Recruitment
District Rocket Launch Announced
As part of this fall’s recruitment campaign, the new Cubs are offered an opportunity to launch their very own rocket.
Thanks to the hospitality of Pack 358, our district rocket launch will be Saturday, September 24, 2016 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm at Zionsville United Methodist Church, 9644 Whitestown Rd, Zionsville, IN 46077.
Why be a Scout Leader?
I have written many times about the value of scouting to the youth.
Bobwhite Blather has a great article about the value of scouting to the adult leaders. It is worth your attention.
REMINDER: Roundtable tomorrow night
Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 6:30 pm, we will hold one of the most important roundtables of the year. It is our District Kick-off Roundtable.
We will have rockets to distribute for Cub Scout Pack recruitment. We will have an overview of Back to School Night and Boy Talk efforts. We will discuss the web resources to be used in support of your recruitment effort. We will talk about the new Online Registration and how it works with the BeAScout.org website and why those are critically important to recruitment.
We will also have a session for boy scouts and scouters on upcoming activities in Order of the Arrow, Firecrafter, Voyageur training, Marlinspike and many other events to put on your calendar.
We will have a very busy night, so prepare to listen fast! Come with you own announcements and flyers.
Recruiting Help Needed
District Executive Con Sullivan and Membership Chair Sharla Merrick have put out a request for help on recruiting efforts for all sorts of needs. Please contact Con if you are able to help this month.
State Fair Volunteers Needed!
Council is again running “Base Camp” at the State Fair from August 5th to August 21st.
This is a great way to have scouting exposed to people from around the state and your neighborhood in a fun and engaging way.
Bring your son and his non-scout friend. Let him see the fun that awaits when he joins.
Come volunteer to show scouting to boys. More information online here.
29 Days and Counting: Cub Scout recruiting report
Hey North Star Packs!
Online Registration Roll Out Continues
Previously, we posted about a training video for online registration.
Now BSA National has rolled out a dedicated webpage for training on the new online registration system. Take a look. Make sure your unit’s ready for the new system.
This will be extremely handy in preparing for rechartering.
Remember all new application that have completed processing prior to October 1, 2016 will be automatically entered into the Internet Rechartering system. That cuts down on a lot of risks of error in the rechartering process. The electronic registration means that the October 1, 2016 deadline is easier to meet with less paper-flow management.
New for Fall Recruitment: Online Registration
The BSA has established a new Online Registration for adults and youth. You can see an overview video of how the system works below. The video describes it as “Coming Soon.” It is already activated in Crossroads of America Council.
This system has many advantages:
- You never run out of paper forms.
- Your applicant will be immediately notified whether data on one of the screens is incomplete, avoiding the need to circulate the form around twice to fill in missing information or signatures.
- There is no physical application that needs to be delivered or sent.
- Necessary signators traveling out of town can fulfill their obligations from anywhere in the world.
- Your applicant can pay their BSA membership dues online with a credit card.
The current weaknesses in the system are being able to find where to access the website to start.
- You must access this from the http://www.BeAScout.org.
- From the main page, the applicant needs to navigate to your unit.
- On the unit page, the applicant needs to correctly choose “Cub,” “Scout,” “Venturing,” or “Volunteering.” Picking a program puts the applicant in “Youth” status. Adults must pick the “Volunteering” choice, then select a unit.
- You can pick the links for your unit and save them for placement on your webpage or emails. This means that you can circumvent some of the problems above.
- The system does not collect your unit’s dues or added costs (like local council insurance). It merely establishes the applicant as a member of the BSA through your unit. I have even used it to promote an existing volunteer to a new position without having to pay dues again.
I have used this system successfully twice. I have not dealt with Youth Protection Training in either case because they were existing volunteers. I cannot offer much feedback on that issue yet.
Please begin using this system immediately, especially before recruiting season and rechartering. The more information that is properly registered in the system before October 1st, the smoother your rechartering will proceed.
Using clinical research in recruiting
As the Worldwide Movement of Scouting reaches 110 years old, we need to find new ways to explain ourselves.
We all know that Robert Baden-Powell designed scouting to deal with the transition from childhood in a rural setting to an urban setting. He was not alone. At the same time many different organizations tried to duplicate the same effort. Professor Montessori, Dan Beard, Ernest Thompson Seton and many others who are less renowned in history were trying to do similar things and often corresponded with each other. Each had their own spin on what they thought needed to happen to be successful. each of the persons name above put a heavy emphasis on exposure to nature.
They did not know the mechanical reasons why returning to nature was so important for kids. They just knew from anecdotal experience and observation that it was true.
In the last 20 years, there has been an increase in research about the impact of the environment on our psychological well-being. Many times the focus is on better designing a city to reduce the stress on its inhabitants. Other times it is trying to figure out mechanically why being in nature while doing exercise is so good for psychological health. Most of the studies that I have seen of been focused on adults.
Even from this research, we can reach some conclusions about the effects of Scouting on our youth. Read the rest of this entry »
Fall Membership: Assignments
When Fall Membership efforts begin, school will be starting back into session and other activities will distract.
Now is the time to make sure your Pack has appointed a person to review the literature that you plan on giving your new prospective families. Information and templates are available at the Council Recruitment webpage. Those documents should include:
- Your annual calendar (updated from any summer long-range planning);
- Your information book or parent guide on pack practices and expectations;
- Your annual cost of cub scouts and how popcorn and fundraising offset the out-of-pocket costs (the goal is that they see the value of fund raising to minimize out-of-pocket costs);
- Your BeAScout.org pin needs to have accurate meeting information and contact information for your leadership.
In your information packs, do not forget that we are introducing Lion Cub/kindergartners into the program this Fall. So everyone will need to update their documents for this addition. Con Sullivan is the council coordinator for Lions, so be sure to address questions to him as you need.
If you know how is responsible for each or all of these documents, you then need to set a deadline for these to be submitted to the pack committee for approval. Ideally the committee would approve these before the end of July. Maybe then the documents need to be submitted to the committee a week or two before the meeting that would meet that July deadline. That way the documents can simply be polished and printed for August recruitment.
Do your homework now: committee chairs, make sure you have these assignments done in May. It will make August just that much easier.
For more information on how to update your BeAScout.org pin, watch this video:
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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