Recruitment
Do you have hard copy applications that you need to turn in? Save yourself a trip to the office by submitting them through our new Google form.
You’ll need to have a Google account or create one.
Staff Membership Specialists
Jonathan Fullenwellen
484-654-9266
Triune District
Northern District
Roosevelt District
Conestoga District
Washington District
EFFECTIVE AUGUST 1, 2022:
The BSA National membership fee increases $3/year ($0.25/month) to $75/year for Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, Venturing, and Sea Scouts. Scout Life magazine increases $3/year ($0.25/month) to $15/year.
Download the National Registration & Magazine Pro-Rated Fee Chart:
Unit Recruitment Resources
You must have or create a Google account
Click on the button to submit a unit or multi-unit recruitment/sign-up event. You can upload a flier or other promotional materials through this form and the council will print them free of charge (within reason). Or, enter the details of your recruitment event and we’ll prepare a flier for you. After you submit, a membership specialist will be in contact with you to confirm the details and discuss other promotional plans, like scheduling school talks, distributing lawn signs, etc.
The council will also provide, free of charge to our units, boosted Facebook advertising for recruitment events for up to 14 days prior to the event. A Facebook event will be created on the COLBSA Facebook page and we will geofence around the physical address of your sign-up (and one other location if you provide one).
(Click here for more info on geofencing)
Please confirm your event details and submit through the form above as soon as possible. Please allow up to five (5) days for the production of printed materials. Events submitted with less than five days notice will not be eligible for Facebook advertising and we cannot guarantee that printed materials will be ready in time.
We strongly suggest that you use materials from the BSA Brand Center. Any user-created materials must comply with BSA Brand Guidelines. Links to the program-specific folders in the Brand Center are provided below. For your convenience, we’ve also included direct links to sample fliers. Download a flier to your computer and you can enter your information into the fillable PDF.
Cub Scout fliers are available to download and edit in Word.
Scouts BSA sample fliers are fillable PDFs; download and edit in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Venturing sample flier is a fillable PDF; download and edit in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Sea Scout sample flier is a fillable PDF; download and edit in Adobe Acrobat Reader.
This pilot will allow the units designated as “family” Cub Scout packs that currently serve boys and girls in single gender dens the ability to form “family dens” with boys and girls together in the same den. This allows one more option for family packs to form dens that best meet the needs of the families they are serving. We realize many packs are already doing this, so here’s your chance to be official!
Is Your Unit Maximizing Online Membership Tools?
We’ve got some great online tools to help recruit and onboard new families, but accurate information and timely follow-up are crucial if we want these tools to work effectively. Watch the videos below for some quick tips to help your unit get the most out of these resources.
National Marketing & Membership Webinars
Join Scouting Night Done Right!
It’s not too late – things you can do now to spread the word about your joining event. Plus, welcoming families to Scouting!
Welcoming & Onboarding New Youth & Families
This webinar will discuss onboarding, recruiting new leaders, and making families feel welcome.
Beyond School Access
Recruiting best practices, what to do if you don’t have school access, five recruitment ideas that work.
Social Media 101 and Beyond
This webinar will look at social media strategies and tactics for recruiting.
Online Registration and Geofencing
This webinar takes a deep dive into technologies and platforms to help with recruiting. We’ll discuss Online Registration & QR Code tools, Invitation Manager, Application Manager, and more!
Inviting Back Dropped Scouts
The past year has been difficult on all of us in a variety of ways. Many families, particularly in Cub Scouting, stop participating due to the pandemic. As the world starts to return to some sort of normalcy, we’d like to work in conjunction with our unit leaders to welcome our dropped Scouts and their families back to Scouting. We’ve code named it WOGGLE: Welcoming Back Our Girls and Guys Lost to the Epidemic.
The first wave of this initiative started on May 14 when we sent out an email and survey link to the parents/guardians of dropped Scouts in grades K-4. Our membership teams are now working with a number of Cub Scout packs throughout the council by providing contact information and resources to invite families back. We’ll be expanding this to all packs and then all units throughout the upcoming months.
Unit Recruitment Planning – Important Questions To Ask
- What does our unit have planned for recruiting?
- Where do our members come from?
- Is our unit planning for Family Scouting?
- Where do we plan to recruit?
- How do we plan to recruit?
- Who is helping our unit recruit?
- Where can our unit look for help?
- How many new members do we need?
- Who has contacted our dropped Scouts?
- What is our unit membership plan?
- Who is our unit membership chair?
Digital Advertising for Units
Resources from the July 23, 2020 National Recruitment Webinar on Geofencing, Search, Social Media, Peer-to-Peer Recruiting:
Useful Scouting Wire Articles:
How to Put Scouting on the Map with Google
National Recruiting Webinars
Past 2020 Webinars:
June 9: Fall Recruitment Video | Slide Deck
June 24: School Access and Peer-to-Peer Recruiting Video | Slide Deck
July 9: Tech Edition – BeAScout.org, Invitation Manager Video
July 16: Scoutbook 101, “Who’s Zooming Who?” Video | Slide Deck
July 23: Geofencing, Search, Social Media, Peer-to-Peer Recruiting Video | Slide Deck
August 6: 10 Recruiting Ideas in 10 Minutes, Local PR, Brand Center Video | Slide Deck
August 25: It’s Not Too Late: Five Things You Should be Doing Now Video
September 30: Restarting Webinar Video | Slide Deck
October 14: Restarting Webinar Video | Slide Deck
Unit New Member Coordinator (NMC)
Sustaining strong membership in a unit depends not only on having new members join the unit, but also on engaging youth and their families in the unit experiences so that they feel welcomed and want to stay. The role of the New Member Coordinator is to ensure that both keys to success take place.
The New Member Coordinator (NMC) position has been designed to:
– Be a FUN and engaging position.
– Form relationships with new members and their families.
– Use a team approach by encouraging more than one NMC in a unit, allowing them to tailor their work to individual interests/expertise, as well as to recognize the particular needs of the unit.
– Fit every type of unit, every age level and every program.
– Be recruited and supported by key unit leadership.
– Be provided with training both online and face to face.
– Be mentored by the district membership chair and become part of the district membership team.
– Be visible and easily identifiable at unit gatherings by their Welcoming smiles and their BSA “Welcome” logo that they display and wear on an activity shirt, on a hat or vest or in some cases, a pin on a field uniform.
2020 Council Recruiting Kickoff
Unit leaders are encouraged to watch the recruiting kickoff webinar from July 28 (registration is required). Additional information about our 2020 initiatives can be found below.
