Thoughts and Observations on Recharter & Membership Renewal Policies and Support Systems (A Cautionary Tale Going Into 2025)

[InquisitiveScouter]

TL/DR??   Appoint a Recharter Czar in your unit, make personal contact with all unit members, collect payments, and use the ACH option in one bulk payment submission to get your membership renewals done online.  Do not go to your Scout office to pay.  You will need a WFHAS!  See below.  (This advice will change in the out-years as annual membership anniversaries get spread throughout the calendar.)

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And now, for the rest of the story...

I have just gone through the re-charter and membership renewal process with our unit, given the recent changes to membership renewal policies and IT changes to support those in my.scouting.org

It was somewhat cumbersome, and the many different ways of skinning the cat just made it complex.

Under the old system, units re-chartered and renewed memberships concurrently, and on an annual basis at charter renewal time.  Members joining out of this cycle paid a pro-rated membership fee for the remainder of the current charter year, and then joined the established annual cycle.  With this process, the unit collected and paid a bulk fee for the annual, and members joining off-cycle either paid a fee at the office, or the unit paid their fee at the office on their behalf.

Under the new system, charter and memberships are de-linked.  The unit re-charters annually, and members renew annually, but separately, based on their "joining" date.  This creates an order where first, you must re-charter the unit, and then, you must fill that unit with renewed members.  And there is no more pro-ration of membership fees.

The charter renewal was straight forward:  1) Check your adults to see if their YPT is good for three months past charter renewal date (that might just be our council policy).  2)  Once good, select to either pay on line though credit card (with % convenience fee) or ACH (with flat fee), or print the charter renewal and deliver to Scout office with $100 for charter renewal.  This is all fine and good if you have been working to have your adult roster positions correct, for at least the minimum five for charter:  COR, CC + 2MC, SM.  (Of course, you could fill the five positions with four bodies, if COR double-hats as a Committee Member.) 

Then, you can renew memberships in separate processes... here's where things got messy.

National, apparently wanting to give more choice and options for membership renewal, now has several different options for renewing a membership:

1 & 2.  You can renew your own (or your Scout's) membership online via credit card (with convenience fee) or ACH (flat fee.)

3.  Individuals can renew their own memberships down at the Scout office without convenience fees.

4 & 5.   Unit can renew memberships online via credit card (with convenience fee) or ACH (flat fee.)  (The unit can do these in batches, and pay the additional fees for each batch, too!)

6.  Unit can pay for selected members or all down at the Scout office, with no convenience fees except the time it takes you to do this.

7.  A hybrid of all the above.

With these conditions in place, here is what has happened in our unit.

1.  After the changes were announced, our Committee decided (back in Sept) to let everyone, leaders and families, go it alone, and pay their own memberships by whatever means they chose.  (Option 1 or 2 above) This was the path of least resistance for the Committee, or so they thought.  In my book, it was a different word.

2.  Our own internal longstanding policy is that the unit will pay for leaders' memberships, insofar as they continue to serve on the front lines with our Scouts.  If you want to be a Unit Scouter Reserve and have no commitments for unit camping or Committee service, you pay your own way.  This has worked well.  When the Committee announced everyone pays for themselves, a few unit leaders made the decision not to continue.  (They did not want to volunteer their time and pay $70 for the privilege.)  The Committee then re-visited the issue in November and said, OK, we have the money, let's swap horses and pay for unit leaders, and we'll reimburse those who already paid.  Now the unit is actually paying more in the end because of convenience fees.  But, they assigned no one to work this issue and handle the payments.

3.  Parents are ignoring emails or notices from National, especially around now (holiday time) with prices and bills the way they are.  Online renewals for Scouts were minimal (about 15% take rate).   As of last Monday, 09 December, with 15 December as our council-requested deadline for charter renewal to be able to process by end-of year, I visited with the Committee and asked them if the charter was done and how many Scouts were going to be back next year, I was greeted with classic deer-in-the-headlights looks.  No one was taking care of the charter.   No one had polled, or asked, or even invited Scouts to be in the unit next year.  No personal touch to families...  After an email from the Committee Chair, they were relying on notices from National and Council to spur folks into renewal.  One Committee Member noted that there is a grace period of two months after charter renewal for families to renew.  OK, I said, who is going to remind the families to do this, given they are already ignoring notices?  "We'll look at that then."  OK, I said, will we take Scouts camping during the grace period if they have not renewed?  Has Council said they'll be covered by supplemental insurance while in the grace period?  And who will look at that then?  A second DITHLL.  I asked the Committee members there if they had renewed their own memberships, or their Scouts.  Seven people around the table with 10 total Scouts in the Troop.... zero had taken any action.  This did not give me a good outlook on the fate of the Troop.  "May I take care of the task?"  Then I got the WFHAS! look ("We finally have a sucker!") (btw, I am not a Committee Member)

