What works for you?---------keeping people informed

[theysawyoucomin' 10]

What methods work best for your units?

 

For the boys? The Patrol method should reign supreme but sometimes the boys don''t listen/remember/tell parents etc.

 

 

For the Parents?

 

 

 

 

[Eamonn 61]

Communication is a big problem.

Not just at the unit level.

I was invited to sit in on the last meeting of the District Committee and a few older members were having a moan and groan saying that because they don''t have computers /email they don''t get any information.

The Ship has a Yahoo Group page, this seems to work about 50% of the time for 50% of the Scouts, parents are invited to become members. Most don''t.

Open two way communication starts when the youth joins the unit.

Taking the time to visit his home and meet his family gives everyone a chance to get to know each other.

Knowing that the "Skipper" is a real person not just a name?? Does help break down some of the barriers.

The members of the Quarterdeck are into texting each other, this does seem to work. Sadly I''m not a good Text-er!!

E-mails do at times get lost or just don''t get read.

Sadly the cost of postage makes sending letters home very expensive and I only use the USPS for very important stuff.

Announcements at the end of meetings do seem to fall on deaf ears.

What works for me is phone calls and talking to the person I need to talk with -Not the machine!!

Most of the homes do have caller ID so they know it''s me!!

If I need to talk to a Scout and I get Mum or Dad, I do tell them why I''m calling, we have a chat, but I do ask that they have the Scout return my call. If they forget I call back.

Ea.(This message has been edited by Eamonn)

[acco40 95]

As Scoutmaster, in a perfect world I would communicate to the SPL who would then communicate to the PLs and on to the Scouts in their respective patrols. The method - email, personal contact, phone, written hand-out - really doesn't matter. The parents should then get the information from their son (the Scout).

 

In reality, the parents are usually against the above scenario because they don''t "trust" their son and demand a direct communication channel to them. When that happens, the Scout, knowing that their parent will be getting the information through back channels, knows that he really isn't being relied upon i.e. very little consequences for failure.

 

In our troop, we have a group web site that I encourage both parents and Scouts to become members. Many of our communication is via the web which has an email/message utility but I have found that the boys get lazy and many of the young ones don't rely on that media just yet (good for them!!). So, I stress that the youth should rely on personal phone calls (SPL to PLs, PLs and APL split the patrol calls so no Scout needs to make more than 4 or 5 calls). I ask that parents get out of the mode of informing their son/Scout of the information but instead transition to asking their son if they have the information even if in fact the parent has (stealthily) gotten the info beforehand.(This message has been edited by acco40)

[awesome1_in_cc 10]

Our communication system is as follows:

 

The yearly calendar which was done by the PLC during the summer and given to all parents of the troop.

 

Troop Website

E-mail

Quarterly Parents meetings (this is in lieu of that months committee meeting)

Phone calls

 

In addition, we have "standardize" on several elements of the program. This includes departure & arrival times for weekend camp-outs, cost for weekend camp-outs, etc.

 

The standardization seems to have helped out a lot as the Scouts and parents know that they need to bring thieir "food money" to the meeting the week before we leave and turn over to their "grub master" other wise they will be responsible for purchasing their own food for the weekend.

 

Right or wrong, that''s how we roll!!!

[emb021 16]

One size fits all does not work with communications. You need to use them all to ensure the info goes out.

 

websites (make sure they are up to date. nothing is worse then a site announcing an ''upcoming event'' that happened a week or two ago).

 

newsletters- both emailed out and mailed.

 

post cards- great reminders for upcoming events

 

email reminders of events

 

phone call

 

face to face

 

handouts/fliers

 

dispite all this, you will STILL get people who ''didn''t hear about X''.

 

[baden 10]

Phone calls? E-mails? Announcements at meetings? The only thing that seems to work for us is a newsletter sent via USPS. It does little good to hand them out at meetings. It has to get into Mom''s hands and make it onto the refrigerator door or it does no good.

[insanescouter 10]

Here is what we do...

 

1) Scoutmaster sends out a weekly email

 

2) We receive the next months calendar about 2 weeks early (very current and allows for easy updates as things change)

 

3) We put out a newsletter every quarter which also included the upcoming events / activities

 

4) A yearly calendar is printed around September, and then again later in the year if lots of changes occur

 

5) we have a phone response tree if something most get out and we most know it got out it is very formal and involved... basically one person starts it by calling certain people who call their people ... then the 2nd level people have to report saying who was gotten a hold of and who wasn''t ... to my knowledge we have never used this...

 

6) permission slips go out weeks before hand which also help remind people of upcoming events

 

7) we cant forget the PLC and the PL''s doing their thing as well ... which could include PL''s calling their patrol members, etc...

 

 

Anyway there is an idea of what all we do... and as always just my wacky 2 cents...

 

Scott Robertson

http://insanescouter.org

[theysawyoucomin' 10]

Thank you.

[MarkS 11]

We send messages extremely well...

 

1. Annual calendar published and hard copies given to parents at the first COH/parents meeting at the beginning of the program year.

 

2. Youth maintained web site where forms and permission slips can be downloaded. Electronic version of the annual calendar is also available. Parents can sign up for email service and get our our distribution list through our web site.

 

3. A youth communication plan: SM SPL PLs Scouts. PLC meeting info disseminated. Notices dispensed when plans for outing or regularly scheduled troop meetings change. Method of communication depends on urgency of the message. Could be by phone, email, or an announcement at the weekly troop meeting. Parents are encouraged to at least come to the last 15 minutes of a troop meeting and listen to the announcements. If they ask about providing flyers, we tell them we think that the announcements make this unnecessary. If they disagree, we ask them if they''re willing to make a weekly announcement flyer for the troop meeting. So far the boys decided not to make flyers themselves.

 

4. Open invitation to parents to come to the monthly committee meetings. Minutes emailed to our adult email distrubtion list.

 

...most common questions parents ask are, "when is the campout this week" or "is there a troop meeting this week?"

 

You can lead a horse to water but you can make him listen.(This message has been edited by MarkS)

[PeteM 10]

How about a change to the communication merit badge?

A requirment that goes something like this:?

 

++++++++++++++++

List the ways that information is transmitted in your troop and ways that you might be able to improve upon them.

 

Become the main (or one of the main) message movers in your troop to make sure that everybody is informed of all that is happening in your troop.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

just a thought.