Top Tips for Second Round Recruitment

Article contributed by Christen Oswald, District Executive Etowah of the Greater Alabama Council

You did it! You and the recruitment team went to schools and handed out flyers, went to the classroom, and got all the kids super pumped to join Scouting. You had your sign up night and got ready to register every kid in the school. Yet, after all that, your numbers do not reflect your enthusiasm, your team did not reach the goals they had set and now your numbers are also down. Not a good thing. What do you do?

It doesn’t matter if this is your first year or your 10th year recruiting from schools – we all feel the struggle.  Second round recruitment is the key to getting all the kids that really wanted to join but maybe did not get the information, missed the sign up day or the parents just did not understand the impact Scouting can have on their child.

Second round recruitment sounds like a lot more work, but it is not. It’s just a redo on what you just did at the start of the school year. Take the same plan that you had and go back to all your schools. Take flyers, do Scout talks and hold a rally. Target schools that had very little or lower than normal youth sign up.

Talk to your contact at the school, the principal, counselor, etc. and request that you come back into the school and sign up more kids. Don’t talk about your numbers or goals, instead, share what Scouting can do for the kids in their school.

Make sure you share details about the full family Scouting program – some parents still do not know or understand that the Cub Scout program is for the whole family. Everyone can go to Scout Night and take advantage of the program. 

If you only got flyers out the first time to some schools, go back and ask if you can get more flyers and do a Scout Talk in the cafeteria this time or even a Scout Talk at the pep rally.

After that, you do exactly what you did the first time. Get your flyers, sticker, bookmarks and all of your information and go back into the school with as much enthusiasm as you had the first time! Remind the kids again about how much fun Scouting is and remind yourself that the little faces you are looking at is why you do your job! That’s it! Second round recruitment is simply a refresh on first round recruitment. 

Scouting Wire would like to thank Christen for contributing this article.