InquisitiveScouter

Friday evening... none of our members have been renewed through the Registrar. Perhaps they'll update on the midnight data sync... a Scouter can dream, can't he?

Ask the Registrar to open a trouble ticket with IT support. They can see his training history and will credit him if it is complete.

Meh, most subscriptions are automated. Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, etc... you set them up to automatically charge. You have to intervene to stop the subscription. BSA's is currently set up so that you have to take action to renew. At first blush, I think this will only cause units pain. Every outing you go on, you'll have to check to see if Scouts are registered. Actually, many leaders I run across don't bother with that stuff anyway... or medical forms, or swim checks, or adult training, etc... They just take kids camping and don't worry about it. I know a unit that had a Scout camping with them for eight months before they figured out his application was never submitted. Don't see that much different happening with it being automated, especially on renewal.

I hope you are right. But, I think the improvement will be just to spread the pain out across the calendar year. Under the new system, every month, someone on the committee will have to remind parents to renew their Scout's registration. Or, go through some process your unit sets up to cover membership costs. A little pain each month is easier to manage than all the pain at one time.

Fees paid. Roster submitted. Registrar is happy we are "on time." Only one of four units on time in council as of 2PM today. Yikes. She told me she has 6 open support tickets with BSA on system issues. Let's see how long it takes for our members to show renewed in system...

Exactly. At all levels... unit/council/National. And sorry for the long post. To quote Ben Franklin, "I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter."

