Scouts BSA Recruitment Hub
Troop Recruitment Guidebook
Step One: Prepare
To successfully recruit new families, a well-planned and robust pack program is crucial. Use the below links to complete your Troop’s annual “Ideal Year of Scouting” plan. Once your program is planned a complement recruitment plan can be created. Use the below Recruitment Playbook to work through your fall recruitment plans.
Step Two: Identify
Successful recruitment happens when families have been invited to come. The most common response to “Why haven’t you joined Scouting” is “We’ve never been invited”. Many families see our posters, yard signs and fliers, but they do not equate to an invitation. While they are important, the personal invite is the most successful recruitment tool. In order to invite families to join, we need to identify them.
Step Three: Promote
It is important to promote your recruitment events early and often. This requires that your recruitment events are scheduled with enough time to get the word out. Promotion of any recruitment should start 30 days before the event. Use the below Promotional Back Dater to successfully get the word out.
Step Four: Sign Them Up
Everything done up to now has been so that new families are aware of how, when and where to join Scouting. It is important that every recruitment is set up so that new families can and want to sign up. Most families come to recruitment events with the intention of signing up. Use the below resources to ensure they do.
Step Five: Engage
It is important to engage new families quickly and consistently from the time they sign up. New families want to hear from you and are excited to start their Scouting adventure. Make sure they get connected with their troop and receive personal invites to meetings and activities. Use the resources below to consistently engage with new families.
Step Six: Deliver
Now it’s time to Deliver the Promise. It is important that all the fun and adventure that new families were promised happens. Follow your annual program plan and calendar and ensure families are having fun. If you do this, Scouts will continue in the program year after year and parents will lean in and volunteer. Membership recruitment is not an extra thing that should be done – it is an essential to ensure growth and depth in your Troop.
Membership Contacts
Blue Crab District
Cory Polidore
District Chair
Click to email
Blue Hen District
Jason Neff
Membership Chair
Click to email
Chesapeake District
Christina Pouliot
District Chair
Click to email
Coastal District
Mike Pearson
Membership Chair
Click to email
Del-Mar-Va Council
John Walker
VP Membership
Click to email
