Knowledge Base

Girls and leaders in combined troops continue to register and renew as primary/paid in the girls troop.  They are multipled in the combined/boy troop and operate as one troop.  But registrations and renewals remain in the girl troop so that that troop is viable if the pilot is not approved.

Grace needs to renew in T167G and pay the fees.  Like all credit card charges in America, there is a 3% fee.

The registration and renewals for a combined troop was clarified for me.

Assuming the primary troop is the BT, all girls are being multipled into the BT.

The pin and online registration for new girl (hold) troop are turned off.  Noone should join the hold troop.

Now that the special interest code for the combined troop is activated, new boys, girls, and adults may join the primary troop.  (If the pilot is not approved, new girls who registered and paid in the primary (BT/Combined) troop will transfer to the GT.)

Membership in the primary troop and the hold troop needs to be renewed when the individual's membership expires.  If the family/member is doing self-renewal, they complete the renewal independently in their paid position (boys in BT, girls in GT).  If adults or some members in the GT will be unit paid, the CR of the GT renews them.

Both the primary and the hold troop need to renew when their unit renewal is due.  The BT renews per existing training instructions.  The CR/delegate for the GT completes the renewal for the GT.

If an 18 year old wants to continue participating with his troop but also wants to join a Venture Crew, he needs to join the Crew first and then multiple back into the Troop as a Unit Scouter Reserve.  If he registers with a Troop first and pays the $65.00 fee and then decides to join a Venture Crew he will pay the full price ($185.00).  There is no way for him to multiple into a Crew when he paid in the Troop first, but he can do the opposite - register in the Crew, then multiple in the Troop.  It boils down to the fact that we're talking about 2 different types of registration - Adult and Venture Participant (Youth).

National removed that setting.  It was not working as intended and was confusing.

We highly encourage members to use the self-pay to renew.  If a unit funds their adult registrations, we suggest you transfer unit funds to the member via a bank app like Zelle or write them a check.

Units may, however, renew members and pay for them.  This option is available, and you do not need a setting in Organization Manager to allow it.  Both self/family pay and unit pay are available

The membership renewal system accepts a credit card payment and waits for the payment to be processed and credited to National's Scouting America account.  As with many credit card transactions, if the company system is not familiar with this charge, it flags the payment as pending.  It may take a day or two for the pending to be removed from the online statement and for the charge to be accepted and paid.  

(We've asked National to provide a "renewal received" message in the future, so the member has confirmation that everything is working fine.)

After the credit card charge is processed, the member will get a payment receipt in the my.scouting/my applications/renewal – the same place the member submitted the renewal.  That is one documentation you can use for reimbursement.   As a member of the Key 3, you can also see at the bottom of the my.scouting roster that the member renewal is paid and use that for documentation. 

We have had problems with out of council transfers especially when the individuals are already expired or close to their expiration date. Since you already know this Scout is due to renew this month, the quickest way to get him into the system is to submit an online application.  This will accomplish several things - it will get him into the system and on the unit roster, when payment is made and submitted with the online app it will give him a new expiration date, and it will establish the parent-Scout relationship.

If the Scout is expiring 31 Aug 2024, I would suggest not submitting the online app until on or after 1 Sep. This will reset his registration so he expires on 31 Aug 2025. Once the Unit Leader or another member of the Unit Key 3 or Key 3 Delegates accepts the online app he will show up on the my.scouting roster within 12-48 hours.

Correct, the Participation Fee only applies to the first 3 youth in a family.  Any additional youth are exempt (covered by NCAC).  

The fourth, exempt, youth member is the youngest of the Scouts in the family.

Renewals for all members of the family (parents and youth) except the fourth/youngest is the same for all other members.  Ideally the parents log into myscouting and self pay.  The specific renewal month does not matter. If members are within the window and eligible to renew, all in the window can be renewed at the same time.  If one member is not in the window, the parent will return to my.scouting later to renew that member.) 

For the fourth youth, at present, complete the renewal up to payment, print the renewal form, add a note that Scout XXname, BSA ID is the fourth family youth and submit the paperwork to council.  (A new dropdown menu has been added to the system to facilitate printing.) The registrar will manually process the renewal.

National did not initially build in the capability to use discount codes with renewals which would allow using the code to exempt the participation fee collection when renewing.  We requested adding a discount code capability, and they are in the process of adding it.  When that occurs, NCAC will provide the parents with a code for the fourth youth.  Then the family can self renew and apply the code so all happens electronically.  We'll let DCs know when discount codes are available

Any adult, registered or not, can have a my.scouting account. If they registered their child ONLINE, then they were assigned a BSA ID already. It is unusual for a youth to have a my.scouting account; they don't need one.

If a parent logs into my.scouting and selects My Applications, they see their own application, if they are registered, and their child's application.  If either are in their renewal period, they will see a renewal button at the top of the screen.

The parent and youth may or may not be linked on the Relationships tab of Registrar Tools.  For example, if they were a Lion Adult, the relationship may report that, but it may not report that Maria is the mother of Jonathan.  The father or mother relationship must be set up.  

If the relationships are set up and if the parent has an email in my.scouting, then notifications should go to the parent who can renew themselves or their children.

The self pay renewal is designed, intentionally, to only use a credit card.

As Jae indicated the whole new system was designed for individual self-pay (taking maybe 20 minutes) compared with the option for units to continue paying for their members but with a lot more work on the unit that would turn into a monthly requirement.  They can't pay ahead for individuals not in the renewal window and if they pay in the second month of the lapsed period for adults, the adults will lose a month tenure.

Just like when council has returned adult applications because the COR didn't sign off on them and returned youth applications when the Unit Leader didn't sign off on them, this process has changed this year.  Unlike last year when any of the Key 3 could approve the charter renewal package, this year the COR has to approve the adult renewals and the unit renewal while the Committee Chair (CC) or Unit Leader (UL) has to approve the youth applications.

Once the individual completes the renewal up to the last page before the payment section, prints that screen off and writes a check for the exact amount shown then the COR has to approve the adult renewals and the CC or UL has to approve the youth renewals. The COR or CC/UL needs to get the applications to council by either taking them up or signing a note listing who they are approving or sending an email from the address in their my.scouting.org account (listing who they are approving) to [email protected].

BTW, the member renewal system was designed to take the registrar out of the process.  In the past, the registrar could input the electronic file that the unit created.  The registrar. now has no tools to process a renewal.  If a unit brings a paper copy of a renewal to council, the registrar must manually input each member as if it was a new paper application.  That takes time to manually input to the financial system and the registration system; expect delays.