It's time to invite new families to join Scouting!!  By now your Pack should a launched your Cub Scout sign-up promotion campaign.  Promotional supplies were distributed at the July Roundtables.  Packs received yard signs, posters, and the 'Parent's Guide to Cub Scouting' brochures.  It's time to use these tools!!! 

Remember, our goal is to saturate our communities with the promotional materials.  Go beyond your school and set up the yard signs and posters at churches, restaurants, supermarkets and other places families frequent.  Use your social networking sights to invite your friends to be a part of the Cub Scout adventure.  Make sure you have a visible presence at 'Meet the Teacher' and 'School Open Houses' and hand out the 'Parent's Guide to Cub Scouting' brochures.  Use the brochures in your church bulletins.

In mid August you will begin to see billboards and hear radio spots letting families know that now is the time to join Cub Scouts.

Follow the plan...  Families need Cub Scouts...  You need to "get the word out" that they can join you Pack!!

Marketing/Promotions Plan

• "Get the word out." - Communicate your Pack's School Night Sign-Up to friends and parents whom with you come in contact.
• Social Networking - Get your parents to use their social networking sites; Face Book, Twitter..., to inform their friends about your Sign-Up Night.  (Have them give a personal testimony of how Scouting has benefitted their family.)
• Make sure you have posters of Scouts in action; in your school, church and other places that will give parents info on when they can sign up.
• Develop an incentive for Peer-to-Peer recruiting.
• Have an impressive presence at Meet the Teacher & Open House.  (Tents, Flag ceremony, Cub Scout greeters, interactive booth...)
• The day before and the day of your School Night, see if the school will allow Cub Scouts in uniform to welcome parents and students in the drop off line.
• Make sure all your Cub Scouts proudly wear their uniforms the day of your School Night.
• Make sure Leaders & Cub Scouts are at your School Night ready to welcome new families.
• Have an organized School Night.  First impressions are crucial.
• Make sure you have a Pack calendar to give to the new families.
• Make reminder calls to all new Cub Scouts to insure they attend their first meeting.
• Update your BeAScout.org pin. 

Over 4,100 youth and 700 adults from 14 states and four different countries experienced Camp La-No-Che's Summer Camp Adventure this past summer.  

Boy Scouts experienced the ATV and PWC power sports programs, conquered the sky with the Alpine Tower, Project COPE and our Climbing Tower, traveled back in time with our Native American Village and activities, sailed away at the Lakefront, took aim with the Shotgun, Rifle and Archery areas and swam away at our crystal clear action packed pool.  

While this past summer has drawn to an end, Boy Scouts and Troops should look toward the 2012 Boy Scout Winter Camp December 27-30 at Camp La-No-Che.  This action packed 4 day experience will deliver many of the same program and merit badge earning opportunities as summer camp but with a winter feel.

Let us know and we will Succeed.

Communication, it's where it starts - It's where it ends. Nothing happens if no one knows.  We need to communicate the Plan, the Execution, and the Outcome. We need to keep our Membership informed. This Membership includes our Scouts, our Parents, our Unit Leaders, and our Council/District Leadership. This Membership encompasses all genders and a wide range of ages from our youngest Tiger Cubs to our most Senior Scouters. It's a lot of people from different backgrounds and with different abilities. They come from many different media backgrounds, from the world of print to the "E World".

How do we reach them all? It's a huge task to reach every individual Scout, individual Leader and Parent. We also need to include and involve every Unit, our District Committees, and our District Commissioner Staffs. If we are all informed, we are all involved. We are all instrumental in making the best Scouting Program. We are all then assured to receive what we want and deserve in our Scouting Adventure - it will be success for everyone.

We need to think in and out of the box, use every communication venue available to us. We need to use ingenuity, creativity, and be motivated in our approach to communications. There are so many options to choose from - maybe we need to use them all to succeed in our communication efforts.

Let's see what is in our communication arsenal for our use:

Verbal - Face to face communications has been used and been successful for years. We need to continue this success and continue our communication to and within our Units, District Committees, within and through our District Commissioner Staffs, and at our Roundtable Meetings.

Electronic - Mass communications made easy. E-mail the information directly to our Scouts, their Parents, and our Leadership and/or with Yahoo Groups throughout the Council, Districts, and Units. Reach our whole Membership with the push of a button. Websites or E-Newsletters not only get the information conveyed to all but can tell of the successes and even show the adventure with pictures. Looking for speed or immediate notifications let's get the information out through texts or twitter, it's the now communication media.

Reaching lots of people with lots of info using lots of communication venues - that's what we need to do to make the best Scouting Program and cause success for every Scout and Adult alike. Communication is an important and necessary part of the Scouting Mission. We cannot leave anyone out. Everyone deserves to know about and be part of the Scouting Adventure. Lets enable them to be "Prepared. For Life".

It is our Scouting Program and it's time to make our voices heard. Scouting has celebrated its first hundred years of promoting and living the Scouting Mission and now we are challenged to create its success for the future - for its second hundred years. 

It doesn't have to be the way it use to be, the Scouting Mission is fluid and change is continually needed to keep it current for us the Scouts and the leaders. Our voices and our leadership are needed to guide and excel in Scouting's future exceeding in ways never contemplated in Scouting's past adventures. We know what's now - we as the Scouts, the parents, and the leaders know what we want - we are charged with creating Scouting's future. 

This leadership and success in our challenge must start with us at the Unit level, District level, and Council level working as one team. The Voice of the Scout program is our venue to: to be heard - make it happen - to cause change and advancement. 

In September you will receive more information concerning the Voice of the Scout via e-mail and at your District Roundtable Meetings. Please take the time to take the survey you receive. It's our responsibility to make the best Scouting program possible. We can make the difference - we must make the difference - it's our future.  

Cub Halloween at Camp La-No-Che

Mark your family's calendar for Cub Halloween 2012 at Camp La-No-Che.  Your Cub Scout and family will be able to participate in the famous "La-No-Che Haunted House", the "Haunted Trails", pumpkin decorating and trick or treating plus activities such as archery, bb guns, games, campfire, camping plus much more!  Cub Halloween 2012 at Camp La-No-Che is available the following weekends (click on the appropriate week to register):

• October 5-7, 2012
• October 12-14, 2012
• October 19-21, 2012
• October 26-28, 2012