kevindevin.com

This one should be easy… Get the yard signs available from your district. I’ve found the best way to get a neat appearance for unit info is to use a stencil and spray paint. Although, I have heard of others printing out their info on paper and then using packing tape to apply it to the yard sign. And of course, there’s always the black magic marker technique. I opted for the stencil and spray paint method so as to make it as durable as possible.  It’s a much slower process, but I was more pleased with my results.

So now, we need to ensure that our pin info is up to date. We do this by going to myscouting.org, logging in and then selecting BeAScout under the Unit Tools section. Here you can set your unit’s web site info, a brief description of your unit, and primary and secondary contacts.

If you don’t set this info, potential families looking for a unit are sent to the council to get the info they are seeking.  While this isn’t all bad, if you can get the info they are seeking to them quicker, with fewer “middle-men,” the chances are greater that they may actually make contact.

A key point is that with minimal information on the yard sign, we are requiring the potential scout and his family to remember only the URL at the bottom of the yard sign (beascout.org) and the Pack number that we placed on it. If they remember just those two pieces of info we should be good.

If you want to have a look at the specifics of what I’m referring to, you can have a look at our unit by going to beascout.org, selecting the Cub Scouts tab, and then put in 98011 for the zip code.  Our unit should be the first one presented in the list since we are closest to the city seat.

So… with a sign obtained from your council or district, some stencils and spray paint, and the updating of some unit information via the unit tools on myscouting.org, you’ve now covered yet another base on potential recruitment opportunities.

Very nice…  Earlier this week I posted an entry on using Business Cards as a recruitment tool.  Well, in that line of thought, BSA announced earlier today the availability of these Peer-to-peer recruitment cards that you can print yourself.  They are simply a PDF that you can fill out with meeting details, and then either print out on a color printer on heavy weighted paper or perhaps utilize the Avery Business Cards #5881 providing catchy little cards that boys can hand out to their friends.

Without this one, what’s the point?  Boys don’t join to sit in a school setting, they join to have fun!  And if they’re not having fun, they won’t tell their friends about scouting.  Boys love to share what is fun with their friends.  By planning out the entire year of scouting you’re able to provide proof of what you’re pack is going to do for each and every month. Camping, Hiking, Service Projects, Pinewood Derby, Raingutter Regatta, and opportunities to earn awards.  Some boys love the awards, some just love the outings.  A good balance and you’re set.

And the PWD cars always seem to do the trick.  The boys see the cars and are immediately drawn to them dragging their parents with them.  We have a open kit there too to explain to the boys how the cars start out, how they are built, and then raced. And then how they too could build their own car and race it — as well as Dad and his own car.

We even had one boy at our last event ask about archery, first time we’ve been asked about that one.  When we told him that we do archery AND BB guns, he immediately ran to find his mom and she signed him up.

In my mind, this is one of the more important ones.  For people to know about your program, they first have to know that you exist. A couple of moms within the pack made this awesome banner that we’ve used at every opportunity — at the 4th of July parade, Riverfest, Back to School Resource Fair, and Back to School BBQ. We plan to post this thing at any event we are at to show our presence.

Unfortunately, we are not able to go in to the schools to talk to boys as its been set as a rule of the School District and prohibits it. However, what they do allow, we try to take every advantage of. In this instance, we are allowed to provide fliers to the school, however they must go through the school district and we provide them with 20 copies of the flier which is delivered to the school via District Currier and made available in the resource room for teachers to pickup for their rooms. Chances of them getting posted are questionable, but we at least make the attempt.  We have seen them posted in different classrooms, but again, this is hit and miss.

Here on the right is another flier that we’ve sent to the schools.  In this one we’ve simply taken the marketing material available from BSA and added our own info to the flier. Very easy to do and why not use what’s available?

These have been incredibly handy.  Vistaprint will allow you to create a set of 250 business cards for FREE.  We used them for our Pack Family and Friends Picnic & BeltLoop Extravaganza.  We provided each boy with 4 cards each and they were to hand them out at school inviting another boy and his family to our picnic and the opportunity to earn beltloops right out of the gate.

We’ve also purchased another set that is just for our Pack.  These too have been handy during events where we’ve setup a booth.  We hand them to parents who show interest and all of our contact info is right there.

I can’t say that we have the perfect recruitment plan, but we have a plan and we’re working it and it appears to be working.  Perfect or not, I can share with you all what I believe was beneficial in our recruitment efforts this year.

This has been the first year that I’ve been so actively involved at the committee level with the pack.  In years past I’ve either just been another parent or a den leader with plenty on my plate.  But this year I’ve taken on a whole new set of responsibilities — above and beyond just that of Pack Trainer, and without having a boy in the pack.  (I have one that will be coming up soon, so I’ve stayed on with the pack to keep it healthy.)

Beginning with this one, I’m going to have a series of blog posts focused on our recruitment efforts this year highlighting the tools and actions we’ve taken as a pack to do it.

A Pack Web Site

We utilize Google Apps for our Pack.  It has provided us with a web site, document creation and storage, distribution list for all dens and the pack as a whole, and all for just $10 a year and that cost is for the registration of the domain name.  I’ll admit, it does take a little bit of time and commitment to put it all together, but this was a “first step” in our marketing effort for the pack.  On the web site is a TON of information on our pack and should provide parents with enough info if they are curious. The main thing is, we have a consistent, unique home for our group, cubpack584.org.