Stats we can use

Good day,
Anyone know where I can find stats on when people leave Scouting? For instance (as a Beaver leader), I want to know how many leave at the transition from Beavers to Cubs vs. the transition from brown to blue tail. Can we get stats like this?

Thanks,
Tom

I have culled the following statistics from our group: http://www.1stmerrickville.ca/history/e ... rchive.htm


Allan.

Thanks for those stats. Would you explain the first graph though? I am not sure what B-M, B-F... stand for.

The reason i ask for these stats is from my experience this year. As a Beaver leader, I find there is a large gap between the 5 and 7 yr olds. This year, we are losing two of our white tails even though we did a lot of linking. If I can find out where we are losing people, I can try to find ways to improve my program to ensure that no longer happens.

To recap, I am looking for stats on where people quit Scouting. Do most leave at the end of their Blue Tail year or their White Tail year or...

Tom

Would you explain the first graph though? I am not sure what B-M, B-F... stand for.

The first letter is the section, e.g. B=Beavers, and the second letter is the gender of the kid, e.g. M=Male. So the first graph is showing the enrollment in our group, split by section, and split by gender in each section.

I didn't transcribe birth dates or the kids ages, so I don't have the data at my finger tips to do retention calculations within a section going back in history. I did however do those calculations for the last few years as part of my registration tracking as the group chair. I have figures for retention within a section versus retention to the next section, but I haven't got blue tail vs brown tail for example.

  Code:

2002 -> 2003
Section   Same   Next
Colony     45%    56%
Pack       50%    75%
Troop       8%

2003 -> 2004
Section   Same   Next
Colony     63%    42%
Pack       44%    50%
Troop      18%

2004 -> 2005
Section   Same   Next
Colony     47%    71%
Pack       67%    67%
Troop      25%

2005 -> 2006
Section   Same   Next
Colony     63%    60%
Pack       63%   100%
Troop      50%

2006 -> 2007
Section   Same   Next
Colony     71%   100%
Pack       60%    50%
Troop      64%    80%

2007 -> 2008
Section   Same   Next
Colony     46%    71%
Pack       80%    50%
Troop      89%   100%
Venturers  44%

2008 -> 2009
Section   Same   Next
Colony     75%    75%
Pack       48%    86%
Troop      73%    67%
Venturers  64%


Retention within the same section is pretty simple, it comes down to the program. In Beavers, if you are losing kids, you are probably doing too many crafts and not enough rough and tumble outdoor activities. That is what I found when I personally surveyed our Beaver parents whose kids didn't return to Beavers. Also look at sending Beavers up to Cubs a year early if you have a strong Cub program; we have done that a number of times. Once we got good linking going between Beavers and Cubs the retention across that transition was good. Our linking was generally limited to inviting the white tail Beaver to the Cub's two spring camps; but we used to run amazing Cub camps, so the kids were hooked.


Allan.

Hi Allan,

Fortunately, our retention this year (so far) is great. Here are our numbers:
1 (perhaps 2) lost due to parent traveling
1 lost due to school change and program cost (offer was made to subsidize)
2 lost due to move to Alberta (although they are registering there so I count them as a win)
1 lost due to "other interests"

So, our retention is ~75%. However, two of the ones we are losing are white tails (Other interests and a traveling parents). Seeing our program this year (and it's an active, outdoors one with few crafts. Don't trust me with glue!) and how the Beavers reacted to it, it was tough to keep our program suited to all three tail levels. I would like to know if this is a "me" problem or a problem program wide. Hence the request for stats. If it's me, I will change.

IMHO, 70-75% retention is the best you can get. All it takes is a few of the items you listed, none of which are under your control, to end up there. So I would say you are doing excellent!

Thanks Allan, much appreciated. BTW, I like the site. Excellent data there!

Back to the original question though. Anyone know where we can get this kind of data from SC? Should I be contacting my field exec or can someone here provide it?

Thanks,
Tom