Yes I have submitted my recharter with our previous chartering organization as our units changed charter partners in August 2020 and our DE told us that it would be easier to wait until rechartering time and change everything then. Our new charter partner is a UMC which will not recharter us at this time. I really don’t want to lose our Scoutbook access and have to do everything on paper. My charter is on hold but I will have to redo the chartering organization, cor and ih once we either get chartered by the UMC or we have to find another charter partner.
I’ve been told to sit tight and wait until March 31st and keep up with everything on paper until then. According to the little green stopwatch I will lose my Scoutbook access on March 1st. Thus my reasoning for asking if parents would be able to see (not submit) what MBs, rank advancements, adventures etc are in progress???
How does one prepare for a return to paper advancements reports in the absence of Scoutbook technology? Because it seems that is what will happen on March 1st according to the little green stopwatch.
Lynn Sevigny
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I recommend the following steps:
Have a Unit Admin or Key 3/Key 3 Delegate go to My Dashboard → Administration → My Units → Export/Backup, and run the various backup reports and store them offline. I’m a fan of CSV, since I can import that to a spreadsheet program and sort/search in various ways to get what I’m looking for.
I would similarly, for each scout, run and save the Individual Advancement Record, Scouts BSA History Report, and Cub Scout History Report (the latter just for completeness’ sake) under My Units → Troop Reports.
Similarly, you could also run the activity log reports located under My Units → Troop Reports
That’s the vast majority of stuff that’s in the database (if you use the payment log, you might run the payment log reports as well).
Don’t forget that your calendar is tied to the unit being active. I’m not sure how exactly that is preserved if a unit “lapses” (maybe one of the SUAC folks can clarify that). If you’re concerned, you could use the Feature Assistant Extension to export the current calendar as a CSV file and retain that. The format (together with the Extension) allows you to bulk upload calendar events to Scoutbook. You might still need to so some fine-tuning later, but it does the bulk of he heavy lifting.
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Calendar would still be there and probably continue sending scheduled reminders, but you won’t be able to edit it.
It seems like your DE did you a big disservice by saying to wait until after recharter (especially since you had everything ready to go back in August). As it is, all UMC chartered units are automatically extended to March 31… and probably longer. I’m not sure if there’s a way to designate your unit as a UMC unit without the CO change.
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Thanks Charley,
You have helped alleviate much of the anxiety I have been feeling over losing Scoutbook access on 1 March!!! I will pass this along to my units.
Lynn Sevigny
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@jacobfetzer I wish this was true. We are chartered by UMC and our “stopwatch” shows “registration will expire in 17 days.” So, Feb 28th.
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I have it on my troop, which is also chartered by a UMC. I don’t think it is tied to reality. I think it’s coded separately, but I can attempt to find out.
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The green stopwatch is set to appear when the expiration date of the registration + grace period is less than 60 days away.
While UMC units were extended, the registration of Scouts and Adult Leaders was not. They are still required to renew their membership for 2023. See the latest release from the Boy Scouts of America and United Methodist Church.
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@CharleyHamilton @edavignon In light of this new information regarding the extension of recharter deadlines for UMC chartered units, is there a plan to extend Scoutbook access beyond 28 FEB?
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That’s above my pay grade, @AndrewDykes. I’m just a unit-level scouter. :^)
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We are trying to confirm that.
It seems different councils are handling UMC units differently too. Some are essentially completing recharter but skipping the final step (COR signature) so members are renewed. Others are basically doing nothing.
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]. 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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