Membership
Misbehavior, Ideals, and Scouting
As I have watched the news this past weekend, I have seen families flooded by storms. I have seen individuals bring themselves to action with their own fishing boats saving lives, individuals delivering clothes and material to the Houston Convention Center, and first responders from all over the country arriving in Houston to support the local Houston first responders.
Moments later, I watched a news report about Antifa supporters attacking Neo-Nazis and similar protesters, using disturbing techniques from decades ago.
What contrasts these two sets of stories present about our modern American experience!
Scouting represents one of the most powerful sources of good in America today. We teach morality and citizenship through 12 simple points. The Scout Law is a powerful tool for teaching good citizenship and good choices.
Yet in modern scouting I see some well-intentioned persons in the national office pushing the latest buzz phrases of “anti-bullying.” This is a profound mistake and flaw in the scouting program. It is a mistake that unintentionally contributes to conflicts rather than calms conflicts. (I must admit the BSA’s approach is less egregious than other similar campaigns that I have seen. There are fewer “don’t” phrases and more “here are things to watch out for”.)
Have you ever watched your son run around a pool deck, right next to a lifeguard? What does the college-aged lifeguard usually do? The lifeguard yells, “Don’t run!” What happens? Your son may slow down to a jog or to a walk or to a skip. Very quickly though, the lifeguard’s admonition is forgotten. Almost certainly in the next 5 minutes, the lifeguard will again be yelling, “Don’t run!” again. Is this a lesson that boys just don’t listen?
What happens if the lifeguard changes her admonition? What if she yells, “Walk!”? In my personal experience, the lifeguard won’t have to contend with jogging or skipping. She will have to contend with running 5 minutes later. With a second admonition of “Walk!” she will likely have to intercede less often. Overall the pool deck will have more kids walking. Read the rest of this entry »
Recruiting Help Needed Thursday
Does your Unit know if it has new-members-in-waiting?
The BSA has a recruiting website called http://www.BeAScout.org. Prospective new members are driven there to express interest in your unit.
Right now we have had nearly 200 prospects grow through the system throughout the district. We currently have 32 invitations hanging out there. If you have already reviewed the Inviation Manager as the Chartered Org Rep, Committee Chair, or Cubmaster/Scoutmaster, you know your status. If you have not, log in to my.scouting.org. If a red number appears in the upper right-hand corner, you have invitations to send.
If you have one done on paper, then you can mark it complete. This purges it.
If you have sent the invitation, you can then move to the Application Manager to watch to see if the family has done the paperwork. We have two applications that are awaiting approval right now.
Please make sure that you have reviewed your settings. This allows you to set your dues, decide who can approve the application, and communicate stock information to new members such as website and calendar information.
If you use it, you may find problems, but your prospects are already using it. Are you closing the deal for low-hanging fruit?
Resources on Boy Scout Recruiting from Roundtable
At the Boy Scout Roundtable on Thursday, August 10, 2017 we discussed Boy Scout Recruiting. If you are sitting in the Roundtable now, you can watch the slide presentation live here.
I promised to put the links shown on the presentation up on the blog. Here are the links.
- National website on year round recruiting: http://www.scouting.org/Home/BoyScouts/YearRoundGuide/recruiting.aspx.
- http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/YearRoundGuide.aspx
- New Member Coordinator: http://scoutingwire.org/marketing-and-membership-hub/councils/new-member-coordinator/
- Scouting Wire’s Membership Hub (recruiting ideas)
- Scouting Wire’s BSA Brand Center (customizable flyers and web logos)
From Bill Buchalter for the Cub Scout Roundtable: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Leaders/DenLeaderResources.aspx.
Chinese scouting unit visiting from Shanghai, China
This summer, Ransburg had a troop from Shanghai stay for a week. I got to talk to them and take pictures with them.
Their English was very impressive. They were all very friendly.
I asked each one their names. They gave me very American names. One boy bashfully introduced himself as “Samantha.” I think he had taken a lot of ribbing for his choice of names. I told him that it was very “creative.” His leaders liked this description.
Then I had them introduce themselves with their Mandarin names. I am ashamed to say that I could not begin to repeat them back.
Scouting lives up to being a Messenger of Peace.
Scout and Venturing Open Houses
Now is the time to put an “Open House” or “Joining Night” on your calendar for your Troop or Crew.
When you do put it on your calendar, please send me an email with a copy of your flyer and other meeting information. We will put it on the district website. Tell us when you want your article to post (e.g., a week before the event, a month before, etc.).
This can be especially useful in letting Webelos Dens know how to join your troop or troop members about your Venturing Crew.
Cub Scout Recruiting
We are now in the midst of Cub Scout Recruiting. Some quick reminders to all Packs and Troops.
