Recruiting
Scouting has its “traditional” streams that bring us new Scouts for our units. Cub Scout Packs recruit twice a year at elementary Schools with “Join Scouting Night” while Scouts BSA units primarily get new Scouts from Cub Scout units in February. These are very important to the health of any unit, but COVID has introduced new challenges to recruiting that require a refresh of these tried and true methods.
Here are a few ideas that you might try in your unit to freshen up your recruiting efforts:
If your school(s) restrict access, ask if you can setup a JSN outside on the playground or other approved location. In many ways, outdoors is a more suitable venue to promote Scouting.
If your school(s) restrict access, setup a JSN at your normal meeting place. This has the added advantage of familiarizing new members with your location.
Setup a JSN at a church. Units chartered by a church have a head start here. Talk with the youth pastor about doing a “JSN-like” activity at a youth activity or Sunday school. Prepare flyers for the kids to take home along with the excitement you build with your fun activity. Maybe you can even arrange to greet parents on their way in or out of the church following services.
Partner with your chartered organization to conduct a JSN with their membership.
Scouts BSA units might have some success doing a JSN at a middle school or with middle school-aged kids. You don’t know until you try.
Are you meeting in person again? If so, try reaching out to any Scouts that stopped attending earlier in the pandemic. Maybe virtual Scouting just wasn’t their thing, but they might be interested again. If you don’t have their contact info any longer, reach out to your Unit Commissioner for help.
Make recruiting a year-around thing. Do you have a fun event planned for your Scouts? Maybe a special service project? Consider opening it to the public.
Don’t let one or two “apparently” unsuccessful events stop you. Recruiting is going to be hard during a pandemic, but just keep at it.
Getting the Word Out
Getting the word out can be a big challenge, especially if your traditional means, such as PeachJar, are restricted. The best recruiting event will come up empty if no one knows about it. Here are some ideas to expand your audience:
If you have access to PTA newsletters, PeachJar, or any of your traditional means of publicizing your recruiting events, keep using them. If they worked for you before, they should now as well.
Engage with the community in new ways like Facebook Commmunity groups, NextDoor, and others.
Many schools have a Facebook page. Ask your school(s) if they do and if you can advertise your JSN event there.
Word of mouth has been a well established form of recruiting dating back to at least the 1940’s with the prdecessor of today’s Recruiter strip. Whenever you have the opportunity to award the Recruiter strip, make sure you do and make a very big deal of it.
Get your unit noticed. Participate in parades, civic events like doing a flag ceremony at a city council meeting, and other community activities. The more often your unit appears before your target audience, the more likely your are to recruit new Scouts.
Don’t forget our district newsletter. It is a great way to tell your unit’s story to the entire district.
Keep your unit pin updated for beascout.org.
Do you have a unit website? Well, don’t just use it to support your existing members, it also makes a marketing platform to sell your unit to prrospective Scouts and their families.
If you do have a unit website, pay attention to your website ranking on the top search engines and do what you can to improve it. Try searching for “Scouting near me”, “Cub Scouting near me”, “Boy Scouts near me”, etc. to verify where you stand.
Did you know you can add your unit to Google Maps? Search for “Google My Business” to find out how.
Scouting isn’t the only organization that is seeing a decline in membership. This is a symptom of the pandemic that crosses all boundaries. The good news is that Scouting can be the cure for “Zoom fatigue” if we stay active and stay safe. These ideas and tips will help you step up your game and share the ideals of Scouting with more and more people in your community.
If you have some additional ideas for recruiting, please share them with us.
