Recruitment
North Star Troop 171 in the News
St Luke’s Catholic Church’s Scouts BSA Troop 171 (female) is in the news!
Watch the full report at here.
Cub Scout Open Houses 2018 – FYI
North Star Cub Scout Open Houses are on the following dates (all start times 6:30 pm):
Monday Aug 13: St. Joan of Arc
Tuesday Aug 14: Washington Twp. Elementary Schools (Crooked Creek, Fox Hill, Greenbriar, Nora, Spring Mill)
Wednesday Aug 15: Zionsville Community Elementary Schools (Boone Meadow, Eagle, Pleasant View, Stonegate, Union)
Tuesday Aug 21: Butler Labs
Thursday Aug 23: Pike Twp. Elementary Schools (Central, College Park, Deer Run, Eagle Creek, Eastbrook, Fishback, Guion Creek, New Augusta South, Snacks Crossing)
More schools will likely be added soon as their scheduling is confirmed.
You can also visit the Crossroads of America Council Facebook “Events” page to follow individual Open House events: CAC Events Page .
Social Media standards for Family Scouting Marketing
BSA has provided guidance for marketing Family Scouting. In some part it is simply a reminder to follow the Scout Law in marketing with concrete examples of violations of the Scout Law in this context.
Even so, it gives a checklist of “don’ts.”
Make sure you review this against your unit websites and emails.
2018 Membership Roundup meeting
Mark your calendars for Thursday July 12 – the 2018 Membership Roundup meeting will be held that evening from 6:00 – 9:00 pm at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 West 86th St., Indianapolis 46260. This will be held in rooms N101 and N102. More details to follow!
Save the Date! Open House training May 30 – on Facebook LIVE
From Crossroads of America Communication Executive Karrie Baxter:
Join us on Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/bsacrossroads. Follow us if you aren’t already for updates!
Here’s what you can expect to see:
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Supplies to promote your pack at the open house, through your school, and through your community. We’ve got some really exciting and interactive pieces to show you!
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Why is it important to attend the open house? Let us show you!
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An example of an Open House Table Set up
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Breakdown of our NEW lead generation technology and how we will help communicate with people who are interested in your pack.
Trust us, you won’t want to miss it. Come represent your unit LIVE on Facebook- May 30th at 7PM!
Cub Scout Recruitment 2018
It’s that time of year again! Let’s start thinking about how we can grow our units to their full potential. Does this include inviting girls into our units? Does this include recruiting from multiple schools or starting new units in some areas? Your District Executive, Jessica Hofman would like to start having these conversations with you, as well as start developing a membership plan for the Fall. Please schedule a time with Jessica over the next two months to sit down and dive into membership logistics before back to school season sneaks up on us.
What: Membership Planning Meeting
Who: Cub Packs! Cubmaster/Committee Chairman/unit membership coordinator
Where: At a committee meeting, over lunch, or whenever is convenient!
When: At a convenient time before May
How to Schedule: Email Jessica at jehofman@crossroadsbsa.org
What: Spring Recruitment Planning
Who: Cub Packs! Cubmaster/Committee Chairman/Unit Membership Coordinator
Where: Let’s develop a plan!
When: Before Summer, let’s get new youth to camp!
How to Schedule: Email Jessica at jehofman@crossroadsbsa.org
North Star is actively searching for those that share Jessica’s passion for growing Scouting. If you’d like to join the membership team for the North Star District and help out at a District level with membership planning and execution, please reach out!
The Shockingly Simple Way to Stop Helicopter Parenting – Let Grow
Scouters are some of the few parents in schools these days that push kids to learn independence. Lenore Skenazy, a mother of two boy scouts, has been pushing for schools to change the message sent home about how children should be raised. The results are dramatic and eye-opening.
It is so profound, that she has moved from just writing about the problem at Free Range Kids to developing a curriculum at Let Grow. It comes down to dealing with the problem of “helicopter parenting” that is so damaging to children.
We at Council should be looking at this as a way to get into schools. What happens if a bunch of scouters decide not to push to put a scout unit in the school, but instead approach the school principle or the school board one-on-one for coffee then as a group at school board meeting in uniform; the message is “we love scouting, but we encourage independent growth of citizens whether in scouting or through other programs.” The school leaders may be resistant. Yet, what happens if we can replicate Lenore Skenazy’s success with simple Let Grow curricula? Do we gain credibility?
Just 1 scout more per unit!
North Star District is on the verge of having district growth in youth membership for the first time in years!
We need your help to make this goal.
With just one more youth or Venturing participant per unit (over what is already reported on your rechartering additions already entered) we can make this goal.
As you are planning your year end events, make sure to ask your scouts to invite a friend to a meeting, a holiday service project, or participate in an outing (yes, this is true for Cub Scouts, too). Those one-on-one invites are the most effective way to grow scouting.
If you need help, contact District Executive Jessica Hofman. She can help you with a mailer or other literature to support a mini-membership blitz. Target a handful of families for mailings and follow ups.
We are almost there.
Unit listings updated
I have been working to make sure the unit listings on this site are up to date.
Each unit chair should assign someone to provide me udpated information or contact me directly to confirm the accuracy of the information posted.
Many Cub Packs and Venturing Crews do not have websites. This is very damaging to your ability to look credible and inviting. Please seriously investigate having a website hosted on a service like WordPress (which I use for this website), a FaceBook page with multiple administratiors, or using a built-in web service for advancement like TroopWebHost.
The Cub Packs are listed here.
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?
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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