Bill's Blog |
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| 9/14/2009 - Bill's Blog-Increasing Awareness and Alumni Outreach | |
Its fall and it’s my favorite time of year……colorful leaves, football, cool weather (although we’ve had it all year), and fall recruiting. It’s early in the recruiting season but we have had success. For example, Pack 23 in Waterville recruited 31 new Scouts in 1 night last week and had inquiries from 5 additional families. Last fall, the unit recruited 8 new Scouts. That’s a big improvement and 31 more young men getting the best youth program available! Special thanks to Bruce Matteson, Ray Eschenbach, and the leadership of Pack 23! I look forward to more success stories………
Fall Advertising
I am proud to announce that the Revolutionary Trails Council will have several different “Words to Live By” branded television ads on the following Time Warner Cable stations:
· Animal Planet - Mondays through Fridays, 3pm to 10pm
· TLC during Jon and Kate plus 8- Mondays, 9pm to 10pm
· Fox News during Fox and Friends Mondays through Sundays, 6am to 10am
· Nickelodeon during various shows on Mondays through Fridays, 3pm to 8pm and Saturdays and Sundays from10am to 7pm
We are also going to appear on WUTR, WFXV, and WPNY at various times during the fall. Here’s a sampling the shows for these stations: ABC morning News, Entertainment Tonight, Dancing With the Stars, and Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader. We even have a couple of spots that will air during Sunday NFL games and a few Yankees games!
In addition, to the TV spots, we will have a banner on www.cnyhomepage.com directing visitors to our websites! The ads will direct people to www.BEASCOUT.org and www.Scoutingcny.org. If you would like to see samples of what they will look like, please follow this link: http://www.scouting.org/WordstoLiveBy/PSAs/Television.aspx. Keep in mind, the PSAs at this link are not branded with our website. The ones running on local media will include our website.
Similar ads just started in the Philadelphia market and the response was great……hundreds of inquiries in the first few days alone! I hope these ads will help during the fall recruiting and popcorn season.
The Scouting Brand
One of the most recognized brands and the second most valuable non-profit brand in the United States. That’s the Boy Scouts of America…..a powerful brand if used properly. You may have noticed that we are trying to promote the brand through subtle changes in our strategy. For example, we have replaced the Revolutionary Trails Council logo (think mountains and birds) with the standard BSA logo (think fleur-de-lis and eagle) and have started using the name Boy Scouts of America, Revolutionary Trails Council. These are better descriptors for individuals outside the Scouting family…..those that we want to recruit.
I would ask that each of you help in protecting and promoting the brand of the Boy Scouts of America by reviewing our brand identity guide at http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/02-0231.pdf and incorporating its information into your publications, unit websites, activity patch designs, etc.
In the near futureour new VP of Marketing, Mary MacEnroe, will make presentations at our district roundtables. We will discuss branding and have sample press releases to help you promote your unit, your activities, and your district.
Scouting News Poll
We need your feedback. One of the ideas that we would like to consider is moving to an electronic newsletter to replace ScoutingNEWSand reallocating the $10,000++ per year that we spend to produce ScoutingNEWS to publish two “community reports”. These reports will be inserted into 200,000 local newspapersand help us reach a broad audience. The electronic newsletter would be published on our web, emailed to our mass email list, and possibly mailed to those without internet access.
What you do think? Drop me an email at william.garrett@scouting.org with “Scouting NewsFeedback” in the subject line. I will pass all information along to our council leadership team and marketing committee for consideration.
Eagle Gathering
On October 22, 2009 at 6:30pm, Distinguished Eagle Scout and past council president Nick Ide will host our first annual Gathering of Eagle Scouts. The event will take place at the Yahnundasis Golf Club on Seneca Turnpike and is open to all who have attained the Rank of Eagle Scout. Our list of Eagle Scout inviteeshas over 1,800 individuals but we know that’s not every Eagle Scout in our territory. We need your help, if you know of an Eagle Scout that would like to attend, please direct him to www.scoutingcny.org/eagles.cfm.
I’m truly excited about this event and think it’s the first step in reconnecting and reengaging our alumni for unit, district, and council positions. Look for more events and outreach activities in the coming months! If you know of any Scout alumni, regardless of rank, please direct them to www.BSAalumni.org.
Children’s Museum
If you haven’t looked at our website lately, I would encourage you to do so. New information is being added on a regular basis. One of the newest activities is from the Children’s Museum. For more information, please visit this link: http://www.scoutingcny.org/Upcoming_Activities.cfm.
University of Scouting
The course catalogue for University of Scouting will be posted on our website later this week. For now, please hold October 17 at MVCC-Utica Campus on your calendar. Please pass this information along to your new leaders as many required training courses will be available!
Yours in Scouting,
Bill Garrett
Scout Executive & CEO |
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