Recruiting Parents and Scouts, planning ahead

[Tiger Foot]

Our scouting year roughly follows the school year, and that means I'm beginning to wrap up. My first scouting experience has been a fun one. Despite my late start as den leader, I think I've done an okay job. We lost 4 boys, but gained 2 new ones, and I'm just waiting on good weather to complete our last two outings. We also changed Cubmasters during the year and I was 'voluntold' I'm now the assistant Cubmaster, LOL. So, absent other feedback, I think I'm delivering the program the way it should be.

 

Now that the year is winding down (We'll do some pack activities over the summer, but not weekly meetings), I'm trying to plan ahead. I've picked up the the next rank Den Leader guide to start planning adventures on the assumption that I'll be moving up AND serving as ACM. I've taken all the online training I can find. I'm taking BALOO this weekend, and I told my wife that I wanted to go to wood badge as a birthday present.

 

I'm planning on holding meetings with kindergarten age parents before the end of the school year at each of the elementary schools in our district. My hope is to get the word out before the kids start school in the fall so that parents are actively looking to join when their boys start first grade. And I'm hoping to identify parents to step up and take over as the Tiger Den Leader. Ideally, I'd love to find 2-3 who can take YPT and do the online classes over the summer so they can hit the ground running in the fall.

 

 

What else should I be doing? Is there other training I should be doing. What do you do to recruit the next group of boys and parents into your packs?

[meyerc13]

It sounds like you are the best recruiter for a Tiger Den Leader that a Pack could hope to find.  You had fun as a Den Leader, and have been using the Leader Guides, so you can pass along hints and tips to the new Leader(s) you recruit.

 

Looking at your plan, I can't find much to add.  We recruit in both the spring and the fall, but if you are going to recruit in the Spring I'd say it is important to have at least one activity per month scheduled to keep new recruits interested and engaged.  It doesn't have to be much, maybe marching in a parade, a picnic, a trip to the ball park or the racetrack... these have all been activities that we've done over the summer.

 

One other thing you didn't mention... if you are going to recruit, it is a good idea to have an outline of what your Pack will be doing in the fall.  Now (March-April) is a great time to do your annual program planning for next year.  Since your Pack has been so proactive in recruiting you as an ACM, I'm hoping they are also strong in annual program planning and budgeting, but since you didn't mention it I thought that I would.

 

A last thought, you might want to take a look at the courses offered at the Philmont Training Center.  It may be too late for you to plan a trip to Philmont for this summer, but the cost for the course, plus a week long vacation for the rest of the family is very reasonable (compared to the IT training courses that I take for work, at least).  While you sit in a classroom, the rest of the family can do horseback riding, hiking, etc.

[Jackdaws]

I am the sign up night/recruiting chair for my district membership team.  Is your unit attached to a particular school? I would get in contact with your D.E. before you do any boys talks at schools.  There is usually a plan in place with the district membership team that coordinates with the D.E. to handle those.   You have to be careful of going to more than one school as some units may be upset that you are encroaching their territory.  Our pack has 2 other packs w/in a 5 mile radius of us.  In that radius there is a library and a large outdoor shopping center I stuck a sign up night sign out near the shopping center that also happens to be across the street from one of those said neighboring units and lord have mercy they had a conniption fit.  Contacted our D.E. about it.   I said "Hey that is a high traffic area, if they want to recruit they can get their own signs...".   But anyway lesson learned(that was before I joined the membership team).  Little do they know that down the line "territories" really wont matter. Its probably going to be a free for all.    Please make sure your Beascout.org unit pin is updated.  This is a crucial tool when its time for recruiting.  I am finding out that a large # of units do not know that it even exists.     I got a bunch of blank stares at round table and at Wood Badge when I mentioned it.  Also make sure that you have someone watching the beascout page for any leads and to make sure you respond to a lead as soon as possible.  

 

Another idea that I am trying to push is to have parents in your unit go and volunteer at your schools "play day".   This gets you visibility with the other parents who might be there and to get the word out about your unit.  If you plan on having any kind of spring talks make sure you have a strong summertime program in place.   We are asking that units who are requesting a "spring talk" have a strong summertime program in place, not just meet once a month to earn the award. 

