Troop alumni

[Cambridgeskip]

So myself and a couple of other adults at my group have been chewing over an idea the last couple of weeks that I thought I'd bounce off folks here. I did try getting a discussion going on a UK forum but alas it got side tracked into a debate on GDPR (data protection law over here). While GDPR is a concern let's put that on the back burner and talk more about where this might go.

Anyway, I am lucky to be at a group that is now 108 years old. So it has quite a history! In that time thousands of people must have passed through the group either as youth members or as adult volunteers.

With that in mind we've been thinking of starting a group "alumni" or "old boys" or some other similarly named program to be associated with the group. A little bit like many universities have. A program to stay in touch with past members, inform them of what's going on, show off photos etc from "back in the day", organise  social events etc.

Partly its because, well, why not? It seems like quite a nice thing to do what with all that history out there. Bringing people together seems to fit nicely with the scout ethos. Also though it is with a slightly ulteria motive or attracting fresh blood in terms of adult volunteers and even perhaps financial donations. 

I'm curious as to whether anyone else has ever tried anything like this? How did you go about it? How did it all work out? Any advice? 

[ParkMan]

Hi @Cambridgeskip,

Our scout group is just a young on at about 40 years.  But, we've considered much the same.  Even if it were just a quarterly newsletter or something I'm sure that folks would be interested in hearing what is going on in their former troop.

I'm sad to report though that we've not yet pursued it either.  For us, I think we just need a champion to get it going.  One of those things that people think is a good idea for someone else to do I suppose!

Here I would approach it in an invite system.  Bascially we'd develop a master list of prior scouts, contact them through email and invite them to join.  If they joined, then great.  We'd leverage this group to keep filling out the network until we found everyone.  

I'm intrigued to hear how you make out!

Edited March 17, 2019 by ParkMan
hit enter too quickly.

[qwazse]

Our spaghetti dinner fundraiser is partly an alumni reunion.

We have a plaque with the names of all of the names of Eagle Scouts from the troop. This year, our troop's first Eagle Scout dropped in with his son to show him his plaque. I pulled the boys aside and introduced them to him.