Appendix A: Review of Literature | Scouting America W231

Team Review of Literature

Effective communication is crucial for encouraging parental engagement in the BSA. Previous research and recommendations highlight the importance of having communication strategies that may encourage parental involvement, especially when using strategies like direct texts, open channels of communication, weekly newsletters, and implementing incentives. The recommendations below reveal expert insights on methods that may improve communication among Scouts.

Benefits of a Weekly Newsletter

Weekly newsletters have many benefits when it comes to communication and engagement of a company or organization; effective communication is something that is crucial for the success of BSA units. An article published by Cerkl, and written by Penny Swift (2024) states, "By implementing an internal company newsletter, organizations can reap many benefits, ultimately leading to a more engaged, informed, and productive workforce" (np). This website does focus mostly on companies, but all of the information could easily be used for an organization, such as the BSA. An article published by Forbes (2024) agrees with what Penny Swift mentioned involving engagement: "A newsletter can significantly boost customer engagement," they also go on to say, "By providing valuable, relevant content on a consistent schedule, brands can develop trust with readers over time" (np). This article focused on the benefits of sharing a newsletter for brands, but the information could also be valuable for what we are researching. There are many benefits of newsletters, no matter what scenario you are using them in. Based on the information in these articles, the Brownsburg BSA unit would definitely benefit from bringing back a weekly newsletter; it will increase engagement throughout the unit, which is a goal of theirs.

Paper copies of information can be more beneficial than an email when it comes to remembering information and people seeing the information that is being shared. A blog posted by Oak Hill Business Partners, written by Terry Bolda (2011) reads, "How many emails do you receive a day? How many do you press “delete” on? That could be the fate for many electronic newsletters hitting inboxes.... if your customer receives a mailed newsletter with a personal letter included, she will more likely open it and read it" (np). Throughout this blog, Bolda mentions cost and the fact that paper can be refreshing for people to look at or read since everything is so technology related now. My second source, 6 Benefits of Planning Your Week on Paper, discusses how writing things down can be more helpful than digital options: "Opening a calendar app can be a little dangerous. Elsewhere on your phone, games, videos, and other distractions can pull you away from your other responsibilities. Paper offers no such temptations" (np). The source focused on weekly planning, rather than a newsletter specifically, but the benefits still apply. People are more likely to remember the information they are given and read it in general if it is given in paper form.

Communication Strategies That Will Encourage Parent Participation in Events

Experts in the field of communication have encouraged the use of powerful and specific communication standards within nonprofit organizations. When discussing the positive effects of strong communication, Dr. Kelly Gaggin (2024), Assistant Professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at Michigan State University, comments, “strategic communications allows nonprofits to amplify their mission, effectively engage stakeholders, and drive meaningful action” (p. 15). The efforts produced by nonprofit organizations to spread their vision can only be accomplished through the use of effective communication. Another way to inspire meaningful action is to set communication goals that push the company’s initiatives and strengthen its connection with stakeholders. Dr. Marlene Wiggill (2011), Associate Professor and Senior lecturer at Lund University, agrees with Dr. Gaggin regarding the use of effective communication standards and strategies, since she recommended, “set[ting] communication goals in support of other organisational strategies” (p. 229). If a nonprofit organization seeks to better connect with its audience, receive greater responses, and plan more effectively, then the organization must establish clear goals to achieve success. Setting goals that are aligned with the company vision and organizational strategies is one of many ways to “drive meaningful action” and build strong connections. Both Dr. Gaggin and Dr. Wiggill share similar views about the purpose of powerful and effective communication standards and strategies because such things will increase stakeholder responses and raise more awareness of the organization’s mission and events.

