Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
We use the invitation link in Invitation Manager to have scouts apply electronically to join our troop. This works great for brand new scouts, but we were told by our local council that this does not work correctly for Webelos that need to join our troop and that paper applications need to be used.
What is puzzling is the first question on an electronic application is “Is this youth a current/former scout” and then it asks for BSA ID if you say yes.
Does anyone here use electronic applications for Webelos successfully? Any tips for how to use add webelos electronically so we can avoid having to chase parents for paper apps?
It removes the registration payment if it finds the currently registered scout. The issue I saw is that it wanted to charge the boys life fee again even if you’ve already paid.
@jacobfetzer - Do you know if it is indeed true that the system will not bill for a transfer if a correct BSA ID is entered?
We saw the fee that @DonovanMcNeil mentioned, but after checking with a few parents, I’m hearing that they did not know the BSA ID and just entered as a “New Scout”. I’m wondering though if the system does know to not bill for a transfer if a correct bsa id is used.
Regarding the Boys Life fee, there is a Boys Life Yes/No box on the application. We should be able to tell parents not to order Boys Life if they already receive it.
They did try to make a new scout, but fortunately our local council caught the error and canceled the app. Council then told us though that paper apps need to be used for ALL transfers.
I’m just questioning the requirement for paper for ALL transfers since there clearly is an option at the start of the app for existing scouts provided we instruct them to fill it out correctly
Yes, I saw it with my own eyes. There was one page where it looked like there would be a fee, but the next page removed it.
Re: boys life, I suppose saying no would work. I wasn’t sure of the implications of that. Would it cancel a subscription? Also, the CS and SBSA versions are slightly different. Would they get the right version?
Good point on the Boys Life. Honestly, if our troop eats a few boys life fees in exchange for not having to do paper apps, I’m fine with that. Chasing parents for paper apps, dealing with lost apps, incomplete apps, etc. etc has been a constant problem with our troop and really burns out the leaders who have to deal with it. My fingers are crossed that we can get this to work. Thank you both for your help
Oh, the other thing that sometimes happens is it will think a scout isn’t old enough, especially if they aren’t 11 yet, since it doesn’t know what grade they are on or if they’ve earned AOL.
