The BSA Crew Marketing Toolbox and Ship Marketing Toolbox is an initiative driven by dedicated volunteers to create and share marketing materials with other ships and crews.
More members = more fun = more successful program! Members move away, go to college, etc. The group is always changing, but it is our duty to be sure there are plenty of youth participating. Continued recruitment is important to keep the crew going. The more members in the crew or ship, the more events are possible. With a small crew or ship, your opportunities may be limited because you need everyone to attend every event. Going away to college doesn’t mean the crew or ship should go inactive. Continue to get new members throughout the year. The average life span of a crew or ship that does not recruit is 3-5 years, but with Peer to Peer recruitment we could crush this statistic and increase membership in Venturing and Sea Scouts.
To be truly successful, you need to put a recruiting plan into action. Pass out fliers anywhere you can. Ask the local schools if they can put them up on billboards and make announcements. Do open houses at the beginning of the school year to get everyone back into the Scouting mood after a busy summer, and get new freshman in this awesome co-ed program. Before the holidays, your crew could be hosting a holiday party. Why not make it a "bring a friend" and get everyone socializing. Besides a "bring a friend" to meetings, "bring a friend" to weekend events to get them active and to try new things that only the Venturing and Sea Scouts Programs have to offer.
Request Recruiting Fliers
Resources
Registration Links
Scoutbook
Venturing Recruiting Toolbox
The Venturing Peer-to-Peer Packet is a set of tools designed to aid Venturers in recruiting their peers. These resources allow Venturers to have a better way to grow the program. They are intended for an individual crew member to hand flyers or brochures to potential members. Councils are also able to use these pieces to promote recruitment.
Through extensive research, the BSA has determined peer-to-peer recruitment (youth speaking to youth) the be the most effective way to recruit members into a Venturing crew. Peer-to-peer has been proven successful, but will only have widespread impact if you go out and use it to its full potential. This means as youth we must take action to get other youth involved, in order to learn and grow in leadership and experiences for life.
Recruiting is Important!
Contact the National President or the National Office representative to ask any questions about this campaign or its campaign pieces.
Each Peer-to-Peer Recruitment Packet comes with the following:
“What is Venturing?” Brochure
For many, it’s hard to describe Venturing in a 30-second pitch, so here’s a brochure that explains to a person unaware of Venturing, exactly what Venturing is! You can use this brochure as a leave behind piece or open it up and use it as a talking piece to sell the Venturing program to your friends.
3 Fill-able Recruitment Fliers
The three flyers are easy to download on scouting.org/venturing and may be customized through PDF with information about when your crew meetings are and basic information about your crew. The flyers are colorful and have pictures that represent the different activities crews do like; service, high adventure, STEM, etc…. What activities does your crew do? You have three choices to just fill in and email or hand out to friends and peers.
The RecruitMEnt Guide is perfect for any crew - new or old. Recruiting in schools is still an option for many, but some communities have a tough time gaining school access. This piece will suggest a bunch of great ideas on how to recruit in other places in addition to schools. Like the mall, sports venues, churches, online, etc….. What does your crew do to recruit? Have you thought about any of these? This guide also provides a sample Open House Agenda for recruiting. Remember to keep it simple and fun.
Need to explain the basic Venturing program facts? The “Fast Facts” page gives you a one-page information sheet to hand out about the basics.
You can order individual pieces, or entire packets. Make sure to specify and clearly fill out the form. Filling out and ordering the materials is FREE! Plan ahead and order early so that the materials have plenty of time to arrive. If you are in a pinch and you need something quickly, visit the Venturing Recruiting Toolbox. This is a great opportunity to get FREE materials to help grow your Venturing crew!
For questions, please contact your district executive or district membership chair.