Here are some updates to be aware of this month:
Fee increase
Just like everything else, the registration fees charged by the Boy Scouts of America are going up once again. This has become an annual occurrence in recent years and shouldn’t be surprising, in that the cost of just about everything is going up. Here’s a summary of the new annual fees that will be charged by the National Council effective August 1, 2022:
- $75 for youth members in Cub Scouting, ScoutsBSA, Venturing and Sea Scouting (up from $72)
- $45 for Exploring participants (no change)
- $45 for adult members (no change)
- $100 annual charter fee, paid at rechartering (up from $75)
- $15 for ScoutLife (up from $12)
The joining fee (for first-time youth members only) remains $25.
So, sharpen your pencils and re-calculate the fees you’ll be charging your new members this fall and at rechartering toward the end of this year.
The ScoutLife subscription increase is the first in seventeen years, and it remains a good value considering the benefits, which include assisting with implementing the Scouting program along with improving engagement and retention, plus entertaining the Scouts! (Who doesn’t like a page of jokes, corny as they are?)
Just to be on the safe side, check in with your council to find out if any local fees also increase. Our council’s program and insurance fees aren’t increasing, but yours might. Your Unit Commissioner would be a good resource.
“Protect Yourself” Rules
With the sunsetting of the Cyber Chip and its requirements, the Cub Scout program is rolling out a new series of Adventures called The Protect Yourself Rules.
These new requirements were developed in collaboration with the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center Foundation. They help children recognize abuse situations and teach them how to respond and report. Den leaders are asked to review the BSA’s Barriers to Abuse before beginning the Protect Yourself Adventure – ideally before the program year begins and certainly before working with youth for new leaders.
There are videos for each rank that can be used in a den meeting program. The Adventure can also be used as a pack meeting program (involving parents, too) with breakouts by den so they can cover age-specific guidelines.
It’s a good idea to cover this material early in the program year, to set the foundation for our unique youth protection system and to give our youth the tools they need to help keep themselves out of situations of child abuse.
Special Needs inclusion toolbox
The BSA’s Special Needs and Disabilities Committee has just released a new A-to-Z resource for helping adult volunteers work with special-needs Scouts without having to dig through the Internet or other resources for information and to help deal with the terminology used in the special-needs world.
The Inclusion Toolbox for Special Needs and Disabilities is a virtual encyclopedia of special-needs information. It covers dozens of topics including general information, how to adapt advancement requirements, specific chapters on topics such as autism, sensory impairments, food allergies and sensitivities, physical disabilities and learning disorders among many others. It’s recommended reading – and bookmark-worthy – for any volunteer working in a unit with special-needs Scouts.
The BSA provides a wealth of information on working with Scouts with disabilities. The Special Needs and Disabilities portal page provides links to a twice-yearly newsletter, training courses, awards and advancement information.
That’s all for this month. Please let me know in the comments if you find these summaries useful, have suggestions or recommendations for future articles, or just want to make an observation. You can also email me privately if you’d like. Thanks for reading, enjoy the rest of your summer, and thank you for your service to our youth!
This post first appeared on Bobwhite Blather.
