Youth-Led Program and Recruiting

[scotteg83]

I am impressed you have 2 girl troops in one city.  Ours is the only one for 50+ miles.  We pull from 5 different towns right now.

 

I do compete with a boys troop in my area.  Within 10 miles, we have two towns and two troops & packs.  Every year, my troop seems to "take" a crossover from the other town's pack.  Our "feeder" pack never visits the other troop, when the other town's pack encourages it.  Might be why those crossover scouts last longer then the "feeder" ones.

[SSScout]

Liz:   Remember that your recruitment commission (what? The SMS didn't tell you about the commission for every Scout you enlist? Well. let me get my tongue outta my cheek) does not depend on ONLY AOL/Webelos crossovers.  Make sure you have some  notoriety in the middle schools .  The School Counselors should know of your existence.  Take home flyers?  Ask about the backpack requirements and see your DE about getting some flyers printed up. Post cards for your Scouts to hand to their friends with an event invitation.  Campfire hotdog roast, flag retirement, nature hike ,  something like that, easy and friendly.  

"All Scouting Is Local".  

Edited February 22, 2020 by SSScout

[swilliams]

On 2/22/2020 at 6:58 PM, SSScout said:

Liz:   Remember that your recruitment commission (what? The SMS didn't tell you about the commission for every Scout you enlist? Well. let me get my tongue outta my cheek) does not depend on ONLY AOL/Webelos crossovers.  Make sure you have some  notoriety in the middle schools .  The School Counselors should know of your existence.  Take home flyers?  Ask about the backpack requirements and see your DE about getting some flyers printed up. Post cards for your Scouts to hand to their friends with an event invitation.  Campfire hotdog roast, flag retirement, nature hike ,  something like that, easy and friendly.  

"All Scouting Is Local".  

Hotdog roast is one I hadn't come up with - thanks!  

The nearest girls' troop here also pulls from multiple towns.  At a recent BOR in our town's troop (boys), one of the committee members mentioned that it's a shame our town doesn't have a troop for girls.  Well, the town that has the troop had everything organized and ready to go prior to the official start date for girls.  They had a CO, CC, and SM.  They had already done recruiting.  We didn't.  The reason for bringing this up is that I think being first goes a long way and applies to several situations. 

As it applies to recruiting, be first.  (In addition to other good suggestions made here.)  While any recruiting is helpful, if your troop is doing something fun and original, it may draw more interest than if you're second to hold an event or are doing something similar to what's already been done.

Part of the reason I logged on this time was to run an idea for recruiting past all you fine folks, so I hope Liz doesn't mind my piggy-backing off hers.  Here's what I want to do, and where I'm struggling with implementation.  One of the biggest things I've run across when trying to recruit in person is "my kid is too busy with ___".  I want to highlight some of our scouts who manage other interests and still find time for scouting.  Some examples: one of our scouts just became a National Honor Society member, he holds a regular job after school, and is an active scout planning his Eagle project; one plays varsity football and soccer (and has letters in both as a Junior), is a straight A student, and is an active scout - currently our Quartermaster; yet another has won championships in chess and robotics, plays bass guitar, and just made First Class.

One way I plan on relaying this will be at our outdoor recruiting event.  I'm planning on having scout-shaped cut-outs that have these highlights written on them at each station.  But... they don't get seen by anyone who isn't at the event.  I've asked for other ideas from our committee, but got what basically amounts to a shrug in response.  One idea (which still needs to be run by the committee) is to utilize our town's FaceBook page.  On Mondays, businesses are allowed to advertise.  I'd imagine they would let me write a recruiting post, and with no names attached, I'm hopeful that the parents/committee would be okay with it.  Anyone else have suggestions?

[ParkMan]

2 hours ago, swilliams said:

The nearest girls' troop here also pulls from multiple towns.  At a recent BOR in our town's troop (boys), one of the committee members mentioned that it's a shame our town doesn't have a troop for girls.  Well, the town that has the troop had everything organized and ready to go prior to the official start date for girls.  They had a CO, CC, and SM.  They had already done recruiting.  We didn't.  The reason for bringing this up is that I think being first goes a long way and applies to several situations. 

