April 6, 2013
Robert T. Sadock, MD
Area 2 – M&M

• The Main Thing is the Main Thing
• Membership
• Increasing Over Prior Year

Insanity – Doing the Same Thing and Expecting a
Different Result

• NER – 18 Straight Years of Traditional
Membership Decline
• National – 13 Straight Years of Traditional
Membership Decline
• At Same Loss Rate BSA Will Have No Members in 40 Years

• Diagnose the Problem
• Get the Correct Specialist
• Treat the Problem
• Follow Up
– Make Sure the Treatment Worked
– If Not, Change Treatments
One Year Study and Analysis

• Charged with Making This Happen
• Current Structure is Part of the Challenge
• Current Separate Silos of Responsibility Need to be Broken Down
• Requires Senior Management Buy-In

• Is the Problem in New or Retained
Members?
• Is the Problem in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts or Venturing?
• Membership = New Members +
Retained Members
• Each of These Groups Require a Different
Strategy

Area Cub Scout Boy Scout Venturers Total
Class Retained New Retained New Retained New Total
% 35.4% 22.7% 27.2% 6.2% 5.0% 3.5% 100%
Rank 1 3 2 4 5 6

• Tremendous Variation Across Councils
• New Members
• Retained Members

Cub Scouts Boy Scouts Venturers
Retained New Retained New Retained New
High 69.1% 43.8% 95.1% 26.0% 75.2% 49.7%
Low 56.4% 26.2% 75.1% 6.1% 27.6% 21.2%
Range 12.7% 17.6% 20.0% 19.8% 47.6% 28.5%

1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
New Members
0.4
0.5

• Each Council Has a Different Set of Problems
• Connecticut Yankee Council, Milford, CT
• Scout Executive
• The Wow Factor

CYC
NER
Additional
Members
Total Cub Scout Boy Scout
71.3%
71.1%
65.1%
63.7%
82.6%
88.7%
302
CYC Revised 73.4% 65.1% 88.7%

• Breakdown New vs. Retained by Catagory
• Large Variations Within Each Category
• Many Routes to Greater Membership
• Each Council Needs Their Own Analysis of the Problem
• National Solution vs. Local Solution

• Need to Clearly Define Who is Responsible
Shared Responsibility is No Responsibility

• Cub Scout Recruitment
• Cub Scout Retention
• Cub Scout Crossover
• Boy Scout Recruitment
• Boy Scout Retention
• Venturer Recruitment
• Explorer Recruitment

• Professional
– Scout Executive
– District Executive
• Volunteer
– Membership Impact
– Program Impact
– Council Operations
– Commissioners

• Job Description for Each Position
• Match the Best Group to the Position

• Business
– Fire / Hire
– Best Promoted
– Ask the Best
– Use Business Data
• Strategies
– Best Practices
– Correlations

• By Having a Single Equation, Can
Compare Different Councils
• Each Category Requires Different Skill
Sets and Solutions
• Can Rank Councils For Each Category
• Can Find Out Why a Council is Best in its
Category

Council % Yrs>40%
640 Greater New York 48.5%
802 Transatlantic 44.1%
376 Iroquois Trail
341 Jersey Shore
43.8%
42.9%
757 Potomac
225 Annawon
41.5%
41.4%
1
1
3
5
6
1

• To Launch a New Cub Scout Pack….
(640)
• 12 Month Program Planned in Advance
• Trained Leaders
• 18 Month Financial Plans
• Required to be in Uniform (Scouts & Adults)

Membership Committee Took Control of Sign Up
Nights
• Badge of Honor Flyers to Every School with
Dates in Advance
(509)
• Extensive Use of Flyers, Yard Signs
(512,538,500,341)
&
Silicone Wrist Bands Promoting BeAScout.org
(512)
• School Night Chairs For Each District –
(376,341)
Presentations by Trained District Volunteers

Council % Yrs>60%
509 Bucktail
244 Knox Trail
388 Westchester-
Putnam
525 Cradle of Liberty
404 Suffolk County
374 Hudson Valley
82.7%
69.1%
69.1%
69.0%
69.0%
68.1%
3
6
6
1
6
6

• Council Field Staff Reporting “At Risk” Units
Consistently at Council Staff Meetings
• Targeted Units
– “Red Units”
– 90 Day Action Plan
• Council Staff Networking & Mentoring
(500)

Retained Cub Scouts
“Knowledgeable and Trained Leaders is Key to
Strong, Successful Units Which Translates
Directly into Higher Density and Better
Retention Rates”
(525)

Retained Cub Scouts
• Assigned to Work with New or In Jeopardy
Cub Scout Units
• Paid Staff Position
• Councils Applied and Received Support for
Position
• Positions to be Sustained by Membership
Growth via Popcorn, Camping, Events
(502, 525)

Council % Yrs>90%
224 Cape Cod and Islands 104.3% 1
69 Housatonic
538 Chief Cornplanter
99.7%
99.4%
500 Moraine Trails 95.1%
227 Boston Minuteman 94.9%
404 Suffolk County 94.5%
1
1
2
1
4

