New Horizons - Boy Scout Membership
Our district goal is to recruit nearly 1400 new members to our programs. For comparison last
year we recruited 1100 new members.
Membership is integral to Journey to Excellence. For 2015 her are our unit goals:
The Plan:
Our Commissioner's and DE's are visiting with every chartered institution/school principal this
summer to obtain chartered organization/principal buy-in for scouting. They will go over a
Principal Packet with each school. They will ask for a unit visit to the school, but may need
reinforcement from the units. We may contract you in assisting in obtaining school access.
Nearly 96% of all Boy Scouts come from Cub Scouts - We need to change this!
Traditional Resources:
Council is making several resources available directly to schools and to our units at the August
Roundtable
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“School Night in a folder” Packet
Flyers
Stickers for Boy Talks
Youth & Adult Applications
Parent’s Guides
Yard Signs
Traditional Actions:
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August Roundtable - Resources Available
First Week of August - Superintendent Meeting
Open Houses - Units should ask for representation in the school, ask to lead the Pledge of
Allegiance
School Night to Join Scouting - August 20 - Rockwood and Valley Park; August 27 Brentwood and Kirkwood, September 3, Parkway and Webster.
Neighborhood Newspaper Ads - We will be placing adds in August newsletters/papers
advertising District wide SNTJS dates/locations.
Follow ups:
 Within two weeks of your SNTJS - Hold a unit centric fun activity, fishing, rocket
launch, outing at a park, pinewood derby using last year's cars, cub world, mud cave tour
and cookout. Just have fun and welcome new and returning members.
 By Mid September - Have a unit meeting, make it fun engage the new members so that
they want to come back.
 Information - Provide a hand out with just activities through Halloween - First Day, Fright
Night, and Pack activities - The goal is to show we are a fun/vibrant activity.
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Do a good turn for your Chartering Institution biannually - or Enter into an "Adopt a
School Contract"
Our Plan:
 Make a proactive an meaningful transition from Webelos to Scouting - Invite the Webelos to
your meetings or outings, make it irresistible for them not to invest in scouting.
 Reach out to those youth and families that are not integrated into Scouting - use direct
mailing from District to the families. We will use our resources including the retained/non
retained list. See below on buzz books needs.
 Use School Night to Join Scouting - but also have your own membership drive.
The Rewards:
 New members to invigorate your program
 New adults to assist
 Young men and families who see this as a exciting, fun viable program
The Incentives:
 $50 voucher for an add-on program at one of our camp properties (climbing, horseback
riding, canoeing, etc.). Voucher to be redeemed by 6/30/16.
The Tips:
 Provide a short 15 minute fun activity for the youth, this is all it should take to join scouting.
They should not be staying with their parents.
 Engage the parents, especially the Mom's, they are most likely the decision makers on
whether their son joins scouting.
 Provide plenty of membership registration areas, try to minimize any lines.
 Have the Troop leadership welcome each parent. Use others for the direct registration
activities.
 Make this easy and quick - again 15 minutes in and out
 Identify your fun activity (within 2 weeks) and next Troop meeting. You have them on the
hook, set the hook. Make the first activity fun and at a comfortable level.
Other Resources:
 http://www.scouting.org/filestore/membership/pdf/522-025_wb.pdf - The Unit Performance
Guide - The Unit Performance Guide is the approved BSA best method strategy for creating
and sustaining high-performing units for local councils. This book provides extensive newunit resources for volunteers and professionals and covers the following topics: Know the
Market, Make the Call, Build the Team, and Grow the Unit.
 http://scoutingwire.org/ - Get Weekly News & Info
 http://scoutingnewsroom.org/ - Newsroom is the official source for Boy Scout news,
updates, and announcements.
 http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/ - Byran on Scouting - a great blog
 http://www.scouting.org/Home/Membership.aspx - 100's of membership resources
 http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets.aspx - Fact sheets provide basic information
about the various facets of Scouting
Just ask - Bruce Levitt, district membership chair 314-348-3577 or [email protected]
or your commissioner or one of our DE's
How You Can Help:
 We would like to send out a flier/announcement to every school age scout in our district.
To date we have buzz books from Parkway and Rockwood to make this happen. If you
have the 2014-15 buzz book from your or neighboring schools please get it to
Jonathan by July 1st. If you are a religious entity chartered unit, we would like to offer
the same service to you. If you have a membership listing that includes Scout age youth
that we can identify please provided it to us.
 Provide us with pictures of your activities so we can demonstrate to the community what
scouting has to offer.