How to save a starving troop

[Second Class]

In the thread of "how large is your unit", one person spoke of the large number of older scouts, and an adventurous program, which seemed to keep some parents at bay, given the large age disparity and the expensive program.

 

So how is a troop to deal with this? Mine had the same problem, so after nearly shutting down the troop, we found something that works for us. Go find the moms of the scouts that dropped out of scouting because their son got "lost in the crowd". Develop a rapport with the super troop Scoutmasters. I can just about bet they would be glad to send you some of their boys, or Web II's, or at least the names of the boys that dropped out.

 

Another way to recruit is to work with a home school network. Home schoolers are some of the best scouts a leader could ask for, and their parents aren't half bad, either!

 

What are some methods that have worked for you? What could you suggest for a troop that is at risk?(This message has been edited by Second class)

[SeattlePioneer]

What to do is heavily dependent on the problems, issues and situation of the existing unit.

[Kudu]

 

I agree with SeattlePioneer: Every Troop is unique.

 

But you can easily recruit 15 sixth-graders a year (out of an audience of 53), AFTER the local Council and Troops have done their best at crossing over their Webelos, IF you pitch Scouting as a Dangerous Adventure:

 

http://inquiry.net/adult/recruiting_boy_scouts_public_schools.htm

 

Of course you have to follow through on your promise to them. That doesn't take much: Regular backpacking, Patrols spaced 300 feet apart on monthly campouts, and hired outfitters for stuff your adults can't do, such as climbing walls, canoe trips, and everything else that Baden-Powell said boys enjoyed 100 years ago.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

http://kudu.net

 

 

 

[KC9DDI]

They had climbing walls 100 years ago? Cool.

[qwazse]

Actually, they did. I saw a film about it.

It was only 14 feet tall, but it was your standard COPE element (except helmets were nowhere to be seen).

[Kudu]

 

And Patrol house-climbing competitions.

[Eagle92]

If you are refering to recruiting, there are a numebr of ways for a troop to recruit without a feeder pack. My troop didn't have one from the time I joined, until about a year or two before I got Eagle.

 

How did we get scouts?

 

1) Den chiefs. They were invaluable.

 

2) Inviting the Webelos to a meeting and camp out. OK so we rigged both meeting was fun one where we would have someone puttin on a display or talking about whatthey did. Best one was the SWAT team officers and the SWAT van. be we also has search and rescue folks withtheir dogs. Camp out was a "survival" camp out where we divided the Webelos into the patrols, taught them knots and lashings, had them help build patrol shelter, and some interpatrol games inthe evening.

 

3) Word of mouth. best recruiting is scouts talking to their friends.

[Basementdweller]

The first question should always be...

 

Is it worth saving?

 

The second should be

 

WHY?

[allangr1024]

So I have a troop of 8 boys, and I have struggled to get even 2 new scouts per year. In my area of the country, the schools are not favorable to us. Our troop is in the middle of two school districts. One will not allow any scouting organization to come on their campus. The other district has a bunch of administrative hurdles and rules. At elementary schools they can do one rally event per year, so the cub packs get that. Last year for the first time the district director got permission to set up a booth in the cafeteria at the ninth grade center, and then at the eighth grade center, He collected interest/survey cards the students had filled out and made them available to us scoutmasters. Most of the Ninth grader cards were filled out by girls. I went through the cards from the eighth graders, called the 30 or so names, still found nine or ten girls, got three to come visit our open house, and recruited one.

 

Kudu, how the heck do you get in to the schools. We could not get to speak to the sixth graders, our prime age category. Put on a show during assembly, forget about it.

 

I have also not been able to do Den Chiefs. Of our scouts, most have parents who work, and so the scouts do not have transportation to get to after school den meetings. The parents usually put the kibosh on that.

[Kudu]

 

"Kudu, how the heck do you get in to the schools."

 

I did it for decades without any problems, but then for a couple of years a new principal at one school did not return my calls. I was told that it was now "against the rules."

 

When I was asked to build up a "starving" Troop of four (4) Scouts I mentioned the problem to them. A new transfer Scout (with a very bad reputation for after-school fighting) said that one of the vice-principals was a Scoutmaster, and that it would be "no problem" for the Scout to talk him into a recruiting assembly during school hours.

 

I told him he would be representing our Troop, so please be polite and ask the vice-principal's secretary for an appointment to meet with him.

 

He laughed and said, "Nah. He is the vice-principal in charge of detention, so I see him every day!"

 

Sure enough the vice-principal called me the next day, the transfer Scout helped me with the presentation, and a couple weeks later the Troop had 15 new registered Scouts.

 

The original four Scouts were afraid of the bad boy from school, and would not vote for him as a Patrol Leader, so I appointed him "Troop Guide" (AKA Patrol Leader) of the new Scouts. It turned out that he was a NYLT Staffer, was very patient and nurturing with younger boys, and (due to his bearing), no Scout dared cross him. Whenever he raised the Scout Sign, the Troop was silent.

 

Because discipline was never a problem we soon had the Patrols hiking independently at monthly campouts and camped 300 feet apart.

 

The moral of the story: Know and Use your Natural Boy Leaders.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

"One of our methods in the Scout movement for taming a hooligan is to appoint him head of a Patrol. He has all the necessary initiative, the spirit and the magnetism for leadership, and when responsibility is thus put upon him it gives him the outlet he needs for his exuberance of activity, but gives it in a right direction," Baden-Powell ( http://inquiry.net/patrol/index.htm ).

 

(This message has been edited by Kudu)

[Tampa Turtle]

Kudu--danger--right on!

 

I was teaching Emergency Prep class the other night. Nothing gets a boys attention like electrocution, traumatic amputation, crushing injuries, or being on fire.

 

"Dang it lad, don't TELL me how you would put out the boy on fire SHOW me! Push 'em down and roll him!"

 

Of course I did not have the advantage of an air-conditioned building...poor lads I guess they are not Eagle material.

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

I was reviewing fire safety with a Tiger Cub Dem three years ago. We reviewed the idea of getting low to the ground to avoid smoke in a building, looking for an unobstructed exit and escaping.

 

I posted parents at all the exits except one waving red flags indicating that the exit was blocked by fire.

 

Of course, when we actually practiced that, they all got up and ran out the building.

 

The second time one Cub Scout ran over to a window and back handed it, breaking the window and getting a pretty good laceration in the process. (He was creating an exit in a window he couldn't squeeze through, and which opened from the inside.)

 

Well, that produced a break for first aid practice. I had a first aid kit in my car, but the Cubmaster aced me out for doing the bandaging.

 

Someone called the fire department, so they showed up with a truck, ripped off the bandage applied by the Cubmaster in favor of another one.

 

In the course of that adventure, we did the fire escape drill a couple more times, and the Scouts were doing quite well with it at that time.

 

Can't say that I've had more of an adventure at a Boy Scout meeting!