Volunteers to include on Charter?

[DGS]

First and foremost, thank you for all the welcomes!  I'm pretty happy to have found this board and really appreciate all of the great replies, and will head over to the new to the forum board soon.

 

I agree that this isn't really a SM issue, but with re-charter fast approaching I'm hoping I can add something to the conversation that might get us to a resolution.   And I'd like to free up my budget a little for things that will benefit the boys.

 

Yes, our council charges $80.  I would love to tell you what they do with that 50ish dollars, but I doubt that information exists. 

 

I'm generally against asking leaders to pay their fee.  I probably wouldn't be so hesitant if it was $30, but I feel like asking them to fork over $80 to provide their volunteer services to the Troop is a bit much.  I agree with some of the sentiments on both sides of this argument, and I do think that if we decide a leader does not need to be registered they can pay the fee and we will register them if they wish.

 

It seems like there is a pretty solid consensus here that you all are keeping your registered leaders to a minimum.........and you're paying $50 less per leader!

 

I'm 100% with CherokeeScouter on the YPT, and we require anyone who comes on a campout to complete it and will continue to do so.

 

I have found that even non-registered volunteers participating in Troop events have some insurance coverage.  What I read addressed mainly auto liability, and whether you are registered or not your own auto policy is the primary coverage.  After a registered leader's auto coverage is exhausted, it goes to the BSA policy.  Non-registered volunteers will have to use any other personal liability insurance, such as homeowner's, before the BSA insurance will kick in.

 

I believe our council also waives the fee for merit badge councilors.  We have a number of them on our roster, it seems like we should be sending anyone who is a MB to the council to register themselves.  I presume they won't necessarily be registered with our troop, but will be considered registered leaders?  Are you able to keep them on your charter and not pay because they are MB councilors?  If we can get the fee waived for them, it might just about eliminate this issue all together!

 

Thanks for all the great info!

[NJCubScouter]

Yes, our council charges $80.  I would love to tell you what they do with that 50ish dollars, but I doubt that information exists. 

 

Oh, I'm sure it exists, down to the penny, but the distribution list is very short, and you’re not on it.

[ValleyBoy]

Our council requires all adults Youth Protection to be current for the entire unit charter year  at recharter. so for our unit who's recharter is from Jan 1 to Dec 31 of each year each adult who's youth protection expires before Dec 31 of the charter year has retake YPT.  

[HashTagScouts]

Hmm. I don't know whether our council has that or not, but when I see the word "free" my alarm bells go off.  What it sounds like is that they are charging everybody for use of the council camps whether you are using them or not.

 

 

You got it.

[CNYScouter]

Welcome to the forum DGS!

 

Why is it $80 per person?  In our council I believe it is $33 per adult ($24 to National and $9 to council.)  Of course the National fee is going up to $33 (which I suppose is a coincidence) so, assuming council doesn't increase ITS fee, it will be $42 per adult.  (I believe Scouts are $55 each including council fees.)  If your fees are $80 per adult, that means the council is tacking on $56 in fees.  That seems like a lot.

 

Of course even $33 or $42 times 30 is significant, but $80 times 30 is... well, it's unacceptable, not that it's up to me to accept it.

 

Each year we go through the list of adults on the charter and cross off names of people who are completely inactive, and then we have a discussion of people who just show up for a meeting here and there and don't really do anything, or college students who are registered as ASM's but aren't really around.  In the past, adults who were on the charter but inactive were given the opportunity to pay their own fees if they wanted to stay on the charter, but I am not sure that is done anymore.  As for JosephMD's comment about having all adults pay their own fees, I know some units do that and some adults in our troop (at least in the past) have voluntarily paid their own fees, but I guess our attitude is that volunteers should not have to pay any more for the privilege of volunteering than we already do.

 

Last year my Council added a "resource" fee to all registrations, both youth and adult, of $26 per person.

With the national Increase to $33 for registration in December and another $10 insurance fee it will bring the registration fee to almost $70 per. 

Add Boys Life to a youth registration and it's over $80 to register.

[fred johnson]

It seems like there is a pretty solid consensus here that you all are keeping your registered leaders to a minimum.....

 

 

I agree this is a best practice, but it's for more than one reason.  Yes, I absolutely don't want to waste scout's money registering 30 adults.  But, I would definitely register the advancement chair and the treasurer ... especially in a large troop.  

 

IMHO, the bigger reason to minimize the adults registered is focusing on the goal of boys working with boys.  When adults are registered, they are empowered (rightly or wrongly) to work with scouts.  "Hey, look !  I've got an official title and registration...."  But that doesn't mean it's good to have lots and lots of adults working with youth.  

 

IMHO, even in a large troop, you need a SM and maybe a select number of ASMs, who are synchronized with SM's ideas and plans.   Beyond that, too many adults damage the experience for the youth.  

[NJCubScouter]

We register every committee member, regardless of whether they have a specific role or not, along with anybody who wants to be an ASM.  When I have suggested in the past that we be a bit more selective in who we register, it was not met with enthusiasm, but I was talking mostly about people who were virtually inactive.  I would still register every committee member who actually attends meetings and ev

[ItsBrian]

What benefits do registered leaders receive?

• You get a magazine.

 

 

I have a lot to look forward to I guess. 

[DGS]

Last year my Council added a "resource" fee to all registrations, both youth and adult, of $26 per person.

With the national Increase to $33 for registration in December and another $10 insurance fee it will bring the registration fee to almost $70 per. 

Add Boys Life to a youth registration and it's over $80 to register.

You're still doing better than us, were at 80 without Boys Life!

[DGS]

The feedback I got from all of you here helped me a great deal in having a frank discussion with our committee chair.

 

After a little back and forth, we seem to be in general agreement about who does and does not need to be registered, encouraging merit badge councelors to register themselves with council, and that this absolutely has to be dealt with before recharter.

 

Perhaps most importantly, I stressed that I understood that this was really his domain, but that I felt it absolutely needed to have a resolution and that I was there to support these changes. He is now actively engaged in discussing this with our registered leaders, and I feel that at least for now I can take a step back and monitor progress rather than leading the charge.

 

Thank you all again for your input!