Cub Scout Event - Pack vs. Individual registration

[CNYScouter]

Our pack hosts a Cub Scout sleepover at a local drive-in.

This is our 6th year hosting the event and in the past the event has had 650-950 (+ staff) sign up to attend

We now about are 3 weeks away and have less than 50 registrations in.

Usually we have almost 300 by this time.

It seems the interest in attending is there but we are not seeing the registrations

 

We are wondering why we are having such a low response this year.

 

One change we made was to not have registration done by Packs this year and only have individuals register. Pack registration was a headache. A lot of people had no idea what Pack they were in or who the CM was. We had packs register 20 and have 40 show up. We asked for a pack roster when registering but half the time they didn’t send one in and we had to spend time tracking it down and sometimes were never got one. We had checks showing up with no information - just a check with a name and address on it. It just became really hard to manage this.

 

Do you think that having the parents send in the registration instead of the pack may be hurting us?  It's easy when someone else is doing it for them, but when they need to do it themselves the parents won't always put in the effort.

 

One other change that happened is registration in our council went from $26 to $60. This doesn’t include Boy’s Life or the additional $9 increase from National for next year.

 

We don’t think this is a factor but the owner of the Drive-In was killed in an accident while getting the Drive-In ready to open for the season. It happened about a week before opening. His son and daughter have taken on running the Drive-In but instead of opening the first week of May it didn’t open until late July

 

So why do you think we are lagging so far behind in registrations this year?

Would you go back to having Pack registrations for next year?

 

Unless we get a lot of registrations in this weekend we may cancel the event as financially we don’t have enough to cover the upfront expenses to make this happen.

 

[Col. Flagg]

Yup, that was your cyptonite.

 

If you have 20 packs you only need 20 responsible people to manage registration.

 

Now that you've put the onus on the sheepeople who are used to having people do things for them, you can expect a drop of 50% or more. You'll now need to hit those 300-600 people 3,4,5 five times each and you can expect a 10-30% response rate.

 

In future if I can avoid direct marketing to masses, and rely more on Pack-managed registration, you're MUCH better off.

[NJCubScouter]

I agree with Col. Flagg except that I've never seen the term "sheepeople" before.  I have heard "sheeple" which I am pretty sure is the same thing.

 

The other thing that caught my eye, and sorry for the off-topic... are you talking about a drive-in movie theater?  Do such things still exist somewhere?  When I was growing up there were drive-in theaters all over the place in New Jersey.  Now they are all housing developments, shopping centers or whatever.  I think it is mostly that the land got too valuable to remain as what was basically a parking lot. Maybe they still do exist in places that are not the most densely-populated state in the country.

[CNYScouter]

I agree with Col. Flagg except that I've never seen the term "sheepeople" before.  I have heard "sheeple" which I am pretty sure is the same thing.

 

The other thing that caught my eye, and sorry for the off-topic... are you talking about a drive-in movie theater?  Do such things still exist somewhere?  When I was growing up there were drive-in theaters all over the place in New Jersey.  Now they are all housing developments, shopping centers or whatever.  I think it is mostly that the land got too valuable to remain as what was basically a parking lot. Maybe they still do exist in places that are not the most densely-populated state in the country.

 

Yes a Drive-in movie theater.

There are still 338 open in the USA. 4 of them are in our council boarders.

The one we go to has been open with continuous operation since 1948.

The person who owned the drive-in started working there in the early 60's when he was in high school and worked there thru college.

He ended up as a teacher in a nearby school district and worked there every summer.

Meet his wife there and bought the place in 1987.

His wife and children are now running it.

 

back to my post.

looking at registrations from the past most of the early registrations where from individuals and not entire packs.

Pack registration is only about a 1/3 of the total

We only have a handful of pack registrations every year that are over 25 people and most come in with less than 10.

our 2 or 3 largest usually come in a week or so before the event

 

We are just stumped why we aren't seeing the numbers

[Col. Flagg]

I agree with Col. Flagg except that I've never seen the term "sheepeople" before. I have heard "sheeple" which I am pretty sure is the same thing.

 

The other thing that caught my eye, and sorry for the off-topic... are you talking about a drive-in movie theater?.

Freakn Dragon literally translated "sheeple" as "sheepeople". Go figure.

