Racing for the Checkered Flag

By Kathy Vilim DaGroomes
Photographs by Daniel Giles

The Greater Alabama Council's 'Race to Scouting' puts a 60-day deadline on its spring recruitment drive for new units and commissioners.

The luxury suite overlooking the Talladega Superspeedway was jam-packed with a standing-room-only crowd of 110 spectators—Scouting youth, plus volunteers and professional Scouters.



(Front to back) Lamar Swain, Camilo Diaz, Dorian Del Toro, Mason Simpson, and Frankie Urueta compete for a prize as they race remote-control cars in the UAW-GM display tent at Talladega Superspeedway.

They were celebrating a victory, but not for one of the famous Nascar drivers who raced on the track below. The celebration marked the conclusion of the Greater Alabama Council’s 60-day spring recruiting campaign, Race to Scouting.

Camilo Diaz,11, a brand new Webelos Scout, was thrilled to be in the crowd.

In Cub Scouting, “you get to do a lot of things you don’t do in your normal life,” Camilo said, while peering through the suite’s windows at the facility that can seat more than 143,000 fans.

Special guest Sam Thompson, national director of Cub Scouting, was introduced and delivered some fitting news: Nascar driver Jeff Gordon, who serves as honorary spokesman for the national Race to Cub Scouting campaign, had just extended his commitment through 2008.

The announcement brought wild cheers and applause from the crowd and demonstrated why auto racing is the No. 1 spectator sport in Alabama.

And then came the moment everyone was anticipating. Phil Hammonds, the council’s vice president of membership, stepped to the podium. Hammonds was about to reveal the total number of new units and commissioners gained in the council’s Race to Scouting.

But let’s not race ahead of ourselves.

Districts set their goals

The 60-day countdown officially began in February at the Tom Williams Cadillac dealership in the Birmingham, Ala., suburb of Irondale. Williams, a council board member and chairman of Race to Scouting, turned his showroom into a banquet hall for a select group of 135 people. The dinner guests included volunteers from each of the council’s 14 districts and representatives from prospective chartered organizations. Following a meal of grilled steak with all the trimmings, the group got down to business.

The race to Scouting was on.

Representatives from each district committed to starting a specific number of new units and recruiting new unit-serving commissioners within 60 days.

“Spring recruiting is an idea whose time has come,” said Dr. Richard Russell, the council’s chairman of the board. “I think it’s a major area of emphasis for Scouting.”

“We wanted to develop a campaign that would be exciting for our adult volunteers as well as for our Scouts,” said council commissioner Doug Adair.

Keeping Scouting local

Districts began recruiting their Race to Scouting volunteers in December 2006 and then trained them. Each district conducted a market analysis to pinpoint Scouting’s underserved areas and wrote action plans to target new unit opportunities in those areas.
Pack 336 Cubmaster Melvin Walker teaches new Wolf Cub Scout James Ray how to tie a square knot.

Several Scouters volunteered to become unit-serving commissioners. One volunteer was six-year Scouter Danielle Weathers, Cubmaster of Pack 4206, in Heflin, Ala.

“I want to make sure that Scouting continues on, that the boys have a positive program to look forward to,” said Weathers. “The unit commissioners are a support group for all the packs and troops.”

Other Scouters helped form new units. Former Webelos den leader Richard Powell of Troop 492, Leeds, Ala., started a Boy Scout troop because there wasn’t one in that town east of Birmingham.

Powell explained why it was important to have a locally based troop for his Webelos Scouts who were ready to become Boy Scouts.

“There were lots of boys who wanted to be a Boy Scout,” said Powell, “but they didn’t want to go to another town to join a troop.”

Volunteers get in the race

The Race to Scouting also recruited new adult volunteers. Cubmaster Laverne Burts of Pack 487, Birmingham, hoped Scouting would provide her Cub Scouts with lessons in good character, like taking care of one another and being respectful.
A group of young Nascar fans admire Jeff Gordon's No. 24 display car. Gordon is the BSA's national "Race to Cub Scouting" spokesman.

District volunteers also helped leaders of struggling units shore up their program by recruiting new boys and adults.

Cubmaster Melvin Walker, a 25-year Scouter in Anniston, Ala., worried that his Pack 336 might fold due to a lack of attendance. The spring recruiting effort enrolled 50 new Cub Scouts in the pack. Later, many of the new recruits attended a district day camp in early summer. By the end of 2007, Pack 336’s roster had grown to 91 boys.

