Leander Pack 160 Hosts a Duo of Recruiting Events in May (a Kite Fest & a Bottle Rocket Build & Launch)
Leander’s Cub Scout Pack 160 includes scouts from many different area schools which presents some extra challenges when it comes to recruiting, but they have found a way to have some fun and get the word out that scouting is alive and well in the Leander area! The dens of Pack 160 had already completed the requirements for their rank & were looking for a little extra fun and end of year celebration, so we created two all-pack fun night events that we would open to the public and make into recruiting events as well.
We selected a local park that was central to many of the schools that the pack serves & that had wide open spaces that were ideal for the events we had planned. We chose to replace den meetings for May with fun-for-all recruiting nights. The first Tuesday in May was devoted to kite making and flying. Pack 160 had plenty of simple kite making kits on hand for scouts, siblings and any kids from the community that came out. We had pack parents and den leaders helping, and partnered with our local troops such that many of their older scouts came out to help to serve as volunteers and help facilitate the kite making with the kids. This freed-up parents of our guests to get information and ask questions under a shady grove of trees set back from the action. And, it allowed the older scouts to serve as leaders, teaching the younger ones what scouting was all about.
We had a number of families come out to the first event and most that came out ended up joining that night! Others wanted to think it over or talk with a spouse and perhaps come back in two weeks to our May 17th event… or maybe we’ll see them in the fall when we head back to school. The more we get the word out about how fun and rewarding scouting can be, the more word of mouth will spread throughout the community.
If you want to do something similar, here are the basic things we did to prepare:
- Parent Volunteers contacted school administrations to help get the word out.
- Put fliers into the school newsletters
- Scouts wore their uniforms to school on select days to advertise the pack & events
- Scouts gave personal invite cards to their homeroom classes for the two events
- Parent/Scout teams helped hand out mini-fliers at dismissal if schools allowed.
- Parent volunteers placed signs in the parent pick up lanes when schools schools allowed.
- The pack created facebook events for each date and asked their families to post them on PTA facebook pages, neighborhood pages and the nextdoor app.
- We are hoping to do another round of fliers or stickers to remind families about our second event (On May 17th we will be building and launching bottle rockets!!!!)
General preparation:
- Established membership committee with at least 1 designated parent liaison to each school/ PTA that our pack recruits from.
- Created special sign in sheets for both existing pack members and for community members that just came out to get more information. We asked were they heard about the event (so we new what recruiting efforts seemed to be working the best, and so we could be sure to award scouts with their RECRUITER STRIPS if they invited a friend that ended up joining out unit!
- Created an informational handout for all parents that came out that are new to our pack or new to scouting in general.
- Created a slide deck with information from the night & added a QR code (onto the paper handout from that night that would take them to to the JSN slide deck so they could review it later.
- Created a public facing/recruiting focused website, with just the information new families would want to know.
- Created an informational slide deck about uniforms.
- Had pack t-shirts and patches on hand for purchase.
- Created “Join Scouting Night” incentives for families that join at an event.
Things we hope to continue to work on…
- Completing a welcome to scouting booklet for new to scouting families.
- Creating buddies/mentor families to help with “onboarding” of new families and retention
- Create some business cards for parents to pass out to interested friends.
- Develop partnerships with businesses, local government and schools to help support each other.
- Be visible in the community, through participation in local events, and through community service.
