jglommen

Can I put Council and Troop numerals on my backpack?

"If you, and your CO, are that concerned with doing background checks on all adults who have any kind of contact with the Scouts, then your only option is to require that all parents register as Committee Members. Committee members do not have to have a specific job function. If the Troop does require this, you might consider including the cost of those registrations in the Troop budget, and have the Troop pay for them. " Ah, I did not know that one can be a member of the Troop Committee without having a position. That may be a solution. The only problem then is the TC meetings will grow and we'll need to find a new venue. Currently, about 10 of our 12 TC members attend at each meeting and we are able to host the meeting in somebody's living room. I guess with a larger troop the days of cozy TC meetings are over. I guess my next problem will be how to run an effective TC meeting with so many attendees. I can search the forum for pointers. By the way, I am the newest member of the TC and have been with the troop for nearly a year. So while the troop is wrestling with sudden growth at the same time I am still on the learning curve myself. -Jon

"I think you need to be clear on what you are trying to accomplish by registering volunteers. When is it 'necessary'? It is rarely necessary to register volunteers. It is often a good idea. According to BSA policies, you would need to be registered as a committee member if you are going to sit on a board of review. You need to be registered to wear the uniform. You need at least one adult to be registered in order to take the Scouts camping. You could require training and vetting without requiring joining. Our troop does require any adult going camping to take Youth Protection and Fast Start. In practice, though, you have a bigger problem. The problem isn't how to choose whether or not to register parents and what position to pick. Your problem is that your Scoutmaster and committee are overwhelmed. You need more committee members and more assistant Scoutmasters. " Great advice. Yes, we would like to do the same as your troop and require Youth Protection and Fast Start for the ScoutParents. But we have no evidence that they've actually taken the training nor do we have any sort of background check without registering. Maybe our troop committee is just a little to worried about these things?! Yes, you are right on target about us being overwhelmed and I need a little advice here. We are a little shy about having our TC attendance growing past the 10 or so TC members we have now. I hear you, we may have to bit the bullet and get a larger venue for the TC meetings and endure longer discussions if the TC meeting attendance gets to be too big for the living room. ASM is a little more touchy because many of the ScoutParents really don't want to take all of the training nor do they want to make the larger commitment. All said, you are right on target: we are definately overwhelmed and have never had to coordinate the ScoutParents. In the history of the Troop most of the parents have been "tail light" parents. Now, with nearly 60 scouts we have a new wave of (former) Webelo parents stepping forward to ask how they can help. Based on your excellent advice I will propose we encourage ScoutParents to take Fast Start and Youth Protection but remain unregistered. -Jon

Thank you for all of the good advice. We are an inclusive troop and encourage the ScoutParents to actively support the troop. Today we already have all Troop Committee positions and ASM positions filled. We look to our new ScoutParents as the pool of future TC members and/or ASMs. We encourage the ScoutParents to help do a lot of the "leg work" in researching new activity venues for our growing troop. Many of these ScoutParents actually come on the trips and maintain a respectable "hands off" role during the activity. However, it is a concern of our Troop Committee that the ScoutParents do not have any of the basic training offered by BSA like Youth Protection. Yes, we can always ask them to take the training online but there is no traceability unless they actually register as an Adult Volunteer with BSA. The problem then is that if they register with BSA they need to select either "Troop Committee Member" or "AMS/SM" and those positions are already filled. That, and most of the ScoutParents are not interested in the greater commitment of these roles. Maybe I will restate the problem this way: without the ability to register ScoutParents we have no means to run a background check or track their training. Yet, as drivers and activity facilitators they come into contact with scouts. -Jon

Hi All, Our Troop is rapidly expanding, in the last three years we've gone from a little more than 10 to over 50 scouts. Our Troop Committee and Scoutmaster are overwhelmed and we are now more seriously recruiting help from the parents. But here is the problem. Some of the help we need, for instance extra drivers, will put some adults in greater contact with the scouts. Many of our drivers and other parent helpers actually stay with the rest of the troop during overnight outings. Even if they maintain a good observation role in these activities we still can't ignore their presence and the need for basic training and vetting with the troop leadership. The only way we know how to do this is have the adults register with BSA as adult volunteers. Unfortunately, this registration requires choosing a position. The only positions that are even remotely applicable are ASM and Troop Committee member. However, we are really not asking them to take on that much responsibility. What are other troops doing for vetting ScoutParents? -Jon