The Future of the BSA?

[st0ut717]

BasementDweller - the ones who stick around are chasing the Eagle. Modern youth don't have the time to be dilettantes - every activity has to result in a check box for a job or a college application. My hypothesis is that we have dropped the youth that used to just come for the fun of it, regardless of advancement. On top of that, there are more materials available for a boy to pencil whip his way through a merit badge (downloadable workbooks from MeritBadge.com for example).

When he was crossing over into boy scouts he was doing Karate, Cub Scouts and Soccer. I said he had to drop one. He chose Soccer because he said getting a black belk and eagle would me more.

 

The kids that drop for sports let them

Kids are starting to specialize earlier.

Let focus on the kids that want to be scouts first

[Scouter99]

Oh please! If BeAScout is your example of BSA's crackerjack marketing efforts, then any others will be a waste of time and money, too.

 

We were one of the first units in the area to configure BeAScout for our troop. In the years since, it has generated precisely TWO leads. But in order to pursue them, I have to check the site manually every day? That's an effective use of my time? We get more inquiries off a very simple district web site which shows a table listing troops, meeting dates and places and my email and phone number. Gee whiz, maybe if they had thought to add a function which would notify unit leaders by email when they get a hit, they could respond. Nah, that makes too much sense.

 

I took you at your word that there's no email notification and made myself a right jackass on your account by mentioning the flaw in conversation with a council bigwig the other day, apparently BAS does send an email notification. So, I put in a fake lead on BAS to see for myself, and within seconds myself, the SM, and CoR all got an email.

Maybe you didn't configure your pin properly.

 

Like I originally said, any national-level marketing campaign depends on the 1,000,000 volunteers knowing what they're doing. An ad campaign has to be actionable, and BAS is the action end. BAS is a good start, and any national or council marketing campaign will point to BAS because it's the only comprehensive list of units. If a unit's pin is out of date, that's the unit's fault. If units aren't aware of BAS, that's the fault of their district/council volunteers and professionals.