good Venturing Crew, they had been an Explorer Post that did a lot of activities that had to do with radios. The guy I was talking with works for NASA. The young people who join that crew join because they have an interest in radios. This seems to work for them.

I know that there are some Crews that do very well working hand in hand with members who are also in the Boy Scout Troop with the same CO. However that wasn't the case in our area. The Crews never seemed to reach out to non-Boy Scouts or girls and the big activities seemed to be helping out at Boy Scout events.

We do have one Crew in the Council where the adults are into guns and shooting, about once a month they go shooting and other than that they go ten-pin bowling every now and then.

I used to think this was strange, but after talking with some of the youth members, they seem happy and the Crew is doing what they want to do.

Very often a Venturing unit when it starts will take on the interest of the adults who are there or the organization that is chartering the Crew.

The Crews that we seen spring up with no idea where they were going didn't last very long.

I have to admit to being too much of an old Boy Scouter to really get the "Venturing Frame Of Mind", because of that I got involved in Sea Scouting. Sure we had some interest from a few Boy Scouts to start, but for my part I liked the fact it was very structured and someone with a pea brain like me could follow the program.

We have grown by leaps and bounds.

We have some members who never miss a meeting or activity, while others pick and choose what they want to participate in depending on interest and what else they might be involved in.

The big problem we faced was communication. The Scouts needed to know what was going on a fair amount of time ahead so they could make plans to attend.

For a while when we started I got very frustrated I was planning activities and events and they either weren't interested or were already doing something else. At the time we didn't really have any youth leadership, so if I hadn't we would have ended up doing nothing, so it was a catch 22 situation.

Now we have the youth leadership in place and have spent a fair amount of time on Quarterdeck Training, things are getting better. I still have to follow up and chase them and I do hold them accountable to do what they have said that they are going to do.

Some of the adults in the Ship still think we need to do stuff with Boy Scout Troops, thankfully the Sea Scouts don't see it that way.

We are moving ahead, but still have a few problems with motivating them to get involved in Fund raising events.

Maybe you should try meeting with the people from the other Crew?

I don't know how many youth members each unit has? But what would happen if you joined forces and tried working together?

With so much going on and this age group being involved in so many activities any event that sees 50% attendance is in my book a success. We have 32 Sea Scouts, some events will only see 10 or 12 (I hate that HS Band!!) Of course if you only have 6 or 8 Venturers and only half of them show it makes the event seem like it wasn't worth organizing particularly if one of the youth members has put a lot of time and effort into organizing it.

Good Luck.

Eamonn.

[John-in-KC]

Eamonn,

 

" (I hate that HS Band!!) "

 

Speaking as both a committee member for a Crew, as a COR, and as a band parent, what's up here?

 

You live in small town America, I live in the burbs in Flyover Country. It's kinda sorta a given: Friday night in the Fall is high school football night, and that means the team, the band, the cheerleaders, the dance team, the baton twirlers, flag girls, ad infinitum.

 

Rather than hating the band, may I suggest you delight that so many of your young men and women have artistic talent, like having healthy and safe fun, and are learning something to boot?

 

In our school's band, the percentage of Eagle Scouts and GSUSA Gold Awards is actually higher within the band than in the general population. These are kids who have some drive.

 

I'm sorry, E, I'm really upset over this. Have you thought of organizing a Crew that leverages the band student council and the parents organization?

 

John

[Beavah]

I see a lot of band kids in troops and crews. They're good kids.

 

I think what Eamonn is sayin, though, is that band programs, like kids sports, get a bit out of hand. Schedules seem to come out fairly late around here, and so "step on" other activities planned well in advance.

 

Band is often taken as a "class" for a grade, but unlike all other classes it has all kinds of "required" events outside of school/class time. Often the "required" time is on the order of an hour or two, but it can cost a youth a whole long weekend. A kid can choose to quit football mid-season, or make choices about missing practice (one commitment) to serve as SPL (another commitment) without riskin' his GPA. But not so for many band programs.

 

All this (late scheduling, school grade, "required" out-of-school events at odd times) makes band programs the most inconsiderate and intrusive of school activities. Great kids, great activity, but it is possible to "hate" band programs if yer tryin' to provide kids other cool learnin' opportunities.

 

 

[Eamonn]

"Have you thought of organizing a Crew that leverages the band student council and the parents organization? "

No I haven't.

My role as Skipper is to train the youth leaders and help them carry out the program that they decide upon.

Our COR,who is also a Ship's Mate is the Treasurer for the Band Boosters.

All of our Scouts are very busy people, we have Scouts who are involved in a wide variety of activities.

