Recruiting For Election Teams

[CubsRgr8 10]

I am serving as the elections committee advisor for my lodge this year. My lodge does not have chapters, just a very large LEC (12 standing committees and five officers). We are having a terribile time recruiting Arrowmen to serve on election teams.

 

We tried direct mail, breakout sessions at roundtable (including pizza!), and asking LEC members (both youth and advisors) to recruit from their own units and/or volunteer to conduct a couple of elections. The net result has been very poor. That means the committee chairman and I spend a lot of our evenings running around conducting elections, when our responsibility should be to coordinate them.

 

That has led us to consider the idea of asking Inductions to include elections training at the end of the Ordeal weekend, stressing that this would be the ideal way for them to fullfill their service requirement towards sealing Brotherhood in ten months. Also, if you have any other ideas, please post them. Thank you in advance.

[nrp1488 9]

Seems like your lodge needs a refresher in the role of the OA - "CHEERFUL SERVICE".

[Eagle92 110]

My lodge has a First Year Arrowmen Award that incorporates doing a unit camp promotion. I've always seen the unit election done in conjunction with the camp promo. usually the election first, then whilwe ballots are being counted, the camp promo is being done.

[SSScout 1615]

CubsRg8t: I second np's comment. Also, perhaps some OA officer querying about other activity attendance. Ordeals? Banquets? Ceremony teams? Is attendance at these good? Only so so? How and why do the boys go to those? Link the need to the pride of accomplishment and leading other boys to the ideals the OA professes.

[shortridge 184]

Yeah, elections certainly aren't as glamorous as other OA work, are they? I think that may be your primary problem. It certainly was for me when I was a chapter chief and summer camp staff rep. Most of the time, it was just me, using a member or two from the unit to help out.

 

IMHO, a large part of the problem is that there's not much upward mobility in doing elections, compared to certain other areas of the inductions process. If you start out as an elangomat, you can rise to become the Ordeal Master (sorry, I still stick with the old terms), just to give one examples. Or you can begin helping with physical arrangements of the ceremony sites and work your way up to a ceremonialist position. With elections... well, you can gradually come to be in charge of lots of elections. Not much excitement there.

 

One thing that worked for me on summer camp staff was tapping the small handful of staff members who helped me run elections for the regalia-clad ceremonialist roles in the callout ceremonies. That had the added benefit of providing some continuity for the candidates. Your elections chairman could try a similar thing on the lodge level - incentivizing elections team membership by creating an informal fast track in other areas of lodge operations, helping smooth their paths into ceremonies or inductions or whatever they're interested in.

 

Personally, I liked doing elections because it brought me in contact with a wide range of units. I met Scouts from across the county that I'd never met before, and saw the diffrent ways troops operated (at least when there were visitors around). It also brought me in contact with some unit leaders who later became some great mentors. But those are really the intangibles, not great selling points at the outset.

 

Another, more practical obstacle may be scheduling. As you know, it's tough to fit your schedule around lots of troop meeting nights. I was homeschooled, and my adviser was retired, so we both had a bit extra flexibility. But I could see where it would be a challenge for others. Not sure of the best way to get around that one.

[shortridge 184]

That has led us to consider the idea of asking Inductions to include elections training at the end of the Ordeal weekend ..."

 

Heck, don't ask permission - just do! You're part of the inductions team - or you should be. Without elections, there's no one to induct. Mount a recruiting campaign during the weekend and then offer a quick-intro session on Sunday morning when nothing else is going on.

[Crew21_Adv 25]

CubsRgr8,

 

 

If I can offer my opinion and ideas.

 

I tell my Arrowmen that essential the OA is about two things, providing service to our fellow Scouts and having fun.

 

Fun is pizza, ice cream social, bowling, movie night, video game night, etc.

 

If the Arrowmen are busy with school commitments, sports or etc. Not a problem. But, if they are sitting on the couch playing video games when the chapter/lodge needs them. Oooooh, shame on them. I also expect that most of our Arrowmen do not have a drivers license, so they rely on their parents or older siblings to drive them to OA events (or elections). Maybe a parent (who is also an Arrowman) will find the time and make the drive. But, I just don't expect a regular Scouting parent to drive an Arrowman to an election on another Scouting night.

 

I think we all (Arrowmen) give in to bribery. Some Scouts will do it for candy and rootbeer. Some adult Arrowmen will drive for patches. Although, as Arrowmen we should strive for service, sometimes there is a "What's in it for me?"

 

I would say you did great by bringing pizza to the roundtable; it probably stirred their interest, while satisfying their teenage stomachs.

 

Here are my ideas...

I would recommend more food for the youth arrowmen and more patches for the adult (Arrowmen/parent) drivers. Just what you've already done, maybe a little more to it. Or, Possibly a bench mark of 4-5 elections to earn a special OA patch? It will satisfy some of their "what am I getting out of this?" need. Tell them (and their parents) via email, not that you need only one or two, but you need all the Arrowmen from the chapter to be at the elections. (Arrowmen and teenagers love to talk and shoot the bull. They may become board if it is one or two of them, but get a crowd of Arrowmen around, they'll be talking about girls and video games. ).

 

Send email reminders (to the youth and their parents) about the upcoming elections, location, evening, and time, include a rendezvous point if they need transportation. That way they will get the info, no excuse for not knowing about elections.

 

It won't necessarily satisfy the need. But at least they know, they've been bribed, there's an incentive, and the election is where all the cool guys will be. Why not show up and conduct an election?

 

Good Luck!

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv