Always dreading Webelos recruitment

[Jeffrey H]

"I'm not looking to pick a fight here but the attitude I see in the real world and here is that Cub Scouts does the recruiting, and Boy Scouts are supposed to be the beneficiaries of 5 years worth of preparation..."

 

Your assessment is accurate in my part of the country as well. The heavy hand of recruiting is put on the Packs. If it were not for the success of our Pack, a Boy Scout Troop near to us would be struggling. This Troop usually assumes that we will send some Webelos their direction and most of the time that happens. However, this past Spring, none of our six graduating Webelos chose to be a part of that Troop. Why? Because the Troop did not return phone calls or e-mails from the Webelos Den Leader. Not a smart move. If you are a leader with a Boy Scout Troop, part of your recruiting is to maintain friendly communications with a Pack or Packs and also perform the courtesy of at least returning phone calls. Yes, the boys do make the final decision of where they want to go, but a strong WDL that the boys look up to can influence their decision.

 

As the CM of the Pack, I picked a little friction about this "drama" but I told the offended Troop that the "The Webelos made their decision and you helped them make a decision for another Troop." I have very good relationship with this Troop but I had to be frank with them about their lack of communication skills with our Pack.

 

 

[dkurtenbach]

DLChris71 asked: "Can you quantify how much time and resources your troop spent on Webelos? And also if you spent time and resources that were wasted, what would your troop used those instead if not the opportunity to work with Webelos?"

 

The last time, as I recall, we provided the Webelos den with a night hike event, a catapult-building event, setting up a catapult range at one of their campouts and providing catapults and pumpkins, hosted the den at dinner at the district Camporee, and provided dinner for their entire pack (about 60 people) at their pack overnighter, and helped with a flag retirement ceremony. Except for the night hike and Camporee, I think all of the other activities were things that they asked us to do for them.

 

As to what we would have used those resources for if not trying to build a relationship with this Webelos den: Except for the Camporee, every one of those activities was on a night or weekend that was not a regular troop meeting or campout weekend. So, personally, I would have been home with my family, as the other adult leaders would likely have been, and I suspect the Scouts would have been home as well (maybe even doing a little homework). The funds expended would have stayed in the Treasury or would have been used for troop needs.

 

Aside from the efforts with that particular den, our recruiting efforts generally involved having a presence at Back-to-School nights in the local elementary schools in the fall, and contacting Webelos den leaders in the packs at those schools to invite them to come and visit the troop. And yes, we did reach out to them, and responded to phone calls and other inquiries. For troop visits, unlike many area troops, we wanted Webelos dens to come to a regular meeting, with the Webelos Scouts participating side-by-side with the Boy Scouts. Warts and all. This lack of any "special" activity for visiting Webelos put us at a disadvantage with many dens. I heard many, many stories of Webelos Scouts choosing troops because of the special Webelos activities the troops hosted for Webelos den visits.

 

It was after the debacle with that one den that we made a switch to monthly (during the school year), district-wide non-recruiting recruiting. We established what we called Webelos Workshops. Every month, at a regular troop meeting, we offered any Webelos Scout in the district a 45-minute, walk-in opportunity to work on some requirements for a Webelos activity badge or a belt loop required for an activity badge. For subject matter, we scoured the Webelos activity badge requirements to find the most hands-on, fun activities we could. (And believe me, the Webelos activity badges are so full of academic-type "tell," "explain," and "describe" requirements that it is hard to put together a full slate of hands-on, active requirements. The prime example is the Fitness activity badge, which a Scout can complete during commercials while sitting on the sofa watching his favorite television shows and popping cheese puffs.) Den Leaders loved it, because that was one less meeting they needed to plan. And we had a lot of dens return month after month. We didn't do any overt recruitment at those sessions, just had fun with the Scouts and chatted with parents and adult leaders. We didn't get all of the Webelos who came by -- not by a long shot. But we got enough that the troop started to grow, and we earned a lot of goodwill. And the investment in time and resources was extremely cost-effective.

 

Dan Kurtenbach

Fairfax, VA

 

[DLChris71]

Wow Dan, that was a ton of stuff. I'm not sure that the troops around my district do that much, but thanks for the insight.

[Brewmeister]

Dan, that's an impressive array of activities.

 

And I certainly agree about the boring academic parts of Webelos badges. (It's also frustrating that so many of the Webelos & AOL requirements end up being repeated verbatim in the Scout Badge and Tenderfoot Rank requirements, but that's another topic...)

 

I'm going to suggest some of the activities you do to our troop!!!!

[Eagledad]

>>We established what we called Webelos Workshops.

[dkurtenbach]

Well, as I said, most of the activities described -- before we started Webelos Workshops -- we took on in an extraordinary effort to build a relationship with that Webelos den and, we hoped, that pack. And that didn't work out.

 

I must say, though, we did have a lot of fun with the catapults and pumpkins.

[dkurtenbach]

Barry, I never did the the research, but my experience is right in line with your conclusions. Active, interested Webelos den leaders cross most of their Scouts over to Boy Scouts. Burned out Webelos den leaders don't.

