How do YOU define active

[OldGreyEagle]

What the heck, this topic keeps getting brought up in other threads, its time to unleash the dogs of scouting on this specific topic. What must a scout do to be considered active in your troop?

[scomman]

THe scout must atend 2 out of 4 meetings in a month to be eligible to attend the outing or activity for the month. If they are involved in sports at school and we are informed by parents as long as they make the outings and are still working on advancement on their own they are still welcome to attend whenever they can. If a parent calls and lets us know that their son will not be at scouts we greatly appreciate it but we don't hold it against them.

[KoreaScouter]

It has come up before, and as I understand it, BSA considers "active" to be synonymous with "registered". There doesn't seem to be any other official definition. That said, we all know that many units put minimum-attendance gates in place for various things, including leadership credit, advancement, outing eligibility, and so on.

 

We don't do that. For one thing, showing up, while important, is only part of the equation...showing up and doing something is another. For me, that's where Scout Spirit kicks in, and since it's a subjective criteria, I judge it subjectively. Put another way, I don't split hairs over attendance...if you're registered, you're active. I do look closely at Scout Spirit come SM conference time, though. And, a Scout will not be surprised -- if he's not showing Scout Spirit consistently enough that it'll affect his advancement, he'll know it way before the SM conference and in enough time to change his behavior.

 

KS

[Bob White]

We ask the scout if he believes he has been an active member. Then we ask him to tell us why or why not. If the scout feels he was active, and can give us reason to believe he was, then he passes the requirement. In nearly every case where we felt a scout was inactive he readily admitted it. We then ask him what he thinks active is, and we ask him how he will change to meet the requirement.

 

This way each scout's unique circumstances are considered and the scout is given the opportunity to evaluate himself rather than be judged by others.

 

BW

 

I am hopeful that this text is Zorn friendly.

[YoungBlood]

Basically my troop had a policy that missing three meetings in a row without scoutmaster approval would make you inactive. I like this for two reasons. A) It gives a standard for the boys to meet and stops anyone from arguing the definition of being active! B) If you need to miss three meetings in a row, you can, as long as you at least stay active by explaining your situation to the troop leader.

[firstpusk]

Youngblood,

 

How many scouts in your troop?

[dan]

So what is inactive?

Monies reimbursed?

Removed from roster?

Or is it only no advancements?

So if I missed 3 meetings (assuming I did not call the Scoutmaster and tell him why I would not be at the 3 meetings.) what would I have to do to become active again?

 

[YoungBlood]

We have 50+ kids in my troop.

 

"So what is inactive?"

With our current system, when giving inactive status you must meet with the scoutmaster and attend meetings regularly for three weeks. Untill you have done that, you will not be elligble to attend campouts or have your scoutmaster conference. We haven't had any problems yet with this system. No scouts have complained because they have all been told upfront and it is in our written bylaws. There really is no excuse to go inactive other than laziness. How hard is it to give your scoutmaster a call if you have other commitments?

 

[eisely]

In principle I have no difficulty with units, working through their PLCs, setting participation thresholds, particularly for leadership positions. I have no concrete thoughts on what those thresholds might be or how they might be administered. That is up to the unit to work out.

 

It is interesting that our OA lodge, in its election instructions sent to unit leaders, defines a minimum quorum as 50% of the "active" membership without defining active. I presume this reflects OA national policy. When you think about it, just going off of the roster of nominally registered members, which includes everybody who re-up'd at rechartering time, will most likely overstate the active membership. Some boys are removed from membership. Some boys affirmatively quit. Some families move out of the area. Some boys simply stop showing up. The OA wisely gives some latitude to the unit leadership in allowing the unit to determine the starting number of "active" youth members in order to determine the quorum requirement.

[slontwovvy]

Active involves attending four troop functions in two months (not hard since my troop offers twelve or more functions a month), unless having received a prior dispensation from the Scoutmaster or other registered adult leader. A Scout is allowed one instance where this is broken sans leader approval, then he is considered non active.

[k9gold-scout]

We have about 70 scouts and in the summer most don't come to meetings but about half go to summer camp. During the school year we are happy to get half to show up 2x per month the other half shows up 1x per month. Now we count these as active scouts especially when they come to other activities. The scouts who come more often will advancer quicker.

[eagle90]

Our PLC set up the following criteria in order for a scout to be eligible to attend Summer Camp and/or High Adventure activities: A scout must attend 2/3 of our troop meetings and at least 3 of our 8 weekend campouts.

The PLC came up with this and reviews it at the beginning of every year, and so far in about ten years or so, there have been no problems or complaints. We do adjust the numbers for scouts who join mid year or have special circumstances.

[evmori]

Active is attending all the Troop meeting you can make & being a positive influence while there. Active is letting your PL or ASPL or SPL or ASM or SM know when you won't be able to make it too meetings. Being active is attending all the non Troop meeting activities & being a positive influence while there. Being active is more than being registered. Because if that were true, any Scout who registered but never showed up would be considered active.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[red feather]

Criteria for how active a scout is. Strange concept. A scout is active as he is willing or able to be. School, sports, family all play a part in this. Some scouts come for the involvement, some for the social interaction ( had a scout at 17 was still first class, not interested in rank but in what he got from scouting). If a boy is interested enough to keep coming to meeting, etc.,as they are able, it is the duty as leaders to try to impart as much of the idea of scouting to the scout as we can. To limit the experience based on a ticket punch system is not real with what scouting hs to compete with.

 

 

Teach what we can and do as much as possible when we can and not pass up the opportunity when it presents itself.

 

YIS

[EagleWB]

In SM conferences in our Troop and when I sit a BOR for another Troop I follow Bob White's way. I ask the boy to explain how he feels he has been active. Here is the other half of that requirement, how about active in your Patrol? Do you follow the same rules for active in your Troop?