TL/DR?? Appoint a Recharter Czar in your unit, make personal contact with all unit members, collect payments, and use the ACH option in one bulk payment submission to get your membership renewals done online. Do not go to your Scout office to pay. You will need a WFHAS! See below. (This advice will change in the out-years as annual membership anniversaries get spread throughout the calendar.) ------------------------------------------------------- And now, for the rest of the story... I have just gone through the re-charter and membership renewal process with our unit, given the recent changes to membership renewal policies and IT changes to support those in my.scouting.org It was somewhat cumbersome, and the many different ways of skinning the cat just made it complex. Under the old system, units re-chartered and renewed memberships concurrently, and on an annual basis at charter renewal time. Members joining out of this cycle paid a pro-rated membership fee for the remainder of the current charter year, and then joined the established annual cycle. With this process, the unit collected and paid a bulk fee for the annual, and members joining off-cycle either paid a fee at the office, or the unit paid their fee at the office on their behalf. Under the new system, charter and memberships are de-linked. The unit re-charters annually, and members renew annually, but separately, based on their "joining" date. This creates an order where first, you must re-charter the unit, and then, you must fill that unit with renewed members. And there is no more pro-ration of membership fees. The charter renewal was straight forward: 1) Check your adults to see if their YPT is good for three months past charter renewal date (that might just be our council policy). 2) Once good, select to either pay on line though credit card (with % convenience fee) or ACH (with flat fee), or print the charter renewal and deliver to Scout office with $100 for charter renewal. This is all fine and good if you have been working to have your adult roster positions correct, for at least the minimum five for charter: COR, CC + 2MC, SM. (Of course, you could fill the five positions with four bodies, if COR double-hats as a Committee Member.) Then, you can renew memberships in separate processes... here's where things got messy. National, apparently wanting to give more choice and options for membership renewal, now has several different options for renewing a membership: 1 & 2. You can renew your own (or your Scout's) membership online via credit card (with convenience fee) or ACH (flat fee.) 3. Individuals can renew their own memberships down at the Scout office without convenience fees. 4 & 5. Unit can renew memberships online via credit card (with convenience fee) or ACH (flat fee.) (The unit can do these in batches, and pay the additional fees for each batch, too!) 6. Unit can pay for selected members or all down at the Scout office, with no convenience fees except the time it takes you to do this. 7. A hybrid of all the above. With these conditions in place, here is what has happened in our unit. 1. After the changes were announced, our Committee decided (back in Sept) to let everyone, leaders and families, go it alone, and pay their own memberships by whatever means they chose. (Option 1 or 2 above) This was the path of least resistance for the Committee, or so they thought. In my book, it was a different word. 2. Our own internal longstanding policy is that the unit will pay for leaders' memberships, insofar as they continue to serve on the front lines with our Scouts. If you want to be a Unit Scouter Reserve and have no commitments for unit camping or Committee service, you pay your own way. This has worked well. When the Committee announced everyone pays for themselves, a few unit leaders made the decision not to continue. (They did not want to volunteer their time and pay $70 for the privilege.) The Committee then re-visited the issue in November and said, OK, we have the money, let's swap horses and pay for unit leaders, and we'll reimburse those who already paid. Now the unit is actually paying more in the end because of convenience fees. But, they assigned no one to work this issue and handle the payments. 3. Parents are ignoring emails or notices from National, especially around now (holiday time) with prices and bills the way they are. Online renewals for Scouts were minimal (about 15% take rate). As of last Monday, 09 December, with 15 December as our council-requested deadline for charter renewal to be able to process by end-of year, I visited with the Committee and asked them if the charter was done and how many Scouts were going to be back next year, I was greeted with classic deer-in-the-headlights looks. No one was taking care of the charter. No one had polled, or asked, or even invited Scouts to be in the unit next year. No personal touch to families... After an email from the Committee Chair, they were relying on notices from National and Council to spur folks into renewal. One Committee Member noted that there is a grace period of two months after charter renewal for families to renew. OK, I said, who is going to remind the families to do this, given they are already ignoring notices? "We'll look at that then." OK, I said, will we take Scouts camping during the grace period if they have not renewed? Has Council said they'll be covered by supplemental insurance while in the grace period? And who will look at that then? A second DITHLL. I asked the Committee members there if they had renewed their own memberships, or their Scouts. Seven people around the table with 10 total Scouts in the Troop.... zero had taken any action. This did not give me a good outlook on the fate of the Troop. "May I take care of the task?" Then I got the WFHAS! look ("We finally have a sucker!") (btw, I am not a Committee Member) 4. I picked up my crayons and took to the task. I personally contacted every leader and every parent. (Approximately 75 people.) Some were not aware... head in the sand. Some kind of understood they had to do something, but ignored. Some were on the fence. And some had been keeping their "bad" news to themselves. We are losing eight leaders and 15 Scouts next year. We could have/should have kept four of those leaders and 10 of those Scouts. The remaining five Scouts were age-outs this year (2), moved (1) or lost interest early in the year (2). Of the 10 we should have kept, five were Eagle Scouts who will turn 18 next year. Their parents cited a few reasons... too much to pay ($160 just for National and Council fees), preparing for college, jobs, other commitments, etc. Traditionally, we have kept those Scouts on. Mostly, I think, out of their sense of loyalty to the Troop. I perceive that is going away... We will have one Scout who holds Eagle rank when 01 Jan rolls around. 5. As I was talking with parents, many assumed that since their Scout had monies on Scout Accounts with the Troop, sufficient to cover their costs, that the Troop was just "going to take care of it." They had ignored or otherwise had not read the Committee Chair's email from Sept notifying them of membership renewal changes. This did not surprise me one bit. So, I went back to the CC with that question, and, got the green light to pay for membership renewal for Scouts out of the Troop account if they had monies, at the same time when I submitted the leader renewal roster and payment. 6. So after making my list and checking it twice, I went into the instructions and IT tools to make it happen. Instructions from National and Council contradicted each other in some cases, so I had to run tests of the system to create and delete membership renewals to figure it out. It's pretty clunky, and what you need isn't there. You cannot do anything with multiple memberships ("Gonna have to deal with that later was the Registrars answer). You cannot select or unselect Scout Life subscriptions unless you pay online, which we aren't. Some parents have gone in and initiated a renewal, but never made payment. Unit Key 3 and Delegates cannot cancel those out. The Registrar says all those have to be canceled out before we pay for the Scout at the office, and it has to be done by the parent who initiated it. There are a few other glitches and gotchas... I am ready to take us across the finish line at the Scout office tomorrow. (Oh God, do I feel sorry for those folks who live hours away from the Scout office!) I'll let you know how it goes... A lingering question: With your charter being de-linked from membership renewal, if you do not have your roster straight, and you re-charter, but some of those primary positions do not renew, do you have a unit? Meanwhile, National will renew memberships into this malformed unit. What happens when someone notices there are Scouts in a unit without the required number of active/renewed adult memberships to form that unit? Well, National & Council will have their membership money, and we'll sort it out, I guess. A lingering thought: I ask myself 'Why all this contortion?" and the simplest answer I can come up with is that National is automating to the final goal of eliminating the Council Registrar. I am all for automating tasks, when possible. But, in all my days, whenever I had ANY problem, it was always the Council Registrar who worked the issue to serve our units. Anyone trying to get answers from National or help on most IT issues these days is just crying into the wilderness. The one group who is making Scoutbook go is the Scoutbook Users Advisory Council... a group of volunteers. BSA, if you don't take care of people, they will vote with their feet. Can you not see this is what has been happening to your membership these last few years? Expect your numbers to drop even sharper now.

