MEMBERSHIP TRAINING SERIES Unit 5 – Troop Specific TRN105 Created by Mike Dutton, Massabesic District, Daniel Webster Council © 2014

Modules Unit 1 – Introduction Unit 2 – PR and Marketing Unit 3 – Unit, District and Council Interaction Unit 4 – Pack Specific Unit 5 – Troop Specific Unit 6 – Crew Specific

Prerequisites Complete Units 1,2 and 3 of the series. Download and read the attached guidebook. Review the Troop Resource Guide at ources/TroopProgramFeaturesVol_I_III.aspx ources/TroopProgramFeaturesVol_I_III.aspx

Goals of this Module Know ways to maximize retention. Identify and volunteer staff outreach opportunities. Know ways to train your Boy Scouts to do peer-to- peer recruiting. Create a year-long timeline of recruitment opportunities. Manage Webelos-to-Troop Transition. Rate your unit’s efforts in each of these. Identify weaknesses and improve for next time.

Retention The number one way to improve retention is to have a GREAT PROGRAM! The best ways to supply that Program are: –Use the Patrol method. One contemporary resource is patrol-does/ patrol-does/ –Mentor the youth into leaders. 5

Scouts Need Movement Remember this age boy doesn’t sit for long. Have action based events and meetings. Again, a GREAT program is number 1 for retention. 6

Create BUZZ about Scouting You need to be visible in your community. For Boy Scouts, you are marketing more to the boys. Emphasize those items that excite a boy about scouting. –Outdoor activities. –Resident camping. –Special activities. Don’t forget Scouts will talk about the excitement of Scouting if you make it exciting! 7

Membership Growth is Local and Community Based The days of “It’s Scouting. It’s great! They will come,” are over. The solution is to have units maximize their retention, outreach and recruitment. Retention, outreach and recruitment need to become as important as Program and Finance in your unit. Unit volunteer resources NEED to be dedicated to membership. 8

Membership Chairperson Each unit should have a dedicated Membership Chair who is NOT a Key 3 member. The Key 3 are busy with other aspects of unit management. A reliable Scouter who is enthusiastic about the program and outgoing would be a good starting point fir chairperson. Having a Scouter who is social media savvy and can regularly post on the internet is needed. Don’t forget BeAScout.org being current. 9

Go Local In a recent District Survey, the following had the best impact on recruitment. –Youth-to-youth/parent-to-parent conversations. –A booth at community events. –School talks/boy talks. –BeAScout website/social media. ALL of these are LOCAL and COMMUNITY BASED. 10

Adopt-A-School BSA describes adopting a school for your unit at Some units run patrol meetings in their middle schools after school program. This requires good coordination with the school and leadership. 11

Don’t forget younger siblings Make sure that parents with upcoming scout age youth should be approached one-on-one about bringing their boy into the Troop. 12

Welcome Scouts All Year Most Troops do Fall recruitment, some do Spring also. You should be open to new boys all year round. Have a variety of activities where current scouts can bring a friend. Be ready to welcome the new scout and parent into the Troop a.s.a.p. 13

Work on Your Weaknesses Hearing bad news is never easy. But unless you know what is subpar, how can you ever improve it? Paper or Internet polls of your activities are vital to improving your unit. – is one free Internet polling option. –Make it easy. Ask all scouts how they feel about the program. Share these results with the PLC. –Ask parents how they feel about the Troop. You may discover weaknesses such as poor scheduling that the Leadership can work on. 14

Parent Support One of the many complaints heard is that “parents don’t want to get involved.” One great website has some tips. Although the website is geared for Cubs, much of it pertains also to Troops and Crews. parents-involved-involved/ parents-involved-involved/ –Make the expectation that Parents need to help. –Match the task to the Parent. –Keep it simple and short for beginning tasks. 15

District Support The District Office supplies support material. –Brochures and flyers. –Training materials. –Logistical support in scheduling. –The District Executive is trained for school talks. District level programs like camporees and Klondike improve retention but many times are not a recruitment method. 16

Council Support The Council oversees the Districts, and through the Districts, oversees the units. The Council’s main function is one of goal setting and monitoring progress. The Council may organize Council wide Scouting activities such as a Camporee. But these are retention events and not recruitment events. 17

Summary Retention, outreach and recruitment are LOCAL and occur in the community. It is imperative that each unit have a dedicated membership chair whose sole task is to maximize that unit’s recruitment potential. The Council and District supply the unit’s goals and can support the unit indirectly through materials and events. 18

Resources BSA Best Practices ecruitment/BestPractices.aspx ecruitment/BestPractices.aspx is a compilation of these videos and other content. 19

Questions Please Mike Dutton at MassabesicDistrict