Recruitment ideas for girl BSA Scouts

[Snowball]

Does anyone have any ideas or materials targeting new female BSA Scouts?

[John-in-KC]

Have you gone to the scouting.org website?

The program you seek is Scouts BSA. 

Edited June 28, 2020 by John-in-KC

[Snowball]

Other than photos of girls doing fun stuff I can’t find anything 

[John-in-KC]

Have you called your unit commissioner and DE?  

[MattR]

I don't. But I suspect a critical mass of girls having fun doing scoutish things would really help. Campfire, s'mores, girl scout songs along with cheerful, friendly and kind. All new scouts are looking for the same thing: will I be welcome here? The worst thing I've seen is a program for new scouts that the old scouts don't care for. The new scouts get some lip service about how great the troop is and then the new scouts are mostly ignored for the rest of the night. The new scouts read right through it.

But that.doesn't answer the question of how to get them in the door.

[Snowball]

I have gone to the people in the know and all I get referred to is nice photos of girls having fun as Scouts.   That is great, but I’m looking for the why.   By that I mean why should a girl or boy for that matter join Scouts BSA.  There are so many activities for kids these days and for so many Scouts seems old fashion what will put Scouts ahead of other activities.   I believe there are reasons, but I don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel if I don’t have to.

[fred8033]

Program.  Exciting and interesting stuff.  ... #1 recruitment tool is the existing scouts.

[fred8033]

55 minutes ago, Snowball said:

I have gone to the people in the know and all I get referred to is nice photos of girls having fun as Scouts.   That is great, but I’m looking for the why.   By that I mean why should a girl or boy for that matter join Scouts BSA.  There are so many activities for kids these days and for so many Scouts seems old fashion what will put Scouts ahead of other activities.   I believe there are reasons, but I don’t want to have to reinvent the wheel if I don’t have to.

IMHO ... you almost need two sets of recruiting materials.  One for youth.  One for parents.  

Youth want to do things.  Go places.  Get out of the house.  Get out from under adult oversight.  

Parents want a safe environment with positive peer relationships.  Environments that teach responsibility and values.  

IMHO, what youth and parents want are very different.  

Best way to market is through your existing scouts. 

[Snowball]

I agree 100% that Scouts are the best recruiters.   However, these girls need a little help getting started.   I also agree there needs to be separate stuff for youth and adults.   I just can’t help but feel in the 100+ years of scouting this hasn’t already been done.

[Treflienne]

3 hours ago, MattR said:

But that.doesn't answer the question of how to get them in the door.

 

2 hours ago, Snowball said:

why should a girl or boy for that matter join Scouts BSA.

 

1 hour ago, fred8033 said:

#1 recruitment tool is the existing scouts.

 

1 hour ago, fred8033 said:

Best way to market is through your existing scouts. 

 

1 hour ago, Snowball said:

I agree 100% that Scouts are the best recruiters

A few statistics from our female troop:

56% of the scouts came because a friend or a sister was already in the troop (or proto-troop) and the scout invited them (or the scout's parents invited the prospective scout's parents)

11% came because a brother or cousin in a boy's troop was enthusiastic about scouting.

18% found us through the web (beascout or the troop's own website)

The remaining scouts were part of the initial organizing group that started talking up the idea of a girls troop in town.

It wasn't specific recruting materials that brought in each new scout.  It was the enthusiasm of a current scout.

[Treflienne]

Note to moderators:  this is in the wrong category.  Scouts BSA for girls is not "Girl Scouting"

[MattR]

9 hours ago, Treflienne said:

Note to moderators:  this is in the wrong category.  Scouts BSA for girls is not "Girl Scouting"

Good catch. It's now in Open Discussion.

While friends are currently the best way to get new members, @Snowball makes a good point in that there's not a good sell of why scouting is good, primarily aimed at the parents. In other words, just because friends is the current best method doesn't mean that's good enough. As the numbers go down there are fewer friends and hence, fewer new scouts. We ask the scouts in our troop to bring freinds and that's a small number of kids that show up. Of the ones that get in the door, many join, but we don't see many friends.

