Equipment Reviews & Discussions
Discussions dealing with equipment topics (tents, lights, packs, boots, stoves, etc.)
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LATEST POSTS
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First - lots of adult drama seems to be in play, but let's power through that Scouts are the best recruits for Scouts. The best way to get boys who are not involved is PROGRAM. Not advancement, not meetings, not citizenship, etc etc, it's PROGRAM. Get your 3 active scouts to clearly set a calendar of OUTDOOR PROGRAMMING. That is the selling point for other boys to engage, what will THEY be doing, what is in it for them. Go Do Stuff. Get the dates set and get a plan to go do things. Not sure where you are but that is what will get the boys to show up. Canoeing, kayaking. hiking, wide games, biking, etc etc. PROGRAM brings in Scouts. The other key items like advancement, citizenship, and leadership can be built once you get them engaged -
Effective recruitment is an active process. Signs and "come to" events are passive and yield less results. The current scouts need to go to where prospective recruits congregate and do stuff with them, become friends, ask them to join. The adults do the same with the adults. This can take many forms, either engaging with the prospectives immediately, or doing scout stuff to gather an audience. Recruitment is cheap, easy, effective but you can only pick two. -
or call the by their individual, patrol or troop name. Hey troop 123, Hey Coyote Patrol, Hey johhny and phil, Hey jane and margaret.
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By CodyMiller351 · Posted
I need some help from y'all. As of right now, my Troop has 3 active scouts. We have had a rough past 2 years with our charter organization getting rid of us (due to problems with the pack). We ended up creating our own non-profit organization so we wouldn't have to find a different charter org. We have also had a change at Scoutmaster recently. I had assumed the responsibilities of Scoutmaster but since I am not 21 another one of our older leaders (also my Grandpaw) is the "official" Scoutmaster on paper. Along with the Scoutmaster leaving, we had 5 boys and 2 other adults go with him (they created a new troop due to disagreements with one of our leaders). Anyways, my main point is we need more boys. Our council set up recruiting events at schools and a local church but they were canceled due to bad weather (hurricanes). Since then, they have yet to set up any replacement events so we have had to do this on our own (which is fine but help would be nice). We have placed "Join Boy Scouts" signs at many places around town with my contact information. We also gave 2 of our scouts some info cards to hard out at school but I am not sure they have done that yet. Another reason we are having troubles is because the Cubmaster for our Cub Scout Pack does not have a great relationship with us. He is friends with one of the leaders who left and started a new troop. We have talked with the Cubmaster and he says he will stick with us and send his boys our way (we will see if that actually happens). Anyways, I am curious to see what y'all think. What have y'all done for recruiting? I am willing to try anything at this point. I have been fighting my butt off to keep this Troop up and running but to little success. I don't want to see this Troop fold but I am afriad with another year like we have been having we might have to give up. Any suggestions are appreciated! -
By walk in the woods · Posted
I wonder if there's not a couple of things going on these days. First, I think there are a lot of folks that knew or remember how the Vietnam vets were treated when they came home. There's some desire, at least in some parts of society, to make up for that societal disgrace. It can't be taken back, but, a different attitude can be shown moving forward. I think the second thing that's happening is we're now what 40 years into the all volunteer force. There are two generations of citizens that realize they didn't even have to consider serving. I wonder if some folks are coming to terms with that reality. OEF/OIF are the first sustained, on-tv-every-night operations in a generation. The idea of military service is in their living rooms again. I figure when people say thanks for your service, they aren't talking to me, I'm just a guy that represents all vets, at that moment, to that person. It's uncomfortable because I know where I belong in hierarchy. But, I try to be gracious and then take a few minutes to remember and be grateful myself.
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