Dear Fellow Scouter,

As school begins this fall, the School Night to Join Scouting campaign will be in full swing with the intent to give every eligible boy the opportunity to join a Scouting Program. The Sam Houston Area Council is planning to recruit 13,500 new Scouts. Now is the time for every pack to start planning. Some exciting new resources are available to assist your pack in your fall recruitment efforts.

• This year we will have a coordinated design and theme for the first and second flyer, posters, principal mugs, outdoor billboards, and TV and radio PSAs. There will be more prominent spots for our outdoor billboards and reminder flyers to serve as more of an “invitation” to join scouting. The billboards will be going up along I-45, Hwy 290 and Hwy 59.
   
• Telemundo and Coleman (the outdoor company) have partnered to play several hundred of our Spanish PSAs.
   
• Almost 28,000 “Join Cub Scouts Now” yard signs will be available to every Cub Scout family. These will help spread the word that it is time to join Scouting and we are requesting you to put them in your front yard before your rally dates.
   
• Available also will be 2,500 yard signs designed to be placed in the chartered organization yards. These yard signs have a white space at the bottom for personalized signature with specific date and time information.
   
• Every new Cub Scout will receive a free Scouting t-shirt on the night that he joins. The t-shirt will serve as a great incentive for joining as well as serve as his uniform until he gets his official uniform.
   
• Leaders will receive a voucher for a free Bobcat badge for each new Cub Scout. The vouchers are to be redeemed in one of the Council Scout Shops.
   
• Each district has been hosting 2 or more School Night Rally Training sessions for volunteer leaders since early August.
   
• Each district will begin hosting School Night Rallies beginning August 28^th thru September 14^th. A 2nd rally begins September 25^th thru October 12^th.
   
• All newly registered Scouts and their families are invited to attend the Annual Family Fishing Jamboree at either one of the Sam Houston Area Council’s premiere, nationally accredited Cub Scout Camping Facilities, Cub World at Camp Strake and McNair Cub Adventure.  

Finally, every new Cub Scout family will receive a “Welcome Edition” Scouting newsletter.  The piece is designed to welcome the family to Cub Scouting and introduce them to the premier youth development program available. The newsletter will be full of information about upcoming events, training, and advancement along with many other topics.

We hope that this exciting information will help you as you prepare for this year’s School Night to Join Scouting.

Sincerely,

Judge Edith Jones

Council Membership Chairman

Member, Board of Directors,

Sam Houston Area Council