I agree. And we should ensure our official Scout software is better or at least as useful to volunteers as the 3rd party software that is now available, or at least make them more compatible with one another. It seems we often produce a resource with our needs in mind, and then wonder why we can't get people to use it. If it also addressed their advancement tracking needs in a more complete and user friendly, in addition to collecting the data we want, we would have volunteers clammering to use it.
I agree there are enough unit level volunteers who also wish to serve as a merit badge counselor, or who would consider it if they knew about it at the time they are registering as a unit level volunteer. When they find out about the opportunity/need for merit badge counselors later on, we have to tell them to fill out all the same paperwork, including their redundant consent to another background check. From a volunteer's perspective, they are volunteering for Scouting, so to expect the same application and another background check a week or month later for what they view as the same volunteer opportunity is just a little extreme. If a volunteer notes on their volunteer application that they would be interested in being a merit badge counselor, we could duplicate their application for use with the district charter, and they wouldn't have to fill out the same paperwork all over again.
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