Maximizing the Recruiting Table

[Pylon]

When a CAP member is at a recruiting table and interacting one-on-one with potential members, what methods and procedures do you use to maximize the possibility of getting the recruit?

How many of you collect names and contact info from those that stop to find out about CAP, and if so - how do you do it?  A stack of response cards?  A mailing list sign-up sheet or clipboard?   And how does this compare to how Armed Forces recruiters secure contact info from potential recruits who stop by their tables?

How do you follow up with interested people?  Do you call or do you mail them a packet of information?

Do any of you use branded "give-aways" like pens, key chains, rulers, balsawood airplane kits, etc?  Or do you use things other than a typical display board and literature at your table?  A video on a monitor to draw people in, or a flight sim setup to attract people to your table?

I'm curious to know.   

[mikeylikey]

I secure DDR materials from Wing.  Planes, beer cozies, pens, keychains etc.  I usually use the response cards, and a clipboard, I let them fill out the response card, then rightdown info from the card on the clipboard if they are within 0 to 30 miles of my SQD.  I then make a cold call about a week later.

In the Armed Forces, the recruiters use pressure, manipulation and fast talk to get the interest of a prospective recruit.  They pressure them into giving up personal info like phone numbers and emails in hopes of "winning" a prize most of the time.  OR addresses on where to send the cool videos, or other neat toys.  Finally all they really are looking for is a name and high school.  They can search for the info through the state, or just use the lists generated by school districts for cold calling prospects. 

CAP recruiting and Military recruiting is hugely different.

I like to play with a few toys a the recruiting table to get the interest of people walking by, and then hand them one, and start a speech on what CAP is, and what they can do.  Usually I get 3/4 of the people to stop and listen, the other 1/4 just want the toys and crap to add to their bottomless bags of freebies they are picking up that day.

[addo1]

  I have not done too many booths, but the ones I have set up and participated in I did different things.   

We usually have items on stock like pens and such that we give away.  Sometimes, we set it up where someone can "earn" an item by doing push-ups or curl-ups.  For example, maybe a squadron coffee mug.  For my squadron, I have put together an powerpoint/video that plays on an monitor in the booth.  This tends to bring people over.
  When someone starts lurking or "slowly walking" by the booth, I go over and greet them.  Usually, the ask about the program and I tell them and invite them into the booth to give them some information.  After I get them comfortable, I ask them if they want to do curl-ups or whatever for the prizes. 
   To get them in contact, we give them a card that we have, and ask them to fill out a contact sheet if they would like more info and such...
   I guess everyone does different things and has different ideas, but that is how I do it and it works.

[DC]

Lately we have not needed to recruit, in the last two months we have had over 15 people walk through the door and join. But, in the past, we have some nice, professionally done (our DCC is a graphic artist) poster boards, and we park our comms trailer which has our SQ patch on the front, wing patch on the side, and CIVIL AIR PATROL in really big letters written all over it. Once at the table I greet them, give them a quick brief on CAP, show them the boards and take them on a tour of the trailer. Occasionally if the event is at an airport we also have our 182 parked nearby, I'll go show them that. While showing them all of this stuff I ask them questions and try to sell CAP based on the responses I get. We hand out business cards with info on meeting location and times, as well as the recruiters name, phone number and email address written on it. We ask that they bring those cards in if they go to a meeting, that allows us to properly give people credit for their recruiting award. We also usually have stacks of pamphlets and booklets they can look at and take, and maybe a laptop playing videos.

[mikeylikey]

I highly reccomend not making prospective recruits do anything physical for CAP funded toys nd pens.  (you never know if it will embarrass them because they can't do a push up or sit-up because of handicap.  It sends the wrong message IMO. 

[RiverAux]

Very important to give them something with local information and also important to get some contact information for them as well. 

[addo1]

I highly reccomend not making prospective recruits do anything physical for CAP funded toys nd pens.  (you never know if it will embarrass them because they can't do a push up or sit-up because of handicap.  It sends the wrong message IMO. 

Let me clearify.  WE DO NOT do that with the general toys and pens and that kind of stuff.  We DO do it though, for squadron mugs that we pay for ourselves out of our own pockets... Any more questions?

[JC004]

ok, here goes...We used to get tables at a community event and set up like so -

- posters and brochures - the usual display stuff (there was also some locally-generated stuff)
- stuff from DDR - pens, pencils, misc other junk
- Fatal Vision demo set up with a small remote control car, and people trying to catch it.  The glasses were borrowed from the school district
- free raffle with donated items from local businesses (pizza and such).  The point in it being free was to get people, not money, although we had a donation jar.  Nice signs advertised the raffle and brought people over.
- deployed people en masse with CAP t-shirts to hand out balsa airplanes to kids and get some brand recognition going
- collect names on little slips and send brochures (the tri-folds) by mail, with a letter
- cadidiots worked on their elevator speeches beforehand and ran the thing.  seniors pretended to supervise and ate donuts.
- since it was outdoors, we started using a tent because it looked better and more professional

The results were always decent - good awareness building, as well as good recruiting results.

