Recruitment should be a year round activity for all units. Whether the recruitment method is an activity such as a pack ice cream social, troop open house, or peer to peer campaign it’s important that the door is always open for a boy/girl to join scouting. Primarily, there are two times every year that an extra emphasis is put into recruiting for packs, troops, and crews, during the fall and spring. In the fall packs are participating in the fall round-up and venture crews are hosting first nighters. In the spring Troops actively work with cub packs to bridge over 2nd year Webelos for them to join Boy Scouts.

During May of every year the kindergarten boys are becoming eligible for the first time to join cub scouts and parents of boys for all ages are making decisions on what activities to get involved in for the following school year. It is important that we take advantage of this opportunity and plan  a recruiting activity so we can ensure boys have the opportunity to join cub scouts when they are being offered all types of other activities.

Packs should set goals for recruiting a new tiger den and identifying a tiger leader to lead them in the spring so they are ready to go in the fall. As with most packs during the summer, weekly meeting have slowed down along with most pack activities. However, to actively engage your new scouts and leaders the National Summertime Pack Award is a simple and great award recognition program for the new scouts and the entire pack to participate in.

Please take a look at training video on the link below to gather some information on how you pack can have a very successful spring recruitment.  This video was put together by the Central Region Commissioner, Lucia Cronin a volunteer that has had some great success with cub scout recruiting. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QrSIIdqbt8A

Peer-to-peer recruitment cards have been created to help Cub Scout families promote Scouting to their friends.

These cards are based on the eye-catching resources created for the 2011 recruitment campaign showing our youth engaged in fun-filled activities. An easy-to-use business card template was created to help families promote Scouting. These cards will be a great tool to be used by local councils who are facing the challenges of limited school access.

The cards can be pre-printed with contact information on the back or left blank so Scouts and their families can write invitation information for prospective Scouts. For more information on where to access and how to use this new tool, read the Cub Scout peer-to-peer recruitment flier.

As discussed during the training for the new Journey to Excellence program at last week’s Roundtable, all service hours are now to be entered at a special site established for this purpose.

Please visit http://scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/JourneyToExcellence.aspx and scroll to the bottom right, where you see the Good Turn for America logo to enter hours completed during council, district, unit and individual Scout service opportunities. The hours entered at this location will be used to measure a unit’s contribution to the community, and in the evaluation of the unit’s Journey to Excellence.

If you attempt to enter hours at the old Good Turn for America site, you will be redirected.

Excitement continues to build around the BSA’s newest adventure destination, The Summit Bechtel Reserve, in West Virginia. As previously announced, this will be the new location of the National Jamboree beginning in 2013, as well as the World Jamboree in 2014. The Summit will also be host to high adventure and training opportunities as well.

A new website, specifically created for the Summit is now online. Check out summitbechtelreserve.org for all the latest news on this ambitious project!

“Scouting’s Journey to Excellence” is the BSA’s new council performance recognition program designed to encourage and reward success and measure the performance of our units, districts, and councils. It is replacing the Centennial Quality Awards Program as a means of encouraging excellence in providing a quality program at all levels of the BSA.

Check out http://scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/JourneyToExcellence.aspx for more information, and be sure to attend Roundtable on February 10, 2011 (7 PM at Zion Lutheran Church in Hummelstown), where we will be reviewing the entire program.

It is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that every unit has at least one representative at this session!

The National Office has released a new medical form, for immediate use. Although a new version was just released last year, it was felt that a new form was required so that there was one form for all events, including day trips, week long camping, and high adventure, such as Philmont. The new form is still only good for one year.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The physical you have right now is good until the date of expiration (one year from the date of completion). It will not be necessary to have a new form filled out if the one you currently have will not expire before the completion of your events.

A convenient link to the form is located here. New BSA medical form

There is also a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page available here. It is anticipated that most questions you have regarding the new form will be answered in the FAQ’s. If you still have a question, feel free to contact Kevin Gill, District Executive.