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Alex Tyms

Alex Tyms
Member since : Jan-28-2009 (Verified)
4 Ideas, 13 Comments, 524 Votes

User Activity Stream

Ideas Posted

The Give Every Kid a Chance gadget has been a useful tool for the last several years. One addition that would allow it to be more meaninful to Unit Serving Executives would be to let the gadget drill down to the district level.

We already have that ability on the National, Regional, and Area Level, why not the district level.

Thanks for your consideration.
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I've received repeated requests from Council & District Commissioners to have the Online Recharter be available 90 days out instead of just 60 days.

Their rationale is that they prefer to give out the recharter kits out 3 months in advance. They conduct a training for the units but then the units have to wait a couple of weeks before they can go live. The enthusiasm wanes and dust collects on the information packet until 2 days before the recharters are due.

I, and members of our commissioner staffs, believe that if they could immediately go home and play with the system they would be more likely to complete the process faster.

General consensus is that Online Recharter is a great resource and will make life better for our units.
Moderator Comments
8/7/09

From: Marty Walsh, Department Manager, Membership Impact Department

This feature is available and has been available since 2004 when Internet Rechartering was released to councils.

What needs to happen is the Scout Executive requests through the National Service Desk that their council Access Window be set to -3 months from the standard window of -2 months.
The addition of the mass email feature through MyBSA is a bold step forward and long overdue. As more and more communications move to the internet we need to keep up.

For years councils have direct mailed various marketing pieces to our youth members; camp brochures, popcorn, Scout-O-Rama info, program events etc. This allowed us to get around the various unit level gatekeepers and gave us a chance to communicate directly with our end user.

Since many youth have their own email addresses we need to take advantage of this opportunity. Please consider adding a place on the youth applications for youth email addresses. (It exists on the Exploring application.)

The availability of youth email addresses would allow almost unlimited marketing ability in recruitment, program, and retention. (I'm sure that National Supply could do very well in doing some direct marketing of equipment, and various other items.) It would also save councils a significant amount of money in postage.)

In the age of blogs, texting, and twittering, we need quicker and easier ways to communicate with our clients.
Ok, this subject may be the proverbial dead horse, but it is still an issue for many local councils. The Adult Leader Application.

Recharters this year were an extra challenge for many councils due to the Disclosure/Authorization Form. In addition to the usual challenges the applications that were submitted without the form delayed numerous charters and caused councils untold extra expenses (additional support staff time, phone calls, faxes, postage, staff mileage and time, etc)

In addition the legaleeze is intimidating to some of our volunteers. A page full of mumble jumbo to be read while they are sitting at School Night for Scouting does not leave a warm, fuzzy feeling with our newest volunteers.

Most people skim the legaleeze. However when the see the phrase "Fair Credit Reporting Act" their radar goes up. Even though it says that it will not include a credit report or motor vehicle record check the average new leader does not read that far and wonder why the BSA wants that information.

While no one doubts the need for screening our leaders and protecting our youth, there has to be a better, simpler way to go about it. If we are not careful we will become nothing but paper pushers and line checkers. New units, new volunteers and new dollars are not found under or behind piles of paper. They are out in the field. That is where we need to be.

We used to teach and preach "Keep it simple." We've seemed to have lost our way on this issue.
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Comments Posted

Alex Tyms 1 month ago
Why not provide story lines to the teen magazines for girls? A couple of quality, well placed stories would do more for Venturing promotion than a $100K+ ads.
Alex Tyms 3 months ago
It used to be called ProSpeak and was sent to your council once a month. Not it is online. At my last staff meeting I asked how many of them used to read ProSpeak when it was handed to them. They all raised their hands. I asked how many had read it since it went on line and no one raised their hands.

I think that says it all.
Alex Tyms 3 months ago
In theory this is a great idea however in reality it may not be. AT&T is just does not cover every council adequately.
Alex Tyms 4 months ago
Quite honestly I think the dicontinuation of a printed Prospeak is a bad move.

With the move to an online version I see prospeak becoming a less usefule tool. The same argument against going to an only online version of Scouting could be applied to Prospeak.

Not every USE will take the time to read it electronically. A hard copy could be carried in a partfolio and read while waiting for a meeting or appointment to begin.

An electronic version is not as usefule to share and review with the staff during a staff meeting.

Please reconsider the discontinuation of the printed version of ProSpeak.
Alex Tyms 5 months ago
Andrew,

The only youth application that has a place for a youth email is the new Exploring application. I had our registrar call the home office to find out if there was a new traditional membership application with the information on it and she was told no.

There is a place in PAS where a youth email address can be entered, but no place for the infomation to be collected.
Alex Tyms 5 months ago
The formation of one Scouting Committee should be a "No-Brainer."

Having one Scouting group should lead to better communications between units and ease transition from Cub Scouting to Boy Scouting to Venturing.

We already require this for the Chartered Representative position. Why not the committee?
Alex Tyms 6 months ago
The council registrar can generate a report that shows seperated leaders. There is another report that I have had generated that also shows the tenure level of the seperated leaders.

This report has been very successful in identifying and recruiting trainers and commissioners.
Alex Tyms 7 months ago
This is especially cumbersome in a council that has a large geographic area. Why is it I can file my taxes with the IRS without a signature, I can apply for a credit card and I can get a mortgage via email or fax but I cannot join the BSA unless I turn in a piece of paper that has some ink on it?

The BSA has made some outstanding strides in technology but in some areas we need to get up to at least late 20th century technology.
Alex Tyms 8 months ago
I would encourage this to go one step further. Make it a part of the online recharter process. It could be populated and printed when the unit finalizes the recharter process. It would help us better serve our leaders by eliminating the scavenger hunt for information that they must now go through.
Alex Tyms 8 months ago
I would like to see a system in place where a unit could file and accident or "near miss" report online. THe report could then be sent to the Scout Executive or other designated person for appropriate review and action.

There does not seem to be a clear clearing house or system for this. Granted the "pink folder" exists for serious accidents or fatalities but this new system could be of benefit.

Just as a Camp Director is supposed to review the medical log on a regular basis to look for patterns the SE and risk management committee could do the same with these incident reports.
Alex Tyms 9 months ago
Retention is important for the future growth of the movement but there is a flaw in the formula. If you serve an area where it is a transient community ie military community, public housing, etc a council's retention rate takes an artificial hit.

I don't have the answer but there needs to be a more fair way to figure out a workable formula.
Alex Tyms 9 months ago
Why not make it a part of the recharter process. The information for the previous year could be imported automatically and the form printed out with the recharter paperwork. The Unit Leader could then fill in the new year objectives and turn the form in with the recharter.

We need to make it easy and seamless. We need to reduce the number of hoops that we ask our volunteers to jump through.
Alex Tyms 9 months ago
I see one of the advantages to the SE coming from outside is that it can cause an infusion of new ideas and enthusiasm into a council. Promoting to SE from within might lead to maintaining the status quo which is unhealthy for any organization.