Roster Check

[GernBlansten]

Found this tidbit in our district email blast...

 

"Roster Check

Pioneer Trails is going to be doing a roster check to make sure that all of our Scouts from crossovers and join nights have been able to join Scouting. We will then be checking with all of the Scouts that have not joined to see if they would like to still join in other opportunities in an effort to see if we can retain boys. We will also be letting you know which youth and adults have not been registered. Please submit a roster for your Unit to Pat D."

 

 

What is the point in this? Is the district questioning our units integrity? Do they think we are turning scouts away? Anyone else getting similar notes from their DEs?

 

[ghermanno]

GernBlansten,

 

I have heard, from some of our DE's, that parents have been complaining that they fill out contact paperwork at a Scout Show or Round-up and never hear from anyone after that. Maybe that is the case where you are too. Odds are, the DE's are looking for where the pipeline is broken so that they can fix it, not to point fingers at it. To do so, without pointing fingers, they will have to check a sample of people that went to good Packs/Troops as well as some that went to Packs/Troops that are slow to contact/get paperwork in. It is the only fair way (just like roadside checkpoints) as profiling is "not allowed".

 

They are not questioning your integrity but questioning a procedure that seems to have let some boys down. Isn't that our job? To ensure we help as many boys as we can?

 

I would not take it personally. If they want to look at your units referals, you can show them the ones you received and the contacts you made/attempted to make. Then wish them luck in finding the cause/solution to the problem or volunteer to assist them to find it sooner.

 

YiS,

 

Rick

[gwd-scouter]

I remember working with the DE on that when I was a Cubmaster. Matched up the roster of Webelos that crossed over from the Pack with the rosters of Troops to find out which boys did not continue on to Boy Scouting. I assume other units were asked to do that too. Yes, it was to find out why we lose so many scouts in the Webelos to Boy Scout transition. Once in a while after I joined the Troop, I would get a call from the DE to find out why scouts were not being rechartered. I gotta say, sometimes he would make me feel guilty when I would simply state the a guy was dropped because he quit - just wasn't interested in scouting.

 

A couple of years ago, the DE presented a list at roundtable that had all the names and phone numbers of Webelos from throughout the District that did not join a Boy Scout Troop. The list was up for grabs for any Troop to make calls and ask if the boys wanted to join. I suppose there wasn't much success because it hasn't been repeated.

[GernBlansten]

Why do they need our rosters? What's the point of re-chartering if they don't trust their own records? I know in my unit, we will just hand them a copy of our re-charter. Rather pointless isn't it? And how will that even help in identifying missed recruitment opportunities?

 

[Eagle92]

Gern,

There are several reasons for this, so don't take it personally.

 

#1 is about the situation already mentioned: folks sign up and are never hear from the unit they joined. Unfortunately that happens, heck it happend to me when i tried to join Sea Scouts the first go around.

 

#2 Sometimes kids get left of charters and/or their info is incorrect on the charter. had that happen to a good friend of mine, somehow he got off the charter, and we didn't realize it until time for his EBOR!

 

#3 To find out why some people don't move on and see if they would be interested in another unit. Some units are not very good and people do leave. I had a bad pack that would recurit a bunch of folks, but the CC and CM, a husband and wife team, drove off everyone who joined. Sometimes iwas able to get them involved with another pack.

 

#4 National mandated a membership verification program to prevent "phantom" members and units from existing, i.e. Atlanta and greater AL. This was a major problem, and one reason why BSA membership has dropped ove the past 10 years. I bet BSA is growing, but the inflated figures from the past are still haunting us.

[GernBlansten]

Help me out here.

 

If a scout crosses over, registers in my unit, but doesn't show up again, how is the DE gonna know that based on the roster I submit, or the one he already has access too? Little Johnny Crossover showed up for one meeting, submitted his paperwork and we never heard from him again. Happens all the time. The roster I give the DE will have Little Johnny on it, at least until next re-charter. Is the DE gonna sit down with us and go through the roster scout by scout? Perform a role call at every meeting? Call every scout on the roster to verify they are still active?

 

I just don't see the value. THe DE already has our official roster based on re-charter. He also has every feeder pack roster in the district. I can sympathize with the DE if his goal is to maximize crossover retention, but auditing a units roster isn't the way to do it. If he is trying to see who was a cub and isn't a boy scout, he already has all the information at his office.

[infoscouter]

Some people are not paper work whizzes. They receive a registration from a family, put the kid in a den or patrol, and then never turn in the form to council. It gets lost someplace.

 

Alternately, a unit turns in the forms, and they mysteriously disappear at the council. Our council signs up several thousand Cubs each fall - its not unknown for one or two (or more) registrations to go astray in that process.

