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The past three years have been quite the learning experience for me. I would have to say that when the professional, for the most part, is able to completely encompass the impact of his job, it may be easier for he/she to do the job more effectively.
Throughout my three rally seasons I have worked to make the program events a spotlight for youth to see and for them to want to join the program. While doing my boy talks at the schools or churches I try to engage the youth to want to be a part of everything that we do from popcorn sales to shooting bb guns. The more radiant and hyper that I am from classroom to classroom, the more likely the turnout will be top notch and units will grow.
My second rally season I managed to collect over 400 email addresses and successfully open up lines of communications from the committee chairman all the way down to the scout parent. With such communications I have found that it obviously keeps everybody informed and prepared for the next event. During this time I successfully managed to train over 100 parents/leaders. I held bi-monthly trainings, and used them for ALL of the parents/leaders that showed up to the rallies. As a result of holding the trainings, parents would attend and get involved just because they showed up and learned how to help their pack go. This of course helped with retention and popcorn sales. Popcorn sales in my district were up over 30% and I truly believe that getting more parents / leaders involved is the key to successful popcorn sales. Along with getting the parents fully equipped, I made it a point to get a popcorn sales order form in the hand of every young boy / girl that joined the program, insuring success.
My rallies were very successful because of the relationship I had with the schools and the amount of marketing I was able to do at each of them. The use of posters, yard signs, stickers and flyers were key to my successes in membership recruitment. Radio station adds as well as newspaper ads helped get my district on the path to growth and a very good year end. Another facet that I was able to utilize was an automated phone system that was in some of the schools. The phone system at the schools is able to call the entire student body or even a select part of the school, just the boys for example. Having the relationship with the principals who are willing to use the phone system for scouting is a great way to get the word out beyond what we are able to do. Plus it’s quick and more than likely it is free!! If a council is able to purchase the system, it would be a great resource to stay in touch with the entire scouting family in the council.
As a result of hard working volunteers and a well coordinated rally season I was able to end the year with roughly a 10% growth in traditional membership and am on course to end this year strong!!