How to Recruit With School Access

All your efforts paid off. You built relationships with key people in the school administration and you have been granted access to students during school time. Now is the time to execute your events leading up to and including sign-up night.

The following are the best ways to motivate the students to join Scouting:
  1. Class to class presentations about two to three minutes, respecting instruction time and classroom routines and procedures. Leave a small gift with the teachers as a thank you.
  2. School wide rally gets students motivated and is appreciated by students. It is still an interruption to the normal instruction time, so make it worth it.
  3. Recess and gym class presentations are not as appreciated by the students, but reduces disruptions to instruction time.
  4. School News is the easiest sell, but it is possible that the student are not paying attention. You may have to do something weird to get their attention.
The following preparations must be done in advance of a school presentation:
  1. Set-up a Facebook Organization Page that is public and shows a calendar of events, and Scouts doing fun things together. If you are worried about privacy of children then use stock photos from the BSA Brand Center. You will have to accept some cookies and register to gain access. The word register is very small. The pictures are professionally done and are available to use on sites featuring official Scouting activities
  2. Update you Pin on BeaScout.org. This is the way people find you and your unit. If you need to update the Pin:
    1.  Update Your BeAScout Pin, Make These Changes: A BeAScout.org pin can be updated by a “Key 3” leader of your unit (or a “Key 3 Delegate”), by logging in to your My.Scouting.Org account and updating “BeAScout” Unit Pin data and Settings found in the “Organization Manager” for your unit.
  3. Create a Facebook calendar event on your Organization Page and create a QR code to go with it for distribution at school. Have a link to where you are having people meet on sign-up night.
    1. Use an image from the BSA Brand Center.
    2. Write a compelling description.
    3. Link to your unit registration URL.
    4. Boost the post with a modest budget and strategically geofence for the event.
The following must be done on the night of sign-up:
  1. Register the students and their family on BeAScout.org.
  2. Have plenty of helpers to help them navigate the website.
  3. Let them know about the first meeting and orientation. Sign-up night is not the time to orient them to the unit. THe Principal will be ready to close the building and go home. You are not selling the program. They came to sign-up. Let them! Orient them the following week.
The following website has great resources for recruiting. 
https://www.scouting.org/recruitment/ 



 

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