I found this morning, that with the new Annual Renewal Process, expiration dates are being set at 1 year from the last day of the month prior to the registration. For instance, a family registers on August 29th and pays for a year of membership, but their expiration is July 31st.
I have seen another post about this on a Facebook Group and they have been trying to find a way to contact someone at National about this unethical practice.
I understand wanting to consolidate expiration dates to one day a month, but that should favor the member not National. Expiration should be a year from the end of the month you register in.
How do we get this concern to someone who can do something about it?
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@StephenKumm - please contact your council who can submit a membercare ticket
I’m hearing that Councils are saying there is nothing they can do.
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@StephenKumm
This is the way BSA registration works. Registrations are back dated to the first of the month an individual registers and expire the last day of the previous month the following year. It is the same way car registrations work. If you buy a car on any day in September 2024, your registration will expire on August 31, 2025
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No, if I buy a car in September and my birthday is in February, it will expire in February and I will pay for 5 months of registration in September, then pay for the next year in February. If I buy a phone in the middle of the month, the first bill is prorated. It is not right for families to be paying full price for 92% of a membership.
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The councils likely are unable to directly modify this. However, if enough councils raise a “foreshortened” registration period as a concern to the national office, national may choose to modify the way that they track registrations in terms of start date. However, keep in mind that this may be a nontrivial change, since the internal systems may only be structured to retain the month and year of registration.
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OK, your state is different than my state. In my state, if you buy a car in September, the registration expires the following August.
The way the BSA is structured, you must go through your Council to provide feedback on how it charges for registrations.
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I can appreciate this approach and realize there may not be a trivial solution to it, but it is not a good look for Scouting America. It looks like another money grab after the cost of scouting on families has gone up astronomically already, they can’t even get their first full year of scouting covered? I’ll ask my DE to submit a MemberCare Ticket.
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I have contacted my Council about this concern, recognizing that it is a National decision, not local, and asked who I can reach out to at National regarding it. I was given the brushoff…their response…“I am the local contact for this complaint. At this time, I do not have another point of contact and I do not expect to get one. Thank you for your patience as I looked into this, and I wish I was providing a different answer.” How can my Council not have a way to reach out to National?!?
My Council has given me the brushoff and telling me they don’t know how to provide this feedback to National.
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@PamelaNelson1 - they need to submit a membercare ticket
I will ask them to do that, however I am not holding my breath, as they should have known that before telling me there’s nothing they can do. Thank you for the information.
@PamelaNelson1 - well who did you talk to
@PamelaNelson1
Your Council is not giving you the “brushoff”, this is the way the BSA has structured support for members. Everything goes through your Council. Scoutbook and Scoutbook Plus is the only exception.
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Our District Executive, who has been the most supportive of the concern, and the Director of Field Service/Chief Operating Officer and the Scout Executive…
I understand that everything goes through my Council. I went through my Council and they are telling me they don’t know how to forward feedback or concerns up the chain.
For what it’s worth the expiration date still has a buffer. They may “expire” on the last day of the month but they still have 60 days to renew before they fall off completely. During that 60 days they are still scouts, still covered by insurance, and can still attend and sign up for events.
Since there really isn’t a downside by missing the expiration date, you could look at it as getting 2 months free.
There is at least one downside. If for any reason, the Scout or leader drops off the Scoutbook/Scoutbook Plus roster, there is no way to get them back until the membership is renewed.
Have you renewed somebody who has expired? Do they get a new membership date when they renew within those 60 free days? Or is their membership backdated to their original membership date, and now we are asking for membeship fees at the 9 or 10 month mark from that payement, rather than 11?
Yes, you are correct. It would require them to reapply. I just meant in the context of National making it a money grab. If they renew on the 59th day what harm was the date being a month earlier.
I agree with Charley, that would make it pretty nontrivial.
