Boys State programs go mobile
Rather than trying to separate thousands of teenagers from their cell phones, the Departments of Kansas and California Boys State programs have embraced teenage cell phone use habits.
California Boys State has developed a California Boys State phone app, available on iPhone and soon for Android, that allows delegates quick access to all the information and documents they may need during their week at Boys State. In the same vein, the Department of Kansas has designed a mobile-friendly website for its delegates to access online resources while attending their program.
Both the app and website, which unveiled this summer, contain things like schedules, project information and other resources such as forms, maps of the campus and a full-color version of the program handbook - all of which are available with a few swipes on a smartphone.
“We find a lot of these young men just aren’t accustomed to carrying around a giant printed bluebook," said Andrew Van Der Laan, a California Boys State staff member. "Rather than answer the same question over and over again, it is good to be able to say to them: ‘What does it say on your phone?’ because you know they have their phones.”
Van Der Laan gave a joint presentation with fellow California staff member Lenny Bendo, and two staffers from Kansas Boys State - Gavin Smith and Todd Vogts - at the annual American Legion Boys State national directors conference. Representatives from Boys State programs nationwide assembled at the annual conference in Indianapolis last weekend to share best practices and hear presentations from other programs.
The group pitched the concept of developing a phone app or website to conference attendees, stressing the advantages it offers in convenient access to resources and the ease with which things can be updated in digital form.
The key point, however, is that a majority of delegates attending Boys State programs have smartphones and have learned to rely on them in everyday life. In polls conducted by both programs this year, 85 to 95 percent of delegates in attendance were found to have come with a mobile device in hand.
"The staters are very technologically oriented," Smith said. "They have mobile devices, and they like to use them."
A mobile platform for resources also can present a cost-savings boon to a Boys State program, Smith said, in money saved from printing and reprinting paper documents.
"It saves money and paper, and it saves confusion," Smith said. "If we want to update something, we can update it in real time rather than changing thousands of pieces of paper."
Both programs also highlighted the relatively small workload and cost that went into developing the website and app. California pitched the idea in mid-April, and had the app available for download in Apple's app store by the end of June. Van Der Laan estimates that it took around 30 hours to develop.
Kansas pitched the idea for the mobile website in August and launched it in September, spending an estimated five hours per week on it.
Expenses remained low for development of both platforms thanks to the help of tech-savvy volunteers.
“Think about the available skills of your staff," Vogts told attendees at the conference. "You probably have more skills among your ranks than you think. The young people are all very familiar with this technology.”
Both programs hope to integrate new functions and resources in the sophomore years of their app and website, including election information, notifications and alerts, delegate 'bank account' access and Boys State newspaper content.
Boys State programs interested in creating a mobile website or phone app are encouraged to reach out to the Department of California at rshick97@aol.com and the Department of Kansas through its website.
“We’re looking forward to expanding on it and sharing it with all programs that are interested," Bendo said.