Boosting Boys Life subscriptions

[maryj75225]

Greetings, I'm a writer in Dallas on assignment for Scouting magazine, writing about the upcoming 100th anniversary. As one part of my story, I'd love to hear any suggestions from Scouters on what you've done to make sure every boy in your Pack, Troop or Unit receives Boys Life at home. I know that some units subscribe through the unit budget plan -- i.e. the Scout gets the subscription automatically as part of his registration fee. Any Scout who has pushed to initiate that in your unit - I'd love to hear how and why you did it. Also would be interested in hearing other approaches to promote subscriptions, why you think BL subscriptions are important/valuable, and any barriers you might have encountered. Subscriptions to Boys Life are linked to Scouts staying in the program longer - obviously hard to prove a causal link, but I'd like to hear any thoughts on why having that magazine land in the Scout's mailbox once a month might help encourage them to stay in the program and be more involved. I'd also love to hear from anyone whose unit ended up going on an adventure or trying an activity after learning about it in Boys Life. If you have any thoughts on these topics, reply to this post or email me directly at maryjacobs44@yahoo.com. Thank you!

[NJCubScouter]

As of the time my son became a Boy Scout 7 years ago, our troop paid for a Boys Life subscription for every boy. Unfortunately, at some point several years ago our Troop Committee decided to take the subscriptions out of the dues and let those who wish to subscribe subscribe. I wasn't at the meeting in question, but I believe it was at the time of an increase in both registration fees and/or insurance fees to the council, and the BL subscription fee itself. The troop dues had to be increased anyway due to the registration and/or insurance costs and to keep our budget balanced in general, and the decision was that the committee just did not want to increase dues enough to cover the BL subscription as well. As a result, our troop dropped from a 100 percent BL troop every year to one with about 5 subscriptions, and I would not be surprised if we are at about 0 now. My son was one of the few subscribers at the beginning, but he lost interest at the age of about 16 and has now Eagled/aged out of the troop. I suspect this is not the sort of response you were hoping for, since the literal answer to your question ("what you've done to make sure every boy in your Pack, Troop or Unit receives Boys Life at home") is, in our case, "nothing." I wish this were not the case, but it is and I don't think there would be any great sentiment to change it at this time. In fact we just had another of our annual votes on increasing the dues, and we decided to hold the line for this year despite the fact that we risk running in the red. The chances of adding another cost into the mix seem pretty small.

[frank10]

That's an easy one for me... Stop charging my scouts more than the public for their subscription.

 

A quick search right now finds it for $11.66 at http://www.magazinenook.com/21-boys-life.html

 

BSA charges my scouts $15 ... A Scout is thrifty. A bit insulting.(This message has been edited by wingnut)

[Novice_Cubmaster]

Neither of my boys were much on reading for pleasure til at least middle school/start of high school. I got tired of tossing unread copies of Boys Life. Was very happy when the unit stopped lumping it into the dues & made it optional.

 

NC

[ntrog8r]

To reach 100% subscription:

We approached our charter and asked them to pay for all recharter costs; they agreed. We also asked if they would pay for CONTINUING subscriptions to BL; they agreed. So, any time a family joined the Troop, we encouraged them to subscribe to BL. Those that did, their renewal was covered as long they stayed with the Troop. The first year we recruited we had less than 50% (of new Scout families) subscribe. The next year (and all following years) we had 100% subscribe. What changed? We had a slew of new (one year) Scouts who talked up BL at the following recruitment drives.

Barriers:

1. Cost, especially to new families who are paying to register, buying books, buying uniforms, hearing about dues, etc. The perpetual subscription solved this isue.

2. Content. This program was very successful for us mainly because we started with a Troop of almost all new Scouts crossing over from Webelos. The articles and format appealed to them. As the Scouts grow older, their interest in BL fades as the articles/projests all seem geared to younger boys.

Inspirations:

- In a Troop that was completely adult run, I was asked to come help them "get the boys involved". The adults said the "boys" just weren't interested in doing anything. At the next PLC it became apparent why - which is another topic - but by providing BL articles on things other Troops were doing they started talking about things they wished they could do. Several months later they were on their way to a pro ball game hundreds of miles away, next year's summer camp was in another state, the parents got behind the idea of a bus, Scouts have now attended Philmont and the National Jamboree, and made Eagle. Though saying BL was responsible for this would be a stretch (after all the Scouts were), BL was the catalyst for the Scouts and the parents that youcan do more than camp at the same place three times a year.