Retained Boy Scouts
• 100% Trained Leaders is the Expectation (By
Example Not Decree)
(69)
• Roundtable Attendance > 75% of Units
– Consistently Solid RT Programs
– Gives Reason to Attend
(69,504)

• Correlated - CS Advancement p<.000000004
• Correlated - District Committee p<.004
 Service Hours Rate
 Commissioner Ratio
 Visitation Rate
 Contact Leaders Trained

• Correlated –CS Advancement p<1E-12
• Correlated –Contact Leaders Trained p<.00004
• Correlated - BS Advancements p<.005
• Correlated - Commissioner Ratio p<.02
• Correlated – BS Camping p<.02
 Service Hour Rate
 Council Leadership Train
 Visitation Rate
 District Committee

• Cost per Scout
– Rural & Suburban – No Correlation
– Urban – Less Cost per Scout the Higher the
Retention (p<.02)
• Volunteers per Scout
– Rural & Suburban – Highly Correlated (p<.00005)
– Urban – No Correlation

• Strongest Correlations Occur at the Unit Level
• Weakest at the Council Level
– CS Advancement - p<.000000004
– Contact Leaders Trained - p<.00004
– District Committee - p<.004
– District Executives

0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
Leaders Trained

• Best Practices From Around the Country
• Ratings Tell Us What Others Think
• A Place to Share Ideas
• A Place to Post What Works

• Track Changes Over Time
• Are We Getting Better or Worse
• What Approaches Worked or Did Not Work
• Monitor the Specialist For Efficacy
• Promote/Train/Replace the Specialist
Insanity – Doing the Same Thing and Expecting a
Different Result

High
Improvement
High
Performance
Low
Performance
Promote Teach
Low
Improvement Maintain Re-Org

Council# Council Headquarters
234
374
386
388
66
67
69
72
404
405
640
East Hartford, CT
Greenwich, CT
Derby, CT
Milford, CT
Westfield, MA
Newburgh, NY
Massapequa, NY
Hawthorne, NY
Medford, NY
Kingston, NY
New York, NY
Performance
10
9
5
3
2
1
4
8
7
6
11
Improvement
9
2
1
11
3
7
10
6
5
8
4

NER Marketing Committee

• To take advantage of “crowd resourcing” that the Web allows,
• To let ALL Scouters share good ideas
– Volunteers & Professionals
– Unit, District, Council, Regional, and National level

• Go to https://myscouting.scouting.org/
• Log in
• Left hand side choices, under “Council Tools”
• Choose “Best Practices Portal”

From the Best Practices Portal

Using A Cub Scout Rocket Launch As A
Pack Recruiting Night Draw
Originator: seattlepioneer
01 Jul 2011
Chief Seattle Council,
Young boys often don't have much of an understanding of Cub
Scouts. However, when I take a model rocket and launcher into a school, and ask boys if they would like to make model rockets and see if their rocket will go the HIGHEST and the
FARTHEST --- they can relate to that!

Using A Cub Scout Rocket Launch As A
Pack Recruiting Night Draw
In exchange for contact information, families receive a Cub Scout
Rocket Pilot License and the makings for a stomp bottle rocket. It usually takes families ~10 minutes to make a rocket
After parents observe the launch a few times and satisfy themselves that it's well supervised, they are invited to sign up for Cub Scouts. That's usually pretty easy---- we don't have to TALK about how Cub Scouts is a fun family activity

Using A Cub Scout Rocket Launch As A
Pack Recruiting Night Draw
RESULT ACHIEVED:
Greater turnout for pack recruiting nights! More families signing up for Cub Scouts!
COMMENTS
This sounds like a fantastic idea! Thank you for posting this, Will!
Ben McInnis, Cubmaster, Pack 39, Summit, RI

Report to the City
Originator: tina.brendle
12 Nov 2011
Bay Area Council
,
Report to City is a modified version of Report to State with all ages; Cubs Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venture Crews and
Teams delivering a brief report, to presiding dignitaries, on their contributions to the community in the past year.

Report to the City
Scouts were nominated as MC, Color Guard and Pledge of
Allegiance, Scout Oath and Dignitary Escort
There were afternoon sessions for rank advancement, belt loops and merit badges. City depts. such as Park and Rec,
Fire, Police, EMS, hosted 17 activities: Citizen in the
Community, Fire Safety, & First Aid Merit Badges; and
Swimming, Recycle, and Fishing Belt Loops to name some.
To close the day, Scouts partnered with the VFW Post to conduct a flag retirement ceremony.

Report to the City
RESULT ACHIEVED:
This event exposed Scouts to government, public speaking and the importance of contributing to the local community.
COMMENTS:
A fantastic idea. Community leaders learn about Scouting accomplishments & the Scouts get to self promote & learn communication. A great growth exercise for future leaders.
I enjoyed this idea for its combination of civic duty for the Scouts with positive PR among community members

• Wikipedia like option: A different page where we invite all users to build a Best Practice on topics of our choosing. Needs small amount of computer programming to launch.