How to easily manage your Scouts waiting list online

Many Scout Groups, District and Counties across the country rely on using a waiting list to accept members. Take a look at how to manage it online!

24th April 2020

Across the country, many Scout Groups rely on a waiting list to offer places to those interested in joining Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and other Sections within their Group.

With some areas in the country having prospective members on waiting lists from just a couple of years old to ensure that they make it into Beavers as soon as they turn old enough, waiting lists are invaluable.

But how can you simplify keeping track of a Scouts waiting list when it’s full of young people waiting to join?

Use enquiry forms to their full advantage

Using both Join and Contact forms on your website can help you differentiate between enquiry types and help you streamline any entries from the Join form that will automatically be put on your waiting list.

All of our websites come with pre-built Join and Contact forms as standard. Many Scout Groups choose to use these as they come with the website, but they are also editable to fit the needs of your Scout Group, District or County.

Taking advantage of the Join form helps you capture the necessary data needed for any prospective members and help you filter them into different Sections or Groups depending on their location, date of birth, and if they have a preferred Section.

Jersey Scouts use their online join enquiry form linked up with OSM to assign places within Groups to young people across the island.

Integrate with OSM to automate

OSM integration is one of our most popular add-ons and for good reason! Especially useful if you use the waiting list feature on your OSM account, integrating your Join form to populate your waiting list can be a great way to streamline your admin.

Any entries from your Join form can populate your OSM waiting list area with details such as name, age, parents details and more. You no longer have to manually add prospective members to your online waiting list, all you have to do is wait for Join enquiries to be made and they will automatically be added to the waiting list for you to assign!

Refer to other Groups in your area

If you have a waiting list that’s brimming with members and no spaces insight, you could do another Group in your area a favour and refer these prospective members to join their Group instead.

Other Groups in your area might be struggling to recruit but if you have a fruitful waiting list, then you might be able to offer them a hand, also minimising the wait for the young person to join the fun of Scouting!

Find out more about Scout Group websites here