Recruiting

[MichaelOA]

Wow, Awesome Kudo. I will definitely be sending this to my Scoutmaster, our troop only gets 1-3 boys per year, so this will definitely help.(This message has been edited by MichaelOA)

[jmwalston]

Kudu,

 

Thanks for the outstanding link. Our DE coordinates with the various Troops in a school district to try and recruit members. Usually, the Scouters just show up in uniform and go through the motions. Your program has a definite agenda and lots of visual appeal. I have forwarded the link to the DE and the UC's I work with to set up similar recruitment drives in my District.

 

YiS,

John

[mikecummings157]

Our troop is struggling with dwindling numbers as well, with just 10 active boys. Our feeder Pack is struggling also and we haven't had success yet recruiting from other Packs.

 

We set up at Middle School open-house and spoke to a few boys, but got no recruits. The latest thing we tried was getting the "lost scout" list from our DE, which was a list of all boys who didn't recharter last March. We planned an open house and sent out invitations to 60 boys, followed by phone calls to each. We got one boy to actually show up and he did sign-up with our troop.

 

We are going to continue trying the local Packs by inviting them to visit our next few outings.

 

We haven't had much luck with the boys recruiting their friends in school, since scouts isn't "cool" at this age.

 

Any other great ideas out there?

[DeanRx]

MikeCummings - "We haven't had much luck with the boys recruiting their friends in school, since scouts isn't "cool" at this age."

 

I'd say thats 99% of the problem right there!

 

If you put together an entertaining program geared towards the things boys your target age find "cool", then you'll have a full Troop.

 

This, however, means that the old "hard core" adult leaders within a Troop must be open to new ideas and new adventures - not always the case, unfortunately.

 

How about an "open house" night with a car show? Maybe a group outing to a sporting event? Heck - an open to all comer's "Guitar Hero" contest on a large projection screen in the auditorium ?

 

Are these all traditional scouting activities? Maybe the sporting event, but the car show or Guitar Hero contest? - no.... Would most 12 to 15 y/o boys I know be interested in checking out such a thing - more than likely...

 

You have to SELL your program as exciting, fun, fast paced. Then you have to make sure an put on a program that is exciting, fun and fast paced, or you'll loose them.

 

Why is youth sports SO ingrained, even when most everyone would agree that BSA has a better "product"? Because in youth sports, dads get to relive their glory days in their son and the son can turn on the TV during any season and at least DREAM about one day playing in the NFL, the NBA, or MLB...

 

BSA needs to SELL itself with the flash / bang, and then retain with the excitement, but also the substance.

 

True - at some point - the tween / teen is likely going to look at the uniform and think "thats no longer cool". It happened to me about age 15. Got a learners permit(could back then), got a car and discovered that girls had boobs. It was all downhill from then for me and BSA. Funny thing is - now as an adult, some of my best memories of growing up are the outings I did as a scout. Especially camping and hiking. Especially that one trip to the Northern Adventure base... That WAS really cool - even if I didn't appreciate how much so at the time I lived it.

 

You need to be giving them a reason to think "What they are doing IS cool." That will keep the boys involved - it will keep them coming back.