Invitation/Recruiting Letter

[imasoonerfan]

We have a small Crew consisting of 4-8 youth depending upon the event. Most of our Crew has reached their Sr. year in High School and will soon be off to college. When they are gone this Crew will fizzle and die. The youth in it have not had any luck recruiting.

 

I am considering a mass mailing to all of the 9th graders that will be starting high school next week as a recruiting push. Our schools here will not allow us in to try to recruit. We do this with our Cub Scout Pack and it works.

 

Has anyone ever tried a mass mailing to 9th graders for something like this?

 

If so can you post what is in your letter so i can get an idea of what to put in mine?

[John-in-KC]

What is the focus of your Crew? Rather than a mass mail, target to those club sponsors in the HS who have parallel efforts...

 

Has an interest inventory been done in your neck of the woods recently?

 

Frankly, the best advertisers are your own youth.

[imasoonerfan]

their focus is outdoors similar to the Troop. They camp, go caving, backpack (been to Philmomt) as well as some indoors stuff.

 

No inventory recently.

 

They have had zero success recruiting.

[John-in-KC]

1) Do an inventory.

 

2) Get with the area HSs. Look for outdoors based clubs. Promote the opportunity with their faculty sponsors.

 

3) Look at things automotive as well, including road rallies.

 

4) Look at going co-ed.

[imasoonerfan]

Our schools will not cooperate with us at all due to the fear the ACLU has instilled. We get zero help from them.

 

We are CO-ED.

[Eamonn]

Many Councils through their LFL, do get into schools and do an interest survey.

You might want to ask if your Council has done one and ask to see it.

To be very honest, I have never had much joy when it comes to mailings. They have never worked for me.

Some things you might want to try.

Ask the DE to get you a list of all the Boy Scouts who are over 14 who didn't recharter this year. A phone call to these Lads sometimes works.

See what youth are involved with your CO. The Ship I'm connected with keeps a news board in the entrance of the club telling what the Ship has done recently. Many of the members who have daughters didn't know that girls could be in the BSA.

Talk with local churches and youth groups.

Talk with local SM's. They at times have older Scouts who are still on the charter but might do better in a Crew.

Keep as many of the youth that you have on this years Charter. They do come home! Many still want a place to hang out with when they do come home and look for things that will get them out of the house.

In our area more and more kids are going to community colleges and colleges that are close to home. It is still possible to plan and have events, without having to have weekly meetings.

Eamonn.

[John-in-KC]

E hit an important point. Venturing is not necessarily a weekly thing. In town, in fact, I'd submit bi-weekly or monthly is better. Business session, get the coordination done for the next event, scatter.

 

As far as the schools go, don't ask for lists from them. Hit their websites. Find out who the club sponsor teachers are. Invite them to friendly cups of coffee.

 

The youth have email, twitter, their cell phones, skype, ichat, facebook... Trust me, they can and do communicate.

[click23]

If they let other youth organiations in to recruit, then they must let you in.

 

The Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act provides that,

 

no public elementary school, public secondary school, local educational agency, or State educational agency that has a designated open forum or a limited public forum and that receives funds made available through the Department shall deny equal access or a fair opportunity to meet to, or discriminate against, any group officially affiliated with the Boy Scouts of America...that wishes to conduct a meeting within that designated open forum or limited public forum, including denying such access or opportunity or discriminating for reasons based on the membership or leadership criteria or oath of allegiance to God and country of the Boy Scouts of America...

 

Which basically means that if they offer something to one outside group, they must offer least the same to the BSA. If a school fails to comply with this act, they risk loosing all of their federal funding. You might want to have your council look into this.

[Crew21_Adv]

imasoonerfan,

 

Greetings!

 

A few fellow Venturers gave you great advice. John in KC hit the nail on the head. Frankly, the best advertisers are your own youth.

 

The teenagers in the high school don't want to hear some middle aged guy standing in front of the school wearing a green shirt. They will briefly check out what a friend (Venturer) says is cool.

 

Here is my advice and a few comment..

 

Recruit a high school teacher to be your Associate Advisor, a former Eagle Scout if you can. One that sees the educational-fun benefit of Venturing.

 

Many primary and elementary school teachers have seen the Cub Scout program offers the "Academic and Sports" belt loop recognition program, and academic learning involved. But the high school teachers, principals and staff need to learn that Venturing is not only a social/recreational club, but an educational program as well.

 

Early in September, conduct a fun day Venturing event. See if you can obtain permission to conduct Low COPES (no climbing or jumping) and team building games in the food court of your local mall or in the lobby of the local movie theater. Some of the games that teenagers would laugh and participate in, and can easily walk into. (Such as, silent line up by height, silent line up by age, everyone up, team pushups, traffic jam, acid river, or bring a few Jenga games). Various games that the local teenagers can walk up to and participate while they can.

 

I have a local handout flyer saying "It is easy being green", top part of the flyer has Kermit, Hulk, gremlin, green lantern, etc., middle has our contact info, and the bottom portion has action pictures of our Crew biking, hiking, shooting, riding, eating, playing, etc.

 

Good Luck!

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

 

[Eamonn]

You might want to meet with the members you have now and come up with a plan of things that the Crew is going to try and do over the next year.

We try for one event a month.

Some events are not that exciting, like over Christmas they just meet at a local Pizza Hut and eat (Seems that these guys are always eating!)

All night bowling always seems like a big hit.

While they enjoy this sort of thing, the main reason for us having them is to keep everyone in contact with each other.

They enjoy seeing each other and finding out what everyone is up too.

Depending on where you live? Some fun events can be put on a calender. Our guys have a ski day planned, but I'll bet that when the time comes they will want to go tubing instead.

It is far easier to invite people to something that is planned than invite them to come and then ask them what they want to do. Once they are in, then they can start coming up with ideas and planning events that they want to do.

Ea.

[imasoonerfan]

They have already planned out the next year so that is not an issue.

 

They have tried inviting kids and it just never seems to workout. Not sure about your areas but Venturing in Oklahoma is not that big. Very few Crews and very small.

 

We are to the point of make or break. We have a very successful Troop with 50+ active boys but the Crew is just dying a painful death.

 

Thanks for the advice everyone.