 

I'm not trying to suggest that this is another factor that makes it the pack's fault if the transition doesn't go well. Rather, I'm suggesting that this is another reason why the "troop-shopping" model is defective. In what BSA considers an ideal situation, where there is a strong and continuing relationship between troop and pack, the troop would be aware of the Webelos den leader's lack of enthusiasm and actively go in to pick up the slack. In a "troop-shopping" environment where there is no strong relationship, even an interested troop doing outreach would not know that a Webelos den leader is not actively working to cross the boys over.

 

That doesn't mean that the "troop-pack relationship" model is perfect, either. As noted in several comments here, it breaks down if the troop doesn't have a good program or good leadership, that is, if the troop isn't holding up its side of the relationship. And it is a lot harder for a pack to see issues in an associated troop and reach out to help, than the reverse situation.

 

Dan Kurtenbach

Fairfax, VA

[SeattlePioneer]

Congratulations dkurtenbach, for your troop's outstanding job supporting Webelos Dens and Webelos Den Leaders.

 

 

Frankly, I don't like the Webelos program --- far too complicated to get through.

 

The one redeeming thing is that there ought to be plenty of camping opportunities in the program. If there are, it can be fine.

 

I have a WDL who has been churning through the Webelo 1 program this year. I've been sending him opportunities for Webelos Woods, Camporee and other camping opportunities which would make it easier for him and better for the boys, but he hasn't adopted those.

 

I've also tried to get the neighboring troop involved in working with this Webelos Den, and they have done nothing.

 

It's VERY frustrating!

[Crew21_Adv]

fred and Fellow Scouters,

 

 

Greetings!

 

I wish BSA would consider the foreign Scouting one unit concept (one troop from ages 5-25). That is a whole other discussion though.

 

But regarding recruiting and disappointments. I have a colleague, that told me, "We are youth led!" and I replied "So, you're saying, we are not?". Then the next statement was "I didn't mean that, I just meant, We listen to our youth!". To which I replied, "So we don't listen to our youth?"

 

I tell my local fellow Scouters that Webelos cross over based on three things:

1) Where the Webelos' Den Leader goes, the families will follow like sheep

2) Where the Webelos' school friends/neighborhood friends are at

3) Night of the week vs baseball, football, soccer, homework, etc

 

Good Luck with the Webelos and you fellow troops in your neighborhood.

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

[DLChris71]

When and if I get the honor to be a WDL I hope to take the boys on overnighters every month, if the weather stays mild in our area. I went camping with my sons every month except January this past year and we only cancelled January (went to Washington DC instead) because we were going to a swampy area and it was forecast for >1" of rain.

 

My view is that getting a Super Achiever Webelos is not important, that 2 of the 20 activity pins are to be done with the family in any case, and that through our council camp, and another a trip to another council's camp which is longer in duration that the boys can easily pick up at least 8 activity pins. So if 8 can be picked up through resident camps then spend the bulk of our time together working on scout craft, service projects, outings and camping.

 

If a boy wants to work towards Super Achiever, through stuff like Artist then let him do the bulk at home and just sign him off on it. Let's use the den's time together for fun and adventure.(This message has been edited by dlchris71)

[Eagle732]

As a CM I held an annual pack open house for troops. Troops were invited to attend and bring whatever activity they wanted to show and share with our Webs (we had lots of Webs and Webs). We also invited Webs from neighboring packs. Some troops built monkey bridges, some did a slide show and display from Philmont, one would just send a ASM with a tent (not much effort there!). But the troop that got the most activity and thus the most recruits was the troop that year after year set up a rubber band shooting range and gave away cheap prizes. Go figure!

[dkurtenbach]

"But the troop that got the most activity and thus the most recruits was the troop that year after year set up a rubber band shooting range and gave away cheap prizes."

 

And this goes right to the heart of the main argument in favor of "troop shopping" -- that it is about Webelos Scouts finding the troop that is the "best fit" for them.

 

In a competitive "troop shopping" environment, troops are going to act rationally in order to succeed in the competition. That means doing what will attract new Scouts to the troop, even if what brings them in the door has nothing to do with the troop's actual program. Heck, our Webelos Workshops are designed to bring Webelos Scouts, leaders, and parents in to meet folks in our troop and get them comfortable with us through regular contact. They are not designed to reflect our troop program.

 

(Although, I hope the Workshops are more constructive than simply shooting rubber bands. For the Scientist badge, for example, making and throwing paper airplanes illustrates Bernoulli's principle, and blowing up balloons then letting them go illustrates Newton's third law of motion. Ugh. Now I feel cheap and slutty. Oh, wait -- we've made rope, fixed bike tires, practiced first aid, studied maps -- I feel better now.)

 

Dan Kurtenbach

Fairfax, VA

[Eagledad]

>>what BSA considers an ideal situation, where there is a strong and continuing relationship between troop and pack, the troop would be aware of the Webelos den leader's lack of enthusiasm and actively go in to pick up the slack.

[mdlscouting]

"I'm not looking to pick a fight here but the attitude I see in the real world and here is that Cub Scouts does the recruiting, and Boy Scouts are supposed to be the beneficiaries of 5 years worth of preparation..."

 

Also, the bulk of the popcorn sales, the bulk of the Dues to council, and quite a bit as they replace neckerchief, hat, belt, slide, handbook each year. (Sorry, that's my own personal rant...)