troop commucations

[bt01]

I am involved I in a Boy Scout roundtable discussion on troop commutations. What type of troop publications do people use for communications?? Is there any thing on the web on this topic? Does national have any thing?

[evmori]

We rely on e-mail & our web site for communication. Seems to work well.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[anarchist]

I guess communications methods really depend on what you are wanting/trying to do.

 

We have a very active web site with links to many resources, forms, check lists, parents guides, terminology guides, contact names, calendars, and schedules. We actively use email, in fact, we have a "throught the web page address link" with one address sending info only to registered scout leaders and another sending out to all parents in the troop.

 

our adult, event "point of contact" organizers/mentors see that the PLC or SPL send out a constant barage of info on up comming events.

 

Then we put up small posters and info sheets (selling the programs) in the meeting hall and multiple handouts to scouts and parents as the need is "felt"

anarchist

[eagle90]

We have a very comprehensive website (troop90bsa.org) which has our newsletter, forms, permission slips, photos, news, etc.But we still also rely on a printed copy of the newlsetter mailed to each home and also pass out hard copies of permission slips before an event.

[alligator]

I use email and our website extensively. But I am having second thoughts. Does anyone else get the feeling that electronic communications discourages coming to the Troop meetings? I sometimes feel like our Troop families feel like they are "in the loop" and don't necessarily feel the need to attend meetings. Does that make sense to anyone?

 

I don't have a way to validate this theory yet. Just looking for other opinions on the subject.

[Oak Tree]

I can see where you might have some small short-term effect that people feel like they already know what's going on, and therefore don't feel like they need to attend the meeting (not clear exactly what meeting you're talking about here - do families normally attend your troop meetings?) But I think long-term, it can't hurt you to have people feel like they're in the loop. It's the ones who feel like they're out of the loop who are more likely to drift away.

 

Hard to conduct a double-blind experiment to validate this, but that's my take.

 

Oak Tree

[rpushies]

Hi btps,

 

An ongoing battle, communications. It seems to me that if the people in the troop (the Scouts, their parents and the adult leaders) are excited about the program, communications seems to be much easier. The method of communication seems less important than what the expectation a great program brings the communications process. If the Scouts are fired up about their Scouting program, they seek out information about upcoming events. Then parents start calling leaders wanting to know the details about upcoming event. Then the communication can take place, because the recipient of what you are communicating sees value in the information.

 

If the program is so-so and there is not excitement linked to the program, well it really doesn't matter how much communication, what type of communication or basically if there is any communication. The people just don't care because the program being provided doesn't give them reason to be interested in the communication being attempted.

 

You can have pretty newsletters, great web sites, send out emails till your blue in the face. If the program lacks, the communication lacks because the information about the program has no interest for the receiver of the message. I've seen many flyers stuffed in backpacks and book bags at the end of the troop meeting, never to see the light of day again. But when that white water rafting trip, kayaking trip, backpacking trip, (fill in the blank _______ exciting trip) flyer is given to the Scouts, somehow they remember to give that flyer to Mom and Dad. They remember because the program they are receiving fulfills the promise of Scouting, ADVENTURE!

 

In my old council (I moved after 25 yrs and have only been in my new council 2 years.) we converted from a newsletter printed and mailed to over 4,000 registered Scouters to an electronic version of the newsletter. After fighting for almost a year to get those 4,000 Scouters to register their email address so we could send them the new electronic newsletter, we were able to get less than 700 email addresses registered. Some in the council thought it was because people still did not have computers and email. That was true in years past, now about 95% of Scouting households have computers and email. In fact over 50% of those homes nationally have a broadband connection now. We came to the conclusion that the large majority of people had not been reading the printed newsletter, it just went into the trash another piece of junk mail. They did not read the printed newsletter, so why register their email for an electronic version they won't read. The printed newsletter was always out of date and not very exiting.

 

We got the best response from our volunteers when I was doing a weekly information update that was sent out electronically in the form of an email. The number of readers was still low, but based on the feedback we received the short, timely information update was being read and seen as valuable. The low readership of the council newsletter was just linked to the lack of exciting program being communicated. The readers got tired reading about fundraising and membership issues, which is what the professional staff wanted in the newsletter. Often the date of the event had already passed by the time the newsletter was received. They Scouters and parents wanted to read about exciting program information that they could get involved in, duplicate for their unit or district and just basically wanted to hear about good things happening within Scouting.

 

So my take on communications within units is to provide a great unit program for the Scouts. Once their is a desire to receive communication about the program, then just about any method of communication will work. They will beg for you to communicate information about the program and they will receive the communication in any way they can get it. Program, Program, Program!

 

Yours Truly in Scouting,

Rick Pushies

[drakmund]

Everything and anything (troop newsletter, troop website, permission slips, parents meetings, etc. etc.) The biggest problem is making sure the parent has the information and that if you give it to a scout it doesn't always make it to the parent.