2023-2024 fees? Any rumors?

[scoutldr]

So, when a unit recharters on Jan 1, those individuals with expired memberships will be dropped?  What about those who lapse a few months after recharter?  Will the unit be issued a new roster? 

That's brilliant.  Judging by the high percentage of expired license plated around here because people are too stupid/lazy/clueless to spend 15 minutes online to renew...I have no expectation that this will work.

[Eagle94-A1]

1 hour ago, scoutldr said:

So, when a unit recharters on Jan 1, those individuals with expired memberships will be dropped?  What about those who lapse a few months after recharter?  Will the unit be issued a new roster?

My question is this:

What happens to the Scouts who pay the registration fee on time, but the Troop goes beyond the 2 month extension and gets dropped?

We regularly have one unit that goes beyond the 2 month extension, gets dropped, and then recharters.

Edited June 10, 2023 by Eagle94-A1
spelling

[KublaiKen]

We pay the dues for all of our youth members. Sending them a link is insane.

 

ETA: I don't mean we collect dues and pay them for everyone at once; I mean the Troop pays for the dues out of our fundraiser. Now we have to track and pay monthly for the Scouts, and they are getting sent things that mean nothing to them.

Edited June 10, 2023 by KublaiKen
Added text.

[5thGenTexan]

6 hours ago, KublaiKen said:

We pay the dues for all of our youth members. Sending them a link is insane.

 

ETA: I don't mean we collect dues and pay them for everyone at once; I mean the Troop pays for the dues out of our fundraiser. Now we have to track and pay monthly for the Scouts, and they are getting sent things that mean nothing to them.

That would be nice,...

Leadership in our Troop has been going on about selling mulch for 6 months and someone was always going to get the information.  Then they wanted to have a quick sale before summer camp this year to help pay for transportation.  I (CC) got the info from a supplier, generated ideas for pricing.  It was put out to the Troop and only 2 families responded with any interest.  On the leader side I asked who was going to help run it because I have other things going on and I cant do it all.  Absolutely no one stepped up to help with any part of it.  So, there was no mulch sale.  

Things I just throw my hands up over

 

[Armymutt]

12 hours ago, 5thGenTexan said:

That would be nice,...

Leadership in our Troop has been going on about selling mulch for 6 months and someone was always going to get the information.  Then they wanted to have a quick sale before summer camp this year to help pay for transportation.  I (CC) got the info from a supplier, generated ideas for pricing.  It was put out to the Troop and only 2 families responded with any interest.  On the leader side I asked who was going to help run it because I have other things going on and I cant do it all.  Absolutely no one stepped up to help with any part of it.  So, there was no mulch sale.  

Things I just throw my hands up over

 

We (CC and treasurer) have stopped doing much beyond popcorn sales.  Can't get anyone else to step forward and do anything else in a competent manner.  Our kids make enough in popcorn to fund themselves for 2 years.  Our spring fundraiser is Scout cards.  We took out enough to have every Scout sell 20.  None did because no one set up a site for them to go sell them.  Parents actually asked us if we were going to set up a place for them to sell.  We don't have a fundraising chair because no one will volunteer to do it.  The 2 families keeping the pack alive are out of steam.  

[scoutldr]

1 hour ago, Armymutt said:

None did because no one set up a site for them to go sell them. 

Sounds like a job for the SPL and the PLC to take some initiative and organize.  I always get nabbed for popcorn by a Cub in front of our local Tractor Supply.

[T2Eagle]

On 6/10/2023 at 2:42 PM, KublaiKen said:

We pay the dues for all of our youth members. Sending them a link is insane.

 

ETA: I don't mean we collect dues and pay them for everyone at once; I mean the Troop pays for the dues out of our fundraiser. Now we have to track and pay monthly for the Scouts, and they are getting sent things that mean nothing to them.

I'm trying to figure out how this is going to work for us, we also pay registration out of our fundraising.  At a minimum, we're now going to have to have our treasurer keep track of and send a monthly payment to somebody.  Will that be National or through Council?  If it's National and Council also wants a payment then we need to do it twice for every scout?  

And how is this better as a process, for units that unlike ours don't pay collectively, there is no way this will do anything but result in lower payments and fewer scouts.  What about units, like our Cub pack who do a hybrid: some money from fundraising and some direct from families?  We're not going to send any money until the family pays.  So that's even more tracking and bookkeeping.

