recuiting non cubbies for boy scouts

[namu35950]

Hello everyone, I am fairly new to scouts, (been asst for a couple of yrs) Our scoutmaster is stepping back and asked if I would take over. I dont have the experance he has but willing to try. I am looking for ways to recruit some new boys to scouting, and I read somewhere on here to invite non scouts to scout functions. I think that is a good idea, camping, high adventure, etc. My question is what type of liability will the Scouts have if a non scout gets hurt?? Myabe sign some type of waiver before going??

 

Thanks

[boomerscout]

I would not take non Scouts on any high adventure trips

[Eagle92]

If memory serves, old age ya know, non members who are POTENTIAL recruits are covered by BSA insurance. Double check with your DE to be sure.

[theysawyoucomin']

I would echo both those gents.

 

Think simple.

Get the exisitng Scouts to bring a buddy to a simple overnight at a council camp. Go fishing. Make pies in a dutch oven. Make popcorn in a dutch oven with real butter. Teach a non Scout how to make pancakes. Teach a boy to paddle a canoe. Most Scout aged boys have never piloted anything more than a bicycle. Flip over rocks in a stream. skip stones off the water. Enjoy a good campfire.

 

The buddy already in the troop is a huge motivation.

Invite the parents of the prospects also.

[Kudu]

If you have access to a public school, you can register 28% of the sixth grade boys if you use my recruiting presentation (and have the "1916" outdoor program that it promises):

 

http://inquiry.net/adult/recruiting.htm

 

That 28% registration does not count the Webelos who already crossed over to other Boy Scout Troops from Cub Scout "feeder" Packs.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

[mikecummings157]

Has anyone used Kudu's suggestion, or something similiar? Our Cub Packs are struggling locally, so we're very interested in trying to recruit 6th grade boys.

 

I'm anticipating problems asking to pull all 6th grade boys out of class for a presentation. What about the girls? Do they sit in the classroom idly while this is going on?

[SR540Beaver]

Mike,

 

Many schools today will not let you in during the school day and pull kids out of class. Another way to do it is to reserve a night at the school and hold a meeting that boys can come to. That is how my son signed up. That being said, it was for a meeting trying to get a new Pack started at the school and not for Boy Scouts. He joined as a Webelos. But you could just as easily hold a meeting for Boy Scout eligible boys only.

 

We've always had good luck for Cub recruiting by being allowed a table for the new school year orientation where the parents come up and pay dues, get supply lists, pay for lunch cards etc. The school allows Scouts, Girl Scouts, Cheer organizations, etc. to have a table set up.

 

Again, this works well for Cubs and can work for the kids old enough to join Boy Scouts in the elementary schools. The experience I've heard from the troops who have attempted recruiting 7th graders and above at a junior high is that the boys won't get within 100 feet of you. Not cool.

[Mr. Boyce]

. . . the thing that hooked me in, years ago, was the notion of becoming an Eagle Scout, a really superlative thing. I also much liked the outdoors.

[allangr1024]

I have used KUDU's ideas when I have talked to kids in church youth groups. I cannot get into a school here. They will let scouts have one recruiting night per year, and the school's local cub pack gets that to make their pitch. Our district director urges us to go and talk to the older brothers, fifth and sixth graders, who may tag along but be bored with the cub scout presentation. I did this at three of these things last year, and had one scout aged boy show up, and I did not see him after that.

 

I also have not seen the results from Kudu's presentation. I get to do it on Sunday mornings at churches in the area. I bring the camping gear, I set up the tent, and make the pitch, "You must learn to handle bears, snakes,...". The youth group leaders will even praise the virtues of scouting after I finish.

 

Kudu, you should film one of these and put it on YOUTUBE so we can see it in action.

 

I am kind of stumped about recruiting. I listen to Clark Green of Scoutmaster.typepad.com, who urges us to have the scouts bring friends themselves. That is the way I plan to proceed this fall.

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

It isn't impossible to recruit non-Cub Boy Scout aged boys, it's just darned hard. You don't get much return on your investment. Cub Scouting has always been the life blood of Boy Scouting. Any troop that ignores that does so at it's own peril. We typically get 15 to 20 new scouts per year and 99.9% of them come from Webelos crossing over. They don't automatically cross over to us. We actively work our Webelos/Boy Scout relationship with our surrounding Packs. We have sister troops out there that have a "feeder Pack" and expect the boys from that Pack to cross to them. Scouting is a free market. A boy can go to the troop of his choosing. Assist the Packs with their program, provide Den Chiefs, let them come camping with you, show them your program, etc. and you can keep new blood flowing into your troop year after year.

[Kudu]

mikecummings157 writes

 

I'm anticipating problems asking to pull all sixth grade boys out of class for a presentation.

 

For years we could not get access during school hours because of "school policy." Then our Troop's (frequently suspended) natural leader told me that the vice principal in charge of detention (whom he saw "every day") was a Scoutmaster and would likely let us in. So our worst trouble-maker Scout spoke with the vice principal in charge of detention, and he in turn arranged for the two sixth grade boys' gym classes to meet in the auditorium to hear my presentation.

 

So, getting into a public school is easy if you remember: It's not what you you know, it's the hooligan you know

 

allangr1024 writes:

 

Kudu, you should film one of these and put it on YOUTUBE so we can see it in action.

 

It was on my "To Do" list, but I retired in 2007 and moved south. In this area the DE gives the in-school presentations. The neighborhood Troop in which I currently serve as an ASM has about 40 registered Scouts. That is a "mega-Troop" by rural southern standards, so I have not given the presentation since 2007.

 

SR540Beaver writes:

 

We typically get 15 to 20 new scouts per year and 99.9% of them come from Webelos crossing over.

 

That is true for my current Troop. They all come from feeder Packs from all over the county. Maybe 5% live in this town.

 

Think of Cub Scouts as a giant filter. The only boys who remain in Cub Scouts are those who can put up with Den Mothers. Some stick with it because their parents force them, but after earning Arrow of Light if given the option many of the remaining boys drop out rather than cross over into Boy Scouts.

 

Up north I did not have a "feeder Pack," so my presentation is designed for all the sixth-grade boys that the Cub Scout program filters out.

 

That was consistently about 15 out of a total audience 53.

 

In BSA-speak that is 28% TAR (Total Available Youth) which is in ADDITION to all the sixth-graders who had ALREADY crossed over into other Troops like SR540Beaver's.

 

Does anyone know what a typical DE's target TAR is? I've heard 2-5%, but even if it is twice that, the BSA could recruit three times as many sixth-graders if it simply obeyed the terms of our Congressional Charter.

 

The total number of sixth-graders who (in front of their peers) signed my list asking me to call their parents so they could be a Boy Scout was usually around 38 out of the 53.

 

In other words the potential TAR of a 1916-style Scouting program is 71% of all sixth-grade boys IN ADDITION to the boys who cross over from Webelos into the Wood Badge version of Boy Scouts.

 

Yours at 300 feet,

 

Kudu

 

One of our methods in the Scout movement for taming a hooligan is to appoint him head of a Patrol. He has all the necessary initiative, the spirit and the magnetism for leadership, and when responsibility is thus put upon him it gives him the outlet he needs for his exuberance of activity, but gives it in a right direction (Baden-Powell, from the article "Are Our Boys Degenerating?" circa 1918) (This message has been edited by kudu)