Rechartering

Welcome to the Five Rivers Council’s (FRC) on-line Internet Rechartering System 2.0 (IR). We thank you for using the Boy Scouts of America’s Unit Charter Renewal System. Internet Rechartering is a Web-based method for units to renew their charters from any online location—at home or at the office. Units will love this new method; it’s easy, convenient, and accurate because you enter the information yourself!

        RECHARTER RESOURCES

The Council Recharter website contains helpful information about recharter including links to
 

• BSA’s Internet Rechartering website, and its tutorial.
• Unit Charter Agreement
• Recharter Fee Worksheet
• BSA Adult Application
• BSA Youth Application
• Journey to Excellence 
• Logging Service Hours

POINTS OF NOTE:
 

• All units and districts being on the same schedule with recharters due no later than December 1, 2018. See SCHEDULE for key dates for unit rechartering. All charters expire December 31st.
• Explorer Posts may need to process their renewal by hand. You will need to go to the Learning for Life website for all training.
• Any renewal not processed by December 31, 2021 will drop. This means no advancement, no attendance at Council and District activities and no liability insurance. Any accident/injury occurring for a unit not chartered is the sole responsibility of the adults and organization.
• Access codes for renewal were emailed to the Unit by the National Office. Your District Professional can provide it if you did not get it.
• For those effected by the PA youth protection law (PA-15) please click here.
• All renewals due no later than 12/1/21 (same time as popcorn money)
• All charters are now processed online. More Councils are using this feature which can create slow down on the system near the end of December, due to heavy traffic. DO NOT WAIT.
• Youth/Adult Applications received after 11/1 may not show up on your online recharter. You will have to enter their information in manually or upload it. This does not mean that they are not registered. National Registrar services closes the system down for rechartering.

SCHEDULE

       Oct 15th: IR goes live at Internet Advancement

       Nov 16th: Charters in – avoid holiday delays

       Dec 1st: Must have charter renewal done

       Dec 31st: Charters not in and processed (this means paid as well) will be dropped!

             Dropped means

• No insurance coverage for any meeting, event or activity
• No advancement (or time served in rank)
• No participation in Council and District Events
• NO UNIT

Units are expected to follow this schedule which will enable them to turn in recharters by the due date of December 1st. Units are encouraged to have their recharters done by November 16th.

INTERNET RECHARTERING (IR)

This web-based system provided by the BSA National Council helps 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 on October 15th. You can access Internet Advancement from My.Scouting, Scoutbook or Internet Advancement

IR ACCESS 

Access is based on your registration. Anyone who is a member of the Unit Key 3 (Committee Chair, Charter Rep, Unit Leader) along with anyone who has been delegated as a Key 3 Designee or Charter Rep Designee will see this on the bottom left of Internet Advancement.

To designate a Key 3 delegate or COR Designee go to My.Scouting.org – Organization Manager – Position Manager. From there find the appropriate positions and click the blue plus mark that says ADD and select the person. Note: only currently registered adults show on the list.

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 do not know who your Unit Commissioner is, your District Commissioner. If you need additional help please contact your District Professional.
 

BE “ON TIME – ERROR FREE”. Every hour spent by volunteers and Council staff chasing down late recharters and fixing errors can’t be spent helping youth. THANK YOU in advance for making good use of our limited resources!
 

 

(EXPERIENCED RECHARTER PROCESSORS MAY WISH TO SKIP TO THE NEXT SECTION)

 

HOW RECHARTER IS DONE

 

If you are 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 have I gotten myself into?” because everyone else was so relieved when you agreed to do it.

RELAX. Unit recharter has earned a reputation as being difficult when, in fact, it is pretty easy. If there is a hard part, it’s that some rules have to be followed for each member and that you have to finish on time. 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. Units in our area operate under the Five Rivers Council (FRC), the local operating arm of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). The Council assigns each unit to a District, a geographic part of FRC’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 Advisor, Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Coach, or Skipper. 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 the 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 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. Your unit should also complete the application for the Journey To Excellence Award. The application is found in my.scouting.
 

What is the process? Briefly, it goes like this:
The PowerPoint presentation used at the workshop is available on the recharter website via the “Resources” section. This is helpful for first time users.
 

Inventory your members and collect fees. Collect BSA registration fee, Boys Life subscription fee, and Council accident insurance fee (this is partially covered currently by the Council through Friends of Scouting) from each member that will be continuing membership. Amounts due are found on your  Recharter Fee Worksheet   in your packet and should be used for accuracy. 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, for adults, Scouting position. Involve the Unit Leader and Committee 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 adult members. All adult applications should include proof of having completed Youth Protection Training. This course is available online via the Training Tab in My.Scouting. Attach a copy of the training certificate to the application and the criminal background check authorization before submitting the application. Your adults also must have completed BSA training for his or her position, within the first year to be registered.

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. You create this roster using Internet Rechartering (IR). IR will import a current roster from BSA’s registration system after you first access the system. 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 the paper roster to use for the rest of the process. Consider the tutorial if you have not used IR before.
 

