Rotas and pledges

Many parents would like to help out with scouting but often feel that they cannot make a regular commitment and are therefore not that useful to you. However, any amount of help, no matter how small, is useful to a section.

Top tips

• When organising a rota or asking parents to pledge a certain amount of time to scouting, have a good think about the tasks that need to be done, and particularly about those that can be done by a parent. Try not to get swept up in getting parents to agree, only to find that when they arrive on the evening you have nothing for them to do. They will only feel as though help is not really needed and that you are simply wasting their time.
• Try not to make the parent rota a chore. Let parents know that when they agree to take part in a rota, they will be able to have a taste of what Scouting is really about. Get them involved in activities and games and make them feel as though they are contributing to the success of a meeting.
• Find out if the parents who are helping have any particular skills or interests. Try to incorporate these into the section meeting. If parents feel that they can contribute to young people gaining an award, you may find that they become more motivated to find out other ways in which they can help.
• Don’t be afraid to ask parents or other relatives for help. Research shows that most people will say ‘yes’ if asked to help with a specific task. By giving parents the opportunity to have taste of what volunteering for the scouts is like, you may find yourself with some potential leaders for the future.
• Expand the rota to a family rota, where it doesn’t matter who helps out on that particular week, as long as someone is there. For example, it could be an aunt, uncle, grandparent, brother, sister or neighbour. This takes the pressure of one person and adds diversity in age range, experience and skills.

Case studies

42nd Rossendale

The 42nd Rossendale operates a ‘six weeks with no commitment’ scheme. By asking parents or other supporters to help out for six weeks, David Smith has found that people are less frightened of getting stuck in a role they don’t really want to do. So far they have attracted three new leaders, two of which have stayed on after the six weeks.

View parent rota responsibilities (Word document)

View sample parent rota letter (Word document)