4.  I picked up my crayons and took to the task.  I personally contacted every leader and every parent. (Approximately 75 people.)  Some were not aware... head in the sand.  Some kind of understood they had to do something, but ignored.  Some were on the fence.  And some had been keeping their "bad" news to themselves.  We are losing eight leaders and 15 Scouts next year.  We could have/should have kept four of those leaders and 10 of those Scouts.  The remaining five Scouts were age-outs this year (2), moved (1) or lost interest early in the year (2).  Of the 10 we should have kept, five were Eagle Scouts who will turn 18 next year.  Their parents cited a few reasons... too much to pay ($160 just for National and Council fees), preparing for college, jobs, other commitments, etc.  Traditionally, we have kept those Scouts on.   Mostly, I think, out of their sense of loyalty to the Troop.  I perceive that is going away...  We will have one Scout who holds Eagle rank when 01 Jan rolls around.

5.  As I was talking with parents, many assumed that since their Scout had monies on Scout Accounts with the Troop, sufficient to cover their costs, that the Troop was just "going to take care of it."  They had ignored or otherwise had not read the Committee Chair's email from Sept notifying them of membership renewal changes.  This did not surprise me one bit.  So, I went back to the CC with that question, and, got the green light to pay for membership renewal for Scouts out of the Troop account if they had monies, at the same time when I submitted the leader renewal roster and payment.

6.  So after making my list and checking it twice, I went into the instructions and IT tools to make it happen.  Instructions from National and Council contradicted each other in some cases, so I had to run tests of the system to create and delete membership renewals to figure it out.  It's pretty clunky, and what you need isn't there. You cannot do anything with multiple memberships ("Gonna have to deal with that later was the Registrars answer).  You cannot select or unselect Scout Life subscriptions unless you pay online, which we aren't.  Some parents have gone in  and initiated a renewal, but never made payment.  Unit Key 3 and Delegates cannot cancel those out.  The Registrar says all those have to be canceled out before we pay for the Scout at the office, and it has to be done by the parent who initiated it.  There are a few other glitches and gotchas...

I am ready to take us across the finish line at the Scout office tomorrow. (Oh God, do I feel sorry for those folks who live hours away from the Scout office!)

I'll let you know how it goes...

A lingering question:  With your charter being de-linked from membership renewal, if you do not have your roster straight, and you re-charter, but some of those primary positions do not renew, do you have a unit?  Meanwhile, National will renew memberships into this malformed unit.  What happens when someone notices there are Scouts in a unit without the required number of active/renewed adult memberships to form that unit?  Well, National & Council will have their membership money, and we'll sort it out, I guess.

A lingering thought:  I ask myself 'Why all this contortion?" and the simplest answer I can come up with is that National is automating to the final goal of eliminating the Council Registrar.  I am all for automating tasks, when possible.  But, in all my days, whenever I had ANY problem, it was always the Council Registrar who worked the issue to serve our units.  Anyone trying to get answers from National or help on most IT issues these days is just crying into the wilderness.  The one group who is making Scoutbook go is the Scoutbook Users Advisory Council... a group of volunteers.

BSA, if you don't take care of people, they will vote with their feet.  Can you not see this is what has been happening to your membership these last few years?  Expect your numbers to drop even sharper now.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 15 by InquisitiveScouter

[fred8033]

Wow.  So much of what you wrote seems extremely predictable.  BUT, we've seen that happen many times in scouting.   My scouting days are over mostly, but in my two decades as a leader, the registrar was critical to fixing so so so many issues.  In fact, the registrar was pretty much the only person who could fix unit specific issues.

[InquisitiveScouter]

Just now, fred8033 said:

So much of what you wrote seems extremely predictable.

Exactly.  At all levels... unit/council/National.

