How to jump start an existing crew...

[Lexington76]

I am the advisor for a 6 year old crew that has been very successful in the past,

but with the loss of key older youth and the lack of effort and attendance from

this year's officers, our crew is struggling, down to 4-5 active members. I

also have not been the most effective advisor lately, but we have new adult

assistant advisors who have energized the adult leadership and are really

excited to assist!

 

Any suggestions on how to "jump start" a crew in mid year? Needs would be to add

membership, replace officers who are not attending just give our unit a shot in

the arm Suggestions?

[BadenP]

Wow Lexington you barely have a crew left do you. First you need to do a recruitment night, have your active members recruit/invite their friends and their friends friends to your meeting, put up flyers, etc. Have some ideas of some great activities the crew can get organized quickly, and suggest some long term ones to plan. At this meeting have plenty of food and fun planned, then have the crew lead the discussion to pinpoint the interests of the group. You also need to have a serious talk with your officers before this meeting about their responsibilities to the crew, if they won't step up then it is time for new officers. Lastly make sure the crew gets at least three big activities in the planning stages right away, in the meantime do a night bowling, mini golf, movie, whatever to get this group bonding ASAP.

It may take a lot of work but you will have a stronger crew as a result, Good Luck.

[Stosh]

In my crew we are constantly developing leadership amongst the younger boys simply to avoid what you have described here, the older leaders leave leaving a vacuum of leadership.

 

It is also easy to "relax" when you as advisor have strong older boy leadership and then they leave, oops, you have to "unrelax".

 

If you have had success in the past with your program, get back to basics. Treat it in the same way you did 6 years ago, but this time around you have the advantage of having some people already in place. Have those people draw on any resources they may have around them, friends and others interested in getting involved.

 

Plan some nice trips so that your meetings are not just recruiting. Nothing worse than going to meeting after meeting being reminded of how bad off we are. Keep the program going and invite visitors to check out what you are doing.

 

Look to the future and put out some nice expectations for activities. Plan for success, don't cut back on the program because the bodies aren't there. Go with what you have and have a great time.

 

Remember, with 5 crew members, if each of them brings in one friend, you'll experience 100% growth immediately.

 

Stosh(This message has been edited by jblake47)

[Lexington76]

Thanks all! You've go me thinking and ready to go.... adult leaders are to meet soon and the kids are indoor rock climbing this week... off we go and I'll keep you posted!

[OldGreyEagle]

Going Rock Climbing? Does your Crew have a website? if not how about a Face Book, MySpace, whatever page?

 

Get pictures of the event, put it on the page and have your youth show it to others or post links from their networking pages to the Crew page. yes, someone has to maintain the page, but if they already have networking pages, one more woint be a burden. After the Rock climbing, get pictures of any event you do and post it, sans names of course and in keeping with Scouting values but let the youth share with their none Crew friends what they do

[CNYScouter]

This is not an uncommon problem with Venturing Crews.

Many Crews are started by a group of friends and do not want to add outsiders to the Crew.

Once the initial group ages out or loses interest the Crew folds.

 

Here are some other ideas:

 

Call your council office and ask for the LFL (Learning for Life) director.

 

LFL does an activities interest survey in the High Schools each year and you should be able to get names and addresses of anyone listing camping (or whatever topic(s) you pick.

 

You call also your DE and ask for names of Scouts that dropped out of Scouting that are of Venturing age).

 

Send all these an invitation to a Crew Event (I wouldn't do an open house or just a meeting but an activity)