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

[curious_scouter]

1 hour ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

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

yeah, keeping an eye on renewals is going to be a regular affair for sure.  It would be great if they would offer the option to auto renew.  Most places I have a membership with like Geocaching.com, Gaia GPS, etc. all email ahead of time "Your membership will renew on X" and it gives you a chance to end the subscription otherwise it just renews.  Unsure why they didn't go this route for everyone's sanity and their financial benefit.

[Thunderbird]

8 hours ago, curious_scouter said:

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. 

You could try posting in the discussion forums at:

https://discussions.scouting.org/

If you post the adult's BSA member ID number (no names), there are a few people on the board who can check for duplicate accounts or other issues.

 

 

[Tron]

On 12/18/2024 at 12:14 PM, 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

National announced a grace period; the problem is that it looks like people stop getting emails at renewal date + 7 days. That grace period is massive, 60 days. 

I am just waiting for the new YPT and training requirements to drop if that gold leaf certification is for real; that's going to blow up 50% of the leaders in my opinion (because they are lazy and can't be bothered to do free training online in my experience). 

[InquisitiveScouter]

Friday evening... none of our members have been renewed through the Registrar.  Perhaps they'll update on the midnight data sync... a Scouter can dream, can't he? 

 

[mrjohns2]

16 hours ago, Tron said:

That grace period is massive, 60 days.

Then they moved it to 90 and then 120 days. Not sure what it is now. 90? 

[RememberSchiff]

Another detailed analysis with recommendations from Scouting Maverick.  Even Roger Krone took note.

https://scoutingmaverick.com/2024/12/20/bsa-new-member-model-creates-embarrassing-membership-loss/?q

 

 

[Tron]

They lost me at the "lost touchpoint" point. Every unit is supposed to have a membership coordinator who previously was making those touchpoints, and is supposedly still making those touchpoints; only instead of it happening in one 30 day period the touchpoints are happening throughout the whole year (primarily in the fall though). 

[skeptic]

Wow; a very overly detailed, though well-documented analysis.  I have to wonder how in the fifty years from 1925 to 1975, which encompasses the peak membership, they somehow managed to more or less keep it working.  We know there were some issues with inflation and fake membership, but overall, it was fairly accurate from what I have read.  

Perhaps we have the same issue here that the retail industry encountered and maybe still encounters.  Somebody has what seems short term a great concept or idea, so let run with it.  But, they do not really listen to those that may really be affected by it, or may have an inside perspective, like those at the level of the consumer.  In our case, the membership bodies in real units.  In retail, the store management that interacts with the real customers and their needs.  I will never forget how embarrassed I was observing what we called the suits ignore the customers' needs as they walked the floor with store personnel  and there were not enough associates to take care of the customers.  We had, in that store on any day a third or more of the registers unattended, which meant lines at the ones that were in use, and not enough workers to clean up the departments consistently, leaving stuff in dressing rooms and just lying on wraps.  In this instance, a half dozen corporate big shots were visiting, and three were walking with the store manager and his underlings for that area of the store.  A line was at least six to ten customers long at the "only" wrap with a working clerk.  The customer approached the "suits" and asked if they could help them.  I could not help but hear the response; "you will need to have that done at the wrap over there."  No explanation, no apology, and not positive vibe.  And I know that they likely did not know how to ring a register anyway, as our own store manager barely knew, and was very slow. and error prone.  And they wondered why their once thriving store was losing business.

 

[swilliams]

Has anyone encountered the following problem?  Our CC says, "Payment from the Troop account won't go through for recharter or for the adult leader renewal.  I may need to pay for the Troop $100 recharter myself from my account and request reimbursement then ask adult leaders like M__ and D__ H__ etc. to renew their membership online and request reimbursement...."

Has anyone successfully paid for their adults renewal from a Troop account that is set up with their Council?

Edited yesterday at 03:29 PM by swilliams

[MikeS72]

As both committee chair of one of my 3 units, and a signer on the unit checking account I had no trouble renewing individuals and rechartering the unit online.

I am a key 3 delegate with the other 2 units, but not a signer on their checking accounts.  Even with the treasurer sitting with me and inputting her information at the payment screen we were unable to get anything to process.  According to our council registrar this appears to be fairly common, and we were told to put money in our council account and let her know who it was for and she would process the renewals. 

For the unit charter there is an option ton the first screen to pay at council.   We chose that option, printed and signed the PDF that popped up, and sent it, along with the annual charter agreement to council with a check for $100 attached.

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 hour ago, swilliams said:

Has anyone encountered the following problem?  Our CC says, "Payment from the Troop account won't go through for recharter or for the adult leader renewal.  I may need to pay for the Troop $100 recharter myself from my account and request reimbursement then ask adult leaders like M__ and D__ H__ etc. to renew their membership online and request reimbursement...."

Has anyone successfully paid for their adults renewal from a Troop account that is set up with their Council?

If I understand your question correctly, then yes, sort of... Paid, but not yet renewed...

We have a Unit Account with our Local Council.  We deposited the recharter fee and membership renewals total into the account ($5400) with a check from the Troop.

We printed the recharter and registrations invoices (the latter was a roster of renewals with costs) from my.scouting Organization Manager.

Sent those invoices to Council and asked Registrar to process.

Funny, the money went out of our Unit Account to the Council on 16 Dec.  (See post above, and I have receipts from council 😜 )

Still no renewals done online.  Our Committee Chair and SM have fielded multiple calls from families who got registration renewal warnings, and they are still showing warning in Scoutbook that they have to renew.

We've had to calm the masses that everything is OK, and that the Registrar will take care of it.

Since we are one of the few units in the council who paid and put in paperwork on time, I expect a little consideration to get ours processed.  But, I am not holding my breath...

Next year, we will attempt a batch renewal process with ACH option to pull directly from our Troop Bank Account.  Eliminating the Registrar/Council Middle Man Person.

Edited 23 hours ago by InquisitiveScouter

[swilliams]

Thanks all.  CC says, "Our district will not accept money from the council account."  Ugh.  They tried the batch ACH mentioned by InquisitiveScouter - above - "We tried the batch renewal process and it's not going well at all.  BSA system sends a $0.01 penny test using Stripe to our ConnectOne bank account but it takes a long time to receive it and R___ (our treasurer) sees it "go in and then out" and we don't know what to do."

So frustrating.  I've told her she should join this forum, btw.  

[InquisitiveScouter]

24 minutes ago, swilliams said:

Thanks all.  CC says, "Our district will not accept money from the council account."  Ugh.  They tried the batch ACH mentioned by InquisitiveScouter - above - "We tried the batch renewal process and it's not going well at all.  BSA system sends a $0.01 penny test using Stripe to our ConnectOne bank account but it takes a long time to receive it and R___ (our treasurer) sees it "go in and then out" and we don't know what to do."

So frustrating.  I've told her she should join this forum, btw.  

Next year, we will attempt a batch renewal process with ACH option to pull directly from our Troop Bank Account.  Eliminating the Registrar/Council Middle Man Person.

Or, maybe we won't 😜

[InquisitiveScouter]

On 12/27/2024 at 1:25 PM, RememberSchiff said:

Another detailed analysis with recommendations from Scouting Maverick.  Even Roger Krone took note.

https://scoutingmaverick.com/2024/12/20/bsa-new-member-model-creates-embarrassing-membership-loss/?q

 

 

Just read all of Aren's articles.  Love that guy!

I'd venture a guess to say he (at the least) visits Scouter.com to help flesh out ideas and articles.