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John Garrett

John Garrett
Member since : Oct-24-2008 (Verified)
5 Ideas, 10 Comments, 283 Votes

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Ideas Posted

31
This is submitted on behalf of the COR for four of my district's more than 200 units:

"Here is a possible suggestion. Since you have the boys' birthdays, can they send out automatic emails about once a month that tells the email recipient (COR) that certain individuals need to be transferred between units or something like that. If it were automated, it wouldn't create work for anyone in the scout office and you might see registrations/transfers occuring at the right time."

It could help us to retain youth who may be aging out of one program into another, and remind our CORs of their ongoing role in the management of unit membership. It would of course be relevant only to chartered organizations who sponsor more than one Scouting program, but this is a market segment that we want to support in any way possible. Is it desireable for his request to be accomplished?
Moderator Comments
11/3/2009
From: Martin Walsh, Department Manager, Membership Impact Department

An immediate/temporary solution: Currently a council can go to MYBSA/Membership and go to e membership analysis and get a listing of Webelos eligible to join Boy Scouting. That listing can be exported to Excel and sorted by pack.

The proposed idea was asking for automated emails to CORs. That would be a project that would require ISD development.
Please fix the typo on the left menu column.

"Internet Recharting" should be "Internet Rechartering"

https://myscouting.scouting.org/Pages/Home.aspx
This suggestion is both technological and cultural.

For decades, Charter Renewal has been the time for units to fill gaps in their leadership and register new adult leaders. But many years have now passed since background checks of volunteers has become part of Scouting. Registering new adults needs to happen immediately, but we currently have some leaders serving for several months before recharter time without completing an application or a background check.

In order to shift our culture away from registering adults only once a year, please remove the "Add New Adult" option from Online Rechartering. We need all the help we can get with some units and this will help us to share the message that new adults need to be registered immediately.
Moderator Comments
6/2/09

From: Marty Walsh, Department Manager, Membership Impact Department

Perhaps more and improved communication on the importance of registering new volunteers and not waiting for recharter time will help. Also the “add new adult” option could be re-labeled to make its intent clearer. This should be reviewed as part of updating Internet Rechartering.
22
The Innovation Engine demonstrates that National has the ability to use technology to improve communication within the profession. It seems to me that the next logical step is to also use technology to more effectively reach out to our volunteers and the general public. Many districts have begun writing weblogs with varied results.

How about a BSA-created and -maintained blogosphere that helps us get the message out from our districts - and helps to make sure that the message is consistent acoss the BSA?
Moderator Comments
From: Nate Langston, Adminstration Group Director

Check out the new scouting community; BSA's social network for professionals and vluneers, by going to www.scouting.org, click on "my scouting" and create your account, making sure you enter your BSA membership number. If you don't know what your membership number is call the national service desk at 800-627-3025
It has always amazed me how many trees have to die to support the paperwork of the Boy Scouts of America. One of the most glaring examples of this has been our approach to applications for both youth and adults. Ways to reduce the number of youth applications that a boy has to fill out from Cubs to Venturing is a discussion for another day.

My suggestion is that our registration department consider strategies that will permit chartered organizations, as well as districts and councils, to "promote" an adult from one position within that organization to another position, even if it's in a different unit. This would especially be useful to our favorite sponsors - those that sponsor units from all families of Scouting.
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Comments Posted

John Garrett 2 months ago
David makes a good point. Why do we hold on to non-sensical lingo like "Rechartering?"
John Garrett 3 months ago
And a donation number of 1-800-HELP-BSA.
John Garrett 5 months ago
Wow, what a great way to improve our customer-focus with our chartered partners! We've all thought about it every year when we recharter our multiple-unit sponsors, but Tim has connected the dots very well. This will also make it much easier to upsell a Venture Crew to a unit sponsor who already has a Pack and a Troop!
John Garrett 5 months ago
The Webelos plaid is Blue & Gold(yellow) and Red & Green. It's symbolic of the transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. This makes Webelos Scouts special, something that most 4th- and 5th-graders need very much. Let's build on that, not remove it.
John Garrett 5 months ago
Shouldn't kids be seen by their pediatrician annually anyway? I don't see how there's an added cost here...
John Garrett 7 months ago
Why are your Venturers leaving the crew before they are 21?
John Garrett 9 months ago
Why no comments from those who have voted against this? Many organizations have had great success with lifetime membership options. It infuses cash early on (which can be invested immediately) and creates a sense of ownership by parents.
John Garrett 1 year ago
Nate

That's great news. Unfortunately, it seems to be without a link to access it. What can I do to become part of the beta test, or when will it go live for the rest of us?
jgarrett 1 year ago
I think I should clarify that the idea is to promote them within the same Chartered Organization electronically - without a new application.
jgarrett 1 year ago
I am grateful that volunteers in my district are sensitive to avoiding lingo and jargon where possible. I, too, have felt that a more accurate term for our monthly leaders's forums should be available. When I first went to Roundtable as a Cubmaster, I was not, of course, expecting armor and chain mail, but "Roundtable" did not describe what I experienced. Maybe "Monthly Leaders' Forum" is a more accurate description. But would we have to call it, "MLF"?