Membership and Memories – They Go Together and are Essential to Scouting! (cont.)
Membership certainly matters for many reasons. More importantly, membership matters in the lives of our youth, the experiences they have and the relationships they build. This was brought home to me so clearly this morning as I learned about a strong bond built through Scouting among three young men serving on camp staff at Bear Paw. They enjoy doing things together, travelling together, and have a crazy tradition of taking a couch with them on their travels to have their photo taken on the couch in amazing places. They shared photos of the couch with the three of them seated in front of the International Spam Museum and Mt. Rushmore as examples. The friendship found in Scouting, the opportunity to develop self-understanding and self-reliance, to gain leadership skills and to experience the natural world up close and personal is the hallmark of Scouting. We must build our ranks, extend Scouting to more youth in more underserved communities, and provide each Den, Scouts BSA age cohort and unit with sufficient membership to help build life-long and lasting friendships.
How can you help? First, we cannot fall into the trap of thinking someone else will take care of recruiting, or pay attention to the quality and character of the experience offered to our current members. Each of us and together all of us need to pitch in and do want our abilities, time and interest permit. Offer to help with a new member open house or activity. Share your Scouting story with neighbors and friends, especially those with children in school with your children. No kids left in Scouting, offer to help at a Pack recruitment event to free up leadership to meet with parents and engage youth in fun activities. In a troop, crew or ship? Connect with a nearby Pack and get involved, provide Den Chiefs, offer to host Pack activities and lead adventures, help with recruiting and be visible in the community.
Pack and Troop leaders need to attend Fall Recruitment training held in your District in August. Prior to that, you must secure a date and location for your join events and open houses, gather materials such as your planning calendar for the coming year, information about your unit, contact information for your leadership and information for new family orientation. Make sure to update your pin information on BeAScout.org. Be ready to help new families participate in the Fall Popcorn Sale so they can help earn funds for their participation in Scouting. Consider other locations to recruit; school settings are great, but families with Scout age youth gather at churches, temples and synagogues, in community sports leagues, after-school settings, recreation centers and community centers, and at community events. Be present, set up a booth, hold an activity to engage youth in fun things related to Scouting.
One of our greatest challenges is overcoming the complacency that has set in since the global pandemic. We have become accustomed to and even satisfied with smaller results in recruiting. Packs used to attract 20 or more new members a year and with the inclusion of girls, we should still be able to do so. Having 2 or 3 Dens at each level is indeed possible and the program supports those numbers. Set your sights on larger Dens and seek to fill in those Dens with smaller numbers in addition to recruiting Lions and Tigers. Troops can also reach out to former Cub Scouts who didn’t continue, and can attract youth who were never in the Cub program, again to fill out the age cohorts. We can grow and the experience is so much richer for our youth and those of us who serve as adult leaders if we do.
The friendship and fellowship enjoyed by our youth as they move through their lives can continue if we plant the seeds. Like the three buddies at Bear Paw, Scouting can continue to be a common and enriching thread throughout life, but it cannot happen without our help. As always, I thank you for your commitment to Scouting, for the faith and trust you place in your leaders and units every day throughout the year. I’m looking forward to seeing you down the trail. I know you will find the experience transformative there just as I know your youth will find themselves each in their own way.
Paul Shrode
psshrode@aol.com