The existing youth members of your crew are your best ways of attracting new members. Have your Scouts invite friends to a crew open house, hike, or other activity.
Create a Facebook event on your crew’s Facebook account and “boost” the event for two weeks before the date of your joining event. Set a radius of a few miles around the address of the event’s location so that whenever a Facebook user enters that distance around the location, your event will pop up in their Facebook timeline. Don’t spend more than $1 a day in budget (you can spend more if you wish, but it’s not necessary). See this document from BSA’s marketing team for more on how to do this.
Do your Scouts have Instagram accounts? Have them post a fun photo from a recent camp or event and tag friends, inviting them to attend your open house or similar event.
Here is a recording of a webinar by Sea Scouting volunteers about best practices for membership recruiting. The ideas can work just as effectively for Venturing Crews.