Experts in small-group communication believe the best way to attain majority involvement is through short and precise messages and an open flow between parental parties. Parents generally prefer an organized and structured program over a random and impulsive one for their child(ren). Rich Cruz, a Management Consultant of over 18 years and Organizational Development and Change leader, encourages programs to “establish open channels of communication where [parents] can share their experiences, provide feedback, and ask questions” (2023, para. 10). In this particular instance, Cruz is focusing on Band parents, especially with all the time, money, and effort that goes into being involved with a music program. Giving parents the option to openly communicate strengthens parental involvement by building confidence about events and their details and inspires others to participate through shared experiences. Brandon Early, current Director of Student Ministries at Valley Church in Des Moines, IA, and has over 20 years of service in the youth ministry, agrees with Cruz in giving parents different means of communication apart from the regular emails they receive. While Cruz focuses on providing parents with separate, open methods of communication, Early focuses on separate, prior-to-event methods of communication. Early highlights the advantages of using this method: “We text when deadlines get closer: Short notes, directly to [the parent’s] phone are a huge win” ( 2016, para. 7). For many working adults, emails are an endless pit of messages, spam, and upcoming events. But text messages are usually not so dense. Early emphasizes the importance of sending event information straight to the parents’ text messages, so they are more likely to see the reminder and think about how they can help with the event. Youth groups, Early’s target audience, are typically smaller than Band groups, and sometimes experience more challenges with keeping solid communication standards. So, it is particularly important that parents see event messages and interact with them in some way. Cruz and Early both emphasize the importance of reaching out to parents through methods beyond regular emails and creating new opportunities for parents to interact with events.

Early Incentives for Communication in Scouts

Incentives are a very popular discussed choice when it comes to teams, organizations, and leadership. Group incentives activate social dynamics, increased communication, coordination and peer effects. There are group and individual incentives, Lagarde M & Carlos Riumallo Herl, (2024) they stated group and individual incentives, they also talked about, "group incentives should be less effective than equivalent individual ones. This is because, in our design, payment of a group incentive not only depends on the individual's behavior but also on the probability that all other group members comply with the desired behavior" (np). This talks about how group incentives work less effectively than individual ones meaning we should take a look at doing more individual incentives rather than a group incentive because people pay more attention to individual ones. There are different types of incentives that can be done towards certain organizations for a reward that can later be used and efficient for the organization and for us we will be looking at ways to strengthen communication with incentives and ideas that can help us lead to that. Incentives can increase satisfaction and more communication and commitment to the group. Effective incentive ideas from Proservice Hawaii, (2024), the author explained how incentives have a great role in organizations and groups, which are motivation, greater productivity, free rewards, greater communication and collaboration with groups. Pro-service Hawaii explained a very good quote that states, “finding an incentive program that aligns with your company's mission, values, and culture is important” (np). This is very important to keep in mind when designing incentives for your organization and to keep in mind it has to be something related to our mission's values and making a better way to communicate. This helped me think of many ideas and come up with a good idea to solve for Scouting America and to lead to brainstorming some ideas for Scouting America.

Individual incentives are good in situations where there is a certain expectation needed to fulfill for the organization. The only way to come up with incentives is collaboration of ideas with the organization leaders to help come up with incentives that will make people want to collaborate with the organization more and for us we are talking about Scouting America for Brownsburg. Andrew C. Marshall, (2013), made it clear that, “Focusing on shared goals drives performance and creates a greater impact on organizations in a shorter time” (np). This helps us have a better understanding that having set goals will help us come up with incentives that will lead to a greater impact to the organization we are working with. Group decision making and problem solving also helps us write down goals that can work towards the organization that can further lead to incentives for the group. This can maybe grab more attention towards the parents. The main incentives we want to work towards when collaborating with a bigger organization are group incentives that help us target beneficial ideas not only for better communication but lead to giving their all for the organization. Level 6 MS, C. R. (2023), talks about countless benefits to implementing group incentive programs: “ rewarded for their hard work, they’re much more likely to stick around and continue giving their all to the company” (np). This shows many people put in more work when incentives and rewards are given out and this can lead to more beneficial help to the organization and making them more interested about the organization and helping them out more, leading to better communication to other parents out there for Scouting America of Brownsburg which would lead to people being more involved in what their children are doing and communicating better all around.

In conclusion, the review of literature shows that communication among parents is very important in order to increase parental involvement in Scouts. The aforementioned recommendations revealed that setting clear communication goals, utilizing varied communication channels (such as text messages, newsletters, and open lines of communication), and offering incentives are all powerful strategies to increase engagement. As seen in the research of Dr. Gaggin, Dr. Wiggill, Cruz, Early, and others, communication is not easily accessible without involving meaningful strategies behind helping out the BSA. By implementing these communication strategies, organizations like the Brownsburg BSA can improve their efforts, build trust, and ensure greater success in engaging parents for future events, along with having fun. The combination of direct text messages, open channels of communication, weekly newsletters, and implementing incentives provides a comprehensive approach to achieving greater communication among Scouts.