RECHARTERING YOUR SCOUTING UNIT Mid-America Council- BSA

Resources- How Recharter is Done-Instructions/Checklist The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) requires each Scouting unit, whether Pack, Troop, Team, Crew, or Ship, to renew its Charter annually. This assures that the Chartered Organization still is using Scouting’s programs to serve youth and assures that the unit roster is up to date at least once a year. We refer to this annual renewal as “RECHARTERING.” This document will assist those with responsibility for the unit’s recharter by providing an overview of how the recharter process works and by providing instructions/checklist to minimize errors.

If this is your first time to be involved with recharter, or if you are an “Old Hand” who needs to “Brush Up” on how Recharter is done. Please read the enclosed information before continuing. Doing so will help make the pointers to resources below more useful!

RESOURCES

RECHARTER WEBSITE The Council Recharter website contains helpful information about recharter including

• Links to BSA’s Internet Rechartering website, its tutorial, and its help system.

• Recharter Workshop PowerPoint tutorial • Document and forms used in recharter • Frequently asked questions

Access it at : http://www.mac-bsa.org/jte_rechartering.aspx DEADLINES Your current charter expires on the last day of the December. It must be renewed by December 15th. Each district will provide a turn-in opportunity by early December before charters expire. Often, this will be at Roundtable. In the event you cannot turn-in your unit’s recharter at your district’s event, it is due at the Council office on or before the 15th of December to be an “On time Unit”. Contact your District Executive or District Commissioner for pick up. INTERNET RECHARTERING (IR) This web-based system provided by the BSA National Council lets you update your unit’s roster to correct errors for existing members, add new members, and remove members who are no longer in your unit. IR is available to you October 1st or when you receive your charter packet at the October Roundtable. Your Commissioner Team strongly recommends the use of Internet Rechartering for all recharters. It will help you-

• By providing current roster information when you begin your first online session.

• By providing a convenient means to type in changes for existing members.

• By checking for common mistakes such as all required positions are filled and missing required information

• By significantly reducing the time it takes for your unit to receive the Charter Certificate, cards and roster.

It will help the Council— • By reducing Scout office effort required to process over

700 recharters each year. • By improving the accuracy of registrations data because all

your changes are saved and don’t have to be retyped. (You know your members better than anyone outside your unit!)

You may use IR from any computer with Internet access. You do not have to complete the process in one session. Just log off and then log back on when you are ready to continue. You do not have to use the same computer for each session- just be sure to log off one computer before logging onto another. NO INTERNET ACCESS, NO PROBLEM! Most public libraries have public computers with Internet access. RECHARTER HELP Your District’s Commissioner Team is your first point of contact if you need help. If they don’t already know the answer to your question, they will help find it. Contact your Unit Commissioner or, if you don’t know who your Unit Commissioner is, Contact your District Commissioner (contact info is attached). RECHARTERING ACCESS CODE The access code required to use IR is on An “Information You Need to Know” Sheet included in this packet. The access code changes every year- do not use last year’s code because it will attempt (and fail) to access last year’s information. YOU ARE A ‘FIRST TIME USER’ WHEN YOU BEGIN YOUR FIRST SESSION EVERY YEAR!

**Be “ON TIME – ERROR FREE” Every hour spent by volunteer and Council staff chasing down late recharters and fixing errors can’t be spent helping youth. Thank you, in advance for helping us make the most effective use of our limited resources to provide the best possible Scouting programs for the youth of our area!

HOW RECHARTER IS DONE!If you’re reading this, you probably have just been asked to “recharter” your unit” and are full of questions. You also may be a little anxious, wondering “what in the world I have gotten myself into?” because everyone else was so relieved when you agreed to it. RELAX! Unit recharter has earned a reputation as being difficult when, in fact, it is pretty easy.

So, let’s start with some of those questions:

What is a unit? That’s the Pack, Troop, Team Crew, or Ship that asked you to do this. You may have a child in it. Units in our area operate under the Mid-America Council (MAC), the local operating are of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The Council assigns each unit to a District, a geographic part of MAC’s area of operations. A unit always has a Unit Leader who is responsible for seeing that a program is delivered to the youth members. The Unit Leader has a title like Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Coach, Advisor or Skipper depending on which Scouting program the unit uses. A unit has at least three Adults who serve as the Unit Committee that supports the Unit Leader.