(1) Make sure to send your list of names to Con Sullivan from any list of prospects. This list will allow Con to get those prospects on the Council email and text reminder system. The goal is to make sure your prospects show up at your recruitment nights. Photograph your list and email to Con before you leave the ice cream social or other recruitment activity. They may be blurry and need follow up. Sometimes they don’t. To improve success, use an app like CamScanner to change photos into PDFs. They remove background noise and darken written words. You can see the preview before you send it.
(2) Take something to give to kids. You can get a large bag of candy from Sam’s Club or Costco. You will have flocks of kids around your table. Cub Scout pencils and the frisbies from Council are good, too.
(3) Make sure that your prospect has the date, time, and location of your joining night.
(4) Have prospects sign Membership Applications wherever you can. If they want to sign up at an Ice Cream Social, give them the application. Have a credit card reader (like Square.com) on hand to allow immediate dues payment.
(5) Have as many adults in uniform at your recruitment night as possible. If you don’t have many adult leaders in your pack, ask your most supportive troop to send leaders. Troop leaders want to help, but they don’t want to step on pack leaders’ toes. If you ask, troop leaders will be there. Uniforms help re-assure prospective parents that your pack has solid leadership and support.
(6) If you don’t have enough pack parents to cover a school, make sure to ask troop leaders to fill gaps. Make sure they know your program’s basic’s well: cost of dues, annual calendar, recruitment night logistics, proposed den and pack meeting times. Remember most Troop leaders have never dealt with Lion Cub or the current Cub Scout Advancement program, since the programs are so new. Bring the leaders up to speed.
Good luck!
Council Asking about Going Co-ed
Council has called a meeting of District representatives for next week. The topic will be about “Making Scouting Accessible to Families.”
As I noted in a previous post, this really is a questions of whether we should go co-ed throughout our programs.
If you have an opinion on the subject that you would like me to share, please me your thoughts by Sunday, August 13, 2017. I will make sure to include these in the conversation with council officers.
REMINDER: Roundtable Thursday
Just a quick reminder that Roundtable will be Thursday, August 10, 2017 at Luke’s Lodge, the outbuilding on the northeast corner of campus of St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W. 6th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Cub Scouts: Cub Scout Roundtable Commissioner Bill Buchalter will be leading the Cub Scout breakout. He will be giving a prototype Den Meeting. This is designed for Den Leaders to see a Den Meeting being run. This is especially valuable for new Den Leaders; 
confused, veteran Den Leaders; and prospective, future Den Leaders (aka “parents you would like eto recruit as Den Leaders”). We will have a short discussion of how Lion Den Meetings (i.e., kindergartners) are different than Tiger (1st grade) through Webelos (4-5th grade), too. We will look at existing resources and strategizing how to use these resources and parent assistance.
Side note: To get your Den Leaders to the meeting, the most important step is to invite them to come with you. One of the biggest reasons Den Leaders do not attend is they don’t know about Roundtable. The second biggest reason is that they think Roundtable is meant for Cubmasters and Pack Committee Chairs. To put it gently, this is wrong. Roundtables are most valuable for Den Leaders. They have the most face-to-face contact with Cub Scouts of any scouter. An invitation helps resolve these problems. Cubmasters, pick up the phone and call each Den Leader. Ask them to come. Then follow up with a blast email.
The third biggest reason your Den Leaders don’t attend is child care. Think about joining forces to take care of childcare.
Boy Scouts: Jeff Heck will be leading the Boy Scout Roundtable. (We are still looking for a Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner.) The Boy Scout Roundtable will be focused on Fall Recruitment Planning. Please invite your Troop Membership Chairs to attend. This topic will apply equally well to our Venturing Crews, too.
Cub Scout Back to School Planning
Thank you to all of our Cub Scout Packs for sending representatives to our Membership Rally on July 22nd. We had only two units that could not send representatives that day. They had their material picked up within two business days!
That is fanastic. Thank you for being so dedicated to your boys and the growth of their units.
Now the work begins.
Remember, families are easiest to recruit when they know what they are being asked to do. That means that you need a Pack Annual Calendar, a cost of the program per scout for the year, clear publications stating the Pack dues and their due dates. I highly recommend setting tentative den meeting times. Make it clear that the dens can change times.
The council is working to recruit Latino boys. If you feel that your unit would be well served by having a Spanish speaking interpreter at Back to School Night, please email Jeff and let him know the dates you need the interpreter. We cannot guarantee all requests can be fulfilled, especially all on the same night. Even so, if we don’t have a request for services, we can’t serve.
If you have other questions, please let us know as early as you can, so that we can help solve problems.
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