The Race to Scouting wasn’t just for adults. Youth in the Greater Alabama Council got in on the fun, too. First-year Webelos Scout Mason Simpson of Pack 153 in Killen, Ala., was shocked when he found out what the recruitment campaign meant for him.

“When my daddy told me we were going to Talladega, I freaked out,” recalled Mason. The 10-year-old fourth grader is possibly Jeff Gordon’s No. 1 fan in Alabama.

Mason attended Scout Day at the raceway and witnessed Gordon’s first-place finish in the Aaron’s 499 Nextel Cup race. It was Gordon’s fourth trip to victory lane in the event and moved him into sixth place on the Nascar circuit’s all-time winner’s list.

Meanwhile, Mason’s dad, Mark, was invited to the council’s victory celebration two days before Gordon’s victory at the track. The Westmoreland District commissioner was eager to find out how his district had fared in the drive for new units and commissioners.

And that brings us back to Phil Hammonds’ announcement in the Talladega luxury suite: In the span of 60 days, the council started 47 new units and recruited 67 unit commissioners.

Council commissioner Doug Adair was obviously pleased with the results.

“The Race to Scouting campaign has exceeded our expectations,” he said. Perhaps more important, he added, was that the council planned to keep working and to build upon the program’s success.

Kathy Vilim DaGroomes is associate editor of Scouting magazine.

Mountaintop Camp-In Spurs Retention and Growth

Last May, Webelos Scouts had a mountaintop view of a spectacular storm-filled sky but managed to stay safe and dry during the Greater Alabama Council’s New Scout/Webelos Scout Camp-In.

The event, which focused on Webelos-to-Scout transitions and Boy Scout retention, took place in the grand ballroom at The Club overlooking Birmingham. The ballroom was selected because of its commanding view of the city and its comfortable indoor facilities.

Program activities for the 67 Webelos Scouts and new Boy Scouts included fingerprinting, basketry, first aid, camping skills, and art. They then watched a couple of movies before they went to sleep. The next morning’s highlight event occurred as 18 Webelos Scouts participated in a crossover ceremony to become Boy Scouts.

Alfonte Bailey, 9, was one of the boys who participated. He was thrilled to reach the next Scouting level and praised the camp-in program.

“I’m excited about tonight’s games and activities, and I’m pumped about my future as a Boy Scout,” he said.

Two new Webelos dens also participated in the camp-in. Webelos Scout Dorian Del Toro, 9, a fourth grader, said: “I’m very excited about meeting other Scouts. I’m really looking forward to the hiking trips,” too.

Dorian’s father, Mercedes Del Toro, attended the camp-in as the new Cubmaster of Pack 489 in Birmingham. Del Toro said he participated in Cub Scouting because of the program’s positive impact on boys.

“As Cub Scouts, the children learn to spend their time doing good and not looking for trouble,” Del Toro said.

—Stephanie Mallory

Spring Rally and Derby Races Boost Recruiting In Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Almost two years ago, the Hawkeye Area Council’s Three Rivers District held its first Cub Scout rally and pinewood derby at Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Forty boys joined Cub Scouting, with many more signing up later through word-of-mouth recruiting. Event organizers knew immediately they had a winning combination.

In 2007, another rally attracted more than 300 mall shoppers, who put their buying sprees on hold to watch the pinewood derby races. The spring recruiting event, sponsored by Iowa-based Liberty Bank, added nearly 75 new Cub Scouts, thanks largely to the Lindale Mall exhibition.

“We strongly feel in our district that Cub Scouting is ‘where it’s at,’”said district committee chairman Dave Yansky. “The more fun we make Cub Scouting for the boys,” he said, “the more likely they are to continue into Boy Scouting.

“Program drives membership, and that is the main reason we utilize the district pinewood derby to market Scouting to the greater Cedar Rapids-Marion, Iowa, community,” said Yansky.

If boys and parents see Cub Scouts having fun inside a highly visible place like Lindale Mall, Yansky added, they will seriously consider joining Cub Scouting.

Each pack in the district manned a display table with unit information and a schedule of pack activities. There were also fun games like beanbag toss and marble races for the steady stream of prospective Cub Scouts.

The biggest key to successful spring recruiting, said Yansky, is to make sure packs follow up with a schedule of summertime program activities that become positive experiences for the new Cub Scouts.

—K.V.D.

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