And sorry for the long post.  To quote Ben Franklin, "I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter."

[InquisitiveScouter]

Fees paid.  Roster submitted.  Registrar is happy we are "on time."  Only one of four units on time in council as of 2PM today.  Yikes.

She told me she has 6 open support tickets with BSA on system issues.

Let's see how long it takes for our members to show renewed in system...

Edited December 16 by InquisitiveScouter

[Tron]

I was told the same thing about multiples; I am not happy about it but I understand and I am willing to do the extra paper and leg work as long as my primary membership goes through. Both of the units that I directly work with are doing renewal mostly on your own. Unit 1 is doing adults are paid for by the unit, and that only encountered 1 issue, and it was with a multiple who had already paid; council has to drop him from our roster and then re-add him after Jan 1, it makes no sense. Unit 2 is going it all on your own. Both units are basically planning on revisiting peoples membership issues after Jan 1 due to the various grace periods. 

Overall no-one seems upset except some people with multiples. The multiples thing is a problem, and I think mostly due to a lack of a good job aid to walk people through that process. 

[skeptic]

If we were simply carrying the same membership number to the various positions, which we technically are, it should not be that hard I would think.  The only real issue is to assure the person is registered with YP and so on.  If their number is on more than one list or roster, so what?  Too simple I guess.

[mrjohns2]

It has been decently bad for us.

-no way to remove a volunteer from the unit roster, so have to sign that the roster is approved even if someone is dropping
-if you choose to opt-out a volunteer, no indication on the roster screen
-cub leaders who are not returning, but their cubs are, started and abandoned their renewal. Now, we can't pay for any adults until those people log in and cancel their started, but not completed, renewal
-people double charged (2 so far)
-people charged something different than what the receipt says
-7-8 days to indicate paid, even though the money was removed from the checking in 18-36 hours
-early on, a DL marked their cub opt-out on accident and had to have registrar reset

 

Edited December 18 by mrjohns2

[MattR]

I figured out a very long time ago that the registrar must be kept happy if you ever wanted anything fixed for your unit. If they're removed then I can't imagine the frustration that will create. I mean, I just hoped the counsel exec stayed out of my way but I went out of my way to keep the registrar happy. They knew how to fix things.

For those of you still dealing with these issues, I wish you luck.

 

[curious_scouter]

Pretty much the same here.

We did tell leaders we will pay/do your re-up or reimburse if you DIY.  So we avoided any controversy there and many who have the means have stated they do not want reimbursement.  We insist they should not pay to volunteer, they insist they do not want repaid, we let it rest and it's a nice bump in support.  We have a TON of adult leaders registered, all active, but it has put a financial strain on the unit as fees skyrocket.  So even a small relief here is welcome. 

Everyone else is going through it at their own distressingly slow pace   but going. I suspect we'll have to pin down people to finish and likely will have to submit a batch we pay and bill people for just to avoid apps expiring and having to be redone.

The hardest thing right now is that one of our adults shows as YPT expired, but I've literally watched him take the course, get the thumbs up - and it does not register.  We're perplexed, but unless we can sort it out we'll have to drop him to re-up the unit and deal with it later. 

It's new, so it's a bit bumpy but once everyone is in the groove, I think it's going to ultimately be a benefit.  No more pro-ration confusion, no more CRUSHING the committee / renewal chair for 2-3 months a year.  Recharter for us was always such a goat rodeo.  Leading cause of CC burnout in my book.  I think this is already marginally better and will only improve in the years ahead.

[InquisitiveScouter]

2 hours ago, curious_scouter said:

No more pro-ration confusion, no more CRUSHING the committee / renewal chair for 2-3 months a year.  Recharter for us was always such a goat rodeo.  Leading cause of CC burnout in my book.  I think this is already marginally better and will only improve in the years ahead.

I hope you are right. 

But, I think the improvement will be just to spread the pain out across the calendar year.  Under the new system, every month, someone on the committee will have to remind parents to renew their Scout's registration.  Or, go through some process your unit sets up to cover membership costs.  A little pain each month is easier to manage than all the pain at one time.

[mrjohns2]

2 hours ago, curious_scouter said:

YPT expired, but I've literally watched him take the course, get the thumbs up - and it does not register

All 4 parts within 60 (?) days? Sometimes people do one or 3 and don’t do the 4th for a few months and it won’t count them all by design. 

