Scouts BSA Recruitment

Recruitment is not just a day or a season; it is always ongoing. It is also not just for packs, but troops as well. This is why recruitment is an “all hands on deck” activity.

To help you be successful in your recruiting efforts this year, we have put together some helpful tips, essential resources, and possible ideas. You can also reach out to our Vice-chair of Membership, Bridget Koller, at bmkoller@aol.com and our District Executive, Tyler Roman, at tyler.roman@scouting.org for supplies, assistance, and support.

Recruitment Supplies

There are tons of resources out there to ease recruitment.

Yard Signs: Yard signs are one of the easiest, passive ways to recruit Scouts. All you have to do is gather signs at the York Service Center, add your information, and post them around your community. You can post them around your meeting location, school pick-up line, busy intersections, and much more. The goal is to be as visible as possible.

Posters: Community boards are all around our neighborhoods between township buildings, shopping centers, and parks. Posters are another great way to get the word out with little energy; it’s another leave it and forget it recruitment method. Posters can also be picked up at the York Service Center.

Flyers: Putting something in someone’s hands increases the chances of action on their part. Flyers can direct someone to a campout, a meeting, or an upcoming troop activity. They make for the perfect handout at a table or another passive promotion in school (particularly 6-8th grade). Contact Tyler Roman, District Executive, at tyler.roman@scouting.org to get flyers printed.

Webinars: The New Birth of Freedom Council Membership Committee has been working tirelessly over the past few months to provide quality webinars to ensure your recruitment success. Recordings and copies of the slide deck from these webinars can be found at https://newbirthoffreedom.org/2022/08/25/all-hands-on-deck-membership-kickoff/.

BSA Brand Center: The hard work of preparing marketing materials have already been taken care of for you. This year’s marketing campaign is #adventureon! Resources provided by our National Office can be found at https://scouting.webdamdb.com/bp/#/folder/10382918/, including social material, posters, photos, and more.

Social Media

Our digital recruitment and outreach are just as important as our physical, in-person recruitment. Our core marketing audience, young adults with young children, are predominantly engaged on social media. Using your troop’s social media platforms expands your outreach to more significant boundaries. You can be as simple or elaborate as you want.

Updating your cover image with one from the BSA Brand Center is a great start. This helps give you a fresh look while providing families with the direct link to beascout.org. You can use the provided photos or your own, combined with the supplied captions, to begin regular outreach to your followers and the local community. The provided captions also recommend hashtags to expand your outreach better.

Posting a troop sign-up night or upcoming activity as an event on Facebook is an easy way to let your pack families know what is going on and let those in your local community know you are active and ready for them to join. This also gives your Scouting families something easy to share on their social media feeds.

Sign-up Nights

Sign-up nights are one of our most traditional recruitment types for packs, but troops can also be involved. If you are not doing so already, get your troop involved with your pack’s sign-up nights and other recruitment events. Not only does this help support your pack and show prospective parents where their children can go in the program, but the chances are also they have older siblings that might be of Scouts BSA age.

Scouting is truly a family program; we have something for youth of all ages. Troops can tag in on the pack’s sign-up night and have information available for their troop and activities that are coming up.

Bring-a-Friend Event

In addition to a sign-up night, you might want to do a bring-a-friend, which is better suited for the Scouts BSA level (particularly 6-8th graders). This could be an already scheduled activity or something unique the troop plans to bring everyone together and show what Scouting is all about.

Recruiter Patch: Scouts love getting patches. A sometimes forgotten patch, but maybe one of the most important is the recruiter strip. The patch only has one recruitment! Recruit a friend into Scouting. This can be tied to your fall recruitment or Bring-a-Friend event and is a cool patch to present to Scouts. On Scouting has a great article about the patch and making a friend invite at https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2019/03/06/most-important-patch/.

Following Up on Leads

Prospective Scouts and their families come to us from multiple directions. You might meet them at your sign-up night, get an email via beascout.org, or receive a comment on one of your social media posts. Following up with these leads is critical to engaging new families and finishing “the sell” in getting them registered in Scouting.

When meeting families in person, gather their contact information and provide your own. Doing so gives them direct contact to ask questions and prepare for joining the troop, but this also gives you information to follow up with if you do not hear from them. Following up on quiet leads is vital to assist families and draw them in.

Checking your beascout.org portal regularly is also essential. As mentioned above, many of our community’s families are increasingly engaged in the digital realm. They can look up troops, reach out to you, and learn more about Scouting from the comfort of their home on one of their many devices. Checking up on these leads is critical to engaging prospective families and ensuring their desire to join Scouting does not go unanswered.

Like beascout.org, social media comments and messages are essential to check regularly. Set up a notification if you have not done so already. Facebook may be the only place they have seen you and the only place they know how to find you, so do not let the technology go to waste.

Welcoming New Families

It is critical to ensure families feel welcomed and supported when they enter the troop. Start off on the right foot by preparing the necessary materials for new families, having fun programs planned, and spending just as much energy on the parents/guardians as you do with the kids.

It is helpful to remind families Scouting is not just for young kids in Cub Scouts, we have programs for up to the age of 17. Plus, the program is not just about earning your Eagle Scout rank. It is about the journey, the skills, and the adventure. Teenagers these days desire to fill in the gaps of what school does not teach. A great article about this can be found at https://newbirthoffreedom.org/2022/04/07/notice-anything-about-this-list-of-skills-gen-zers-wish-they-were-learning-in-school/.

Popcorn and Nuts Sale: It does not hurt to start new Scouts immediately. Currently, a great way to get new families involved and help them earn their way in Scouting is to get them started with your Popcorn and Nuts Sale. They do not need to go all in immediately, but starting them off with their popcorn and nuts packet is a great start.

After Recruitment

Recruitment doesn’t stop after our core recruitment season at the start of the school year; recruitment should always be happening. There are plenty of opportunities through the fall, winter, and spring to continue to welcome in new Scouts and their families.

Bring-a-Friend: As mentioned above, Bring-a-Friend events can be very successful. Scouts want to do things with their friends and people they know. This natural desire makes it easy for them to invite a classmate, neighborhood friend, or teammate from sports to join them at a meeting or Scouting activity to see what it is all about.

Fairs/Carnivals: Our communities hold numerous fairs and carnivals in the fall and Spring or May Days in the spring. Try looking for events going on in your local area to see where you might be able to get a table set up. A table, some flyers/promotional materials, and a fun activity are great ways to simultaneously assist the carnival/fair and recruit.