Recruitment Ideas for your pack

Recruiting for your pack

Hi everyone! 

So, our pack is running into trouble. We have 2 Tigers, no wolves, 6 bears and 4 webelos.  We have talked about merging our pack with a smaller pack but we are going to wait till Fall 2016 recruiting to decide.

Our pack has been around for 30 years. When we sold popcorn, it was amazing how many older gentlemen said their cub scouts was our pack. It's sad that something that has been around for so long may no longer be. And it's not the money! It's the fact that we can not recruit in our school, which is our chartered organization. 

So, we had someone speek with the school and found out that we can recruit at our annual carnival. 

So now we are going to set up a booth there and hopefully recruit. But one thing I was going to mention is what do you give out during recruitment?  Cub scouts is like a dying tradition here, which is a shame. Parents are both working, so it leaves little time for camping or meetings. 

I signed up my son so that his father and him can do this together. But with his work schedule, he just doesn't have the time. Hence why this Mama is the one at every meeting, taking him out to sell fundraiser stuff, and making sure he memorized his scout law. And it's not just me! Our moms in our pack are very active, helping with organizing fundraisers, getting their Baloo training done, ect. And I noticed a lot of moms out there at the round table meetings in a uniform!

So back to my original thought.. have you thought of recruitment material? Well, as I write this, it is February 2016. At the last round table meeting, there was a box filled with the old handbooks. They were giving them away! So I grabbed one. LJ loved the wolf handbook I took home.

Which made me think, if LJ likes it so much, what about other kids. So I contacted our council and they gave me the information of a Mr. White. 

Mr White met me in my location, filled up a cart full of boxes that contained the old handbooks. We are going to give them out as part of recruitment material. Better than a flyer and free.

These books were going to be recycled because they can't be used due to the newer versions we have. So why not give them out as an example of what our scouts do?

Mr White is located in the Sam Houston Area Council.. but I'm sure where ever you are, contact your council and ask for those old handbooks. Stick an address label on it with your pack's # and their contact info. 

Hope this helps my pack and yours!