When it comes to planning, we try and get the most bang for our buck, by not clashing with other events.

We ask that Scouts try and let us know as far in advance as they can if they are going to be around or not. They can do this by marking it on the calendar on our Yahoo Group Page.

Looking back over July: July 18 Full Band Music Rehearsal (Tentative) They didn't have it!

July 24 -July 28 Mini Band Camp (Tentative)- It didn't happen

August 7 -August 11 & August 14 -August 18 Full Band Camp. Both were canceled.

August 21- August 23 Marching Band Rehearsal (Tentative) Canceled.

August 24 Parent preview. Yes they did this one!!

August 25 Deer Lakes Football Game (Tentative) canceled because they hadn't rehearsed!!

August 26. Kennywood - Again canceled due to lack of rehearsal.

August 29 - August 31 Rehearsal. They did this.

Mean while the Scouts didn't want to sign up for any activities because they didn't want to miss the stuff the band had put on the calendar.

It seems to me that someone went over the calendar and just filled in any date that they thought something might happen.

Some of the parents were very unhappy and a couple of Band Members who are also Sea Scouts quit the band.

I'm OK with trying to work around or with the activities the Scouts are doing, but I'm not going to change the plans that the Scouts have made just to accommodate the band members.

The Nygard is held over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. The Quarterdeck made plans to attend, nearly all the Scouts signed up.

It's about a five hour drive.

The band members remembered that they were supposed to play at the local Memorial Day Parade on the Monday.

Our COR comes up with the bright idea that we would all return home on Sunday?? He wasn't very happy when I said that I wasn't driving that far, that late at night. The program Sunday runs until about 9:00 PM.

I'm OK with the band members (Six Scouts) leaving early if that's what they want to do.

He dives a small pick up truck. So he wants to rent a van and share the cost with all the Scouts? I say that we didn't need a van to get the Scouts to the event. If he wants to rent one that's up to him, if the parents of the band members want to help pay for the van that's between him and them. Or if the parents want to drive and pick up their child I'm fine with that.

He tells me that I'm being unreasonable??

I remind him that the Scouts didn't have to attend. In the end he drove his son and one other band member home on Sunday, the other Band members were happy to stay.

The next committee meeting he wants the Ship to write to the Regatta Committee asking them to change the date?

I say that I'm happy with it being over a holiday and if he wants to write as a Scout parent he can, but this isn't the feeling of the Ship.

I don't seem to have the same sort of fuss from any other group and we have Scouts in football, soccer, dance, track, rock bands you name it.

Eamonn.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Ahhh.... Now I see some more of the story. Several someones need to have a long heart-heart talk with your band director. It's not just Scouting, with the cancellations you list, he's doing a dis-service to many folks!

 

Son worked at Scout Camp this summer; in fact had to change assignments to accommodate school band camp....

 

1) Camp was announced 1st week of May; he was able to redo work assignments.

2) Football schedule was out 1 June, an area-wide release to all high schools. Of course, what it did was lock in which Fridays were home games.

3) School internal band camp was 31 July-4 August. It happened, 9-4 daily.

4) Pre-season concert was 10 August (Thursday before school started).

5) First parade was 26 August. It happened.

6) First game was 1 September (Labor Day Friday). It happened.

7) Second game was 8 September. It happened.

8) Third game will be 15 September.

9) Second parade will be 16 September AM

10) Eagle COH for 2 young men in the band will be 16 September PM.

 

To me, it sounds like a Scouter needs to run for local Board of Education and start putting heat on the band director to make things happen to standard.

 

 

 

[purcelce]

Here's my take on the situation.

 

Program and active recruiting.

 

My crew is having a campout next weekend two guys that are working on Ranger are doing all the planning. We'll be caving, bluff climbing, and doing some wilderness survival stuff.

 

I had one young lady who joined the crew bring her friend to our family potluck. And our new President is bringing two of his friends to our campout.

 

From what I've seen with my Crew is keep the meetings to a bare minimum, have a few day events mixed in with the weekend events, and hold the youth accountable with their program.

 

 

Cary P

Crew 805 Advisor

[trailfinder52@yahoo.com]

Purcelce

Thank you for your post. I like what you said there, That seems to be to the point and is geared to what teens like. Thanks again

[VentureCrew116]

Also agree with purcelce. The youth want events, not meetings. Disguise the training / communication / organization as a party or overnight or trip. Only excpetions to this I can think of are officer elections and youth protection.

 

When BSA polled dropped Scouts as to why they left, the #1 reason was "boring meetings".