Recruitment Sign-Up Night
Best Practices for Recruitment Night:
- Sign-Up night is at the school where most new members attend
- Packs that have high attendance from multiple Schools offer multiple Signup nights
- This is so important the Grand Canyon Council will pay to reserve space if necessary
- Sign-Up night is a stand alone event
- Not back to school, or a Pack meeting
- Sign-Up nights are held on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday
- There is no way to send a day before reminder for a Monday and Families have other activities on Fridays
- Sign up nights take place early in the school year
- With a goal of the second or third week of school
This is the Families First Scouting Experience
Consider the expectations the new families have of an organization
- See the adventure they will be a part of
- Learn when and where meetings take place and who to contact
- Learn what is expected of the new member families – Time, Training, Volunteerism, Cost
- Sing-Up – They did come to an event called a Sign-Up Night
Be Clear in the expectations the organization (Pack) has of the families and the signup night
- Develop new Dens (With new volunteer leadership)
- Sing-Up new youth members
Example Speaking notes and videos can be found in the Toolbox.
It is important and expected that a district representative (not currently registered with the pack) attend the join nights.
Best Practices After the Sign-Up Night:
Units Follow-up
- Provide a welcome phone call and/or email to new families
- Ensure the first den meeting is within 2 weeks of joining
- A 2nd chance/Raincheck recruitment/Bring a friend/Fill the Den opportunity exists for all new and returning in the first month of program
- An outdoor activity or adventure is available within the first month of the Sing-Up night
- This can be the 2nd join activity
District Follow-up
- Submit all paper applications and registration payments to the council for the unit within 2 business days
- Online Registration is strongly preferred to help speed the process up remove opportunities for error/misplaced registration items
- Recognize successful units at the district level
- And help plan next steps if units did not preform as well as they aimed to with the first Sign-Up Night
- Record unit success with the council so the unit receives council recognition and incentives
Council Follow-up
- Provide a welcome email to new families including offer for a free Council Patch to welcome them to the Grand Canyon Council
