User:Dutchboy777

Scout Expo
Scout Expo was created in Black Mountain District of the San Diego-Imperial Council in California, Boy Scouts of America to help second year Webelos Scouts find the right troop (for them) to join. One of the requirements for the Arrow of Light award (the highest award in Cub Scouting) is to visit different Boy Scout troops to help the Webelos Scout decide which troop he would like to join. That can be a time consumeing process and generally the Webelos Scout will only visit one or two troops. At Scout Expo, he can visit with as many as 10 troops. This does not satisfy the requirment for the Arrow of Light (AoL) award, but it gives him a real good idea which troop to visit on their troop meeting nights. The problem was, how does the boy visit enough troops to really make an informed decision. All the troops are different. Some are large, some are small. Some are very high adventure, some are specialized and some car camp. Sometimes it's just a different personality. Many boys do not stay in Scouting, not because they don't like Scouting, but because they joined the wrong troop for them. There is the problem, so many troops and so little time to really experience them. Scout Expo was created to help alleviate that problem.

The event is a one day affair where many of the district's troops set up displays and activities to recruit new boys and their parents. We have had water bottle launches, static camp displays, compass courses, rope bridges, backpacking displays, team building exercises, just to name a few. All of the Webelos are invited (as well as the general public) to come and see what our troops do best.

The expo has always been held at the end of September. It is after summer vacation, so all the families are home, and it is before the holiday rush. There are many attractions for the time of both the boy & his parents; school, sports, band, fund raising events and family activities.

On a personal note, I have had many parents tell me afterwards, that their son was done with Scouting. They were bored with Scouting, they thought Boy Scouting was just an extention of Cub Scouting. They had no idea what Boy Scouting had to offer. But as they were walking away from the expo these once bored boys had chosen the troop that they wanted to join. And that's a good thing.