My council appears to be one of the ones doing nothing.
Please see the following news release [United Methodists extend BSA charters through June 2022 | The United Methodist Church]. Re-registration of scouts and adult leaders should be completed before February 28, 2022. Recharter of UMC units should not be done until further notice. Current charters have been extended through June 30, 2022.
We’ve asked our council for guidance and I guess they are waiting to hear from someone else. How do you actually update your membership and process the charter without approving the charter? Isn’t that the final step? Not sure they can fix the software so that you can process membership (so they get money) but not approve the charter for another year. Apparently, some UMC units in our council have completed the charter (with or without the chartered organization’s approval, I don’t know) using the COR’s signature. Our unit does NOT have permission from our church to do that. And as the COR, I would not consider doing that since that is against what the UMC wanted.
After working with our DE it appears that our council is skipping the final step (COR Signature) for our UMC recharter. However, the green stopwatch still persists. We have submitted the recharter, signed it, and delivered payment to the council office. What authoritative source can I look at to determine our membership status? I have multiples in the unit that were paid for, and recharter signed, that still show the green stopwatch.
The answers are still with your council and how they are handling the UMC situation.
More specifically, my question for the Scoutbook team. What information source is Scoutbook looking at to determine membership expiration, and where can I see that information for myself withing the my.scouting.org or reports environment?
How should the councils be handling the UMC issue?
Your council should be working with the National office to determine how to handle the UMC issue. The volunteers that monitor the forums are not in a position to answer this question.
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My apologies for being persistent. I’m just facing a chasm of unanswered questions and uncertainty as we deal with these unprecedented circumstances related to recharter. Our DE has been able to help some, but the loss of Scoutbook is the closest alligator to the boat at this point. We are making preparations to do without, but there is no clear path and we are forging our own way with the council.
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What you are finding this that many have “outdated” thoughts about recharter. Some think it is ok that it may take 2 months or that it even lapses. Before just a few years ago, scouting would continue even if things lapsed. Yes, maybe technically nothing could be earned, but no one really noticed. Now, with online applications, BeAScout, and Scoutbook, it is a big deal. Minds, and some systems, at some levels, haven’t been updated to reflect this reality.
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The SUAC is keeping this issue in front of BSA IT. At this time, we have no information we can share but know that the issue is not being ignored.
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That is some good insight, Matt. I have not stopped to think how the technological trappings have changed scouting operations. Thanks for sharing.
You might try my.scouting > my profile to see what it says your expiry date is for your positions. I’m not sure if that’s definitive if it still shows 2021.
So my.scouting.org shows expiration of 12/31/2021. DE says that council office is currently processing UMC charters without signature. We have no idea how far we are on the list so we are moving forward with the plan to transition to paper.
I think we have all of the reports we need, but has anyone been able to import the Scoutbook calendar into another program / platform like Google Calendar to send out event reminders? Interested to hear what can replace the event reminder functionality.
Looks like we get some breathing room now!
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You need to talk with your local council on any questions you have about rechartering. Don’t wait for guidance here.
For those units with UMC CO’s (especially those undergoing recharter) please see GriffinRoblyer post in BSA & UMC Update in the BSA Commissioners Section of these forums for details of the BSA & UMC Extension thru June 30, 2022 and that Membership Renewal is separate from Charter Renewal. Otherwise like William Nelson says discuss with your local council (DE, Charter Renewal Commissioner, Field Director, Scout Executive, Registrar)(not necessarily in that order)
Checked the other day and now it’s gone… but still no updated roster in system much less SB. Did they get rid of the countdown to stop people from calling in to question it?
@SteveMacCall-Carter My Pack’s memberships were processed at the Council Office just prior to the Scoutbook extension. I worked with the DE to ensure our memberships would be processed without a CO signature. I submitted the updated roster on Internet Advancement / Recharter, paid membership dues at the Council Office by check, and then signed the recharter roster. After that, the updated roster changes appeared in SB the day after the memberships were processed at the Council office.
It looks like the stopwatch has disappeard from my units but I know i still have one issue hopefully getting resolved today. Hope everyone’s recharters go as smoothe as possible
