Promoting Scouting... Who's job is it?

[stevejb]

With all the recruitment going on this past month I devoted my last two blog entries toward the subject of promoting Scouting. Who's job is it? The troop's, pack's, council's or national's? The blog has my opinions. What is your opinion?

 

Read the blog at:

http://melrosetroop68.org/blog.html

 

Steve B

Scoutmaster, Troop 68, CMC

melrosetroop68.org

[scoutldr]

The obvious answer is "it's everyone's job."

 

The most effective recruiting is peer-to-peer. If the scouts are having fun and enthusiastic, they should be telling their buds and bringing them to meetings to sign up. Problem is, they're not doing that. We need to find out why and fix it. They are "hiding their scouting light under a bushel" and are afraid to let anyone know they are a scout. When I look back at my class photos from 5th and 6th grade, there are 3-4 of us sitting in class in our scout uniforms because it was meeting day and that was the custom. Why not now? If everyone thought we were geeks, we didn't notice and didn't care. We were proud to belong to the "brotherhood" of scouting, just like the cheerleaders and football players who wore their jerseys on game day.

[stevejb]

Unfortunately, at least in my community, I know there are boys out there that would like to join, because my Scouts tell me that there some, but their parents tell me they can not join Scouting for one reason or another. I have been finding that parents are one of the "problems" for lower attendance.

[Jeffrey H]

Parents are a big factor in determining whether the boys are in Scouts because they see it as an additional burden on their time and money. Peer-to-peer is the most effective recruiting. Parents will consider Scouts if their sons friends are involved with it.

 

Kids will go to youth functions if they are invited by their friends. They dont like walking into a room filled with strangers. Scouting is no different.

 

The best method for recruiting is the oldest method: Invite your friends.

[Eamonn]

I think we do a fair job of promoting Scouting.

I think we do a fair job of recruiting.

Sadly we don't seem to do such a great job of retaining.

We need to look at the reason the youth joined and then look to see if we are meeting their expectations.

If we are failing to meet their expectations we need to either tell them before they join or change what we are doing.

About once a month every adult should take the time to read page one of the Boy Scout Handbook.

If after a self reflection it seems that the unit you serve isn't delivering what we promise? Things need to change.

If you are unwilling to make these changes, there are 101 different ways of helping the BSA meet the Mission and you should take a look at them.

We are only ever as good as our last meeting.

Youth members can be very forgiving, but if they see that the last meeting and the meetings before were bad, they are going to stop attending. When they stop, they tell their friends that they were in but they left because it was boring.

Word and mouth is a powerful tool -It works both ways.

Eamonn.

[greenSM]

I would like to agree 100% with EaMonn. I have observed, however, in both my former troop and in my son's current troop a sad trend. Many boys are so used to being coddled and pandered to by their parents that the Boy Scout program is actually too hard for them. It's too much "work." They can't push a button or get an adrenaline rush every thirty seconds. I have seen Scouts rebel against "boy led troop" because taking responsibilty for anything is completely foreign to them.

It's also difficult for trained, informed, and well-meaning leaders to move these kids 'off the dime' when their parents are-often literally- telling them, "You don't have to do that. I'll fix it for you."

[Fuzzy Bear]

The Scouts are responsible for promoting Scouting.

FB(This message has been edited by Fuzzy Bear)

[Zahnada]

I think I mentioned this in another thread, so this might be a repeat for some of our loyal viewers.

 

Anyway, the vast majority of Boy Scouts were also Cub Scouts. That's why so much BSA advertising focuses on Cubs. BSA market research also shows that in most cases, the decision to join Cubs is made by Mom. The parents (and especially mothers) make the choice for most of their son's activities when they're in elementary school.

 

So, while it's natural to say "peer to peer" is the most effective means of recruitment, "mother to son" is what actually happens. That's why advertising on the national level often focuses on the mother of Cub Scout aged boys.

 

The large amounts of negative PR that BSA has received in recent years has made mothers question whether scouting is the best activity for their sons. I feel that BSA has done a relatively poor job of cleaning up their public image. Boy Scouts no longer has the impeccable reputation they once enjoyed, and this will obviously hurt in the recruitment process. The last thing you want is to plant a seed of doubt into a mother's mind about the quality of program she's signing her pre-teen son up for.

 

But, "peer to peer" is NEVER a bad thing. It's the most effective recruitment method we have control over. If you run a good program, the boys will learn and have fun. Their parents will talk to other parents (parent to parent being a form of "peer to peer"). Also, their sons will talk to other boys and interest will spread.

 

However, from a market research perspective, "mom" is still the most influencial player in the recruitment process.

[Fuzzy Bear]

A few years ago and by mistake, I spoke off the cuff. We had a fairly large group of Boy Scouts but there had been a problem. That week a group of Webelos had visited and our Scouts had not prepared for them and they did little to involve them. My job as SM was mainly to speak to new parents and Scouts, so I only saw what happened, nothing, from a distance. Before the Webelos left, the leader mentioned that he was disappointed in our meeting and that they would be looking for greener pastures.

 

My SM minute went along to the tune of, 'this is your Troop and if each of you are proud of it and if each of you want it to remain intact then each of you will need to do what it takes to recruit new Scouts. What each of you did tonight was not successful and we lost a whole group of Webelos. I suggest that each of you recruit one friend to become a Scout and help to reclaim what we lost and that each of you join in to make any future Scouts welcome. It is your choice. It is your Troop.'

 

To my surprise, I was kept very busy for the next few months with new parents and Scouts. Ownership is very powerful.

 

I also had a very large group of active parents. FB