The other thing that this says to me is that the other troop was very organized.  That counts for a lot.  

I've always believed that recruiting success is a lot about having a plan and simply keeping at it.  Our recruiting plan looks something like:

1. Make sure the Scouts in the troop are active and having fun.  The single best indicator of recruiting success is program success.  Make sure to have a few really cool "wow" events.  These don't have to be expensive or far away, but they need to be something that the Scouts will probably only do in Scouts.  Also make sure you're thinking about retention of older Scouts.

2. Create some opportunities for the scouts to visit packs.  Go to their Pinewood Derby or help at some pack meetings.  Encourage being a den chief.  The idea here is for the Cub Scouts to know the Scouts well before they start thinking of crossing over.

3. Invite the Webelos to a troop camping trip in the fall.  Get them to know your troop.  Doing this twice a year would be even better,5. Have a pre-printed calendar for the next 12-18 months.  You might not know every camping trip, but you do know most things.  Share it.

4. When you talk with parents and Scouts, you need to focus on what you already do and how much fun it is. You don't want to sell ideas, you want to sell your track record.

5. Have a clearly defined getting started plan for new Scouts.  Communicate that.  A plan doesn't mean that you have to promise them badges or advancement, but it does mean that you've got a plan for helping them get a successful start.  The transition from pack to troop is daunting.  Give families the comfort that you'll do you part to make it one that it fun.

6. Have a really well planned visit to your troop.  When the Webelos visit, make sure it's a more active meeting.  

7. At the Webelos visit, hold a session with parents to go over troop life and answer questions.  30-45 minutes is a good length.  Go over schedule, what troop life is like, what they need to know to get started, introduce key leaders.  This is your chance to talk youth led troops.  Talk about how their youth will be successful in Scouting in your troop.  You want parents to see how your troop is the right bet for them in Scouting.

8. After the event follow up several times.  Send the parents and Scout an email immediately.  Invite them to upcoming events.  You don't want to spam, but you want to show your enthusiasm and organization.

@swilliams - I like your idea of having older Scouts share some information on how they balance other activities and Scouting.  My recommendation - have those older Scouts talk about this live.  The most memorable examples will be that 15 year old talking about it.  I know that doesn't help with external advertising.  

[swilliams]

One other idea for Liz is to have someone in your Troop volunteer with the pack as well. I used to do all the graphic art for the pack and make take home ‘gifts’ for the PW Derby. I’ve offered to continue doing this - albeit to a lesser degree - even though my boys are done with Cubs. 

This year I helped their new advancement chair make derby car stands out of inexpensive Home Depot materials. I came up with the design, her husband cut the materials, she assembled much of it, then she and the Cubmaster came over and we had some vino while staining the stands and attaching a label. It didn’t take more than two-ish hours of time, I got to hang with some other scout moms, and hopefully build a relationship with the newer parents of the pack. 

One problem for our troop is that the cub numbers are dwindling, so we have to come up with ways to reach outside of the scouting family.   We do a lot of what PackMan suggests, and it works, but we still need to do more. Or learn to live with 30 scouts in the Troop rather than 60. 

[Mom2Scout]

I took a class on this topic at U of Scouting in my Council.  One of the things they suggested was to give the Den parents a break (who doesn't love a break!) and have your scouts go take over a den meeting at least once.  Let them see your scouts in action teaching their kids, showing up in their uniforms, and talking about the fun they have had and are having.  Cubbies love games!  Have your troop plan a game for them to play.

Get den chiefs in the pack. You are more likely to get AOLs to bridge to you if you maintain a presence in their pack.

Also, if you do a summer camp, you want to make sure your troop is talking about the fun of camp and sharing action shot pictures of their fun with these scouts and their families.  Do you have a troop historian that can put together a photo album or power point presentation (maybe one that can knock out a requirement for a badge?) that can be used to sell the troop to the pack.