What Can We Do Better to increase the number of troops and crews?

[Backpacker]

We all know that Cub Scout packs are growing on a nationwide basis, however the number of troops have been on a steady decline for years now as have the number of boy scouts. As for venturing crews, many start up small and are gone within a year, this does not say much for the newest division of scouting.

 

In my own experience our troop has been growing, and so has our crew and when asked why by people I tell them we just try to deliver a program that is fun and challenging to the youth. Some personal observations and experiences, we seem to be getting less and less support from the council every year and bashing the DE and council has become quite popular at camporees and roundtable. As a former DE myself I find this to be disheartening since I used to put in 80+ hours a week serving two districts.

 

So my questions to all of you are has scouting become an outdated program that no longer attracts teens? How accountable are councils and national for this continuing decline? My troop and crew successes seems to indicate the interest is out there, so I would love to hear your ideas and experiences.

[Eamonn]

We could I suppose fill a zillion pages discussing our image and what is and what isn't cool. While it might make the hairs on the back of some necks stand on end. The bottom line is that we are who we are and the image that send out to the man on the street and his children is not going to change in the very near future.

Membership is about retention and recruitment.

Two years ago the troop that my son belongs to had a lot of boys cross over from a couple of local packs. Nearly all if not all of these little fellows went to summer camp. But yet sometime, somehow from last summer till now they have all quit.

What is worse as far as I know no one has yet asked them why or invited them to come back or try another troop.

I was reading something the other day that said 57% of Lads who quit would return id asked. Next week myself and some others are eating pizza and calling each and every boy who has been taken off a charter. We will document why they quit and will invite them back.

While we in most of our Councils do a fair job of recruiting Cub Scouts and spent a lot of time and money (One year I worked out that we were spending over $10.00 per Cub Scout recruited - without counting the donated time for TV ads.) I admit that I do twist arms and set goals for packs. The Cub Scouter's do get behind us District types and support us. Sad to say we don't do much for Boy Scouts and Troop leaders seem happy to wait and see what each Spring will bring when the Webelos Scouts cross over.

Talking to Boy Scouter's they say that there isn't a good time of year?? When School first goes back there are sports and band, then it's the holidays, then it's sports again and next comes Summer!! They become disheartened because unlike Cub Scouts where we can without to much hard work recruit 20 or more Cub Scouts into an active pack, Boy Scout recruiting tends to end up with numbers less than ten.

We need to change the mindset of Boy Scouter's, maybe just as we we an Advancement Chairman, we should have a membership chairman and he or she could work with the District Membership Team?

I am a little unsure what the problem is with Venturing. I don't think that the Crews that spring out of Troops are working. I know that we have seen four Crews not recharter this year. One is supposed to be merging with another, but from what I hear neither has any sort of a program. The one Crew that is doing well has an annual plan and they are sticking to it. They have about 20 members, for some activities they have as many as 15 or 18 show up and they have had as few as 3. Small Crews, with so many things going on with the members: Jobs, School and so on need to have almost everyone turn up in order to make the activity worth while, when only one person shows up it isn't a Crew activity!!

Eamonn.(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

[Fuzzy Bear]

Let's do like National does and make suggestions based on outcomes. The TOP TEN...

 

1. Backpacking is for people that like ticks and chiggers.

A. Let's get a good film with Kevin Bacon doing something outside. It is safer and more exciting.

 

2. The outdoor program attracts boys.

A. Make it so that the outdoor program is 90% of what we do.

 

3. Sports programs are successful.

A. Make all units compete in at least three sports per year.

 

4. Camporees have lost their excitement.

A. Make them into Festivals where sports are played and stage entertainment is brought in for the Saturday night extravaganza.

 

5. The boys do not like the uniform.

A. Do away with it. Let them wear camo.

 

6 Boys are too busy to be leaders.

A. Make the adults Patrol Leaders.

 

7 Meetings are too boring.

A. Let the guys hook up on line and play some kind of Patrol game over the net once per week.

 

8 The LDS units are successful because they recharter so many units.

A. Make all boys become LDS members and there will instantly be four times the number of units.

 

9. Service projects no longer does it for us.

A. Let the County or City clean it up.

 

10. Boys who make Eagle stay in the Troop longer.

A. Make it so each and every Scout will make Eagle in one year.

 

That should fix it.

[hops_scout]

Sounds like fun........;);)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Doing those types of things would ruin it for those already in Scouting who enjoy the program the way it is. Trust me, I understand the Scouting Movement is not very popular. Remember, I go to a high school all day long. One kid on "Geek day" for Spirit week right before homecoming wore a Scout shirt.

