Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 07:47:59 -0500
From: Marc Godbout <Marc_Godbout@UB.COM>
Subject: Re: Promotion (Urgent)
Promotion (Urgent)
This is a call for ideas! I've been asked to give a presentation at the District Membership Mtg (Tonight) on Pack Promotion! The attendee's are the Membership chairpersons and CC's of the Packs in our district.
[much good stuff deleted to save bandwidth]
Last year our town (we have about 5 Packs in town) got together to have a "Scouting Roundup" at the local Walmart instead of the traditional Scout night at the schools. Walmart allowed us some space in their parking lot for a full Saturday to set up various Scouting demonstrations. One pack had a pinewood derby track with "expendable" cars. Another had a bike rodeo. There were chuckwagons all over the place and lots of flags flying high (the 30 mph winds that day posed a problem, however). We also worked with the council store to sell uniforms, books, and other common items. Some Boy Scout Troops had some displays, showing off pioneering and camping. All in all it was a very successful day. It took a little more advance planning and advertisement, but the numbers showed it was worth it. We really didn't get any Boy Scouts to sign up, but that was expected. We're going to do it again, in September again, but this time we'll probably have a sign-up table inside Walmart in addition to the outside sign-up. If you can get the schools to send flyers home with the kids, that will help, but our school system wasn't very helpful here.
Good luck in whatever you do.
Marc Godbout
ASM Troops 412 and 98
Derry, NH
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 12:45:00 -0500
From: Jim Sleezer <JHS8%OSUVM1.BITNET@pucc.Princeton.EDU>
Subject: Re: Promotion (Urgent)
Peter,
I think the most important thing to have is boys inviting boys. One year we did "business cards" for each active cub scout. Each got about a dozen to distribute to friends who were not cubs. The card had basic meeting info (fill in the blanks) and the den leader's phone number. It also had a space marked "Invited by" for the cub to put his name. If a new boy turned in the card at his first meeting, the cub received a recruiter strip at the next pack meeting.
We seldom had to sell the idea the cub scouting was fun. We just had to get the information on how to connect to the family-some parents won't get off their butts to look for info but if the boy brings a flier or card home they will let him go to the meeting!
We used every source we could to get out the names of contact people to make it easy for parents to connect their boys with cub scouts.
On the other hand, we had to make cub scouting fun in order to keep the boys active. That's where I put more of my effort. My goal was to end the year with as many boys as we recruited at school night.
jim Sleezer
Roundtable Commissioner, Pawnee Bill District, Will Rogers Council
Assistant Scoutmaster, Troop 18
Stillwater, Oklahoma
JHS8 at OSUVM1.BITNET JHS8 at VM1.UCC.OKSTATE.EDU (Internet)
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 12:43:59 -0500
From: Fred Rogers <fredrogers@VNET.IBM.COM>
Subject: Promotion (Urgent)
A very successful event which the pack in our town did a couple of weeks ago was a Bicycle Safety Rally. All students in the school district of Cub Scout age (male and female) were invited. This provided very good visibility for the pack as well as some good training for the youth. There were enough prizes solicited that each attendee received a prize. There had also been a special sale of bicycle helmets by the pack (at cost) to anyone in the school just before the rally.
I should probably add that these events came just before the NY State law mandating bicycle helmets for all riders under 14 went into effect.
Fred Rogers <fredrogers@vnet.ibm.com>
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 12:59:02 -0500
From: Wendy Theriault <wendyt@MIGHTY.RIV.EDU>
Subject: Re: promotion (urgent)
Here in Daniel Webster Council in New Hampshire we have an annual School Night for Scouts each fall. I know that in my district we make flyers available to every pack to distribute through the elementary schools and will do a uniformed 'walk thru' of the school when allowed by the principal. We also encourage the cubbies to wear their uniform to school a day or two before the scheduled school night.
Some churches also hold annual sign up events for their various organizations and scouts can usually participate in those (particularly if the church is a sponsoring organization)
My district also holds a mall show each February in conjunction with scouting's birthday. This is nothing more than a show n' do in a very visible place. This serves to get scouting out in the public eye.
Your best source of promotion is the boys themselves---if they're having fun, they'll tell their friends.
Good luck!
Wendy Theriault
wendyt@mighty.riv.edu
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 12:59:47 -0500
From: Susan Ganther <susan@GIBBS.OIT.UNC.EDU>
Subject: Re: Promotion (Urgent)
I got my Pack started by taking a freshly made box hockey game to the school at the end of the school day and letting the boys play, a line soon formed and I showed the boys waiting their turn some one on one games like hand wrestling or the squatting tug of war. After everyone had had a chance to play the box hockey game I showed them the handbook and explained that what they had been doing was called Cub Scouting and they were invited to do it again next week. About this time the parents were showing up to take some of them home from school and I was ready with a parent orientation packet including information about scouting, local suppliers, family talent survey and applications and a parent orientation meeting date and time set up. BTW, I not only recruited Cubs that day, but got a few good den chiefs too. They wanted to be a part of the program because they saw that it was fun.
YIS, Susan
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 1994 14:11:13 -0500
From: Gerald Demontgny <gdemontg@CCS.CARLETON.CA>
Subject: Re: promotion
Wendy Theriault writes:>
My district also holds a mall show each February in conjunction with scouting's birthday. This is nothing more than a show n' do in a very visible place. This serves to get scouting out in the public eye. >
Q: Wendy do you mean B.P.'s birthday, feb 22?? Or is there a designated date for the birth of scouting? Is this a U.S. tradition?
On the issue of promotion we schedule a "bring a friend" night in early October. Ours is a relatively 'small' community of about 30,000 people, both anglophone and francophone. Scouting has a fairly high visibility and is steadily growing in Aylmer. Yet, the growth of scouting is also attributable to some excellent leaders who place fun and adventure high on the list of priorities. For example out sea scout troup has participated in six day canoe trips of La Verendrye-a reserve faunique-winter camping trips, and they sent about twenty boys?? to the Canadian Jamboree in Alberta last year. Even our Cub pack manages to do at least four camps each year, including at least one winter camp, although in cabins. The other cub section, A Pack, took their cubs on an overnight at the Aviation museum. These kinds of activities are what promotes cubs. Providing a good program ensures not only that Cubs return or move up to scouts but that they go back to school and tell their friends, as I am sure my cubs are doing right now, about exploring caves, seeing cave fish, cave waterfalls, having to swim through the cave, and so on.
As an anecdote, two years ago we had eight beavers we needed to swim up to cubs. The cub leader at that time refused to accept them as he argued that his pack was already too large-he had about twenty cubs-so we formed a new pack. My philosophy is that there must always be room for children who want to become beavers, cubs, scouts, and that if need be another section can easily be created. As scouting grows so does the health of our youth and our communities.
gdemontg@ccs.carleton.ca