The follow-up
It’s the end of the event; it’s all gone well and everyone is tired, but happy… so what happens next?
Saying thank you
Don’t forget to say thank you to everyone who helped out. The more personal the thank you, the more meaningful it will be. Why not ask the young people to make a card or gift or order thank you cards from the Scout Information Centre?
When saying thank you, ask people whether they had a good time and what it was they particularly enjoyed.
If anyone offers further help, make sure you are enthusiastic and have an details to give them.
Keep in touch
After the event, stay in touch with those who got involved. Let them know what is happening in the Group or section.
Build on that sense of belonging created during the camp. You may have a newsletter or email communication they could be included in, or social events they can be invited to.
If you have a regular communication for parents anyway, add a personalised note for those who have helped out, highlighting anything they would be particularly interested in.
If you hold social events for your leadership team, consider inviting along those parents who were part of the leadership team at your event.
Invite them back
You may be lucky and get some parents who offer to volunteer straight away at the end of camp. However, it is more likely people will want to go away and think about it.
Inviting them back again shows you are serious about wanting them to volunteer and can be quite flattering.
Ways of doing this include:
- An invite to another weekend event
- Inviting all parents who helped back for a specific evening
- Asking people to help with something specific, based on the interests you discovered on your event
- Giving someone a chance to have a taster of being a regular volunteer (helping out every other week, for example)
- Asking them to fulfil a role.
Positive and flexible
There are far more ways of being helpful in Scouting than just becoming a uniformed section leader. It is unlikely you will get people making the leap from no involvement to full involvement. Most people will start off on a rota and gradually take on more commitment if they are interested.