Calculate new member fees. If you added any new members and want them to be members before your new charter starts January 1. Use the worksheet below to calculate the total payment due. 
 

Obtain signatures on recharter roster. When completed electronically, the Key 3 and delegates receive an email with instructions on how to create a digital signature. The intent is for the COR or COR delegate to do this. However, if another member of the Key 3 completes it, the COR will get an email confirmation that it was done.

 

        UNIT RECHARTER INSTRUCTIONS/CHECKLIST – PAPER VERSION

 

The Internet Recharter system is the best, quickest and most accurate way to complete your recharter. If you will not be able to get the digital signature required then you will need to do your charter by hand. You will need to request a paper charter from your District Executive. 

1. Unit Roster.  Compare this to your current membership roster. 

2. Corrections to Roster.  If you discover errors in the recharter printout, you must manually correct the printout and recalculate the BSA National Charter Fee on the signature page of the printout. Corrections to existing information must be made by drawing a fine-point straight line through information to be changed. THE OLD INFORMATION STILL MUST BE READABLE SO THAT IT CAN FOUND AND CHANGED. Use a ruler and fine point pen to draw a single line through information to be corrected. Print new information as neatly as possible above the lined-out information. DO NOT USE A HIGHLIGHTER TO MARK CHANGES. If you add a new youth or adult member, to the roster also be sure to add the new member to the new youth or new adult lists on the page preceding the signature page.

3. Applications for New Members. If you added new youth or adult members to your unit:

a. For each new youth member in the list:

1.     Include a completely filled out youth application
2.    Be sure the application is signed by the Unit Leader (CM, SM, etc.), the parent, and, for a   Venturer, the youth.
3.    Venturing youth 18 through 20 must fill out an adult application with a position code of “VP”.

b. For each new adult member in the list:

1.     Include a completely filled out adult application, including the references and answers to the questions.
2.    Include a completely filled out criminal background authorization form, signed by the member.
3.    Be sure the application is signed by the Chartered Organization head and the adult. Your District Executive will sign the form after you turn in your recharter.
4.   Attach proof of Youth Protection Training. This is available at my.scouting.org

 

The fee is not charged in the following cases:
a. to the Executive Officer/Institution Head unless he or she is also a registered leader (Charter Organization Rep, Committee Chair, or Committee Member), is a Tiger Cub Adult Partner or a Lion Adult Partner.
b. to any member who is a “multiple registrant” in your unit. That is, he or she pays his or her BSA membership fee in another unit.
c. to any member of a unit chartered to the LDS Church. The Church has an agreement with BSA allowing the Church to self-insure members of its units against accidents. The LDS Church does not pay for a Boy’s Life subscription!

5. Calculate Total Amount Payable with Recharter. Calculate the total amount using the Recharter Fee Worksheet (included in your recharter packet).

DO NOT WRITE THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAYABLE ON THE RECHARTER PRINTOUT!

NOTE: We strongly recommend that you do not fill in the check amount until all calculations have been checked at your designated turn-in location.

6. Obtain the three required signatures on the recharter printout
    Executive officer (Institutional Head)
    Unit leader (Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Varsity coach, Venturing advisor, Skipper, Explorer advisor)
    Council representative (commissioner or district executive) – can be obtained at turn-in.

7. Bring the following documents with you to recharter turn-in:

•     All pages printed out by  Recharter with signatures on the first page of the roster
•     Completed adult application; including all required signatures, for each new member added to roster, copy of completed youth protection training certificate, filled out and signed authorization for a criminal background check
•     Completed youth application, including all required signatures, for each new member added to roster
•     One or more blank checks (to be filled in by you after your paperwork is checked).
•     Journey to Excellence paperwork
•      Any proof of training that is needed (ie Youth Protection or Leader Position Specific)
  • The YPT report found in My.Scouting, Training Manager is acceptable
•      Completed CBC’s (Criminal Background Checks)
•      PA residents must bring all required paperwork for PA-15
   

        Timeline

October:   (Training and Membership Inventory)

Go to www.my.scouting.org (the features discussed are only available to the Charter Rep, Committee Chair and the Unit Leader)          

        Membership Manager

• Check all names and contact information for accuracy
• Update any contact information as necessary
• Update position in unit as necessary

        Training Manager

• Check Youth Protection trained status
  • If expiring before January, have the adult take the training
    • Classroom
    • With the Unit (all units have a YPT training disk, submit the answer sheet to your District Training Chair
    • Online at www.my.scouting.org
  • Check for Position Specific Training (anyone completely trained in current material will have a trained patch next to their name). Refer to training reports included in your packet.

October/November:

Access is automatic on Oct. 15th on Internet Advancement

Online: complete your recharter

Print cover sheet

• Check for any discrepancies (these are noted in red)
• Obtain all relevant signatures (Charter Rep & Committee Chair)

Submit completed & signed recharter along with any applications (new youth & adult) to the Scout Shop

Pay membership and charter fees (this is calculated on the charter sheet)