- Scouts in Action is sometimes useful for 1st Aid training.

- We had our own write-in contest to see who could get a Hobby How or joke printed first.

- Another Troop in our Council donated their used BL to a local shelter.

 

Good luck with your article.

[Lisabob]

We pushed boys life pretty hard in cub scouts, in part because we had a lot of families in the pack where the boys had some kind of learning disability that was linked to reading issues. Boys Life gave the families more opportunities to read together, and the kids seemed happy to pick up the magazine to read the jokes, etc. However, we didn't do the automatic subscription. I'd say about 1/3 to 1/2 of the pack families chose to subscribe.

 

My son's first troop does automatic subscription. From what I can tell, the boys seem to continue reading it til about age 14, when they appear to lose interest. While my own son (older teen) loves to read, he rarely even opens BL anymore - it seems to have lost its appeal. On the other hand, he'll read Discovery or Popular Mechanic or other tech/science/exploration oriented magazines all day. At this point I wish he didn't get an automatic subscription to BL anymore because it has become mailbox clutter.

 

I wonder if you'd get different answers if you asked your question in the cub scouts forum?

[TNScoutTroop]

We just chartered (finally!) our new troop, and BL was NOT, and will not be, included or even mentioned. The consensus is that BL is short on useful articles that are consistent with Scouting's goals, and long on ads for overpriced gear.

 

We've concluded that, not only is it an unneeded expense, but that the advertising and editorial policy are actually in opposition to Scouting goals we wish to emphasize, such as thrift and being prepared to use what you have and can afford. Given the fact that many of our Scouts are from financially limited homes makes this issue critical.

 

The fact that none of our sons liked it just adds another nail to the coffin.

 

100% Boys Life seems to us to be one of those institutional goals that has little if anything to do with Scouting.

 

Tn Scout Troop

[ManyHats]

Our Pack lumps it with national dues. We do offer to pay 1/2 their dues if they reach a certain level of popcorn sales and pay the full amount if they reach a higher level.

Our committee likes quality unit/100% boys life.

My son usually doesn't read the full magazine, but does like the jokes and scouts in action.

[Austinole]

It's not an option for our kids. We add it to the pack registration fee and everyone gets it. My son enjoys getting his mail every month and we read most all the stories. He really enjoyed reading about the cave campers this past month. I recall getting boys life when I was a scout and I always flipped straight back to the cartoons.

[boomerscout]

I gave my local library a one year sub to Boys Life. The library displayed the issues in a prominent spot in the youth magazine section of the library. The librarian said it was the least read of all the youth magazines, so now I give them a homesteading magazine instead.

Boys Life of the 40s and 50s seemed to have a lot more on Scoutcraft and DIY, while BL of today seems to be on spending the bucks

[Eagle92]

I know that advertising is the lifeblood of any magazine, but I remember a lot less advertising as a youth.

[NJCubScouter]

I can envision maryj57225, our intrepid freelance writer, hoping to write an article on Boys Life that Scouting magazine will actually publish, reading some of these posts and thinking, "Hey guys, I came here for help, not this!" Unfortunately reality is not always the way we would like it to be.

[perdidochas]

I didn't subscribe to Boys Life for my boys when they were Wolf Cub Scouts. Then about February of that year, I noticed that my son was checking out Boy's Life magazines from the School Library. Decided then that we needed to subscribe.

 

I do think that the magazine is a lot thinner in content than it was when I was a boy. I think a Scout skills column, or something like that would add to it's attractiveness and usefulness.

[Rockford8070]

Hobby Hows were a big part of BL when I was young. I think I even have a scrap book full of clippings from my old BL issues. These would have been from the mid to late 80s.

[BadenP]

I agree with others here stating that BL is little more than a shameless advertisement magazine with a couple of articles thrown in. I have an old 1935 Boys Life I found at a store for $1 what a difference in the quality of the articles, it is hard to believe just how much this quality has erroded away over the years. Oh well magazines like newspapers will soon be a thing of the past as everything goes online. The BL editors are beating a dead horse with this one.