So How Was School Sign Up Night?

[Eamonn]

Last year at the end of the School round up / Sign up for Scouting Night we had reached our goal. We had a few problems with the Boy Scout goal. We ended the year with a 5% growth in Cub Scouts and plus 3 in Boy Scouts along with plus 5 in Venturers.

Sad to report that is not the case this year. At our DCM last night it was reported that we are still 124 Cub Scouts away from the goal.

Last year the DE and I danced a little jig.

No such joy or jig this year.

Are we alone?

How did you do?

Eamonn

[va-scouter]

An all-out success... our pack more than doubled at Round-up. Now if we can just keep them.

 

Last year we lost every single Tiger by the Spring, so we were completely without a Wolf group at the beginning of this one.

 

We picked up 10 Tigers, 14 Wolves, 7 Bears, and 6 Webelos. The Bear and Webelos groups both doubled in size.

 

It's going to be a challenge, to say the least.

[AdvanceOn]

Congratulations on such a successful sign-up night.

 

Our district, unfortunately is really struggling with sign up nights. We currently don't have a DE so there has been only one school talk and two sign up nights. I try to do most of the boy talks and sign up nights but without the DE doing the flyers and helping out we're just losing momentum. Hope they hire someone soon.

 

 

[Twocubdad]

Last year was off for us, although we ended up "plus one" or better in all three areas.

 

I haven't heard totals for the district, but I know we were already plus one or better in Boy Scouts and Venturers and the early Roundup numbers were very strong for the Cubs.

 

My pack, er, the pack for which I spent two evenings signing up new Scouts, did very well with about 35 new boys, including 24 new Tigers.

[troop_358_potlatch]

The school night for my pack was disappointing. Mostly thanks to the CC. She did not get the flyers sent home with the boys,(she has had them for 2 weeks), so we only had 3 new boys sign up. I talked to our DE and he said that for the pack meeting in Oct. he will take care of the promotion, so hopefully we will get more next month.I wish we could get a new CC, but do not see that happening. She just doesn't really want the job, but doesn't want anyone else to have it either.It frustrates me to no end.

[Laurie]

To my knowledge, the troop my son is in does not recruit. However, there have been many new boys over the past few months. Someone is talking up the troop

 

As for our pack, our DE gave us a goal of 25 more Cubs than last year. Last year, with fliers alone and late at that, the pack went from 19 boys to 45, with most of the boys in all ranks being brand new to Cubs. This year we promoted more, but we only had 2 new boys at our roundup, and we had 13 boys return. We know of three others who are interested, but that is it.

(This message has been edited by Laurie)

[CubsRgr8]

Thursday night 22 (!) boys signed up - 12 tigers, 6 wolves, 3 bears and 1 webelos - a 50% increase for us. What really helped was that we also sent home a schedule with the flyers that listed all pack meetings and activities for the year.

[SR540Beaver]

We had tables at three different schools for their open houses the day before school started. We had the table covered with patches, model rockets, pine cars, etc. We even ahd a Coleman stove set up with a laptop inside it playing a slideshow of Pack activities and campouts. We had flyers with our Rally/Pack Meeting date and time to hand out. We signed up 18 boys at our rally and have had 3 to 5 more sign up since then. We don't have a good head count yet of returning boys, but we believe we will be over 50 boys total when all is said and done. All in all, a very successful effort.

[Fat Old Guy]

"This year we promoted more, but we only had 2 new boys at our roundup, and we had 13 boys return."

 

You lost 32 Cub Scouts over the summer? How did that happen. My old pack ran into recruiting problems but over the four years that I was involved, we only lost a handful of boys (We had about 40 Cubs until my last year when my son's den crossed over and we got virtually no new Scouts). We lose them during the first summer of Boy Scouts. The troop had 20 Cub Scouts cross over and nearly half bailed after Summer Camp.

 

 

[fotoscout]

School Night was, of course, the night the hurricane was support to hit us. Fortunately the weather wasnt all that bad here, but Im sure it kept some people home.

 

However, my Pack gained 10 boys. 4 Tigers, 4 Wolves, and 2 Bears. This isnt to bad for us, some years we gain 20 or more, and some years less than 10. It seems to be very inconsistent. We dont yet have a good count on who is not returning this year, but I suspect that this will keep us at our total number of just over 60 boys.

 

Across the district I understand that it has not been a good year so far. The numbers appear to be down, but no one knows how much the storm plays into it. By the end of October we will have a better idea of where we stand.

 

[Laurie]

FOG: Yes, we lost that many. Some quit during the year last year, but no records were kept, so we're not sure who and when. We had one trained leader, the CM, and he was completely unaware there was training available or a Cub Scout Leader Handbook. We did not present awards at every pack meeting--only at the Blue and Gold. We did not plan on a summer program, but instead threw it together at the end of the school year. So, the way I see it, we kept those families who really wanted to be part of Cubs, and those who weren't interested or were trying to figure how to prioritize activitie didn't see enough excitement to stay with Cubs. That sounds harsh, I know, but it's where we're at, and I'm hoping that we can promote our events now--before and after--and regain those boys who truly want to be part of the pack. My goal is to win over the parents right now, so I've a stack of really nice brochures to pass around. It's doable, but we have to prove we're worth being part of. All leaders but one were going to quit, but over the summer I spent a lot of time with them. All but one stayed with us, and 3 new leaders were recruited. All are interested in training with most signed up already. So, it's disappointing, but it should not come as a surprise. Apparently, though I'm sold on this pack and Cubs in general, and I can talk it up, I was the only one that was not surprised at the low turnout. I'm reading this thread with interest; there are good ideas here.

[Eamonn]

Now that I'm done crying in my beer/coffee.

We have gone into action.

The people who are our community FOS workers, worked really hard and went above and beyond this year. So far we are the only district to reach our finance goals.

While everyone wants the district to be Quality again this year, I would really like us to make it because they worked so darn hard.

So far I have sent a letter to each School Night coordinator thanking them for what they have done. I asked them to not stop. This letter was sent with a sheet showing where they were this time last year, at the end of the year and how many applications they had turned in.

One Cubmaster wrote back saying that he had recruited ten more Cubscouts another wrote telling me that he had doubled his membership from 13 to 26.

There is a letter going to each and every Cubscout asking them to bring a friend to the next meeting, this letter has a picture of the really neat new recruiter patch.

I have a pal who owns a chain of pizza shops, he is going to provide a pizza party to any den that grows by 50%. I had asked for a pack his idea was to do it by den. He is the Dad of three adult Eagle Scouts.

The numbers are going up. Maybe not as fast as I would like, but they are moving.

Just in case we don't make it, I'm going into the high schools to see if we can recruit a lot more Venturers.

That way we might make it on the 2%.

Strange thing is that on my drive to work there is a church that has a billboard that has a kind of thought for the day. The other day it read;

"In these trying times keep trying."

I wonder if the Big Guy was trying to tell me something?

Eamonn