I've been looking for some sort of fun memento for the troop. Something inexpensive that could be given away and might be held onto rather than tossed. I finally settled on creating a custom wooden nickel for the troop.

My plan is to use these to promote the troop in a fun way:

• We hold a Scout-o-rama each fall for local Webelos to meet the scouts and now each visitor will get a wooden nickel to remind them of which troop they visited.
• When we go geocaching, we can leave a few nickels in the cache.
• When we pay for campsites, we'll leave one.
• And who knows what else...

I've been trying to get scouts to have scoutmaster conferences at least every 6 months with little success. I'm not going to announce anything, but am just going to start giving a nickel at each conference. The word will spread that to get a nickel, you need to have a conference.

If the nickels become popular, and if the scouts want to do it, we can have a troop trading post where nickels can be exchanged for 'stuff'. With the risk of diluting the 'value' of the nickels, one could be received at every campout, service project, or troop activity. One could be 'earned' by rank advancement, leadership role, or special Good Turn. Scouts that participate the most have the most to trade. It would be important to keep it light and fun so the getting of nickels doesn't become the reason for participation.

You can design your own nickel, like I did, at Wooden-Nickel.com - scroll to the very bottom of the page to view a cool video about making the nickels. They are printed in San Antonio, TX.

If you've used other devices to successfully promote your troop or motivate scouts, I'd love to hear about them.

Scout On

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