dangale

I totally understand the need to fully vet all volunteers and don't propose any circumvention to that side of things. My thoughts are that BSA create a new role beyond SM/ASM/CC to cover parents who want to come on select outings and help out, with this new role perhaps lowering the annual fee (our annual cost is more in the range of $100, with additional add-ons by Council beyond the National expense). I don't believe it takes anywhere near $60 per person to do the various background checks and other vetting that are done on new leaders - perhaps I am mistaken but this seems more like a way for National and Councils to cover their overhead expenses. It's hard enough to recruit adult assistance where needed and for some folks, asking them to pay $100/year to volunteer is going to be a disincentive. As for the training, our Council/District offers BALOO, IOLS etc. free ~twice a year and I think that training is fine, although it does require the volunteers to dedicate an entire weekend to attend, which is a challenge for many. I am more thinking about all of the SM/ASM/CC on-line training - it seems like with a new position geared toward the parent who attends and helps here and there, this training is overkill and could be re-tooled to choose the modules appropriate for the "parent helper" role. The important thing is to have them take YPT and have background checks etc. to make sure they are trained in this realm and there are no re flags etc. on their background. Asking them to sit through hours of on-line training more suited for a new SM/ASM/CC is overkill IMO and likely to be a disincentive for them to want to become registered.

The problem with every parent needing to be registered is the hurdles and costs it takes to do so. They really should create another leadership category beyond SM/ASM/CC for parents who want to participate and help out - no problem on the background checks etc. but at a minimum they should substantially lower the registration fee for this situation (currently about $100/year in our Council). It's hard enough to get parents to become active. At least out here in California, each registrant also need mandated reporter training and livescan, in addition to YPT. Livescan costs ~$35-40 and needs to be a separate livescan from any they may have done for their work or other roles in their life. So all of is a lot of expense and a lot of work load for parents who are often reluctant to begin with to find the time to help. Not to mention, if they register as an ASM or CC, they are supposed to do the position training. BSA making some other role for this situation and having a lower fee similar to MBC would help to some degree with this.

They do a similar family camp multiple times a year at a nearby Council's camp property...I guess they don't consider it a Scout outing but rather just a family outing that happens to be held at BSA property (?).

Thank you everyone for all of the input - as it turns out, the girl's troop member planning to attend are now not going, so that simplified things in this case. It is, however, good to have this discussion and clearly, we need to get more female adult leaders registered. Easier said than done but I will be meeting with everyone soon to discuss this so they understand the limitations we are under and why this is critical, as the last thing I want to do is leave them out of outings due to lack of leaders. And yes, things are getting further complicated with the new BSA leader rules - I understand the challenges BSA is facing in regard to past YPT violations and the need to a "tighter ship", but of course this new rule is going to make things extra challenging to continue many of our traditional outings. So once again, time for a meeting with parents to discuss the need for an increase in registered leaders.

That was my assumption but I was asked to look into it. Frustrating situation as we are trying to grow and encourage our Girl's Troop but only have two of the moms who are able or interested in being involved. We definitely need more female registered leaders, but it's been a challenge and of course it is hard to have to tell the Scouts they can't attend, as well as their parents, who don't understand why they can't camp with their own kids in this situation. Thank you for your feedback.

No one locally seems to know the answer to this question, so I thought I'd get input from folks here. We have a family campout coming up for members and their families from both our Boy's Troop and our Girl's Troop. The campout is being held in a couple of group sites at a KOA campground. We will have multiple registered male leaders present, so that will cover YPT questions for the Boy's Troop, but the two registered female leaders we have both are unable to attend. There are three girl's Troop members planning to attend, all of which will be attending with one of both of their parents, but none of the moms who are attending are registered leaders. Given that it is a family camp and that the girl's Troop members are going to be present with their parent(s), is this scenario violating YPT since we don't have a registered female leader attending as well?