Before you hang up your spurs and lariat, won’t you check up once more on that boy that showed up at two or three meetings and looked as though he wanted to join but somehow didn’t make it.
You might be surprised at what you would find if you called on his folks—so often boys are kept out of Scouting because of misunderstandings which can be so easily cleared up when you talk to the parents. Lots of boys get that close to Scouting before they are shut out. The extra time given to this personal follow-up will be some of the best you ever spent on Scouting.
This may seem like a lot about membership, but remember, all of us who really believe in Scouting’s value to a boy, want to do our part to extend Scouting opportunity to as many boys as we can handle in our Unit.
Membership facts, by the way, are a good measuring rod of our program. When there’s fun and adventure in a Scout Unit most every boy wants to join. When there’s always something new and interesting happening, they want to stay in.
That’s what our membership figures really represent—our ability to provide the opportunity to join, plus the program that holds.
Much of this fall’s Round-Up activity has been designed to provide more of the opportunity to join, as well as a good deal of planning for the program that holds boys. Now we need to follow through on that program. That means steady attention to the regular activities, whatever they may be—the Den meetings, the Patrol meetings and weekly Troop or Senior Unit meetings, and special attention to the highlights that serve to “point up” the boy’s Scouting experience.
What are some of these highlights? In Cub Scouting the monthly Pack meetings are highlight events; each one is different and apparently more interesting than those that have gone before.
Up and coming Boy Scout Troops and Senior Units plan their highlights in a different way. They schedule at intervals through the year a number of events specially chosen to give a lift and a purpose to the week-by-week program. They use these special events as something to look forward to, something to prepare for, and afterward, of course, to look back on with happy memories.
Well, it’s time to boost ourselves off that old corral post and get going. There’s things to do around this ranch and now’s the time to be doing them!