Webelos?

[Stosh]

Blue Gold Banquet this evening

 

15 registered 2nd year Webelos

13 received Arrow of Light

5 crossed over into Boy Scouts

 

Kinda makes ya wonder doesn't it?

 

Stosh

[NealOnWheels]

Wow...

 

Do you have any background about the Pack? What about the Troop or Troops?

[jcfiredog]

I know the numbers are down here in Kansas as well. However as a proud Webelos II leader (retireing tomorrow) I have 7 boys all who are earning their AOL. Two are earned their twentier patch. I even have one that started Last September. I think the leader makes all the difference. (That seems conceted sorry.) We have 15-20 per den down low but average 5 to 8 crossovers. The boys from the last 4 years, that I knew, are still in scouts. Maybe we weed out those not interested early.

[gwd-scouter]

Stosh, the numbers are indeed sad, but I'm curious - you post often about how the boys in your Troop do the recruiting of Webelos to join their patrols. Were all of the Webelos contacted? The thirteen that earned AOL, what kind of activities did they do with your Troop in order to earn Outdoorsman and the AOL? Did their parents come along? Did you and your other leaders take time with the Webelos parents to explain your program?

 

The reason I'm asking is because in the past, we have invited Webelos Dens to come to meetings and outings. They did come, but we didn't get a lot of crossover activity. Some of the boys went to other Troops, some never joined a Troop at all. On reflection I think part of the problem was communication, not with the boys, but with the parents. Our adult leaders have gotten much better talking with the parents about our program, especially explaining the significant differences between Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting.

 

This past year we had visits from four dens from four different Packs. While our Scouts worked with the Webelos, the other leaders and I spent A LOT of time talking with the Den Leaders and Webelos parents.

 

The result is that this year, two of those dens have already arranged their crossovers to our Troop (both in the end of March), one other said they had another Troop to visit, but told us they are very interested and pleased with our Troop (crossover in April), the fourth Den is still undecided (crossover in May).

 

One last question - have you asked anyone in the Webelos Den (parents, leaders) that didn't crossover, why?

[Stosh]

Yep, the boys fell down on the job. Like the new-to-the-forum person True Believer, one can run the program boy-led, but if they don't do the work and the follow-through, then things aren't going to happen. This is one of those, fall flat on your face, and I'm going to have to drag them up, dust them off and hopefully they will have learned something from this fiasco.

 

We do have two troops vying for boys and the other troop had no representation at the Blue Gold, so I don't know if this had any bearing on the situation or not. The SPL did line up a visit to their meeting a few months ago, they went, had a nice time, and yet did not do anything for follow-up. They invited them to a swim outing, no one showed up. They had them over for the Christmas party, 2 showed up. They had invited them to the Winter camp out (cabin) no one showed up.

 

We have another Blue Gold this afternoon, but the den leader for that Webelos den (another 15 boys) is going to be a leader at the other troop. I'm sure he'll take all or most of those boys because he wants his boy to have all his friends with him. The SPL didn't do much except invite to the activities, but the boys didn't go and visit them.

 

I'm hearing the boys are doing the recruiting "over the phone" kinda things, but I'm thinking that the boys aren't really putting a whole lot of stock into it. They are resting on their laurels thinking that with 30 boys available, they're going to get a bunch of boys walking through the door with no effort on their part. Well, that's not going to happen in today's world. The SPL notified them that unless they get their minimum 6 boys per patrol, their patrol will dissolve into thin air. There's a couple of PL's really worried now all of a sudden.

 

I have warned and suggested, advised and suggested, and implied, and suggested and then I suggested again. The SPL reminded them of all that I had said, but in the long run, until it comes home to roost, it's not going to sink in. Instead of taking responsibility for their lack of effort, they are now saying they aren't having any fun anymore and want to quit. It should be an interesting Blue Gold this evening and an even more interesting meeting on Monday.

 

Stosh

[hotdesk]

I completely agree with a Boy Lead troop. HOWEVER, I feel that Membership is an administrative issue. It should be directed by an adult. When I served as Membership Coordinator for a local troop I involved the Troop Guide and a boy who served in the position of Recruiter in establishing our recruiting program. They chose the activities that the troop was going to participate in, they contacted the Webelos leaders, but in the end I was the one that was responsible for boys not joining our troop.

[Stosh]

17 went to the other troop this evening, but we picked up one more for our troop. We may also pick up a boy from the other troop whose parents are seriously considering removing him from the troop because he is being bullied and harassed by older boys in the troop.

 

All in all we have a the potential for a full NSP for our troop so all is not lost except for the boys who chose not to continue on in scouting.

 

I guess we all do recruiting differently, but when all was said and done this evening, 3 people came up afterwards and asked why the SM of our troop didn't hand out the neckerchief to the boy joining like the other troop did. All three thought it was really neat that the boys did it after I explained we are a boy-led program.

 

It is obvious from the two Blue Golds how important the adult leadership in the WEBELOS program is for assisting in the transition. I'm not trying to pass on any responsibility on my part for welcoming/recruiting the boys into the troop, we never had them in the first place. By the way, one of the boys that "quit" last week is back in the program after another scout contacted him and had a chat. I'm still a believer that boy-led is alive and well although often incognito in our troop. So our numbers will stay in the area of 21 boys so that's still a respectable number of boys starting out this second year of our boy-led experiment.

 

Stosh

 

 

 

 

 

[Eagle92]

Stosh,

do you have any den chief's working with the Webelos? I've found that DCs make a BIG difference in recruiting. When I graduated, my den was the only one with a DC and all of us joined his troop. the other two dens dropped out after CSs. Also the troop i spent the most time in used DCs whenever we could, especially during the time we did not have a direct feeder pack. That saved our troop.