Recruitment booklet v2

A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO HELP YOU
RECRUIT MORE LEADERS FOR YOUR SECTION

We could all do with one or two more adults to help with our
Group or section; And you probably have a number of parents or
other adults connected to your Group who may like to become
more involved? This guide can help turn these adults into active
volunteers!
It’s all about getting people involved in running activities at your
section meeting and giving them a taste of what it is like to be
part of your leadership team.
Decide exactly what it is you are looking for. It’s
very easy to say we need more leaders, but do you
actually need more help and support? Could a
parent dealing with your newsletter and or
collection of subs make your life easier? Write a list
and prioritise them.
Invite people to an evening where they can help
your members achieve a badge, or a new skill. Make
sure it is a fun activity where they get stuck in.
Don’t tell them at this stage it is a recruitment event.
Ensure you ask them to RSVP and let you know if
any extra children are coming with them.

Make sure you have enough additional support for the
evening to enable one person to talk to your helpers. A
good idea is to have 6 people—ask the other sections
and explorers to help out. Run 4 bases—1 person per
base and 1 person to move the groups round the bases at
the appropriate time. Split the children and your helpers
into 4 groups. When they get to base 4, helpers speak to
the leader and children continue with their activity.
Tell the parents exactly how they can help and what you
need. Ask them to fill in a short questionnaire about how
they can help you. Inform them what the next steps are—
either that you will call them, or see them the following
week about their CRB. Try not to go in to lots of details at
this stage.
Follow up any good leads
you have got from the
evening. Making sure you
are welcoming and
enthusiastic.

To complete this badge, Beavers need to know
about a creative activity, Take part in an activity
and talk about the activity.
Suggestions include, making a mobile,
origami shapes, a model out of clay
or plasticine, a painting or drawing
or doing conjuring tricks
For this badge Beavers have to have
an understanding of the Green Cross
Code, Water Safety Code, be able to
tell you what to do when approached
by a stranger and identify possible
dangers in the house.
Why not invite a Community Police
officer, Fireman and somebody from a
local water activities centre to provide
a 10 activity?

Have a look at your programme—is there
anything planned in that you could adapt? What
events would the parents and friends of the
Beavers enjoy?
To complete this badge Beavers must learn about
foods which are good for you, learn the value of
keeping fit, plan a healthy meal, learn about
personal hygiene and talk to the colony about
Health and Fitness.
Suggestions include, Play a guessing game using
packets from foods—which ones
are the healthiest? Take part in
some physical activities—who
can skip the longest parent or
child? Print out a mixture of
nice and nasty foods. Take it in
turns to pick a card from the
pile. Try to be the first to make
a nice meal. What about a
snakes and ladders type game
using good and bad hygiene to
get to the end of the board.

To complete this badge Cubs must complete
three activities. Suggestions include make a
greetings card, Make a model out of clay, use
potatoes to make prints, draw an imaginary
person—why not do the game where you
draw an part of the body then pass to the next
person. More ideas are on the scout website.
Make some puppets—
keep them basic due to
time. Get the Cubs to act
out a play. Or do a
Britain’s got talent type
evening—Children can
perform on their own or
with their family. If they
don't want to perform get
them to introduce the acts.

For the first stage of this badge, Cubs should
understand and recognise dangers in the
house and outside. Know what to do in an
emergency. Know how to open an airway. Be
able to treat minor cuts, scratches and grazes.
If you’re able to get someone with first aid
knowledge you could move on to stage 2
For this activity discuss cooking methods and
health and safety throughout the evening.
Make a main course, and pudding.
How about getting some
pizza bases and toppings,
followed by fruit salad.
Or if you have a kitchen
available pancakes to eat
straight away.
Using ready made pastry
roll out and make some
Jam tarts.

A different approach may be appropriate for
Scouts and Explorers. Most won’t want their
parents or relatives helping on a regular basis.
However they do have a wealth of knowledge
which we need to tap in to.
For this age range why not get them involved in
the recruitment.
Start with a name generation
evening. Get the Scouts and
Explorers to write down in a
grid what they would like in a
new leader.
Ask them names of people
they could ask—people who
they have met through
school, clubs, friends or
relatives that they would be
prepared to approach. See
which person meets the
specification the best and ask

Other ideas include, taking the young people
down to a local leisure centre, train station or
similar place at the time of their normal meeting
and talk to those adults who are around at the
time.
If you have any large local businesses would
they accommodate a few Scouts/Explorers being
in their staff room at lunch time one day during
the school holidays to talk to the adults about
volunteering?
Local Universities and
colleges provide an
excellent pool of people
for leaders. Why not ask
if you can have a stand
in the foyer.
Ask them how they
would recruit new
people and where they
would look.

This may sound self explanatory. But make good use of your
new volunteers!
Unless you asked the adults to volunteer to make squash, they
probably thought they were coming down to help with
activities. So let them run a base, or get them to be part of the
activity. Not just be there to clear up and make squash!