Membership is the life blood of your program. Plan your recruiting efforts for maximum productivity.
- Cub Scout Pack Registration Form (word document)
- Troop Welcome Document (word document)
Transcript:
Membership is the life blood of the program. If you don’t have new scouts coming in every year you begin to get holes in your program.
Take for example if you don’t get a tiger group this year, not only do the boys that don’t participate not get the experience of the program but you essentially lower your overall size by one-sixth. This continues for the next 5-6 years. The scouts in the ranks below them have less to aspire to, and it culminates with a blue and gold that has no scouts to cross over.
This all begins with effective recruiting.
Most families don’t know very much about the program or what it offers. They might know a little about boy scouts, and have a positive impression of Boy Scouts, but not much more.
There will of course be some people who are very familiar, they will have friends or family in the program, or even be Eagle Scouts themselves.
Rarely however will you have troublemakers who interfere with your recruiting efforts.
In the Long Island, New York area we hold recruitment events, usually this is in the public library. The school are amenable to sending out flyers to all the grade school classes. There are rules around this, and they will depend on your specific municipality.
This is where council can get involved. They should know the lay of the land and be able to not only get you flyers for your event but also to get them delivered to the schools. As I said, this will depend not only on your schools but also your council.
Promotion however is key. Banners, flyers, notices in the local papers or supermarkets are all effective ways to get people to attend an informational meeting about cub scouts.
When you get them to the meeting however, this is where the fun begins.
Its important to use the strengths of the program to sell the program. Firstly, your top leaders should be there, even if they are only there to answer the odd question. You should have examples of the fun and adventure in the program.
Bring some handbooks, photos, examples, and even some well behaved older cub scouts to show off in front of the group.
You should also have a script. I’ve done this a number of times, and I have my shpeal memorized. Essentially you follow these key points.
- What the program is
- Key reasons why it’s a good thing
- Each age meets together (+ when they meet)
- All ages meet once per month (+ when they meet)
- What is different between each age group.
- Trips, Fun and Activities
- What does it cost.
Then you stop for questions. The questions generally will fill in anything you missed.
The important part, is to hand everyone two thing. The first is the registration form, and a pen, don’t forget a pen.
The second thing I would hand out is an information sheet. This is good for those that just join the program, but also excellent for those that are on the fence.
On the information sheet, list the contacts, and any online resources you have such as a calendar or facebook page, or website.
The more important thing to include is the basic points you went over. When the dens meet, the cost, and also upcoming trips and activities.
Usually, this type of meeting occurs both at the end of the school year and also at the start of the school year. At the end, you should have a whole set of summertime activities planned, and at the start you should know what your big trips are.
This can be a big draw, especially for those that don’t know much about the program.
One of the things you want to leave out is really any sort of problems or conflicts within your own unit. This is baggage that will not help you with recruiting. And who knows, today’s new recruit might just be the next cubmaster or committee chair.
Take what you like and leave the rest, and as we say in Woodbadge, feedback is a gift, leave yours below in the comments, with the hope we can all learn together.
I’m Scoutmaster Dave, and this all cub scout recruiting
