Best way to recruit Scouts?

[Jason OK]

We are low on new boys entering our troop. I need a lot of recruiting ideas to bring to our troops' committee meeting.

[Eagle1973]

A side from all the help you can get from Council, we have linked our Troop to a strong Pack.

 

We supply them with strong Den Chiefs, invite them to our Courts of Honor, have a special WII campout, and send our best to perform their cross over into our Troop.

[CubsRgr8]

Check out the March-April 2003 issue of Scouting Magazine for some good ideas: http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/. Also, bring in your unit commissioner to review your program and identify strengths and weaknesses. Although you probably know these, it's very helpful to hear it from an outside source.

[SR540Beaver]

We are going to try something new this year. In Cubs, we always did the school night recruiting. In our school system, they have an open house the day before school starts for kids and parents to meet their new teacher, fund their lunch ticket, buy school t-shirts, join PTA, etc. The school always allows us to sit up a table and recruit. Last year, we signed up over 30 Cubs as a result. Now that we have started a new Troop, we are going to try the same thing and see how it works. We will go back to the elementary school and set up a table next to our old Pack's table and try to recruit 6th graders while they recruit the younger boys. We are not sure what kind of results we will get, but "nothing ventured, nothing gained'. Actually, we will have different leaders doing this at 3 different schools all on the same night.

 

Another idea we have toyed with is a recruitment lock-in. We could have a cook out to start things off and then do some skills such as lashings or knots and build a small project. When it starts to get dark, we would move inside for movies, games, snacks, etc. Let the boys plan the activities so you know it will be things that are attractive to them. The price of admission for the lock-in is to bring one non-scouting friend with you.

[Jason OK]

This is good stuff......so keep it coming!

[dsteele]

Beaver:

 

You will probably get better results at your booth at the elementary school if you can convince some of your older Scouts (or current Scouts, if they're all young) to run the booth while the adults guide from the background.

 

The younger kids will respond to the older kids better than to adults.

 

I love the lock-in idea.

 

Unc.

[ozemu]

Plan to recruit adults early. Even before you look at attracting Scouts if possible.

 

With the adults you can get - offer your PLC the best and most exciting activities that you can think of. Ask other Scouters in your area.

 

When the PLC gets going with ideas encourage them.

 

In short get the best, most exciting, attention grabbing program that you can. Challenge your Scouts to do better, go further and train them for it.

 

They will be so proud and excited that they will bring in th enew Scouts for you.

 

It works but willnot happen overnight. If you get a bulk lot of new Scouts without the program to keep and develop them then you will ultimately be wasting your time.

[SR540Beaver]

Unc,

 

We are a two week old troop with eight 11 year old boys. They started with another troop when they crossed over in February where we had some problems and decided to start our own troop. We have no older boys to run the booth. While our scouts proudly wear uniforms to meetings and camp, they flatly refuse to get close to school with a uniform on to keep from being labeled geeks. They catch enough grief from their schoolmates for being Boy Scouts without compounding the problem......or so they claim.

[Eamonn]

Most of us look at recruiting as a one time, quick fix deal.

Sure there are lots of ideas and lots of ways to get the message out there and try to bring new boys into the troop. Open House Meetings, School Sign ups. The list goes on. At the district level we have a membership committee that works on this all year round. They have all sorts of material, Videos, posters, flyer's and lots of ideas. They are there to help.

Still the best way to look at making the Troop grow is over a long term.

We have one troop in the district that works wonders recruiting. Every year the Scoutmaster goes into the schools, does a boy talk and signs up about ten new Scouts. Sad to say by January, these Scouts are gone.

Membership is as much about retention as it is about recruiting. If you look around at the successful troops you will see they are the ones that are offering the best program.

The program is what will bring new Scouts into the Troop and keep them there. The program is what is happening at each and every meeting. One sure way of delivering the program is to stop every now and then and look at the methods of Scouting. If a troop is trying to use all the methods and not over-stressing or under-stressing any of the methods chances are the troop is on the right track.

It is very much like the movie the Field Of Dreams: Build it and they will come.

Eamonn.

[SR540Beaver]

Eamonn,

 

Spot on! My son is dying to get his recruiter patch. His tried to recruit his best buddy for awhile. He had every excuse in the book. Didn't want to follow all those rules. Didn't want to wear that dorky uniform. Was used to seasonal sports and didn't want a year round program. He finally came to a meeting for a visit. He came to a second meeting and signed up. He has been on two campouts now and summer camp. He is hooked. The best recruiting method in the world is a boy bringing his friends. That is why I cooked up the idea of a lock-in that we have not implemented yet. It brings a boy's friend into the unit and gives him a taste of scouting plus some fun and games. Hopefully they will find it too tempting to resist.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Good program. What is it? Let the boys define it though evaluation. List their ideas, plan the events, and implement them with strong committee support.

