Scout Executive 

Kevin Nichols

• As Scout Executive, worked with Vice-Presidents of Membership and staff to grow the Yankee Clipper Council from the fifth largest council in Area 1 in the Northeast Region in 2010 to the third largest council in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by 2013.
  

• Guided membership recruiting campaigns that consistently recruited more traditional and more Cub Scout age youth, besting area, region and national averages including 10% increase in new traditional youth recruited and 6.9% increase in Cub Scout age members recruited in 2013 over 2012.
  

• Secured a $15,000 grant to fund new Urban Pack programs for under-served youth. 
  

Previous Assignments

• As a member of the Council management team, including DFS/COO in Pontiac, Michigan, the Council achieved ten straight years of membership growth.
  

• ​As DFS, the Vice-President of Membership and I built a relationship with the Detroit Pistons that eventually led to the Council achieving the National President's Award for Marketing Excellence for the Best Marketing Campaign for Recruiting in 2004.  
  

• As a Unit Serving Executive, the districts in which I served as the professional partner consistently met annual growth goals.  During my service in the Blackhawk Area Council, serving McHenry County, the membership team often achieved month over month growth every month for four years in which I had the privilege to serve as their partner.
  

• In 2023, continued growth in total members with eight months of consecutive growth, achieving a 8.62% growth in Cub Scouts and 28.13% growth in girl membership in October.
  

• In 2022, achieved nine consecutive months of total membership growth with a high of 14.3% growth in Cub Scouts and 8.23% in total members in October, our year-end.
  

• ​The "Escape the Indoors" 2021 recruitment campaign was effectively launched and managed an 7% increase over goal in new youth recruited from August to December - 524 new members.  429 new Cub Scouts were recruited during that same period. As part of the "Escape" theme, the Council conducted four outdoor events at Fire Mountain Scout Camp, Girl's Hangout, Cub Scout Adventure Day, Webelos-ree and Haunted Camp, that had over 2,700 members, leaders and families participating in the great outdoors. 

• 2019's Heroes Start Here recruitment campaign generated excitement and growth.  In Lions and Tigers, a 15.5% increase over 2018 year-end was achieved along with a 2.2% increase in Scouts BSA.  

• 20 new units were formed in 2019 including 11 new Scouts BSA troops serving over 100 girls.  Overall, 8.9% increase in new Scouts BSA troops overall.
  
• ​To grow units, led a campaign to raise $175k in new funds in 2021 for a New Unit Sales team (1 full-time manager and up to 3 part-time staff) toward a goal of 15-20 new units each year with 250-300 youth.
  

•  Grants were secured to establish a Native American Scouting program that serves three of the seven tribal reservations within the council boundaries.   ​
  

• A second outreach program was launched with another grant to serve the low-income areas of Duluth, Minnesota.  ​

• In each of the three years during my position as the Scout Executive in President Ford FSC, I have provided leadership to staff and helped guide the V/P of Membership and the Council Membership Committee in achieving growth of total members of every year since 2014.  
  

• At-risk youth, served by our Scoutreach team, grew to 3,614 members, up from 2,471 in 2015.
  

• Secured grants totaling $65K to fund the recruitment campaigns in 2014-2016. 
  

• Over 100 new units were started within the Council through the Membership Committees and Field Staff.

Membership growth Selected Highlights