Cub Scout Recuitment Booth

[catdaddyxx 10]

Hello,

 

We are preparing for a local "what's happening for youth in our town" type of fair. We have signed up to have a table, and hope to have a big recuitment push. Scouting in our rural town has been mostly in the shadows in the last few years as many people have been suprised that we still have scouts when I talk to them about it. So, I'm working very hard this year to get us back in the public eye.

 

Anyone have some ideas on what we can do/have at our booth to really make a splash. They are expecting a few hundred kids in attendance.

To help with ideas: The booths for the event will be indoors (gym), I doubt we will have a lot of room, and we can't get too crazy loud.

 

thanks!

[Eagledad 2779]

Don't spend a lot of time recruiting at the booth, get the parents phone numbers so you can call them later where you can spend a lot of time selling the program. Use that list to creat your dens and find willing leader. If all goes well, you can even get the leaders trained before school starts. Then when the families come in to the recruiting night in September, you just check them off the list and tell them you already have them set up in a den with a leader.

 

I think the recruitment booth is the best recruting tool packs have if they can get the numbers to most of the scouts' families. Its a bit of work calling for a couple days, but it takes the load off in September and the starts the pack running at the begining of school instead of spending a couple of weeks recruiting, buiding dens, and getting leaders trained.

 

Barry

[catdaddyxx 10]

That's an excellent point. We're having a big graduation/pack meeting/weenie roast/play day thing at the park right after school is out.

 

If I can get them interested enough to show up at that, they will be sold.

 

[SSScout 1616]

If all you are allowed is a table and chair, then have lots of Scout propaganda to hand out. Bracket table with US flag, Pack/Troop flag. Photoes of Scout fun, and pass out mini Boy's Lifes and brochures. Take phone numbers to call back. Check with your DE and Council for lit-a-ra-toor to hand out.

 

If room is available, set up a Pine Wood Derby track with some expendable cars that kids can race. Hold races. Set up a tent kids can crawl in and out of. Boy Scouts can have a charcoal fire and make Dutch Oven brownies (Ooops? Indoor display? well, set up the tent anyway.).

Have Scouts actually chopping wood with hand axe/hatchet, make tent pegs to pass out as souvenirs. Make sure your Scout (Totin' Chip!)is REALLY skilled at this.Keep folks at a safe distance for this, of course.

Monkey Rope Bridge? Pioneer lashed tower? Make it visual and eye catching.

[catdaddyxx 10]

So far for the booth we have:

 

A bright blue & gold canopy to set up under.

the nice printed posters of the promise, law, etc...

several large collages of activities done "this year".

5 foot banners for the pack.

A laptop showing a larger slide show of current pictures.

Another laptop showing the official bsa recuitment dvd.

1000 fliers to pass out with contact info.

plenty of applications.

stickers to hand out.

possibly a place for the kids to make a bead necklace.

[moosetracker 132]

I wouldn't do beaded necklaces to attract boys..

 

Maybe a small relay race, or if it needs to be sitdown, large end rolls of paper from a nearby newspaper place, then get some real cheap plastic cars, and have them draw roads and landscape on the blank paper roll, and race their cars around homemade tracks.. Something like that.

[BadenP 93]

catdad

 

Handouts are always great. In the past we have done knot magnets, the kids are taught to tie a small square knot, glue it to a small piece of wood with a small magnetic strip glued on the other side. Cost about five cents each, and we had a line of kids & adults all day long. We recruited 35 new cub scouts that day. Photos, handbooks,uniforms, camping equipment all on display will really attract people. If you are really ambitious you can make a dutch oven cobbler. Good Luck.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Inviting boys and families to an exciting activity is an excellent strategy --- your hot dog roast should be a good draw.

 

 

But I'd combine that with an activity the boys and families willo find exciting.

 

Making "stomp bottle rockets" that will be launched at part of your hot dog roast would be a really powerful draw. They are made from a sheet of paper and launched by stomping on a 2 liter soda pop bottle --- the air fires the rockets.

