Recruiting

[t4eagle137]

First, let me lay out the scenario:

 

My Troop has 27 (approximately) registered adults, this includes Committee Members, Assistant Scoutmasters, and Venture Crew Advisors.

 

There are currently 4 active adults in the Troop with 15 registered and 15 active Scouts. In years past, we have relied solely on a joint Cub Pack to provide new Scouts. We have since seen the error of this and are hoping to correct this.

 

I'm wondering what other Troops do in order to recruit Scouts.

 

We have plans to visit local schools with the District Executive and also to set up a mock campsite in a local park and offer food to give people an understanding of how we work.

 

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Bob White]

Hi t-eagle

 

First, Venturing Crew Advisors are not a part of the troop. They belong to a totally separate unit and should function as such.

 

While there is nothing wrong with recruiting from a pack (or packs) you are right to consider other options.

 

You will find that the most effective way is to recruit friends of the boys already in the troop. The ammount of time and resources involved in recruiting in the way you suggest rarely produces significant results. If your scouts could recruit even a small fraction of the friends they have outside of scouting then you would have more than enough new scouts to keep the unit healthy and growing.

 

Look at it like this. If only 25 percent of your scouts recruited a new scout each year, then in 3 years you would be a troop of 30 scouts add your recruitment from your pack(s) to that and you are in fine shape.

 

My recommendation would be to develop and support a recruitment program among your own scouts. Have an exciting an adventurous outdoor program that will make them proud to tell their friends about what they do and enticing enough for the friends to want to come along and see it.

 

Remember that a boy does not have to be registered in scouting to go on an activity with the troop or patrol. They need only be interested , eligible to join, and have their parents permission to attend.

[Gold Winger]

I agree with BW.

 

DO NOT have your Scouts bring their friends to a meeting because meetings are boring, especially for outsiders. Invite the friends for campouts, rafting trips, hikes and such.

 

A boy lead troop will be more appealing than an adult run one. Everything in a teen's like is run by adults. School, sports, and nowadays even the school play. If they come and they see that boys their own age or a little older are running things, this might appeal to them.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Take them on a hike.

 

Have a cookout.

 

Have a bike safety clinic and five-mile ride.

 

Work them through a fairly easy MB (computers comes to mind) over a couple weeks.

 

Get them to have fun.

 

OBTW, also... look at other Packs in your immediate area. If they don't have Den Chiefs, deploy Den Chiefs. There's nothing that says you can serve only one Pack.

[Ditro]

We reserve a few of our meetings to introduce Webelos to our troop.

 

We send invitations out to packs in the area, and for one meeting we show the Webelos different scout skills and tell them about our outings while our adult leaders meet with the parents in another area and discuss the troop program. Sometimes a Scout is brought in to discuss his Eagle Project or his role in the troop to the parents. We usually have one meeting for only the Webelos of our associated pack, and then another meeting for Webelos from other packs.

 

Ditro

[Gold Winger]

"Work them through a fairly easy MB (computers comes to mind) over a couple weeks."

 

Would that really be doing anyone any favors? They can't earn a merit badge until they join.

[Stosh]

I find retention far more productive than recruiting. When one already has a boy "in the program", it is generally easier to keep him than go find a new one. Every salesman will agree that retaining customers is easier than finding new ones.

 

With that being said, one must also realize that most scout troops do a terrible job at retention. Whether it be losing them at Webelos cross-over or after a year or two of "programming problems" there seems to be a big loss in membership along the way. Also keep it in mind that all those former scouts may be commenting to their friends why they left which would make recruiting efforts even that much more difficult.

 

While it is only playing with numbers, keep it in mind that Cub Scout Packs generally are far larger in numbers than Boy Scout Troops. Cub Scouting also only covers a 5 year span of ages and Boy Scouts a 7 year span of ages. If retention was a focus, one would think that there should be more boys in Boy Scouts than in Cub Scouts. Unfortunately that is not the case. As a matter of fact, Boy Scout Troops are significantly smaller than their feeder packs indicating they do a very poor job of retention.

 

Let's take a pack of 50 boys. That would average out to 10 boys per den. If they all crossed over and were retained for the full 7 years of Boy Scouts, the Troop that is being fed by this pack should have 70 Boys in it. That also means a Pack of 100 Cubs should have 140 Scouts in the Troop. So where do those 100 Cubs go when they don't join up with the 40 member Troop? If T4Eagle has only 15 boys, that means they are on average only retaining 2 Cubs per year. I'm sure his "mistake" of relying on just one feeder Cub Pack provides more boys than that each year.

 

Thus the question needs to be asked, what is happening to so many boys already in scouting to turn away from Scouting? Don't just look at the symptoms of the problem, look at the causes! If one wishes to really know the cause of their problem, go to every scout drop-out and ask them seriously why they left. If the problems they identify are corrected, they may in fact even return to check out the new program.

 

If one works on that problem, recruiting will be unnecessary on the troop level because it would only take recruiting on the Cub level to feed the program.

 

I have heard some valid hints amongst the posters on this issue, and it doesn't sound promising for the future of many Troops.

 

If one runs a good quality, uniquely Boy Scouting program, retention will improve and one's numbers will grow. If the Troop is doing the same-old, same-old of turning the boys off, then the problem will never go away regardless of how much recruiting one does.

