Roster Check

[jtswestark]

Gern when is your recharter? I ask because what we submit for ours in January will be very different from what my unit reflects just a few short months later: we transfer in Crossovers in Feb/Mar. In our area boys can criss-cross five Packs and five troops in our immediate community, multiple times that if including neighboring communities (and even districts). And in recent years they have been scattering across them all. I believe our DE tracks the transfer paperwork as she has called me on occasion to confirm this or that, so I believe she handles it on her own.

However, the concept of following up with the Webs that fell out of Scouts at this point is a great idea. Much constructive information can be received, and who knows, a few more boys may come back into the Scouting fold.

 

Jack Smith

Scoutmaster, Troop 935

Buckeye Council, Ohio

 

[GernBlansten]

We recharter in early Feb, before any crossovers. I can understand if the DE is trying to get a grip on crossover retention. If that is his goal, then a request for a list of crossovers from troops would be more appropriate. How can auditing a pack or crew roster accomplish this anymore than his offical Scoutnet list?

[nolesrule]

As has been stated, the goal (besides meeting numbers) is accurate rosters in ScoutNet. A unit's recharter roster is accurate only up to the point wear a new person is added to or transfers out of a unit. I am somewhat wondering why the DE is handling this personally though. One of the duties of unit commissioners is to review unit personnel inventory with the unit leaders twice a year, once just before recharter and once about midway through the charter year.

 

I would also hope that units are being notified of registration issues when advancement reports are being turned in.

 

The online systems have helped a lot but they still aren't perfect.

[evmori]

The list is compared to the charter to make sure everyone is registered.

 

Use to be when you registered a Scout or a leader you got a card in the mail for those who you registered.

[Eagle92]

Gern,

In all the units I've everbeen in, 8 to date, every unit had it's own internal roster that was updated as soon as a new member joined. In the troops back in the day, it was the troop record book. Now a lot of units Troop/Pack Master software. let's face it we update our records faster than the beuracracy that is council does, b/c we ar edealing with much smaller numbers.

 

I'll give you another example of why it's important to cooperate with the DE. My son visited a pack back in april. Officially he could not be a CS until June 1, but since we were invited to attend the pack camp out and functions, I registered him in April, and turned in the leader app to be a TCDL. We were both added to the pack's roster, and the paperwork was turned in to council. BUT since he cannot be entered into SCOUTNET until June 1, we were not put into the system at that time. To date I am still not listed as a TCDL on MyScouting.org, so my info, and I am assuming my son's as well, still has not been inputted into SCOUTNET in the past 8 days.

 

However when the DE asks for the pack's roster in a few days, my name and my son'e name will be on the pack's form. The DE will then bug the registrar to hurry up the process, or if the apps are missing, get the pack's copies and enter the info into SCOUTNET.

 

So the entire point of getting this info is to update the council's records if needed.

 

[Lisabob]

I know this annoys people and I can understand, from Gern's point of view, why it seems unnecessary.

 

However, one year when we did roster checks we turned up more than 50 kids who were active but not properly registered.

 

50 kids is a lot!

 

Granted, most were cub scouts, where there's a lot more membership churn to keep track of. But there were a bunch who had dropped through the cracks at crossover time, too, and weren't correctly registered with the troop they had joined.

 

So Gern, just because YOUR troop seems to have its paperwork act together, don't assume all the other units in your district do too. And take pity on the poor district membership volunteer whose job includes trying to gather all this information. I know I got some pretty un-scoutlike responses from some unit leaders when I asked for this info. No need to be that way, really. We're all working toward the same big-picture goal, right?

 

 

[GKlose]

I've been a district membership chair (on a subcommittee of 1, more or less) for the last year. I've spent the last year trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing. Along the way, I've been talking to just about everyone I meet, asking them for their ideas of what they want from the district membership committee, and what we should be doing. It's been an interesting year.

 

I could probably write several pages on what I've discovered over the last year, and in fact I plan on writing a strategic membership plan Any Day Now (we're always focused on the tactics, without a clear-cut strategic plan).

 

One of the questions I asked our DE is this: are we concerned about onesies? Meaning, of course, are we trying to make sure we reach all possible new cubs, retain every single scout, make sure every Webelos Scout crosses over? His answer was yes, we want to make sure nobody drops through the cracks. He added that sometimes the difference of meeting membership goals (and I fully understand what that means to him) can come down to just a single boy or two.

 

This last spring, I (for the first time in the district, I think) did a survey with every CS Pack in the district to track Webelos eligible to cross over. It wasn't that difficult to get the information, but it did take some persistence in email. I didn't have to resort to calling unit leaders, for which I am thankful. Interesting results, I think -- pretty close to 100% of Webelos crossed over. Only a small handful (I recall, less than 5 in the district) are dropping out. The dropout number was much higher from Webelos I to Webelos II.

 

My DE has mentioned that he would like to do a "Save Our Scouts" initiative, which involves contacting Webelos and young Boy Scouts that didn't reregister to invite them to rejoin. I've asked him for a list of names, I don't have it yet. I can't see myself calling a bunch of people, but I can see offering a "recruiting list" to interested units.

 

Guy