One for All blog “…throughout the session…”
Monday 1st August 2016Amy Wilson, Officer at 53rd Manchester Company, sets out the approaches of sections at the 53rd when it comes to gearing up for the new session.
“Recruitment is something that we at the 53rd try to focus on and assess throughout the session. It is an area which as a Company you can very easily become complacent about.
Most recently we have worked at coming together within the local Church / Community centre, we have assisted in organising a coffee morning and summer fair. This is something we did do in the past however on a more frequent basis. It stopped a number of years ago due to lack of interest and support. Rather than the traditional coffee morning following church which would primarily be attended by Church members, we have hosted “bacon butty mornings” this taking place on a Saturday often when other organisations are meeting at the Community Centre / Church. Not only has this assisted with fund raising but we have recruited a good number of members, be it siblings from other organisations that meet within the Church or members of the Community who previously have been a little apprehensive in respect of the unknown. We have hosted three events like this during the session, which although that is a lot less frequently than previously, the attendance and support has been much greater.
We also now offer taster sessions where we ask members to “bring a friend” advertising as a taster session rather than having to come immediately and join allows the young person to be a little more open minded, we offer these sessions free. We have also taken advantage of the free publicity material available from HQ and handed the same out when doing our annual bag pack at the local community borrowing the Battalion’s banners also for such events.
A big positive for our company over the last 18 months has been twitter (@53RDBB) each week as a company we tweet pictures of the things that we have been up to on a Company night. There are some great tips on the BB website in respect of promoting your Company on twitter. It is a great way to enable parents and the Community to have a clearer understanding as to what we offer”.
You can find out more about the 53rd by following them on twitter @53rdBB
Have you tried some of these approaches – what’s worked well? Share your experiences by emailing oneforall@boys-brigade.org.uk