Agreed. Some hold this issue as black and white. I respect their position. I hold it as grey, and I am comfortable operating in "my" grey area on this one. Until IRS makes a definitive ruling (and council stops giving us checks for Scouts), that is 😜

Yes. Our unit does our own fundraiser. We also advertise to our Scouts that they can participate in the council popcorn fundraiser with online sales. For those that participate, at the end of the fundraiser, the council gives us a check, with a list of the Scouts participating and how much is allocated to each Scout. We deposit it in the unit fund and credit their Scout accounts in Scoutbook. We have a Scout who did this for his first two years with us. He has not had to pay a single cent for any Scout-related costs, and has plenty of coin left to take him through his next few years. He has learned the value of getting out there and earning his way. And he fully understands that any fundraised money left over when he leaves the Troop goes to the general Troop fund, or is disbursed, as he wishes, to Scouts in the Troop who might need a little assistance.

Thanks @Tron I have also had these discussions with others many time. Two key points in the letter you cited: "Accordingly, we are not ruling definitively at this time. " "The information provided here cannot be relied upon as a ruling on the matters discussed. " So, I take it all with some grains of salt to season my food for thought... We do Scout accounts, and we allocate back to Scouts a portion of their sales proceeds to use to pay their Scouting costs. But the majority of what they earn goes to the Troop kitty to pay for Troop-level costs that benefit everyone.

Yes, potential. And you have hit on the great failing of the professional side of the organization. Integrity, service, and excellence should be the mantra for BSA. It isn't. Would that it were so. When I served, there was a strong push on core values: CORE VALUES The common bond that unifies us all. We live and serve with a commitment to three core values. INTEGRITY FIRST An Airman is a person of integrity, courage and conviction. They must be willing to control their impulses and exercise courage, honesty and accountability in order to do what is right even when no one is looking. SERVICE BEFORE SELF An Airman’s professional duties take precedence over personal desires. Every Airman is expected to have the discipline to follow rules, exhibit self-control and possess respect for the beliefs, authority and worth of others. EXCELLENCE IN ALL WE DO An Airman strives for continual improvement in self and service in order to propel the Air Force further and to achieve greater accomplishment and performance for themselves and their community.

Agreed. But, realistically, you cannot expect council to give out contact info for the Board members. You'll have to do the leg work of getting their contact info, if that is what you want. I agree the ambiguity of today's contact-info-hiding world provides more cover to the SE...

Your council Executive Board Members will be listed on your council's IRS Form 990. You can find this relatively easily. Also, your COR (and all COR's) is a voting member of the Board. There is real power there, but it is rarely ever used because it is so difficult to get all COR's involved. SE's like it that way. They can steer their Boards (including recommending their simpatico be members of the Board) to their agenda much more easily without interference from those meddling COR's.

You aren't going to get anywhere with National. The SE technically works for your local council Board. Each council is its own non-profit corporation. If there are issues, it has to be handled at the local corporate level, unless there is some egregious conduct. In the military, egregious conduct was usually the big four: funds, guns, buns, & secrets. Funds: unless the SE is misappropriating funds, Nat'l prob not getting involved... Guns: the BSA analogy would be the SE putting the safety of others at risk, or Nat'l not getting involved... Buns: sexual misconduct of some sort, or Nat'l not getting involved... Secrets: Exposure of sensitive membership information, or releasing info from the "inner sanctum", else Nat'l will not get involved. Just about everything else would be at local Board level. There are others on the forum with much more experience and insights into these matters, though. Perhaps they'll weigh in.

