Difference between Registered Adult vs. YPT Trained Adult for All Scout Activities

@steveMoore1 Unit Admins can get a YPT status report in Scoutbook if they use the Feature Assistant Extension:

Pack [Troop/Crew/Ship] Reports → Show Adult YPT Status

However, YPT trained adults do not count for 2-deep leadership purposes unless they are also registered adult leaders age 21+ (as described above in post 8).

For the "just become a MB Counselor crowd consider that the YPT says “two registered adult leaders”. It doesn’t say stop at registered adults. It specifically says leaders. So… there may be something to the place that a MB Counselor is not a “leader.” Honestly, I am amazed at the number of people looking to skirt the issue.

Don’t get me wrong, if the money really is the issue I get it. But the money has never been the issue in my experience. In fact, I have a couple parents in a very small troop who are registered strictly so they can serve as the second leader. And that is the deal - they are to only be the second registered leader.

I got this simply by asking for a couple to be willing to do this. I asked at a COH letting them know the issue. They all appreciate the efforts by BSA and are willing to part with the money to help out. (To be honest money is not the issue in my troop, and I get that isn’t always the case.) If money is the issue (really is), then ask your DE, ask at roundtable, ask, ask ask.

  1. Your first point, about different state requirements, is a good point. However, BSA has been able to resolve this issue, so why can’t the bishops?

  2. My suggestion, “YPT with additional requirements”, was meant to eliminate the overlaps. For example, both BSA and the dioceses have background checks; why can’t they be the same? Also, both BSA and the dioceses have youth protection training videos with overlapping information; why not just have a supplemental video? (Our diocese uses CMGConnect.)

  3. Our chartering organization (and I believe our Diocese of San Diego) requires diocesan background check and diocesan youth protection training for any adult that has “more than occasional” contact with our youth in Scouts. “More than occasional” is not defined, For example, Scouts doing service projects for the Knights of Columbus’ events has been interpreted as “occasional” contact. As COR, I have, however, interpreted the fact that ‘Lion Adult Partners and Tiger Adult Partners are required by BSA to attend all meetings with their Scouts’ is more than ‘occasional’ contact, and that they must take diocesan background check and youth protection training (in our case, CMGConnect’s Background Check and Safe Environment). While most of these adults are not likely to exceed 72 hours of contact with Scouts (BSA’s ‘definition’ of ‘more than occasional contact’) if they are in both Lion Adult Partners and Tiger Adult Partners for the same Scout, we have encouraged them to take YPT. If these adults joined a non-Catholic-sponsored Pack, they would be exempted by BSA from taking YPT.

  4. As a side note issue, I believe BSA should require background checks and YPT for all Lion Adult Partners and Tiger Adult Partners because of BSA’s mandatory requirement that they attend all Pack and Den meetings with their Scouts. I believe BSA is taking an unnecessary risk here.

  5. Even though we are Catholic-sponsored units, more than half of our Scouts in both units are not Catholic. With membership in Scouting units shrinking over the past several years, especially this past year with Covid-19, our units must recruit as many new families into our Scouting units as possible, so our units can survive. Therefore, when we try to recruit new non-Catholic families, we find resistance to the burden of non-Catholic adults completing the additional diocesan requirements. Why this may not seem like a barrier to you, it is to them. We have lost several potential families because of it.

Jim Brown

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Actually, part of the resolution has been additional training that’s required (beyond standard YPT) in various jurisdictions. Some don’t permit online training. Some require specific additional training. It’s not quite as uniform as it might appear on the BSA side, either.

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A registered adult is a registered adult. BSA doesn’t define registered adults as leaders and non-leaders.

The Guide to Safe Scouting is worded differently than suggested by the The Language of Scouting and BSA Style Manual

adult leader
The use of this term is not recommended. See “Scouter” and “adult volunteer.”

Scouter

An adult registered with the Boy Scouts of America who serves in a volunteer or professional capacity.

adult volunteer
An adult Scouter who volunteers their services.

A merit badge counselor is a Scouter, an adult volunteer and as long as they are over age 21 they are qualified to serve as part or all of two-deep leadership.

Yeah, but no… The requirements in the G2SS are the minimum requirements. There is no restriction for individual councils or chartered organizations that prohibits them from adding more stringent requirements; they’re just barred from reducing the G2SS requirements. @edavignon’s council is entirely within its rights to say MBCs don’t count for two-deep leadership at the unit level.

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I don’t question that. What I question is how having a unit registered Scouter (versus a Merit Badge Counselor) strengthens the youth protection policy/procedure, how it makes an activity safer for the youth.

It doesn’t. A unit registered Scouter is YPT trained and background checked just the same as a counselor.

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