[Ricochet13]

Squadron will be recruiting at a local air show on the 21st of this month.  One thing we do is have potential members complete the contact information portion of the current recruiting brochure and detach it to leave with us.  Our Recruiting Officer then enters the information on the National website. 

This allows for information to be sent from National and leaves the squadron with complete contact information. 

We then have a two page overview of squadron expectations which is then emailed to potential recruits.

The same information is then added to the squadron recruiting list for regular contacts at intervals over the next 12 - 18 months.

[kpetersen]

I've been at a few sqdns, so I'll explain each:

Sqdn 1:  recruiting booths at county fairs.  They bring the squadron flag and display it next to the table, and have the standard CAP pamplets and the one page CAP news brief.  Nothing for CAP specific, and I don't think we took down names.  Once a year, they also have an aerospace fair, and put flyers up at the local middle schools.  That's where they actually work on recruiting and take down names of people who are interested.  They have the EAA give young eagle flights, ahve ES demonstrations set up, and at their recruiting table, they borrow a recruiting display board from wing, and play the CAP recruiting video on a tv.  Downside is they often don't do a good job of calling back.

Sqdn 2:  recruiting booth at the Offutt Air Show.  They have radios, L-Per, small tv with a video of some kind playing, the wing recruiting display.  They take down the names of interested people, and call them back.  No CAP specific toys.  They get about 2 people from each airshow.

I do actually kind of like the CAP FactSheet, but the downside is it's not specific to any specific area.  It covers such a large demographic, that it doesn't describe the local area.  In Nebraska, we have a lot of small squadrons that lack resources.  I made the attached document to go on the back side of the CAP Factsheet for squadrons to use if they chose.

[Duke Dillio]

So I have several "underhanded" tricks that I use when I do booths.  The first deals with the sheet that you use to get contact information.  Tip #1:  NEVER put out an empty sheet.  Why?  Noone wants to be the first to sign it.  I think it is probably something psychological.  The trick is to have half of the sheet filled out already.  How?  Have several members who won't be there put down their information on it before the event.  Not only does it take away the "first signature syndrome" but it also makes it look like other people are interested.

Second trick:  ALWAYS have gadgets.  Bring your L-PER and a practice beacon.  If you don't have one, beg, borrow, or steal one.  Well, maybe not steal one but I think you get the point.  Kids like toys and gadgets and technology in general.  Most of your prospective recruits have probably never seen an L-PER or a beacon.  Turn it on and let them play with it, within reason of course.  This will usually draw a crowd.

Third trick:  VARIETY is very good.  Have the members working the booth in different, CORRECT uniform combos.  This will draw the uniform lovers and it will assist with those who wouldn't care to wear one.  Kids generally don't like dress-up clothes but love BDU's.  The older folks might or might not care for the uniforms but showing them variety will always score points.

I'll think of some others in a bit.  I've been up all night but these first couple of tricks usually work out pretty darn well.

[RiverAux]

I'm not a big fan of the multi-uniform approach.  You don't want to spend half of the very limited time you're likely to have with a potential recruit discussing uniform options.  You need all the time possible selling the rest of the program.  There will be plenty of time at their first meeting for them to see half a dozen uniform combos (if they're at a typical senior meeting) and to discuss it there. 

[cadet cmsgt dotson]

Can any one give me an example of the form that you use to get names and phone numbers  because my squadron is recruting  july the 10 i think at the county far  and i am going to try to do a better job the what we have been doing but i would like it if some could pm me that form very soon thaks

[DC]

It would be pretty simple to make your own, just crack open Word and make a table with spaces for name, phone number, email, and whatever other info you might want to collect, then stick that under a professional looking letter head, with say a CAP seal and a nice, non-creepy sounding title. Take you 10 minutes or less.

[cadet cmsgt dotson]

ok thanks for the info i will make that right now

[jimmydeanno]

This was one of the recruiting booth set-ups I've used (See attached).

We didn't have anything anyone could just "grab and go," they had to have some sort of interaction with us to get something.  So the tables in the U-Shape had CAP information under plexi-glas  (stops it from blowing away) that people could look at.  We also had maps of where the local units were with contact information.

The "supply table" had nice bins to hold the gimme stuff (Balsa planes, pens, carribeaners, "Lead Cards", etc)

Everyone wore SS blues, no tie.

The "tables to talk" worked well.  If we had people that were really interested in joining, we'd invite them to sit at one of the tables with us - where we'd talk about the program some more, answer questions and invite them to the open house.  We had salvaged a classroom white board and cut it up with a table saw into 4X4 squares and velcroed them to the top of the tables.  That way we could write on the table too to highlight specific things.

Our brochures had our squadrons information already on them and included a small flyer for the open house.

We had roamers who would hand out small "tickets" that said to bring the ticket to the recruiting booth for a free surprise.  (You could get a free thing without a ticket, but it gave them incentive to stop by.)  Each of the freebees had some sort of CAP propaganda attached to it.

We also had 2 aircraft, one parked on each side (left and right as shown in picture), which got some interest.