Effective Recruiting Hints and Methods
I just wanted to start a discussion on the effectiveness of various recruiting methods that are used in the district. I'll start with three methods I've heard so far.
1. The traditional "Boy Talk" at school, followed by Kick off Meeting.
2. Use the parent network at school, (PTA, PTO), to contact a family or families in Kindergarten that might be interested in scouts. Have them work the network of families to form one or more tiger dens in the spring.
3. Use the informal email/facebook networks at school to solicit families that might be interested in scouts.
Method 2 has shown to be successful to recruit in especially smaller educational settings that have strong programs.
Method 3 also works well to communicate more personally with the families. The packs I've talked to like the fact that they can sustain their enrollment easily and they feel all families are contacted.
As a note: Methods 2 and 3 have shown to be successful especially when the cub scouts and parents like the activities and the organization of the group and therefore want to join.
Please add your notes and ideas for effective recruiting below. Feel free to add any concerns or areas for improvement.
1. The traditional "Boy Talk" at school, followed by Kick off Meeting.
2. Use the parent network at school, (PTA, PTO), to contact a family or families in Kindergarten that might be interested in scouts. Have them work the network of families to form one or more tiger dens in the spring.
3. Use the informal email/facebook networks at school to solicit families that might be interested in scouts.
Method 2 has shown to be successful to recruit in especially smaller educational settings that have strong programs.
Method 3 also works well to communicate more personally with the families. The packs I've talked to like the fact that they can sustain their enrollment easily and they feel all families are contacted.
As a note: Methods 2 and 3 have shown to be successful especially when the cub scouts and parents like the activities and the organization of the group and therefore want to join.
Please add your notes and ideas for effective recruiting below. Feel free to add any concerns or areas for improvement.
Tags: membership, recruiting
Views: 5
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ken Bower on -
For Venturing Crews, new membership is mostly acquired through two methods: word of mouth and crew relationships. Crews that survive use one of these methods. Strong crews practice both methods.
- Many Crews have a "feeder" relationship with a Troop (just as many Troops feed from Packs). It's a somewhat awkward relationship between Troops and Crews, though, because there is a significant age overlap between Boy Scouting and Venturing (no one is concerned about the oldest Webelos being lured away a few months early because they have to cross over soon, anyway). Partnering Troops and Crews need to work out a method that serves both units well.
- Diverse Crews, which draw membership from more than a single source, get most of it from their own members bringing in their friends. For this to work well, the Crew should have a process in place to make visitors feel welcomed at their first meetings and outings.
- Highly diverse Crews draw membership from lots of sources. Boy Scout Troops are the obvious pool, but Girl Scout Troops and other Venturing Crews can be bountiful wells, too. The Venturing program is designed to share well, and it's extremely common for Venturers to belong to multiple units.
In our community, teens are very busy people. We have to offer an attractive program that gives them a very high value/time ratio to compete with academics, sports, faith, service, and online activities. However you recruit them, you also must have a program in place that makes them want to stay.
YiS,
Ken -
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Created by Scout Now Network Creator Oct 14, 2009 at 9:54am. Last updated by Scout Now Network Creator Oct 14, 2009.
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