 

I really feel sorry for you northern boys. Not only do we have drive ins, but we have drive ins with adult beverages and BBQ. They're right next to our Robert E. Lee statues and gun shops. We still have what 'Merica used to be down here. Ya'll come on down any time and join all the other northerners prospering down here.

 

http://coyotedrive-in.com/fortworth/

Edited September 14, 2017 by Col. Flagg

[walk in the woods]

If this is your 6th annual every kid in Cub Scouts today has had the chance to attend at least once.  Maybe you've been too successful and packs are looking for something else out of the ordinary?

[ItsBrian]

 

Agreed to all above. I would also say that the individual registration was sadly, a complete failure. I would rather have the deal with the pack registration because it guarantees more scouts. Also, if they show up the day of not registered charge a late fee or don’t even allow them! It’s the CUBMASTERS fault, not yours.

 

Do you have yearly themes?

[CNYScouter]

as of last night our count is up to 60

 

The person who did registration put together some numbers

 

last year 13 Packs registered as a group - all of these came the last 10 days before the event

6 of these had 10 or less - of the others, only 3 had over 20

this accounted for about 25% of the registrations

 

I have been asking around to see what is going on - a lot haven't even starting meeting yet.

School here doesn't start until after Labor Day

One pack said their first meeting isn't until the 9/19, another starts 9/28 and a 3rd doesn't start meeting until after the event

 

We hear a lot of complaints that the event is too early in the year.

But it's gets chilly here at night in Oct. and going much later isn't going to work (The Drive-In is usually open thru Halloween)

 

I also found out that many school moved their open house dates where most packs do their recruiting at

In the past most schools did open house during the second week of Sept.

This year many aren't doing them until the last week of September/First week of October

 

No Theme for the event - what we do is have 15 to 20 activities from 1pm to 5pm on Saturday - allow tent setup starting at 5pm - movies start at 7pm

We have a have a few activities that we do every year (Bounce house, Fishing (there is a pond in the back), cooking and knot tying

We try to offer 5 or 6 new activities each year and have a list of others we rotate thru

On Sunday we offer Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Fruit and Donuts for anyone who stays the night

[RichardB]

1) what program are you running?  Specifically, what book are you in and what page are you on becuase I'm totally unfamiliar with such an event.  

 

The Cub Scout program has limited camping oppourtunities.  Unless this is Council run family camp, it's not the program of the BSA by your information offered.  By design there is not individual cub camping experience.  The only other experience is a Pack Overnighter with provisions for Webelos to Den Camp.  

 

2) if this is an attempt to run a Cub Scouting program - has the council approved it?  

 

Multiple packs getting together on there own also isn't a part of the program outside of Council / District organized events.  

 

Please run the Cub Program as designed.  

[Col. Flagg]

Sounds like a great activity, but with all the changes you noted your communication and registration model might need some revision.

 

The biggest issues see in our area:

 

- Schools don't put out calendars until very late.

- Same with sports leagues.

- District is just as bad, not putting out dates until too late.

 

So we've had to market our fall activities VERY early (May-June) directly to people as well as Packs, and push big time through social media. Of course direct marketing only works if you have peoples' emails.

[Col. Flagg]

@@RichardB, really?

 

How about you come down on the people marketing to girls and integrating them in to the program, instead of a pack trying to think outside of the box and offer up something council should be doing in the first place. Geesh!

[NJCubScouter]

Col. Flagg, I realize that you think there is a connection here, but please don't raise issues that are being discussed in "Issues and Politics" in threads in other parts of the forum, unless it is absolutely necessary.  And it isn't, in this case.  (And some would say it never is.)  I really don't want to have to move a thread about registrations for a Cub Scout event into Issues and Politics.

[Col. Flagg]

Col. Flagg, I realize that you think there is a connection here, but please don't raise issues that are being discussed in "Issues and Politics" in threads in other parts of the forum, unless it is absolutely necessary.  And it isn't, in this case.  (And some would say it never is.)  I really don't want to have to move a thread about registrations for a Cub Scout event into Issues and Politics.

Seriously?

 

I wanted to draw to his attention that, if he truly wants to chastise people from going "off script" with regard to the BAA program, there are more viable candidates out there (the other thread).

 

Nothing about that response raises THIS TOPIC to I&P level...unless you personally want it to. It was a REFERENCE to another thread; NOT making THIS thread political. Big difference.

[NJCubScouter]

Calling a single person's attention to something can be done in a private message.

[Col. Flagg]

As I recall you've done the same. Double standard?