One Charter to Rule Them All 

Our unit structure and leadership requirements create artificial barriers to providing the most effective Scouting programs in many settings, particularly in rural communities and at small churches or organizations with small to mid-sized units. Let’s build on one of our greatest strengths: the chartered organization concept.

Recommendation: Issue organizations one charter for all of their Scouting units and each organization has one Scouting Committee that oversees and supports all units they have.

1) A chartering organization has one “Scouting Committee” regardless of the number of units it operates. The single Scouting Committee is authorized to operate Cubs, Scouts, Varsity and Venturing units (just like a pack can and should operate Tigers, Bears, Wolves, and Webelos). If they have large, complex units, they can have sub-committees for the pack, troop and crew.
2) The chartering organization completes one charter per year that includes all youth in all of their units: Cubs through Venturing.
3) When the chartering organization completes the annual charter renewal, they indicate which programs they will offer (Cubs, Scouts, Varsity, Venturing), must meet the direct-contact leadership requirements for each, and must pay $20 per unit they charter. The fees do not change.
4) A boy joins Cub Scouts as a Tiger and can continue seamlessly through the various Scouting programs at his chartering organization until he leaves. He completes an application only one time during his entire Scouting career, unless he moves to a unit at a different chartering organization, in which case he transfers.
5) The various programs meet separately as they do now with separate direct-contact leaders. The program does not change.
6) Reduce the major barriers between our programs so that it is easy to transition from one program without dealing with paperwork and process. Make it natural and easy for a youth to progress from Cubs to Scouts to Venturing (and Varsity for LDS units).

Our unit structure is overwhelming in rural communities and at small churches or organizations, particularly if they want to offer multiple units (a pack, troop, and crew, for example). Our system requires us to recruit a committee and leadership for every unit. Every unit needs a CC, MC’s, COR, unit leader, asst. unit leader, etc. In many settings (rural, small town, central cities, LDS wards, etc.) it is difficult to recruit the necessary persons for single units, let alone multiple units. Many end up serving in name only.

You can have the same person registered as CC of 2 or more units, but this gets complex requiring multiple applications, approvals, multiple mailings, etc.

Are these systems necessary for a quality Scouting program? In many settings they add nothing to the integrity or quality of the program and, in fact, keep us from expanding the program. We are constantly attempting to work around our own system by having leaders carry multiple registrations, etc.

For example, why should a small LDS ward with 10 Cub Scouts, 8 Boy Scouts 6 Varsity Scouts and 6 Venturers be required to have 4 CC’s, 4 advancement chairs, 4 treasurers, etc., etc. Why not have one committee for their entire Scouting program? Then a volunteer can fill out one application and be the advancement chair for their entire Scouting program within their organization? You CAN work around our system to do this, but our system does not easily support the volunteer, the commissioner or district executive in doing this.

Why do we put our charter partner and their volunteers (and our commissioner and district executive) through the torture of completing 4 separate charter renewal processes? It should be one charter and one committee for all of a chartering organization’s units.

One Charter to Rule Them All!

Eliminate prizes, trinkets, give-aways at exhibits at Annual Meeting & Top Hands 

While nice, these are not necessary--I will go to the exhibits in order to get information with or without the give-aways and prizes. Please save the money this year and put to better use or just save the money.

BSA Medical Plan needs to allow medical every year 

 Completed

I love the medical form--a great positive step. However, we should update our BSA medical coverage to cover an annual physical, which it currently does not.

Move Membership & Unit Searches to Home Page of MyBSA 

 In Progress

The most frequent item that I and many professionals need to access on MyBSA is the Person and Unit Search functions. However, those functions are located three layers deep on MyBSA (log-in, click on "Membership", then click on "MS Analysis").

I would like to see these frequently used functions directly accessible from the Home page.