Ridgeline - Base Camp for Adventure!

What distinguishes an older Scout from a younger one? Aside from some obvious physical changes, the biggest difference is likely in how they express their sense of adventure. Older boys tend to become less interested in advancement and recognition, and more interested in taking risks and developing new skills. Part of the focus of Scouting's high adventure program is to teach older boys new skills while engaging them in activities that feel dangerous but are organized to be safe. It's this focus on trying new things and doing hard things that drives the program at Ridgeline Adventure Base. This high-altitude adventure venue offers 3-day intense sessions of high-adrenaline experiences.

For more details, go to www.saltlakescouts.org/ridgeline. Once they've been there, your older Scouts might not want to leave!

There's Something About a Campfire

When you get them around a campfire after a long and satisfying day of adventure, it is often surprising to find that boys who usually won’t talk at all become boys who will talk about anything.  Give them a comfy camp chair and a listening ear, and the campfire draws them out. 

So the question is, what are your boys doing for adventure next summer? 

Where will you see them around a campfire?

Charter Renewal, Part 2: Is yours done yet?

So you have braved the clunky computer program, worked your way thru the 5 steps, printed out 2 copies (one for the council and one for your records) or, if you are more efficient, printed only one copy and saved a copy as a PDF so you aren't wasting paper.

You made sure that all the applications were completed, with all of the necessary signatures, or, better yet, avoided adding any new adults or youth because they had already been registered before you went online.

You have the check to pay the charter fees (if necessary*) and have made an appointment with your district commissioner to turn it in.

So, what's next?

Not very much.  At your appointment, your district commissioner, or another volunteer, will confirm that your charter application is complete; your district executive, or a volunteer, will accept your payment and provide you a receipt; and they will hopefully thank you for your work.

If your charter application has any errors, you may have a few days of follow up to complete, but, if not, you can leave the paperwork behind and get back to what is most important: assuring a great Scouting program for the youth your Scout unit serves!

In several weeks or less, your commissioner will show up at a meeting or Court of Honor to present your charter for another year.  Please make sure to thank them for their service, too!

*Some organizations have made arrangements to provide payment separately from the charter turn-in process.  See your district executive for details.

Charter Renewal - does it really have to hurt?

This post is very BSA-specific.



Today marks the opening of the Online Charter Renewal system for Scouting units throughout Utah.   Scouters across the state are endeavoring to complete the paperwork needed to log on and complete their unit charter applications.  It used to be a pretty simple process:  Cross off any youth and adults who will not be renewed and submit the charter application along with any applications for new youth and adults, along with a very modest check, and then be rewarded with a cool document that looked something like this:



Now, the online charter renewal system requires someone in each unit to go online, delete everyone who will not be renewed, type in the information for every new youth and adult, include their applications and proof of Youth Protection training, get signatures, and turn it in to someone at the district to check it and tell you what you did wrong so that you can go back and chase whatever you missed.  

Too often, units wait until the holiday season to do this tedious work, potentially ruining their holidays and others' as well. And the document you get to celebrate your hard work looks more like this:



Pretty boring, huh?  But does it really have to be so difficult?

OF COURSE NOT!!

If you want to have a better experience, there are a few things you have to do to make it easy. These are things you must do before starting the online process.  

These tools exist to help you to manage your unit year-round. They can make even our crotchety online chartering system a snap!

Tool #1: https://my.scouting.org

This tool gives your UNIT KEY 3 (COR, Committee Chair, and Unit Leader) access to rosters, training records, and lots of other good stuff. You will want to save it in your favorites/bookmarks, so you should only have to type it once at most. (If you click on it now and save it to your bookmarks, you won't have to type it at all!)

How does it help with Charter Renewal?

This tool allows you to identify the adults who are currently registered in your unit. (If someone isn't listed, you had better get a new, completed adult application from them right away.) 

You are also able to identify their training, including when their Youth Protection Training (YPT) will expire.  If it has expired, or will before the end of the current charter year, they will have to update their YPT before your charter can be completed!

You can also see all of your currently registered youth.  If a boy is not on the roster, you'll need to get a completed youth application from his parent as well.

Tool #2: Your council's registration department

Whether your council is huge, like ours, and has a team working year-round just to stay on top of all the applications required to support Scouting, or is very small, with a registrar who answers phones and processes payroll just to stay busy, your registration department is there to help with applications for youth and adults throughout the year.  Even when you are getting ready for rechartering, it can be much more efficient to get any new applications turned in to the council before starting online charter renewal.  They can help you identify any missing information, as well as doing all that typing for you when the applications are complete.  It's best to turn your applications in to the council and wait a few more days to start the online part. That way, you will know whether every application is acceptable before you start, rather than typing it all in yourself, and then spending months cleaning up the mess!!

Tool #3: The tutorial

Almost without exception, nearly everyone who has a problem with the Online Charter Renewal system has skipped the system's tutorial for one of three reasons: because they are in a hurry, or because they can "figure it out" themselves, or because they did it last year, or some combination of the three.  Although it is just as clunky as the recharter system itself, in less than 30 minutes, the tutorial will acclimate your brain to think like the programmers did when they wrote the online program.  So, even if you did it last year, do the tutorial!!  That 30 minutes can save you hours!

I hope that you will take this counsel to heart, and make this year the year that you finish your charter application(s) with a smile on your face!

World Class Volunteers

Can an organization ever be truly excellent that relies on volunteers?  I'm talking about world-class excellence, recognized internationally as the best in the world. How about being both a commercial and critical success that has been able to thrive for more than a century?

What can your organization learn from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir? Read this great article at forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rodgerdeanduncan/2014/09/08/5-leadership-lessons-from-the-mormon-tabernacle-choir/

Recognition is vital!

"Recognition" means anything you do to recognize someone's efforts to do a great job.  It can be a gift, a public ceremony, or just a warm smile and a "Thank you!"

We have found that recognition is a VITAL FLUID for every volunteer's engine.  For some it might be like gasoline, the fuel that keeps them going.  If they run out, they may coast for a while and then stop moving, but if you fill them back up, they'll be back on the road and running for you again.  

For others, it might be like the oil, something that you don't have to think about very often, but if they go too long, they might seize up, and you'll need a new engine to get them going again.  

For still others, it could be coolant, something that you rarely have to refill, but without it, you might have a total meltdown.  And with others, it could be the brake fluid, the difference between going forward and going out of control!

Be sure that you get to know the volunteers you work with and how to recognize their efforts to keep them moving forward.  "Great job!!" and a smile can be a good way to start!

Four Steps you can take now to improve volunteer motivation: Define it: Communicate clear volunteer expectations Budget: Prepare to purchase recognition materials  Spend it: Buy appropriate recognition  Prove it: Present recognition in the earliest appropriate setting

Why do we Volunteer?

Volunteering is as much a part of the human spirit as a smile. 

It is paid with the currency of gratitude and self-satisfaction. It's where a job well-done truly is its own reward.

People choose to volunteer for a great variety of reasons; your reasons don't have to be purely altruistic.  Susan J. Ellis of Energize, Inc., shows why it's beneficial to think of it more as an exchange.  Most of us have times in our lives when we could really use a hand, so volunteering can be a way to either pay it back or pay it forward.

We can also be motivated by a desire to leave the world a better place than we found it or, at least, to help maintain something that we believe is valuable.  And Helpguide.org says that volunteering is actually good for you!

Our hope is that "Voluntastic!" will help you to have fantastic outcomes with volunteering!