Recruiting active members from other troops

[mom162]

This mirrors what's happening in our community too. Our Troop is boy-led, small and has ups and downs as far as recruitment and progress goes. However, we always get a few new Scouts every year, many of the boys become very good friends, and we seem to muddle through just fine.

 

Our main 'competition', if you want to call it that, is a spectacular almost 'regimental' style Troop which everyone else is jealous of (!) with more than thirty-five members on the adult committee, multiple ASMs, supposedly boy-led but other SMs are always making little remarks. They are the ones with so many new recruits each year that they have multiple new patrols. In the end, a fair number of Scouts who first join them end up looking for another troop, because it's apparently rather high pressure on the Scouts. The parents are pressured too, since the monthly hikes are strenuous and there's usually more than one outing a month.

 

In the end, I guess there's room for both styles of Scouting, as long as both take care not to try to cut the other down. I think for our little group, having a distinct identity is key - we're the group that's well known for a trip to the desert to shoot off model rockets, we're the one that combines an annual boy-led planning session for the year with a night of computer gaming (permitted just on that trip - super popular)...We are seeing a decline overall in the number of Troops able to draw recruits each year, especially for the Troops that don't have feeder Packs tied to them. Eventually I think there won't be as many available to choose from, but as long as there's choices it will work out.

[Eagledad]

I wish you luck Stosh because this is a time of true reflection. I believe that before anything else, a scouting program has to be fun to grow. Your "roll up your sleeves" comment kind of suggest a work first play later program and that just doesn't work with boys. Doesn't really work that well with adults either in the long term. "Leadership performance" has to be a result of practice in program activities. Program activities has to the fun part of scouting.

 

I think most who have put the time in will agree that it takes a minimum of 5 or 6 years for a boy led program to mature into a true boy run program. It might be that you pushed the time line a little hard. As much as we talk about leadership development coming from leadership training and coaching from the adults, I'm convince that 80% of leadership performance comes from the boys watching other boy leaders in action. It just takes a lot longer than 2 years to for that to happen.

 

We adults know how it should work, but we just can't tell the scouts how to do it and expect them to change, they have to experience it to believe in it. They have to feel that it is worth the effort. Adults have to be very patient because change and growth will not happen at an adult pace. While we may set our vision and goals from a theory, we can't force the theory into reality. A vision or goal is usually met by many many very small changes that come from reflection of performance. Boys are pretty honest about how they feel about things, but sometime our Egos don't allow us to listen. Adults have to grow as much as the boys for a boy run program to become successful. It can't happen on persons terms. You can't force a theory.

 

When ever I heard a scout complain that something, anything, that we did in our program wasn't fun, I challenge them to find a more fun way of doing it. If the scouts don't want to come and play, you don't get the chance to develop them. It may require some sacrifice (patience) on your part.

 

Barry

 

 

[Stosh]

I'm not complaining about the program, just the idea that it's ok to recruit from other troops. If the boys are unhappy, fine, move on to a troop that meets your needs. But if the boys are doing well, enjoying the program and leave because one of their buddies had to move to another troop, is kinda ethically questionable in my mind.

 

My troop will do just fine, the boys are having a good time with their program and we'll produce a couple of Eagles in the coming months. I can't complain and I'm not concerned about "growth and development" of a boy-led program, the boys will figure it out and do just fine.

 

If all the boys want to do is be baby-sat by adult led programs, it's probably a good thing they move on to another troop, they'll be quite unhappy having to work their ticket in a boy-led program.

 

Stosh

[Lisabob]

Stosh I think you have to look at this a little differently. You see the program as primarily about development (leadership, skill, character, etc). Most of the boys probably appreciate that, but they probably also see the program as, first and foremost, about being with friends and doing cool stuff. So it is natural that some of them will follow their friends. And it is natural that their friends might ask them to do so.