 

Stosh

[NeilLup]

Hello Stosh,

 

With respect, the statistics that I have heard simply do not support that most Troops do a poor job of retention.

 

It was announced at the 2008 BSA National Meeting that the average annual retention in Boy Scouting is 78%. In other words, if one considers 100 11 year olds, on the average, 78 will reregister as 12 year olds, 61 of those will reregister as 13 year olds ( 100 * 78% * 78%), etc. This calculation does not correct for 18 year olds that age out. It was also said that at that time (May 2008) there were more 15 year old Boy Scouts registered than 11 year old Boy Scouts.

 

Frankly, I think that's pretty doggone good retention. The problem with the membership drop in Scouting is that many fewer boys try the program as 10 or 11 year olds. Those that do pretty much stay.

 

These figures are for Boy Scouting only. I believe that the retention percentage for Cub Scouts are much poorer, particularly in the Bear Year and Webelos 1 year.

 

Your unit may be different and, if so, it is very appropriate to ask why. But for most units, retention is quite good.

[Lisabob]

I've looked carefully at retention figures for my district and concluded that the numbers by and large back up what Neil has to say (although we see a very large decline in boys moving from Tigers to Wolves as well). What the retention numbers do NOT typically show, and where I think Stosh has an excellent point, is boys who cross over from webelos into a troop but never complete the paperwork to officially join. Those numbers tend to be much worse for many troops.

 

But not to get too far off the track, consider what your troop does that is fun. Sell it. Make sure that you are participating in community events in a visible way. I've heard many folks say "we didn't even know boy scouts still existed around here" because they never see boys in uniform (or at least Scout T shirts!) in public. Get your troop in the news for cool/fun stuff you've done. Send photos to the local TV stations, news media, including radio (think website, not just on air). Advertise through your local community center or rec center if they'll let you. Pretty soon parents will be looking through rec center brochures for early fall activities for the kiddos. 5th and 6th grade boys are still largely driven by what their parents want them to do so if you catch their parents you at least get a shot at the kids too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stosh]

Sorry, a 78% annual retention rate is definitely nothing to be proud of. That means that over the whole of Scouting if 100 Tigers register, only 8 of them will be around at age 17. If applied only to Boy Scouts, only 29 would be around at age 17. If a business ran on a customer retention rate that low, they'd be out of business in no time. And the numbers I gave in my example reflect this huge loss of boys over the course of multiple years.

 

LisaBob's right. If one has a great program, even if they don't promote it, the kids will find out about it and/or better yet stay with the program.

 

Some kids who take school sports stay active in that program well into their adult years.

 

Some kids who do theater/drama in school stay active in that well into their adult years.

 

What's up with Scouting? Why can't we keep them at least through the program, let alone the few that will stay active well into their adult years?

 

I sincerely believe the program and the quality of the program is far superior to most of the programs offered kids at that age. However, the presentation, execution and delivery of that program is not retaining the boys. If it ain't workin' try something else. If it is workin' for you, don't mess with it.

 

Stosh

[awesome1_in_cc]

t4eagle137,

 

I have to agree that the open house approach will probably not give you the results you are looking for but I wont go into the numbers on retention and the like as I think that has been covered pretty well here already. The only numbers I will give you are 300% & 18.

 

The two numbers I listed above represent our troops increase in youth membership (300%, 12 to 40 scouts) and the time frame in which that increase occurred (18 months).

 

That increase in membership comes from two recruiting efforts:

 

The first is our Scouts Teaching Scouts program which is a structured program we have been doing for the last three years. The program is best described as our troop scouts teaching our area Webelos (4 ) of their WB activities pins over a 6 month period. This includes two indoor sessions (troop meetings) and two camping weekends. This program has worked so well that we have over a dozen Webelos Den leaders asking that their dens be able to take part in this years program which starts this fall.

 

The benefits of this program are that the troop scouts are teaching the Webelos their advancement (the hook to get them to come) while also exposing them to a Scout troop and how it runs. We have found Webelos who take part in the program have a lot less anxiety when they cross-over to their new troops then those who dont. Our troop scouts also benefit by learning how to teach more effectively, realizing that they are the role models for these younger scouts and also by being able to provide leadership to younger scouts, etc.

 

I could go on and on about the program and would be happy to share more with you if you are interested. Just e-mail me and I will let you know more.

 

Our second approach is just as one of the other posters has suggested. BOY-to-BOY recruiting!!

 

If you run the program as designed and have an active outdoor program you will attract boy and also retain the ones you do recruit.

 

I hope this helps!!

 

[Kudu]

t4eagle137 writes:

 

We have plans to visit local schools with the District Executive

 

There is no thrill in Scouting that compares to the exhilaration of standing in front of an auditorium of skeptical sixth-graders (with the most vocal of the early arrivals openly mocking your BSA Uniform), and in just 20 minutes convince two-thirds of the audience to sign a list in front of their peers saying that yes, they want to join your Troop!

 

I would be happy to answer any questions anyone may have after checking out my outdoor adventure presentation at the following URL:

 

http://inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm

 

Kudu

 

[Knot Head]

Kudu,

 

Thanks for the link!

[NeilLup]

I can comment that Kudu's program looks spectacular and will work extremely well.

[t4eagle137]

Yes, Kudu, thanks for the link.

 

Thanks for everyone's input.

 

I'll certainly put it to good use. Especially the invitation of a friend to outings.