Tips for Achieving 6 Percent Cub Scout Growth in 2006
H. Ray Franks
Scout executive
Tri-State Area Council |
Track School Penetration
Our primary tool for growing Cub Scout membership by 6 percent in 2006 and by 4 percent in 2005 was tracking our membership recruitment by school over a multiyear period. In our staff meeting room, a chart lists every elementary and middle/junior high school by district. The chart includes the total available male population, last year's recruitment results, and this year's recruitment results to date. We review the chart during fall staff meetings and consult the charts in the winter/spring staff meetings to start working on problem schools. The chart shows us where we are (and are not) performing well in serving youth. When we are not reaching our average penetration in a school, we develop a plan to serve that school better. Sometimes we need more units to serve youth where they live. Sometimes we just need to do a better marketing job. We have found it is sometimes wise to not do a fall roundup for one year if several attempts have been made to organize a unit with no success. Sometimes the parent chemistry is not right, and you just have to wait a year, especially in smaller schools of 60 or fewer youth. This technique often doubles the previous results and builds a more solid unit that succeeds.
Seven Points of Contact
For the past two years, our roundup theme has been "Seven Points of Contact." We recognized units for promoting their school roundup nights seven different ways. These promotional methods included PTA meeting appearances, placing announcements on home delivery pizza boxes, displaying posters in the community, and radio or TV announcements. Prior to adopting this theme, packs set goals for new youth, and the professional/volunteer staff conducted the School Night. We basically rewarded units for the council's or district's efforts to promote thei r School Night. Now, the emphasis is on packs' promotions of their School Nights to qualify for roundup awards. Packs are doing more to promote their own School Nights, even if they do not promote the events seven different ways to qualify for the recognition. At the 2006 fall kickoff, a few packs shared how they promoted their units last year. The testimonies really excited all of our packs to do more.