School Open House

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  1. Lots of Pictures: Use a large tri-fold poster board.
  2. Class A Uniform: If students are present then have scouts there. Class A uniforms are best for elementary school,
  3. Class B Uniform: Best for middle school recruiting.
  4. No Uniform: Invite a couple of troop moms (with daughters/sons in the troops) there at the table, not in uniform, to talk with other moms.
  5. School Night for Cub Scouting - One evening is designated for all parents to gather at the school to learn about and hopefully join Cub Scouting.
  6. Back to School Night (Fall Recruiting) - a one night event at the start of the school year, where we provide the opportunity to sign-up for Cub Scouts at every elementary school in the district. Most new scouting recruits come from this event. Ask your district executives which schools (public, private, charter, church-school, home-school, etc) are in your neighborhood and have not been assigned to a Cub Pack as of yet.
    1. School Night Tips - NorthernStarBSA.org
    2. Sign-up Night Playbook - ScoutingWire.org
    3. School Night Planning Guide - Prepare for and deliver an effective school recruiting function
    4. School Night for Scouting - 2013 YouTube Presentation
  7. School Open House (Spring Recruiting) -
  8. School Festivals (Mid-Year Recruiting) -

Boosting Recruitment Night Success

Question: How do I get families to attend our Recruitment Night Event?

Note - some units focus on the following events with varying success

  1. Open House Night: Late spring - before the summer break
  2. Fourth of July Parade: Huge community turnout - but some families have vacation plans during the summer
  3. Back to School Night: Late summer / early fall - A little bit late for annual planning -but this is when most families actually focus on organizing their kids schedule for the new school year.
  • Hand out flyers at Fourth of July Parades and other large summer community events: Allow 1-2 weeks before recruitment night. Offer two recruitment nights in case families are on vacation. Even hold a recruiting booth there.
  • During the Summer - Recruitment night should have fun activities for the kid.
  • Activities and Refreshments - Build marshmallow catapults and have done rockets. We also had pizza.
  • Hand out flyers during school registration days.
  • Advertise on buy sell trade websites & local facebook groups. Indicating gender and age groups
  • Put flyers at the school office.
  • Put out yard signs.
  • Encourage unit members to post flyers to their personal page.
  • Paid Facebook to promote the post to people in our area.
  • Place tri-fold flyers at the local bank and a couple of churches that allow for it.
  • Stickers made for the little kids. Pencils and pens printed up with the pack info.
  • Election days we can sell popcorn so we hand out flyers
  • Include BBQ and had an ice cream truck come to our Recruitment Event.
  • Be seen in your uniform and flag!
  • Find something fun, and can you advertise "A community event for boys and girls grades 1-5" hosted by the Cub Scouts
  • Be organized. Families can sense between a unit in chaos and the opposite - A pack with a computerized registration table, notebooks and calendars ready to distribute.
  • Schedule Recruitment night two weeks after school starts and the school handout flyers in school packages.
  • Our council gives rockets with a certain camp date to launch. But for them to get a free rocket kit they had to be registered.
  • Outdoor movie night with open house and food.
  • Got extra scout patches? (ie Last year's popcorn patch, etc) - Bring those to handout. Another attention getter.

References