Start here. Rules_Regulations_July2023.pdf See page 8, underlining added: "Unit Leaders. Unit leaders must be selected and approved by the chartered organization and are subject to the approval of the local council and the Boy Scouts of America. Unit leaders must be 21 years of age or older when registering, except that assistant Cubmasters, assistant Scoutmasters, assistant den leaders, and assistant Webelos den leaders must be 18 years of age or older. Chartered organizations may remove or refuse to renew the unit registration of unit leaders when the unit committee and chartered organization representative agree that the Scouter’s service is no longer desired or required.? Unit Leaders. Unit leaders must be selected and approved by the chartered organization and are subject to the approval of the local council and the Boy Scouts of America. Unit leaders must be 21 years of age or older when registering, except that assistant Cubmasters, assistant\ Scoutmasters, assistant den leaders, and assistant Webelos den leaders must be 18 years of age or older. Chartered organizations may remove or refuse to renew the unit registration of unit leaders when the unit committee and chartered organization representative agree that the Scouter’s service is no longer desired or required." "District and Council Scouters. District and council Scouters must be approved by the local council Scout executive. Council Scout executives may remove or refuse to renew the position registration of a district or council Scouter when the council president and council Scout executive agree that the Scouter’s service is no longer desired or required." Your post presents a bunch of questions: Who, what, why, how?

Do not go down that road. If there is any question on this, we point to the authority of the resource. ESSP Workbook, "Navigating the Eagle Scout Service Project Information for Project Beneficiaries " section, which beneficiaries must acknowledge their receipt of, specifically says: "The Scout is not responsible for any maintenance of a project once it is completed." For any of the projects I advise that may have some lingering commitment, I mentor the Eagle candidate to have a discussion with the beneficiary specially about care after completion. Our Committee Chair and Scoutmaster will not approve any projects requiring care after completion. Beneficiaries understand this, and agree to take over maintenance once the final project approval paperwork is signed.

On the blue banner, select Feed, then Search, then select the Member Search tab and hit the blue Search Members button, (no need to select any criteria there) This will show 48306 members 😜 Hit the Sort By pull down menu. Look at Post Count, and then by Reputation to help you find the most active members and the most appreciated content. Hope this helps!

Thanks for your time at the helm, Richard! I appreciate your coming here to try answer the hard questions and critiques, and understand you often had to navigate tortured waters to try to provide us a coherent response. Best wishes in your future endeavors.

Thanks for the steer! Unfortunately: Commissioners No Commissioners Found

A good start! Now, how do we make the Unit Commissioner role effective? If you look at the job description... https://www.scouting.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/NCST-Unit-Commissioner-Job-Description.pdf ...it assumes some key conditions - that Commissioners integrate into the unit rhythms, and that units can access the Commissioner's Assessment and will follow the guidance of the Unit Commissioner. The many Unit Commissioners I have talked with express frustration over the following things: 1. The unit leadership views them as an outsider, with bad intent. Word on the street is, you never see a Commissioner unless there is a problem in the unit. That is, they are harbingers of an illness in the unit. This is probably a result of #2... 2. Commissioners wear more hats than that of Unit Commissioner, and this detracts from their being able to spend the time it takes to build solid relationships so that a unit will listen to what you have to offer. IMO, Commissioners should be attending unit meetings about monthly, and a unit outing about every quarter... (no, they don't have to camp out overnight, but they should have that opportunity!! Cannot do this under current policy unless they are on the unit roster. And, although I cannot find this in writing at the moment, I believe Commissioners cannot be members of units they are assigned to,. Catch-22.) (No, they should not be counted as adult leadership for supervision requirements.) 3. No one knows who their unit commissioner is. Where can I find this info? You should be able to see it in your unit info on my.scouting. Good luck with that. And on that line of thinking, where is my Commissioner's Unit Assessment? The succession of Unit Leaders should be able to readily access these for several years. Good luck with that, too 😜 Bottom line: lack of transparency does not engender trust. 4. There is a culture of "we're gonna do it our way" I have seen in many units. This first comes from an ignorance of BSA policy. Then, once finding out they are doing something not in accordance with BSA policy, an arrogance of maintaining that posture because "that's the way we have always done it, so that's the way we are gonna continue." What carrots does a Commissioner have to offer a unit? And what sticks? That is, when the Commissioner (tactfully) informs the unit they are doing something awry, there is no repercussion unless it is a YPT violation (see #1.) Here's an example... a Commissioner visits an Eagle Project in progress to lend a hand and build relationships with the unit. He sees a youth using a battery powered skill saw (and with no hearing or eye protection). https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/healthsafety/pdf/680-028.pdf When the Commissioner discreetly points this out to the unit leaders on hand, the unit leaders take no action to inform the Eagle candidate running the show, nor do they take any other action to correct the situation. Should the Commissioner employ a "stick" here and tell the unit leader he will report the matter to the Chartered Organization Rep, or the District Executive, or the Scout Executive? Should the Commissioner note this in a Unit Assessment Report? Should he file a "Near Miss Report"??? https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/680-017_fillable.pdf See how we are going down the road of point #1?? (BTW, yes, this has happened, and nothing came of it, except the Commissioner was re-assigned to a different unit at his request. Do you think that UC felt supported by the DE or council leadership??) Overall, I find the attitude of self-policing, improvement, and a desire to know the right way to do things and to do it generally lacking in most adult leaders. Is a UC gonna be the one to change that culture in a unit?