 

Once you have a good product, then a young person will have the confidence to sell it to others. It will then come with a guarantee for future growth.

 

FB

 

[Eamonn]

I haven't seen it as yet, but have been informed that the National office has a new something or other??? Titled Peer to Peer Recruiting. When I find out more I will post the details.

I was up at our Summer Camp tonight. Wearing lots of hats. The main one being that of a Dad visiting his son. Yes we spent five or six minutes together. There was also an Eagle Scout Court of Honor, and a few other things that I was involved in.

During the OA tap / call out. I was a little bit away from the ceremony. The troops were all lined up and a ASM from a troop that I really like (The SM is the chap who served as my ACM) Came and stood next to me. The troop he is from were in front of us. They had a good turn out of about 25 or so Scouts. I noticed that none of the boys were being called out. When I mentioned it to him. He said that they just can't keep boys in the troop. I also noticed that his son wasn't there. This is a Scouting family. The Camp Commissioner is this ASM'S Dad.

When I asked where Chris was (ASM's son) He said that he had quit the troop.

I was really shocked. Chris is a super nice Lad. He was in the Jamboree troop and I would have bet my last penny that he was going to go all the way.

We talked for a while. I asked if there was anything that I could do to that might bring Chris back into Scouting? This poor Dad was upset that his son was no longer in and he had tried his best to talk him into staying but Chris said it was boring and he didn't like being with the younger Scouts all the time. Camp was boring, he had taken all the merit badges that he wanted to take.

I asked if they had a Venture Patrol? This ASM from our District!! Had no idea what I was talking about. It seems that the troop program has got so tied up with the new and younger Scouts that no one is doing anything for the older Lads.

As yet I have no idea what I'm going to do with or for Chris. But I will be talking to the SM.

What a shame here is a Lad that went through Cub Scouts, spent four years in the troop and is gone. Boy Oh Boy does that irk me.

Eamonn.

[SR540Beaver]

Eamonn,

 

Interesting! What we are always told is that in a boy led troop, the older boys teach the younger boys. Your story reminds me of why we left the troop my son crossed into back in February and caused us to start a new troop last week. The troop we went to only had about 8 scouts. At least 4 of them were 15 or older. One ages out in a few days and another ages out in September. We brought in 8 11 year olds in February and doubled the troop's size. Seven of these eight earned their AOL. We brought 5 adults along too. All are Woodbadge trained, fully trained for their positions before ever arriving at the troop, one is the district training chair and an Eagle scout, 2 assist with district training, two serve on Woodbadge staff, 2 will be Jamboree ASM's, and 4 are unit commissioners. You would think a troop would be thrilled to have a present like that dropped on their doorstep! Not so. We found we were not wanted by many of the boys and adults. This troop had not recruited for several years and concentrated solely on the boys they had. As a result, when we fell into their lap, there was a huge difference in age. The older boys didn't want anything to do with the younger boys. Their parents (committe members) didn't want their sons burdened with the little kids either. We found out after the fact that there were actually arguments last fall about taking our Webelos to Webelos Woods with them. In fact, the SPL didn't come because his mom was one of the most outspoken. The older boys wanted to do high adventure stuff. Bringing in a bunch of new kids tied them down in their leadership roles and prevented them from doing high adventure. Had they recruited each year and grown the troop, there would have been plenty of "older" young boys to take leadership roles and allowed them to form a Venturing Patrol. They cut their own nose off to spite their face. Once it became clear that we were a "problem" for them, we left and formed a new troop. As you can imagine, our DE was thrilled to sign up another troop. We (our boys and adults) have the resources and enthusiasm to build a dynamite troop. The other troop will soon be down to 6 boys and unless they change their ways, will die. I now realize that some older boys in scouting don't want to be around the little kids even though they were once in the same spot. The troop owes it to itself to build a good program that services both the older and younger scouts and to be in a contineous mode of recruitment to ensure they have boys at every stage to sustain the troop. Too bad your friend didn't have a clue about Venturing patrols.

[Bob White]

The best recruitment tool I have ever seen is to have a good scouting program for the scouts you serve today. Planned hands-on troop meetings that teach a scout the skills needed for their next adventure, followed by an outdoor adventure where they can apply the skills they learned, will make scouts want to bring their friends in to join the fun.

 

 

[Eamonn]

For two guys who don't know squat. We are on the same page.

Eamonn