 

Things I think need to happen:

 

1.Outdoor Program needs to be strengthened. I realize many units already do a lot of that type of stuff. But it needs to be more "enforced" and pushed a little more by National.

2.Leadership needs to be taken upon by the boys. Adults should not force it, but encourage it strongly.

3.STAY AWAY FROM THE SPORTS!! True, these are quite popular--for the ones that have little athletic ability or those without courage to play sports elsewhere. More explanation-- I play 3 sports; the Boy Scout meetings should give me a chance to get away from them. The sports seems to be what we fight most. We cant sit here and play sports because that will wear the sports-type boys even faster.

4.Uniform should not be touched! There is talk of a new uniform. We shouldnt do that. I've read online about the Civil Air Patrol and how they have a million and one different uniforms. We want to be UNIFORMED! Having more than one uniform or uniform option will make it only worse.

5.National, Regional, and Council groups need to advertise BOY SCOUTS more. Cub Scouts, as had been stated, does fairly well.

6. HIGH ADVENTURE is where it needs to be. We need to be something that other programs and organizations aren't.

 

Here's my opinion. 2 cents from an SPL Star Scout, Troop 323, Waterloo, IL.

[Fuzzy Bear]

The Top Ten is a spoof based on a late night TV show

 

Fixing Scouting is frequently being done and talked about. Most of the time fixing it has more to do with just simply doing the program as it is and how we are trained to do it rather than changing it. It is a very good program.

 

FB

[purcelce]

It's all about program. But some advertising couldn't hurt, except in the pocketbook.

 

I'm advisor for a crew and this unit has exploded membershipwise. We have about 30 youth and a third of the group is female.

 

We started back in Nov and the youth applications are still coming in.

 

What's the secret? Program. Our program is simple. We do something once a month and that's it. That's what the youth want. Here's what we've done so far.

 

Nov 04 Vets Day Parade help with CO. Had about 20 youth.

Jan 05 Weekend Cabin Camping. Had 25 youth.

Feb 05 Family Potluck. 25 youth and some family members. 60 total people.

Mar 05. Indoor rockclimbing. Had about 15 youth.

 

All Crew adults have gone through Venturing Fast Start and YP. So the training is coming along.

 

We're still going through growing pains but they are minor.

 

As for the Venturing side of Scouts, Keep it simple, keep it fun,follow the guidelines, and they will come.

 

 

[BSAChaplain]

Okay this will be overly simplistic.

 

Let's do the program, the way the program is meant to work.

 

That means using all the methods in all the troops.

 

 

[Trevorum]

As I originally read this thread, I thought it was going to be about getting *more* Chartering Partners ("increase the number of troops and crews"). However, no one seems to have addressed this. Instead most replies are about retention and recruitment. Those are valid issues, to be sure, but I do feel that if the program was simply offered by more COs, then there would be more youth in the program. (duh) The issues of retention would still need to be solved, but total numbers would be up.

 

As I drive around through my district, I see potential Chartering Orgs (mostly churches) every other block, but 90% of these do NOT sponsor any unit. Perhaps the DE has all of these potential targets annotated on a GIS, with a matching plan to saturate the market, but I doubt it. I think we could take a page from McDonalds® here.

 

Since all new units must have volunteer leadership, the question arises of who is going to lead all these new units? My answer would be to look at all the emeritus SMs we have in our district who are active on the district and council levels. I know that many of these fine scouters would, if asked, agree to "prime the pump" at a newly formed unit until such time as the leadership can be identified and trained from inside the new units.

 

just my thoughts...

[acco40]

Trevorum, I respectfully disagree. In my area of suburbia a Cub Scout has about ten troops to choose from in a ten mile radius from his house. More units is NOT the answer. Better units is the answer. Some struggle to achieve critical mass (in my opinion a minimum of 36 Scouts - four patrols of eight, SPL, ASPL, QM and Scribe as a minimum.

 

I've had a problem that I have Webelos Scouts who want to join our troop but the parents view it as more "commitment" that they don't want. Since the parents hold the keys ...

[Trevorum]

acco, we both know of course that there is no "silver bullet". I agree with you that maintaining and improving the programs we currently have should be our highest priority.

 

In my area also, we have clusterings of units that give youth many options. However, my background in landscape geography leads me to wonder if there might not be gaps in our coverage that we simply don't know about because no one has done the analysis. I suspect that in most areas there are these zones with a "low density" of chartering orgs. My point is that by approaching potential COs in these zones, we could make the program available to a population of youth that is currently underserved.