No... haven't seen a "successful" or robust Commissioner program. I have always believed you need to incentivize the behavior you want... Other than the parents having their children earn Eagle Scout, what incentives are there for adults to volunteer in any capacity? Altruism lasts but for a season. Volunteers need to feel appreciated, valued, and recognized. And when an organization invests in their training and development, volunteers grow even more dedicated. Do you feel appreciated in your council? (Personally, no.) Are you recognized for the value you add to the organization at all levels? (No) Does your council/district/unit invest in your training? (Unit yes... unit pays for required position training, and will pay 50% of training that contributes to JTE metrics. District and council, no.) Has someone mentored you in a path of development as a Scouter? (No) When you learn of the salaries of higher ups in BSA, does it affect your willingness to volunteer or donate? https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/how-much-income-puts-you-top-1-5-10/ Our council exec's individual compensation package is $270K per year. Well into the top 5% for households in our area (but not nationwide.). When most parents learn this, they are absolutely shocked. Yeah, they'll volunteer to help their kid's unit, but nothing past that... especially when they see little to no value added from council to their Troop program/success.

Over the course of my volunteer career, and through the several councils I have been involved in, the adult volunteer corps has been treated as expendable. BSA should protect the rights of every member vigorously, youth or adult, when needed. I talk with many who were formerly involved with the program, and ask them if they'll lend a hand. There is an element of genuine fear of dealing with other peoples' kids, and being one misunderstanding away from accusation and false ignominy. My personal safeguard against this is to always have an adult buddy "attached" to the hip. I can readily recall at least four instances over the years where a Scout "heard" something that I or another adult did not actually say, misinterpreted it, reported it to parents/other leaders, and the accused adult thankfully had other adult witnesses to refute or clarify. I do not even do Scoutmaster conferences out of earshot any more. This is not the way it should be, but I have found it to be a prudent practice.

You, too, can be fully green 😜 There's always a gold nugget or two buried in there somewhere. And probably a rotten apple (or two) as well. COMPLETED: S11, SCO_800, Y01 - 100% COMPLETED: S24 - 100% COMPLETED: SCO_471, SCO_472, SCO_473, SCO_474, SCO_475, SCO_476, SCO_477, SCO_478, SCO_479, SCO_480, SCO_481, SCO_482, SCO_484, SCO_485, SCO_530 - 100%

IOLS is a Position Trained requirement. https://www.scouting.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Position-Trained-Requirements-July2024.pdf And councils are supposed to be enforcing this within six months of being in a position. But that varies by council. See link below for PA Dutch Council, which puts it a 12 months. Councils are supposed to be denying position renewal without training, but I have never heard of it actually being enforced. http://padutchbsa.org/training/#:~:text=Pennsylvania Dutch Council Training Policies&text=Scouts BSA and Venturing Leaders,during the twelve month period. For the training piece, for several positions, you have the option of doing either an in-class session, or the online modules to complete the required training. For example, for the Scoutmaster role, you may complete EITHER S24, Scoutmaster Specific, OR all those course modules in the list in the first link above. We actually ask our leaders to do both in-person sessions (when available) and online modules. It's part of our Culture of Excellence 😜 You learn different things in either training medium. And, when done well, the in-person/interactive stuff is so much better.

As you point out, many now have no outdoors/Scouting experience... so to whom are they to delegate?