 

Also plan on having a "Back to the Pack" event either before or just after your sign up night.  We had a fishing event where we invited the boys who dropped out during the previous year and asked that existing boys bring a friend.  Our council advertised it for us.  You just have to provide the information and they sent out the mailers. 

 

Sounds like you are doing great and have a good plan in place.  Word of caution, don't over extend yourself especially if you plan on attending Wood Badge.  I was on the district training team along with my pack responsibilities and decided to go to WB this year (this is my 3rd year in scouting) it all can be overwhelming especially when you start thinking about your tickets.  I have had to step back from the training team since I joined the membership team.  2 of my tickets are membership related and the others are events at the district and council levels.   Each person is different but don't say yes to everything that comes along as you could get overwhelmed. 

 

As far as training goes, if you have the time and the patience take all of the courses offered on my.scouting(I really hate the new website.  It takes ages to do the training but I believe that is another thread  ).  Especially take the planning course on the committee side. 

 

Susan

[Tiger Foot]

Great advice, thanks.

 

So, I'm filled with chagrin... Add me to your list of people who didn't know that Beascout existed. I checked our pin and it does appear to be out of date so I fired off a few emails to see if I can get that corrected.

 

There are a few other packs around us, but are really church specific. We seem to be the catch all pack. Our school district is geographically huge... Made up of seven towns. But we're rural, do the populations are actually pretty small. Other than the few church specific packs, there isn't anyone else around. In fact, my towns old pack folded into the pack I'm in now before my boys and I joined. The person I talked to at district was supportive. And sadly, there aren't many toes left to step on.

 

As far as planning meetings go, I think things have been catch as catch can. Unless there is a lot going on behind the scenes I haven't seen, I think the former cubmaster (now committee chair) and the current cubmaster have been carrying the bulk of the load. Nice guys, and the pack does a lot of fun stuff, but things always seem to come together at the last minute. I guess it could be because they are a well oiled machine...

 

Anyway, I'm hoping if I can get to kids and parents just a bit earlier I can change both of those things... Maybe grow the pack enough that we can resurrect the packs that have folded. And get enough parents involved to plan and execute a little better. Trained leaders would be ideal, but even if it's just getting a list of people you can delegate a task to, that would help... Sheila, can you please handle decorations for blue and gold... That sort of thing.

 

Again, thanks for the advice, I appreciate it.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Tiger Foot

[Tiger Foot]

And I love the 'Back To The Pack' idea.

 

I'm totally going to use that. Maybe I can figure out what happened to the 4 boys I lost!

[dilrod]

Our school has a spring open house/program coming up in a couple of weeks.  We will be doing minnow races and have a Pinewood Derby demonstration.  Cubs and leaders will be in uniform.  We also help clean up at other events throughout the year, gives us good visibility as well as a good reputation with the school (they aren't our CO).

[SSScout]

Recruiting:

 

"Boy Scouts?  Do they still exist?"

 

"Mom?   Jeff at school came in wearing his Cub Scout t-shirt/uniform/hat/backpack/lunch box/ . He says its  neat/fun/awesome/adventurous thing!  He invited me to come to his Den meeting  Friday.  Can I go?   He gave me this card/flyer/phone number/website  for you to see."

 

"Hey, Janet, I was passing that Methodist/Catholic/Baptist/Volunteer Fire Department and they put up a new sign that says they sponsor a Cub Scout Pack/Boy Scout Troop.   I used to be a Cub Scout.  Think Petey might enjoy it?"

[Tiger Foot]

I got the principal at our local elementary school to let me gather up the scouts from our pack at that school and do a few skits for an assembly recently. We drew some laughs, applause, and lots of compliments.

 

Going forward, we'll be doing a flag ceremony at least once a month in the morning at school. I'm hoping that having scouts in uniform in school will help generate interest.

 

The 'invite a friend' cards are a good idea as well, thanks!