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!
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