Hi TAC,
As a pack we have leveraged Chromebook devices to streamline our signup nights and attempt to remove paper form delays in the registration process. This has worked extremely well for us until we hit the lower income family who would like to take advantage of the financial assistance programs available. This defaults them back to a paper form and paper financial assistance application. It would be wonderful if we could modify the online application to potentially direct them to the additional forms with some basic leading questions and allow submission of these additional forms along with the online application.
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Hi @CurtisNess this is a good suggestion. There is a significant amount of work ongoing to simplify complex business rules in many Scouting America processes. New member registration and renewals is a big focus and there are plans to reduce much of the complexity in the process. Financial assistance is challenging as this is handled at a Council level and with over 200 Councils there are most likely at least 200 ways this is handled, each with different forms and localized processes. I will note this suggestion as a possible future opportunity as we continue to work on the improved registration and renewal processes.
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Change of Charter Organization Executive Officer is another crazy one, requires not just paper forms but modifying the paper forms by crossing things out and handwriting other things. Many (most) CO’s change EO every year, so that is pretty annoying for sure.
If from a national level they would be able to collect the data necessary for making an informed decision at the council level, similar to the USDA Free/Reduced lunch programs at schools, it would allow for a consistent, simplified system.
Tie this in with a rules-based auto approval logic to approve amounts based on data entered in the forms and you reduce the number of person-hours going into the manual processing of forms each year. Example: Include a box that says “qualifies for Free/Reduce lunch program or federal SNAP Food benefits” and qualify for a dollar amount off registration… Could also tier the income guidelines too for an auto-approval. Leaving the logic configuration in the hands of the councils would keep it out of a programmer’s hands as well.
Note, even the ability to submit, pending approval, then continue to payment once approved would be a benefit as it would keep the applications in the website vs floating in the stack of papers on a council employee’s desk.
Thanks for all you are doing to make this process better! It truly streamlines things having digital control. Keep up the great work.
@CurtisNess
Councils, as independent corporations, have different policies for aid. My council, for example, provides no questions asked aid up to 50% of the registration fee for Scouts that request assistance. More than 50% is available but the family must have a discussion with a designated Council staff member.