[curious_scouter]

32 minutes ago, mrjohns2 said:

All 4 parts within 60 (?) days? Sometimes people do one or 3 and don’t do the 4th for a few months and it won’t count them all by design. 

It shows 100% completion with that day's date.  It just never updates.  I literally sat next to him last meeting and watched him do it again in an effort to help avoid any issues and he did everything I would do (and have) and it just doesn't reflect.  My suspicion is that he's somehow created a new my.scouting account and is doing the training there, but I could not confirm it with him.  That's probably the biggest issue right now for us is duplicate accounts.

32 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

I hope you are right. 

But, I think the improvement will be just to spread the pain out across the calendar year.  Under the new system, every month, someone on the committee will have to remind parents to renew their Scout's registration.  Or, go through some process your unit sets up to cover membership costs.  A little pain each month is easier to manage than all the pain at one time.

Maybe.  But I think most people are accustomed to subscriptions these days and that's what this is now.  If they can handle hulu, I think they'll be able to handle this.  I think the biggest challenge is getting the "old guard" to do it in the new way.  Starting this year for anyone who's new this will just be "how it's done".  But, as you say, even spreading the pain and breaking the challenge into smaller chunks is a decent benefit.

The only downshot right now is it looks like the "penalty" for not renewing on time is you LOSE your registration.  You have to submit a new application is what I understand.  That's just going to create MORE duplicate BSA IDs and more confusion.  But I'll know whether that's a legit concern 'round about Jan 1

[InquisitiveScouter]

21 minutes ago, curious_scouter said:

It shows 100% completion with that day's date.  It just never updates.  I literally sat next to him last meeting and watched him do it again in an effort to help avoid any issues and he did everything I would do (and have) and it just doesn't reflect.  My suspicion is that he's somehow created a new my.scouting account and is doing the training there, but I could not confirm it with him.  That's probably the biggest issue right now for us is duplicate accounts.

Maybe.  But I think most people are accustomed to subscriptions these days and that's what this is now.  If they can handle hulu, I think they'll be able to handle this.  I think the biggest challenge is getting the "old guard" to do it in the new way.  Starting this year for anyone who's new this will just be "how it's done".  But, as you say, even spreading the pain and breaking the challenge into smaller chunks is a decent benefit.

The only downshot right now is it looks like the "penalty" for not renewing on time is you LOSE your registration.  You have to submit a new application is what I understand.  That's just going to create MORE duplicate BSA IDs and more confusion.  But I'll know whether that's a legit concern 'round about Jan 1

Meh, most subscriptions are automated.  Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, etc... you set them up to automatically charge.  You have to intervene to stop the subscription. 

BSA's is currently set up so that you have to take action to renew.  At first blush, I think this will only cause units pain.

Every outing you go on, you'll have to check to see if Scouts are registered. 

Actually, many leaders I run across don't bother with that stuff anyway... or medical forms, or swim checks, or adult training, etc...  They just take kids camping and don't worry about it.  I know a unit that had a Scout camping with them for eight months before they figured out his application was never submitted.  Don't see that much different happening with it being automated, especially on renewal.

Edited December 18 by InquisitiveScouter

[InquisitiveScouter]

22 minutes ago, curious_scouter said:

It shows 100% completion with that day's date.  It just never updates.  I literally sat next to him last meeting and watched him do it again in an effort to help avoid any issues and he did everything I would do (and have) and it just doesn't reflect.  My suspicion is that he's somehow created a new my.scouting account and is doing the training there, but I could not confirm it with him.  That's probably the biggest issue right now for us is duplicate accounts.

Ask the Registrar to open a trouble ticket with IT support.  They can see his training history and will credit him if it is complete.

[Eagle94-A1]

I will be making a trip and hand-delivering paperwork. One quirk in my locale is that one toyed of insurance has a credit that will pay for Scouts. However the paperwork needs to be turned into the council and they take care of it. Over 1/2 of my troop is in that program, so there is nothing I can do online.

2 of my adults show YPT has expired. I have copies of their YPT certificates from January, just need to find them, and will be delivering them with the other paperwork.

Since all my folks, save 1 adult, were involved in Scouting prior to the new process, everyone, save that one guy, recharters at same time.