Prospective families

This guide is for leaders who welcome new families, such as a New Member Coordinator. It covers how interested families reach you, how to follow up, and how to record when they join.

The Prospects page appears in the Manage area for leaders whose role includes the Prospects permission. It's there only if your pack uses the Prospects feature, which you can turn on or off in Unit settings and features.

How interested families find you

Families can reach you in three ways:

• The public interest form. If your pack uses its ScoutKeep website, the Join our pack page leads with this form: its main button and first step both open it, ahead of the official registration link. The family enters their name, a parent's email and phone, and each child's school grade, then confirms with a code sent to their email. Once they verify, they have a family profile in ScoutKeep and can attend eligible events before deciding to join.
• Recruiting links and QR codes. Make a separate link for each recruiting event or flyer.
• Adding them yourself. Select Add prospective family and fill in the family's details.

Make recruiting links and QR codes

1. On the Prospects page, select More, then Prospect event settings.
2. Under Recruiting links and QR codes, enter a name in Recruiting event or source, such as "School open house."
3. Select Create recruiting link.

A QR code appears for each link. Print it or put it on a flyer. Families who scan it land on your interest form.

Import a list of families

If you collected names at a sign-up table, you can import them from a spreadsheet saved as a CSV file.

1. Under Import CSV, choose your file. The page lists the columns it needs. Use one row per child.
2. Select Preview import to check each family. Families already in ScoutKeep are skipped.
3. Select Import ready families.

Follow up with a family

Open a family from the Prospects list to see their contact details and everything you need to follow up.

1. Under Follow-up, choose a Follow-up leader to own this family.
2. Write the Next action, such as "Invite to the Wolf den meeting."
3. Set Follow up on to the date and time you plan to reach out.
4. Select Save.

If your pack uses tasks, you can select Create follow-up task to turn the next action into a task. See Managing tasks.

Under Notes, write a Leader note and select Add note to record a phone call or conversation. Families never see these notes. The Recruitment history shows every note, follow-up change, and stage change.

ScoutKeep notifies leaders when a new family signs up, when a family asks to come to an event, and when a follow-up is due. If the family has a follow-up leader, only that leader is notified. Otherwise everyone who manages prospects is.

Track each child's stage

Under Recruitment stage, set a stage for each child: New, Contacted, Participating, Joining, Joined, or Not proceeding. The family's overall stage follows its children, so a family with one child joined and one still deciding shows as Partially joined.

Choosing Joined records your pack's decision. It doesn't submit or confirm an official Scouting application. Once a child has joined, they're treated as a member for events.

The stage also appears on the family's page under Families, so other leaders can see where things stand.

Choose which events prospective families can attend

In Prospect event settings, choose a default for Unit meetings, Dens, and Other events:

• May attend: prospective families can RSVP like members.
• May express interest: families ask to come, and a leader decides.
• Members only: prospective families can't sign up.

Select Save to keep the defaults.

ScoutKeep doesn't guess an event's type from its title. Until you set a type, every event follows the Other events default. To set one, choose the event under Event, then pick its Event type: Other events, Unit meetings, or Den. For a den meeting, also choose which den it's for. Under Prospective-family participation, keep Use unit default or pick a setting for just this event, then select Save event rule.

For a den meeting, a child qualifies when their school grade matches the den: kindergarten for Lions, first grade for Tigers, and so on up to fifth grade for Arrow of Light. A child with no grade on file qualifies only if they're already in that den. Children who don't qualify may come as guests if the event allows guests.

Approve event requests

When a family asks to attend, their request appears under Event interest on their record. Add a Decision note (optional) and select Approve or Decline. To let a child in even though they don't match the den, tick them under Allow these children as exceptions to the section match before approving.

Families RSVP and ask to attend from their calendar. See Calendar and RSVPs.