 

Sooner or later, you'll benefit from this too. A group of boys from some other troop will join you all together. One or two of them will be the catalysts, and the rest will follow to remain with their friends.

 

Hard though it is, you shouldn't take this personally, nor should you view it as ethically questionable. Least of all should you suggest that those boys were somehow less for having changed troops. There are many roads to the same destination.

[qwazse]

Your one recourse is the boys who have stuck around. You could bring this up at a campfire where your older scouts are present and ask, "Why are you still camping with us when at any time you could have gone elswhere?" (No need to mention the other troop by name.) Their answers will stick with the younger boys better than anything you could say/do.

 

That way, when boys from other troops ask them to transfer, the'll have a reason (besides the $1 fee) to stick with your program. Obviously, if the older boys point out something/someone you have not recognised as a reason for staying, be sure to give recognition where it's due at the next opportunity.

[Chippewa29]

This past spring, my troop had two 15 year old Scouts transfer from a nearby troop. I am sometimes a bit skeptical when an experienced Scout wants to transfer to another troop. The Scouts visited our troop meetings three times over the span of six weeks. I spoke with them and their parents extensively (the parents were letting their sons run the show on this- I took that as a good sign). I also made sure that the Scouts spent a lot of time getting to know the Scouts in my troop. I came to find out that the other troop (with whom I was a little familiar) had a lot of unwritten rules that caused them to not run their program in the way the BSA intended. My troop is boy led for a large part (even though we could get better) and we pretty much follow the three aims and eight methods as they are intended. The transferring Scouts wanted a troop where they knew what to expect and where they felt they had a voice. After a few visits, they felt they had found the right troop and transferred over. They are both very nice Scouts and have fit in well.

 

Our new Scouts have said there are a few other Scouts in their former troop who are looking to transfer as well for the same reasons. I've said they are welcome to visit, but am not encouraging the transfer of Scouts from one troop to another.

 

When a possible transfer comes to visit, I always tell them that the grass is usually greener from the other side and to make sure they are switching troops for the right reasons. In the past, we've had Scouts transfer into our troop that supposedly had problems with their previous troops. What we found out within a few months was that the problem was really with the Scout and not the troop.

 

As stated before, if you see Scouts transferring from your troop to another one (or if you have a low retention rate), then take a look at what you are doing. We lost a fair percentage of our members last year (they all left Scouting), but they were Scouts that didn't really want to do the Scout program. They were more interested in just goofing around with their buddies. Once we lost those Scouts, our troop actually got better. Since then, we've recruited members that really want to do a Scouting program and are a better troop for it. If your most serious Scouts are leaving, that is a problem. However, if it is young men that don't really want to do the Scouting program, it may be a blessing in disguise.

[johnnylaw101]

Let me tell you a story... 25 years ago when I was in a Troop of about 30 boys.

 

The SPL was a Mj smoking pothead.... all his older buddies were potheads... they liked to pick on us young ones... thought it was their right to make our lives hell.

 

To me scouting was hell... not fun. The SPL's dad was our SM, who turned a blind eye to what was going on obviously in front of him. Those 15 youngest members were hating scouting and many boys just quit, and did not know any better.

 

Then one day a friend of mine transfered to the troop down the road.... our "rival" troop... and he was branded a traitor. I saw him and asked him how things were, and he said GREAT !! and explained to me how nice and friendly his new troop was. So myself and two others went to visit... just sitting quietly in the back. The older ones treated the younger ones with respect... several Eagle scouts came to talk to us, and told us that if we did want to transfer that we would be welcome there.

 

WOW !!! an older boy... and Eagle Scout... talking to us !! That was it... we transfered within the next couple of days.... Then 3 more boys transfered... then some more... in all about 12 boys transfered within a period of three weeks.

 

News of our defection quickly spread to the Cub Scout Packs... no boy would join our old pack... within three years that old troop folded up and was gone.

 

Moral of the story... boys will go where they are welcome, treated with respect, and have fun.