Transitioning scouts from Cubs to Boy Scouts

1. Prepared. For Life.
Recruiting From BOTH
Sides of the House
• Now that our main push for Cub Scouts
is over (Join Scouting Nights)
– What can we do better as Packs?
– What more do we need from our District?
– What should we STOP doing?
• What can we do to make transition from
Webelos to Scouts “better”?

2. Prepared. For Life.
• Do you exist? Can you be found?
• Webpages/Calendars
• Social Media
• Fliers
• BeAScout
– Are you listed?
– Go to My.Scouting.org to edit your unit
BeAScout profile under the “Legacy Web Tools”
Do You Exist?

3. Prepared. For Life.
New Youth Recruiting
• Works best when youth- or friend-driven
• Recruiter recognition
– Recruiter patch, CoH certificate, Scoutmaster
Turk’s Head Neckerchief Slide, etc.
• New scout recognition
– Proper intro to make them feel at home
– Proper intro and orientation for new parents
• Presence at school open houses
– Flier to hand out?
– Poster board with activity pictures

4. Prepared. For Life.
What Does Recruiting
Mean to You?
• Membership Recruitment
– Back to School Recruiting
– Webelos-to-Scout Transition
• Recruiting Quality Leaders and
Volunteers

5. Prepared. For Life.
• Works best when youth- or friend-driven
• Recruiter recognition
– Recruiter patch, CoH certificate, Scoutmaster
Turk’s Head Neckerchief Slide, etc.
• New scout recognition
– Proper intro to make them feel at home
– Proper intro and orientation for new parents
• Presence at school open houses
– Flier to hand out?
– Poster board with activity pictures
New to Scouting

6. Prepared. For Life.
• Where else can we recruit?
– Local Grocery Stores
– Churches that are not currently chartering a unit
– Local HOA/Community Organizations
– ANYWHERE there is a community bulletin
board (physical or on-line)
Looking to NEW Places

7. Prepared. For Life.
Webelos-to-Scout
• Heart of keeping your unit healthy
• Den Chiefs!!!!! Youth influence.
• Scoutmaster/Cubmaster relationships
• Scoutmaster/Den Leader relationships
• Host Webelos to a Fall activity
• Schedule Webelos visit to a “regular”
meeting
• One more winter unit activity (e.g. rock
climbing)

8. Prepared. For Life.
Webelo’s Transition
(Cont’d)
• You can’t assume where they are
coming from and whether or not they
are interested in joining.
• You need to be sure that the Webelos parents
help their son make an informed decision
about whether and where they join.
– There are many misconceptions about Boy Scouting
• The Webelos and their parents need to be
prepared to transition into Boy Scouting.

9. Prepared. For Life.
Webelo’s Transition
(Cont’d)
• Boy Scouting is more of a commitment
and the parents need to know the
benefits of the program - they mostly
control what activities their son’s will be
involved with.
• Reducing Culture Shock
– Get parents involved when boys visit, don’t just
separate them out the whole time
– Get the boys involved with boys so they start to
understand “boy led”

10. Prepared. For Life.
Parent Recruiting
• Need to recruit the parents too
• Orientation to the in and outs of scouting
– What it will do for their boys
– How the program works (boy led)
– Aims of Scouting
– Fun with a Purpose
– Expectations
– Parent resource requirements
– Committee operations
– Is the SPL involved in the pitch???

11. Prepared. For Life.
Retention
• Communication, communication, communication
– Scout to Scout
– Parent to parent
• Initial parent/Scout orientation meetings
• Parent quarterly meetings
• Scout New Patrol meetings
• Scouter/Scout engagement (How are we doing?
Are you excited? How can I help? What did you
learn?)
• Updated and current calendars
• Timely emails