Building up troop membership

[Mr. Boyce]

. . . what are good strategies you've found?

[EagleBeaver]

We have a Scoutorama day the beginning of November inviting 4th and 5th grade Webelos to cycle through scout skill stations, earning wampum beads which they can exchange for cheap toys. Then, we have lunch and large-area games for an hour. Every Webelos gets a patch.

The goal is to give them an opportunity to see what Boy Scouts are like and earn their Arrow of Light - we don't say anything about joining our troop. The goal on the other side is to give our younger scouts opportunities to lead small groups. It's about my favorite day of the year.

 

I guess we also have a good story to tell when someone asks what we do. We do summer camp every year. In 2008, we did Philmont and Boundary Waters canoeing. Last year, we did our own high adventure to OR/WA. This year, we had 3 crews at SeaBase and 2 crews backpacking in the Bighorn Mountains of WY. (I'm actually leaving on that at 6am tomorrow :-)

 

Listing our monthly campouts shows we're active year-round. When I explain how each monthly campout is planned and led by a different patrol, the parents get interested. When I tell them how many adults and youth we have trained in CPR and Wilderness First Aid and that their son's safety is my #1 concern, that seems to have an effect too.

 

I think the best 'strategy' we use is that scouts do the talking and I stay out of the way for the most part. We spent some time before an event so we all understand what the goals are and who has which role. That seems to help the SPL, PLs, and others take on the challenge of addressing larger groups.

 

Scout On

[desertrat77]

MN Scout is right on the money.

 

Senior scouts lead, and the scouts are always in the outdoors.

 

A successful gameplan for 100 years, and it still works great.(This message has been edited by desertrat77)

[Nike]

Program, program, program.

 

Pictures of actual Scouts making and sleeping in self built snow caves, sailing, rafting, hanging out of trees on a high ropes course while those very Scouts are talking about what a great time they had will attract more boys than all the droning about "leadership development" from Scoutmasters to adults.

[John-in-KC]

Den Chiefs, Den Chiefs, Den Chiefs.

 

Start no later than the Bear Year for Packs in your area. Get boys out to be Big Brothers to those Cubs. Dedicate an ASM to the DC care and feeding, as well as listening to the Packs for their support needs.

 

It's like this: The Packs need your boys and your support: Your Troop needs the seed corn the Packs provide.

 

BTW, I agree with Nike, mn_scout, and desertrat too...

[DenZero]

While a good program is important to keep the recruits, the most effective way I've seen to build up membership is to have a strong feeder pack. Troops with large and strong feeder packs get 20 Webelos dropped on their doorstep each spring. Troops without strong feeder packs end up having to work very hard to recruit very few boys, and are usually struggling to survive. Packs go through leaders faster than troops, and a period of weak leadership can kill a pack. Once the Cubs are gone to a larger pack, there's no getting them back. For this reason, a troop should take an active interest in the running of their feeder pack, at least providing a member or two of the pack committee to provide guidance.

[shortridge]

While program, program, program is indeed crucial, marketing and image is also critical. A visible troop is going to get more members than a stealth troop.

 

That means marching in parades, doing regular service projects, serving as color guard for Little League opening day ceremonies, volunteering to lead tours at the local nature center, putting on public Scout skills demonstrations in the town park (signaling, fire by friction, monkey bridge, survival shelters, just to name a few things with a built-in cool factor), running a younger kids' free fishing derby... etc.

 

And then, the most important thing from a marketing perspective - taking photos, writing up a press release and sending it to your local newspapers. Or better yet, inviting your local newspapers or TV station to cover it as a feature story. That gets the word out to a MUCH wider audience.

 

In this day and age, a troop website is a must. It doesn't cost much (free, in some cases) to put up a few pages with photos, a listing of events and contact information. Read up on search engine optimization techniques and make sure your site is the first one that pops up when someone searches for "boy scouts smithtown rhode island." Make it as easy as possible for a parent or interested boy to find you.

[Eagledad]

>>That means marching in parades, doing regular service projects, serving as color guard for Little League opening day ceremonies, volunteering to lead tours at the local nature center, putting on public Scout skills demonstrations in the town park (signaling, fire by friction, monkey bridge, survival shelters, just to name a few things with a built-in cool factor), running a younger kids' free fishing derby... etc.

[OldGreyEagle]

the most effective recruitment tool the BSA has is an excited kid telling all his buddies how he went up to the Boundary Waters in a Canoe, or hiked Philmont and saw the sunrise on Baldy, or spent a week on Munson island, or went to Maine, or anything else a troop can put together.Whehter its a rope course, white water, flat water, fishing, being outside, doing stuff, climbing, its all better than staying at home.

 

Then during the school year, the kid jazzed about a winter campout, tracking animals, seeing animals, making snow shelters, (ok may not work for those in the south, but work with me)

 

You want to build membership? Get your kids excited about what they have just done, so excited, they just have to boast about, facebook about, text about, whatever it is they do

[qwazse]

Interesting that no one mentioned the First Class requirement to invite a friend to his troop. It has done nothing to boost our rate of recruitment, and it has uselessly added time the already difficult task of tracking advancement.

 

Maybe we need to require the boy to invite ten other boys. Or, maybe we should just strike that one from the books.

[Eagledad]

>>Or, maybe we should just strike that one from the books.