New Unit Organization Incentives & Recognition 

The organization of new units is one of the greatest legacies that a professional Scouter and/or a volunteer can give to a neighborhood or community. To do right, organizing a new unit is also a very challenging task to complete.

The BSA has an excellent method established for unit organization as outlined in the Membership Committee Guide book. Our process is built on a foundation of year-round unit organization including ongoing prospecting for chartering organizations and following the twelve step process. This is all excellent.

However, for many years, our recognition of unit organization for professionals has revolved around CSEWC/High Five on June 30th and Quality District/Council on December 31st. I believe that the pressure placed on professional Scouters to organize new units around these 2 deadlines has contributed to the problem of professionals doing most or all of the unit organization with little or no involvement by our volunteers. Professionals often feel compelled to do everything within their power to have new units organized by these two deadlines. This often results in taking shortcuts, not following the twelve steps, and not involving volunteers (feeling that it is easier to do themselves and don’t want to rely on volunteers to meet their deadlines which have a major impact on their performance reviews.) Plus, since volunteers are not evaluated based on their completion of new units by our two deadlines, they are not motivated to work with our professionals to meet the deadlines.

We should consider a different incentive and recognition of our professionals (and volunteers) for unit organization.
When a new professional organizes his or her first new unit following the process and certified by his/her staff leader, he or she should receive immediate recognition from the organization. Maybe a letter from the regional director or the chief, plus some other recognition. Then (like in the real estate and insurance business) have a level of “clubs”: the “Five Unit Club”, then the “Ten Unit Club”, “Twenty Unit Club” etc. and there should be significant recognition for professionals that achieve these levels of accomplishment in unit organization.

This would be a useful tool for a staff leader to coach his staff towards. The leader coaches the brand new D.E. towards organizing his/her first unit in order to be recognized. Then coaches toward the next 4 units in order to be further recognized etc. This would be a more long term approach to unit organization, would tie in well with our new SMART goals and the PDS system, and would complement the W.D. Boyce New Unit Organizer Award for volunteers.

All units that count towards the recognition should be certified by the staff leader to have included volunteers in the organization process and to have completed all of the necessary steps to help that unit have a solid start. (It should not recognize, however, instances when a professional is sometimes “handed” one or more new units as can sometimes happen in a LDS ward split, for example.)

Suggestion for a new Regional Support Position 

Has anyone given consideration to a staff position on the National or Regional level that specializes in unit organization and recruiting to support local councils? Would it be beneficial to all to have a person that can go to individual councils for boots-on-the-ground, one-on-one or small group, hands-on, on-the-job training?
Some councils, especially small ones, are cash strapped and consequently are shorthanded. The SE is not in a position to spend much time training the new field executive(s), especially in the area of recruiting and unit organization. The new professional is handed a book or DVD and told to read it and get after it. We all know this happens, and agree that it is not the best situation but it is reality. It is not what we like or want, but outside conditions force this upon us at times. Yes, CPD teaches recruiting in PDL-1, but they are only able to spend a small amount of time on it, and with a large group at that, so there is not the advantage of one-on-one or small group instruction, hands-on teaching, nor is there the luxury of working out detailed methods suitable for specific areas of a school system, district, council, or even state.
For one reason or another, many councils and/or districts don’t have volunteers who have the time and/or talent to do good boy talks and roundups, and thus the councils are in membership decline. The Regional Recruiting Specialist (or whatever other title you might think appropriate) could come in and spend a few days or a week working with both field staff and volunteers to help get them up to speed, or to help polish their techniques. The Recruiting Specialist could also host cluster/area training seminars from time to time, so that several councils could benefit at one time. These training sessions could be held for either professional or volunteer groups, or both.
In some councils that are missing field staff and cannot afford to hire the needed staff, and are desperately needing membership so that they do not lose United Way or special grant funding, this person could come in for a week or two to boost membership. With the right preparation, in one week this person could generate more than 100 new youth for a council that is short handed, and that could pay big dividends for that council at the end of the year.
The Recruiting Specialist could also be invited to visit councils and audit their recruiting/unit organizing procedures to help them identify ways to improve them. A written report could be generated so that in subsequent months, the local council staff could review the suggested improvements to see if they are following the suggested plan, and if it is working. With feedback, our overall methods utilized in various councils could be compared and maybe would bring about changes for the benefit of all. The Specialist could also work with the other National staff to help plan and develop the recruiting plans that are delivered to the local councils each year.
There are some professionals in our organiation that have a special talent when it comes to recruiting and unit organization. There are some guys out there who can recruit 15 and 20 Boy Scouts in one roundup meeting, who can recruit more than 200 Cub Scouts a month, who can start new packs with 25 and more leaders, and who can start 4-6 new units in a month. It seems a waste of their talent to keep them confined to a district in a local council when they could help many more districts and councils succeed.