 

You could have some examples of the stomp bottle rockets to show boys, and ask them id they think their rocket would go the HIGHEST and the FARTHEST!

 

You also need someone with the soul of a carnival barker to go out among the crowd passing by and direct them into your table.

 

Waiting for people to approach you is a weak strategy.

[Akecheta 10]

Have a great booth inside with all of the information listed above and don't forget to have a handout of planned events throughout the summer. An added bonus would be if you have a listing of planned activities for the next school year as well. At the same booth you can also have the boys put together Stomp Rockets at the table and then go outside to launch them. Have some scouts and a leader or two outside to assist and answer questions. Parents will open up more and ask questions if they see their son interacting and having fun. The advantage you will have is being the first thing that families see when they arrive, and the boys will be excited to seek out your booth. We just did our Spring recruitment of Tigers and had twenty-one join on a cold, rainy morning this month with only 30 boys showing up. The other nine were noncommittal but but remain on our calling list for this Fall and an opportunity for our new Tigers to earn their "Recruiting" Badge.

[Akecheta 10]

oops

 

Looks like I had the same thoughts as Seattle and posted at the same time. We actually "borrowed" this idea from Seattle and it worked great for us and I have to give him the props for our Spring recruiting. It worked so well that the DE is coercing me to set up a Tiger Blitz next Spring with additional packs in the area hoping to get similar results.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Hello Akecheta,

 

 

It sounds like you've improved on my ideas.

 

Can you describe the situation you were in in more detail and how you organized it? Was this an elementary school open house or some other activity?

 

So far, stomp bottle rockets are the most powerful means of attracting the interest of boys and families I have found. It's a cheap activity to stage and a great Cub Scout family activity since parents can be expected to help their boy assemble his rocket.

 

I have six rocket launchers I use, segregating boys by den level to avoid age conflicts.

 

But there are lots of ways this could be done, and I'd like to learn from your experience.

[Fehler 118]

I set up a "marshmallow shooting gallery" with a couple of those popcorn-sale crossbow prizes and a water heater box (decorated with the "Join Scouting" and other stickers/designs from my Wolf Den). The box has a hole cut out, with a target taped in the middle, so marshmallows fall into the box, not bouncing off (it was originally a puppet show stage box). Works great if you are up against a wall, indoors. Not so good if you have another booth behind you.

 

I also like the stomp rockets for outside. I did that this weekend, but my spot was not ideal: The only good place to launch the rockets was away from where my table was assigned, so it pulled the focus away from my flyers.

[Akecheta 10]

Seattle

 

Our promotion was through our PTO, the local daily and weekly newspapers, the chamber of commerce and a local community website with an calendar of events posting. The school will not allow us to distribute flyers so we had to use the PTO email list. We did drop off flyers though with local after school daycares.

We set up at a park and partnered with the Police and Fire Departments who set up displays as well. We had planned to set up near the soccer and baseball fields and try to attract players on their way to or back from their games. We had some of our scouts their in all three uniforms to show that they can be in sports and scouts. Both sports were rained out though because of conditions the night before limiting our exposure.

The boys worked with mom and dad on building and decorating their rockets and we had four launchers for their use. Our launchers have a union on them so that the launcher can be pointed in multiple directions besides straight up. This way the launcher can be right next to the table enabling a leader to run the launcher and engage with all of the kids and parents. We set up a target out in the field and encourage the boys to try and land their rocket in the target area. With the union on the launcher lad and dad will often launch the rocket multiple times with dad trying to adjust the angle in order to land in the target area. If they landed in the target area we gave them a small trinket (small promo carabiner). The competition against themselves kept some kids there all morning. This event also allowed us to have a brief discussion with parents on the Scouts STEM initiative which was a hit with the "UBER" parents.

[catdaddyxx 10]

Thanks for the input guys/gals.

We are a tiny pack in a small town. But, it was a really good day. We signed up 8 new scouts today.

 

Here is a picture of our booth. Not much room to work with.

[Akecheta 10]

Congrats and great looking booth!