ETA, there is as usual no explanation given for why they're making this change in process.  I suppose we're just supposed to accept that an organization that ran itself so poorly it had to go bankrupt knows what it's doing.

This was not a better idea! 

Edited June 23, 2023 by T2Eagle

[InquisitiveScouter]

I'll reserve judgment until I read their plan for implementation.

There is a chance (albeit a very slight one, IMHO) that national may have an elegant solution.

I know, I know... I'm laughing at what I just wrote, too.

A Scouter can dream, can't he?

[KublaiKen]

But as noted previously, this completely divorces your unit membership from the charter. The list of chartered members on January 1st is no more useful than the list on January 5th or July 27th, as you might have completely different members registered on any given date based on individual membership lapses and renewals. I am curious to see where they are headed.

[MattR]

25 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I'll reserve judgment until I read their plan for implementation.

There is a chance (albeit a very slight one, IMHO) that national may have an elegant solution.

I know, I know... I'm laughing at what I just wrote, too.

A Scouter can dream, can't he?

I dreamt I had a solution for you but then I thought about it some more and it fell apart.

This is going to be an auto pay nightmare. Who knows when a scout quits? What happens if a scout misses a payment? I can't imagine what the service will be like. It was hard enough dealing with Comcast.

[yknot]

The reason that makes sense to me is that it will give BSA a larger infusion of cash at the earliest possible date. It also will also allow them to obfuscate the membership total and boast of a large membership bump as registrations come in through the new scheme. They don't care too much right now about impact on the local units, they are trying to survive nationally. This also allows them to claim membership retention for as long as they want to extend the national invoicing window disconnected from local reality. 

[Eagle94-A1]

58 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I'll reserve judgment until I read their plan for implementation.

There is a chance (albeit a very slight one, IMHO) that national may have an elegant solution.

I know, I know... I'm laughing at what I just wrote, too.

A Scouter can dream, can't he?

 

17 minutes ago, MattR said:

This is going to be an auto pay nightmare. Who knows when a scout quits? What happens if a scout misses a payment? I can't imagine what the service will be like. It was hard enough dealing with Comcast.

Yes a nightmare. My questions include

1. What if a Scout is on a council/unit scholarship?

2. What if a Scout is part of an insurance program (1/2 my Scouts fill out a form and health insurance pays the fees)?

3. What is a Scout pays the fee, but the unit does not reregister on time, or even drops?

[Mrjeff]

I may get another naughty notice but......this is just another example of how the Boy Scouts of America is a rusty machine that is grinding itself to pieces.  This whole BSA thing is being administered by a bunch of colleged indoctrinated people who can't see the big picture of how they are destroying a once great and respected organization.   A lot of people like to quote Baden-Powell but don't like to mention his comments on turning the Scouts into a corps of professionals or letting the "yanks" getting their hands on Woodbadge because "they'll only muck it up".  Unfortunately many of the new BSA indoctrinated leaders won't really know about scouting because they have never experienced it.  Folks don't know how jacked up and sideways things have gotten because they don't know the difference.

[Eagle94-A1]

And when you tell the new BSA indoctrinated leaders how it should be, they do not believe you, make excuses on why it won't work, or tell you Scouting gotta change with the times.

Sad thing is National seems more focused on Advancement, than building young adults physically, mentally, and morally. Just look at the questions on various social media about Boards of Review. Yes it is not a retesting. BUT it is a way to insure requirements were completed, and if problems arise a chance for them to fix it. But any appeal nowadays automatically gives it to them saying, "you do not penalize the Scout for the mistakes of the adults." They praise councils that did online MB colleges giving away thousands of MBs.  And I can go on.

Yes, BP did not like professional cadre. Only professional I can think of that he liked was William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, and probably becasue he was not only a Scout, but lived theScouting life, trying out his ideas with his troop to see what worked and didn't work. Just like BP did in 1907 on Brownsea Island.

[mrjohns2]

Our commissioner just posted that "Membership renewals will be completed either by credit card with a 12-month renewal payment from the individual, by a Scout unit that has elected “Unit will pay all our members renewals” option, or by a manual payment at a Council Service Center." So, a tiny bit more info on the options. Nothing new other than this line.