 

The two most common times for this to happen are in the fall when lots of new Cubs sign up, and in March/April when lots of Webelos cross to Boy Scouts.

 

I have known of entire dens or patrols who have gone into "limbo", due to missing paperwork.

 

The council gets cranky when you turn in paperwork for a whole bunch of tenderfoot badges and the registrar can't record the badges because the kids aren't registered. Less common of course with internet advancement, but then how can you use that if the boys aren't in the system?

 

The DEs are just trying to make sure everyone's ducks are in a row. They're not questioning your integrity - just making sure the council records match those kept by a unit.

 

We routinely do roster checks in November and May.

[Eagle92]

I used this approach twice a year, in June and in December. As I said I've caught a few folks who were active that were not on the charter, and by doing the checks we got them registered. one year I found a total of 7 folks.

 

I forgot another reason why DEs do this. Membership goals! There are two deadlines that a DE must show membership growth at: June 30th CSE's Winner Circle deadline, and December 31st Quality District deadline.

 

Grant you this may seem like a pain, but trust me it's important, besides the DE's goals. Usually the following scenario happens with BS. Tommy Life Scout is getting ready for his EBOR and gets everything ready, only to find out he is not on the charter and they can't have his EBOR until he is registered.

[ScoutNut]

"I know in my unit, we will just hand them a copy of our re-charter. Rather pointless isn't it?"

 

 

Well, if that is what you are going to do, yes. It rather defeats the whole purpose.

 

Unless you re-charter June 1, a copy of your last re-charter will not have any of the boys you have registered since then, including any crossover Webelos.

 

While your Troop might register all incoming boys immediately online, and bring every transfer/new registration form into your council registrar the day they sign up, not every Troop does.

 

It sounds to me like your District is trying to be pro-active and find any boys (and adults) whose membership has either 1) slipped thru the cracks, or 2) not been renewed.

 

It is simply a double check to insure that the people units have on their roster are also on the District's roster, and to double check with the ones not showing up to see if they can be convinced to register .

 

Why do you view this as a bad thing?

[GernBlansten]

Part of the crossover packet we give cubs has a registration application. If they decide to join our troop, they must present that. We then batch them up and take them down to council and register them. If they don't join, we don't receive the application. Why on earth would we allow them to "join" without processing the application? Why would we wait until the following February recharter to add them? I assumed all units operate like this.

So our official council roster will be the one we give the DE.

Maybe I just have no tolerance for silly work.

[Twocubdad]

He's just trying to close the loop.

 

When I ran day camp, our DE always took the camp registration and ran it against the actual registrations. We always found active cubs who weren't registered anywhere.

 

A few weeks ago, I was at the scout office and our DE asked me to look at a spread sheet he had come up with to reconcile Webelos II registration from last year against troop rosters following recharter this spring. He has about 8 boys from our pack "missing" from the troop. Most were registered in the troop and he would have found them eventually. One had dropped with no intention of continuing. One had moved out of council. In two minutes we had it figured out.

 

There are dozens of places where membership errors occur from between school night, the unit and the council. Unfortunately, ScoutNet is not yet sophistocated enough to be useful in cross-checking rosters. Although units have access to online registration now, you know many aren't going to be as diligent as perhaps you are in making sure the rosters are accurate.

 

For a DE who's job performance in no small part is based on membership numbers, it's a matter of packing his own chute.The few years we missed Quality District, it was always by just a few kids. Like most businesses, DEs have figured out it's easier to keep customers than to find new ones.

 

[fgoodwin]

Gern, if the request is p*ssing you off so much, why don't ask your DE why its necessary?

 

We can't read his or her mind, so why on earth are you asking us?

[Eagle92]

I forgot about day camp and summer camp. that was other times that we verified if people were registered.

 

Gern,

Yes the DE si trying to make a membership goal, but he alos is trying to make sure the coucil's paperwork is up to date. Wouldn't you be ticked off if a CS earned AOL, but council wouldn't recognize it b/c he wasn't registered? What about if your son was up for Eagle, but they could do the EBOR b/c he wasn't not registered according to the council.

[evmori]

I don't have a problem with the request but I do understand Gern's frustration. The DE has access to the unit's roster & that is what should be checked. There is no reason to have each unit submit a roster that they already have! And if there is, the problem isn't with the unit, it is with the council.!

[Eagle92]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I think I know what the misunderstanding is . When the DE says roster, he means a copy of what the unit uses for records, i.e. unit notebook, phone list, etc AND not, repeat NOT, the charter. The list is compared to the charter to make sure everyone is registered.

 

So what the DE is asking for is the unit's internal records to compare against the counci's copy of the charter. Once the comparison is made, then teh charter is updated.

(This message has been edited by eagle92)