Why Focus on Unit Health

Since we have limited Commissioner resources, we need to focus available resources on units with greatest needs.  Bay Lakes Council in Wisconsin presented their Unit Health Index approach at PTC on June 2022, and we are basing our pilot on the Bay Lakes Council Document.  BSA National is considering developing the Health Index Criteria in 2024 based on  BSA 01/25/2023 Draft index criteriaMCC has decided to pilot it in 2023.  By using the approach now, MCC can benefit from it sooner and at the same time help establish criteria for it nationally based on our experience.

Other Bay Lakes Council Documents (for reference):

MCC Dashboard

This will cover all units as data is available.  Currently everything is online for Troops, and 4 of the 5 parameters are available for Packs in the MCC Progress

The five Unit Health Index parameters are Unit Size, Unit Growth, Trained Leaders, Advancement in the last year, and attending Summer Camp or equivalent.

Commissioner Service need to move resources from units with Health Index of 4 or 5 to units with Health Index of 1 and 2.

Unit Membership Size – Retention

Retention includes:

  • YPT Expirations
  • Changing Charter Partners/Executive Officers
  • Resolving Defects
  • Financial Aid
  • Youth turning 18
    • Within Troops
    • Within Crews, Ships and Posts

New Membership Renewal Timing, including Email Reminder Frequency

Important takeaways from the Implementation of Auto-Renewal Guide:

  • Nothing changes for units or members until March 2024 for renewals, it’s business as usual for September, October, November, December, and January renewals
  • February 2024 unit renewals (still the same process and renewing the members on the charter) will only have a one month lapsed period, they will drop April 1st but can come back as a S/R unit, just like before.
  • All new members since August 1st  have a 12-month registration period, so they will show on the charter renewal as pre-paid, just like some did last year that paid online.
  • March units are the 1st to be “only unit renewal” and the members renew on their own.
  • Beginning with the March member renewals, the 60-day emails will go out February 1st. and members will get emails again at 30, 15, and 7 days if they have not renewed their membership. They will then get an email 24 hours before and 7 days after. Members will have a 30-day lapse before the drop.

New Individual and Unit Renewal

Use the webinar, FAQ and slides to learn more about the upcoming changes to the new renewal system

NOTE:  You will need to download the 1GB video before viewing

MCC Membership Suspension – Youth Protection

The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) places the greatest importance on creating the most secure environment possible for our youth members. One aspect is having our leaders trained in Youth Protection (YPT) with the most up to date guidelines.  In order to ensure our leaders are versed on the most recent updates, leaders must retake the YPT training every two years.  Registered Adults will receive warning emails at 90 days60 days30 days, 14 days and upon Expiration. Once the two year mark hits and YPT expires, the adult will no longer have access to My.Scouting and ScoutBook, and the adult will no longer appear on unit rosters.  If a registered adult’s YPT expires and account access is suspended, they can forward their new YPT Completion Certificate to support@michiganscouting.org to regain access.

Keeping Charter Partner and Charter Partner Executive Officer Info Up-to Date

Charter Partner information should be corrected when it changes, saving additional work at recharter time. Charter Partner info is easily collected when doing the Annual Carter Partner agreement in the summer.  When the Charter Partner Agreement form is reviewed with the Charter Partner in July and the unit is advised that the Charter Partner is not continuing, the unit has two months to get a new charter in place before rechartering.  Getting a new Charter Partner in place normally takes a couple of months.  The New Unit Application form and the Charter Partner Agreement form can be sent to Registration Services.

The Executive Officer must be the same for all units with the same Charter Partner.  It is very desirable that the same person is also the Charter Org Rep (COR); this saves paying for two CORs when one could serve both units and be multiple in one of the units.

If only the Executive Officer (XO or IH) is changing, then only the Executive Officer Change form is needed.  The New Unit Application form can also be used to update any of the info on the current Charter Partner.

Units that are not renewing

Units that do not renew by their renewal date should be sent the Unreregistered Unit Report form (Red Letter form) to complete.  The unit will indicate their plans, and in the case of dissolving, recording the steps to take care of any assets.

Unit Membership Growth – Recruiting New Members

Growth includes:

  • New Troop/Pack Mapping
  • Online Applications
    • Submission – Zip code/invitation
    • Approval – Adult/youth

Unit Membership Training – Position Specific

Training includes:

  • New Trained Leader spreadsheet for each District

Unit Advancement – Entering in Scoutbook

Scouts that continue to advance tend to stay in the program.  They feel accomplishment and they are continually challenging themselves.  While some Scouts choose to focus more on the adventure than advancement, overall, units that have healthy advancement numbers will be successful in retention.

Commissioners that would like to understand better how unit leaders use Scoutbook to track and report on advancement, a Scoutbook Sandbox is available for use.  See the Link to the right as well as the instructions on its usage.

Unit Attendance at a Special Long Term Summer Activity

The planned 2023 Camp Attendance, which includes both “in council” and “outside council” attendance and is the only metric that does not come from My.Scouting, is one of the Unit Health Index items.  District Executives gather this information directly from the unit, inquiring whether the unit is or is not attending camp in the current year; the metric does not indicate the number of youth attending, solely that the someone from the unit is registered.   DEs are working to include Cub attendance which will include both Cub Day Camp and MCC summer Cub camps.  Older youth units camp attendance alternatives are under study.  Data date for planned camp attendance are posted under the data on the Summary tab.

Commissioner Dashboard

My.Scouting has a newer view for commissioner to view information on units.  You can find it by following the link to the right:

Obtaining your BSA Records

The recent redesign of My.Scouting has made viewing your own information much easier with the addition of My Profile.  You can view not only your personal information, but your position, training, and award history. The following guide describes the features you can expect to see.