What is recharter? BSA issues a charter through the local Council to a Chartered Organization, like a church or other organization that owns your unit, which allows it to use a BSA program to serve youth in its community. For example, a Cub Scout Pack uses Cub Scouting to serve boys in the first through fifth grades. BSA requires that the charter be renewed annually to continue using the program. We call that annual renewal “Recharter”. What else happens during the recharter? In addition to renewing the unit charter, recharter time is when all youth and adult members (leaders) renew their membership in BSA. Member renewals are most of the work. If your unit collects all or part of its member dues or fees on an annual basis, that collection often takes place at recharter too. Your unit will also complete the application for Journey to Excellence Award.

What is the process? Briefly, it goes like this:

Attend your District’s Recharter Workshop. Each District should hold one or more workshops to discuss rechartering before most of its units recharter. It also gives you a chance to meet your Commissioner Team, your first line of help in case you need it. You may have received your unit’s recharter packet at the workshop. The PowerPoint presentation used at the workshop is available on the Council Website (http://www.mac-bsa.org/jte_rechartering.aspx). We recommend that you take the tutorial if you have not used IR before.

Inventory your members and collect fees. Collect BSA registration fee, Boys Life subscription fee (if applicable) and Council accident insurance fee from each member who will be continuing membership. The unit’s Treasurer or another leader may do the actual collection, but you must know who is renewing and any changes to their personal data (address, phone#, etc) and Scouting position. Involve the Unit Leader and other leaders in determining the status of those who do not respond about renewing. Get complete, new applications, including all required parts and signatures, for any new youth or adults members.

Register and Log in to start the Renewal. You will be logging in to the Mid- America Council Website address on the first page

of this instructional guide. After you are finished logging in, entering your unit’s access code, your unit type and number, you will have a choice that you will click on that you agree or disagree to the Confidentiality Statement. After you agree, you will select to load the roster “From the Council”.

Update the Unit Roster. The recharter process uses a unit roster in a special format to provide an updated list of members and to provide BSA with the signatures to approve the renewal. A paper copy of the roster, printed in early October, is in your recharter packet. The best way to update your roster is using an Internet-based application called Internet Rechartering (IR, for short). IR will import a current roster when you first “load” registration data. And it will record any changes you make—corrections, added or deleted members-and send them to the Council Registration staff so they will have exactly what you want them to have! At the end of the Internet process, you will print out a new paper roster to use for the rest of the process. You will add in any new youth or adults with their completed applications. Under this section you will also make sure that positions are correct for each leader and make sure that Boys’ Life is marked for those subscribing.

To begin unit validation. This portion of the IR, helps you to make sure that there are no errors. This will let you check the amounts, to see who you did not re-register, let you see if you not enough leader positions etc. When the message comes up regarding the youth not being renewed. The system will have you answer the questions for each youth, such as If they aged out, moved away, stopped coming etc. You will need to mark the answer for each youth to continue. Once the errors are all completed, you are ready to print a draft copy for you to look over. If all is correct, then you are ready to submit and print your final copy of your recharter roster.

Obtain signatures on recharter roster. Before you turn in your paperwork, you must get two signatures on the first page of the recharter roster. The person named as the Executive Officer on the roster must sign the top line for the Chartered Organization. The person named as the Unit Leader (Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, etc) must sign the bottom line as the Unit Leader. The Middle line, Council Representative, can be completed at turn-in and will be signed by a Commissioner and/or the professional Scouter responsible for supporting your unit’s District.

Calculate insurance, new member fees. Complete the “Charter Renewal Fee Summary” sheet included in this packet. The insurance fee is $5 per person you are registering in your unit.

Turn in all paperwork. Take the following to your District’s turn-in: signed updated roster, signed applications for new members, and Journey to Excellence application if not already turned in. Bring in your unit’s check with you to the turn-in: we suggest that the amount not be filled in until someone has checked the total calculated. When your District has a turn-in, district personnel will take the paperwork to the Council office.

If you missed your District Turn in: Please contact your District Commissioner team or District Executive for pickup. The Team will check for errors and will take your charter to the council office.