Scouting is a weird mix and it's not at all obvious why it's a good program unless you've seen it. That's a problem. Everyone understands what sports is about so teams don't need to sell the why, scouting does need to sell the why. So let's try here. Give a few words that describe the benefits of scouting, directed towards the parents, that do not come from the law or oath.

I'd say responsible, confident, and caring. Anyone else?

[Snowball]

When I googled what are employers looking for this is what I found.

What are employers looking for

• Communication skills
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Dependability
• Teamwork
• Flexibility
• Self-reliance
• Eagerness to learn
• Confidence
• Work ethic
• Determination
• Problem-solving skills
• Positivity
• Ambition

This sure sounds like what a youth gets out of Scouts to me.    These days many kids have low self esteem so my thought is to use the tag line, "What makes you stand out?" Getting them to think standing out is not being the star athlete, first in your class academically, etc. but it can be helpful, loyal, flexible, dependable etc.   

[Eagledad]

1 hour ago, MattR said:

Good catch. It's now in Open Discussion.

While friends are currently the best way to get new members, @Snowball makes a good point in that there's not a good sell of why scouting is good, primarily aimed at the parents. In other words, just because friends is the current best method doesn't mean that's good enough. As the numbers go down there are fewer friends and hence, fewer new scouts. We ask the scouts in our troop to bring freinds and that's a small number of kids that show up. Of the ones that get in the door, many join, but we don't see many friends.

Scouting is a weird mix and it's not at all obvious why it's a good program unless you've seen it. That's a problem. Everyone understands what sports is about so teams don't need to sell the why, scouting does need to sell the why. So let's try here. Give a few words that describe the benefits of scouting, directed towards the parents, that do not come from the law or oath.

I'd say responsible, confident, and caring. Anyone else?

This is why I have continually whined about the overburdened Cub Scout program that drives away families before they get to the Troop age. The troop program in general does not drive scouts away, so if you can get them there and hold them for the first 6 months, they generally stay for several years. Not true with the Cub program.  It grinds on the adults every year to the point of driving them out. If the parents leave, their kids go with them. I was never able to add the numbers because the data is so confusing, but I believe that well over 50% of families that start out in Tigers drop out before graduating the program. Fix the Cub program and the BSA would see a huge bump in about 5 years. Well, that was before all this other stuff.

Barry

[IndyScouter]

21 minutes ago, Snowball said:

When I googled what are employers looking for this is what I found.

What are employers looking for

• Communication skills
• Honesty
• Loyalty
• Dependability
• Teamwork
• Flexibility
• Self-reliance
• Eagerness to learn
• Confidence
• Work ethic
• Determination
• Problem-solving skills
• Positivity
• Ambition

This sure sounds like what a youth gets out of Scouts to me.    These days many kids have low self esteem so my thought is to use the tag line, "What makes you stand out?" Getting them to think standing out is not being the star athlete, first in your class academically, etc. but it can be helpful, loyal, flexible, dependable etc.   

Having been in the program for many years all the way through to Eagle, scouting taught me so many of the items you listed and more.  I can't tell you how many times I used my knowledge and/or experiences from my earned merit badges, camping and hiking troop events, and my cub scout camp staff days to complete my current life tasks.  The chance to be a responsible youth leader in scouts prepared me to be a good leader and follower in life.  That would be the carrot for parents.

For the youth side, an active troop promotes itself through the activities they do.  The second troop we joined and stayed pushed going to monthly activities.  We always did at least one campout or summer camp, hike or district event per month.  No exceptions!  The adults also found time to set up higher adventures for the experienced youth and either attended Philmont(1970's), several jamborees(1980's - 2000's) or one 4 to 5 day 50 mile canoe/hiking trip during my tenure as a youth.  How can you not be attracted to a troop that stays on the move?  

Sorry about rambling on.  I did not make this specific(boy versus girl) but I believe that it should not matter which gender you are trying to bring in.  Adventure is fun to all.