It seems that the few Scouts that we have who’ve entered our Pack using beascout have a seamless online experience with getting setup in Scoutbook compared to paper application processing. The exception is that there is no mention of or ability to pay pack dues. This leaves new parents initially thinking that they’re registering for a very low price (council and national) only to have to be pursued afterwards and informed that additional dues are required for the Pack, which are significant. Can there be some note or indication put on the payment page that Pack dues are not included? At least this way the parents won’t have the sense of being misinformed with the Pack left to appear as the bad guy.
Could you put the pack dues in the unit description?
I just found that there is an option to turn on “Include Fees/Fee Explanations” (my.scouting > pack > organization manager) and we can enter the Pack fee amount. Can you tell me whether the Pack fees are prorated automatically similar to how council and national fees are?
@MatthewMcCormick from that field, I don’t think dues are collected. It is simply an additional description to make parents aware that dues are collected separately by the Pack and the amount.
Understood. Thank you
What’s worse is… I think this is an email that is sent out after they’ve already registered and paid. So it’s kinda a bait and switch.
Though it’s hard to confirm this workflow if you’re already registered yourself.
And now there is additional confusion, because at some point (November?) the system switches to charging for the next year as well as the prorated remainder of the current year.
Ideally we’d be more upfront with all fees/dues (though I recognize fundraising variances among units makes this tricky) and bill people in (say) 12 month increments. I know Minnesota is piloting this approach, and it will be interesting to see if other councils push for further redesigns of the process.
You can include that information on your BeAScout pin – then there is no “bait-and-switch.”
Someone in your unit is approving the application. If you want to make sure unit dues are paid as well, make sure they know so they aren’t approved just because they are there.
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