A=Active/I=Inactive

[MollieDuke]

I've been trying not to beat the dead horse to death on active scouts and advancement, however, I just got something odd from my local council office in my recharter packet and wanted clarification if possible from everyone (and YES, I'm also writing my local council on this)......

 

I got an instruction paper called Unit Renewal Application Instruction that seems quite official. It appears to have a revision number in the lower left hand corner. In the Youth instruction section it says to mark on the computer printout whether the registered youth are A=Active or I=Inactive.

 

Now, if "active" for advancement is a synonym for "registered", then why are they asking for a distinction of A being Active and I being inactive for REGISTERED scouters?

 

Seems to me that here, at least, it appears that there IS some difference being made between Active and Inactive REGISTERED scouters.

 

I do not wish to have a heated re-discussion on the advancement issue specifically, I would like to know what else this could possibly mean. Thoughts are appreciated.

 

Thanks and Happy New Year to all,

MollieD

[Beavah]

Yah, Mollie. It is possible to register a scout as "inactive." This mechanism has always been available. If yeh have a knowledgeable council registrar, you can make the change to or from "active" status anytime during the year, at the troop's discretion. So you can call the council every month and update the troop's "active" list (don't think there's an on-line way to do it yet).

 

In other words, there is an official, bureaucratic way to do the right thing (for advancement) in terms of honorin' the spirit of being active as given in the Handbook. Pretty ham-handed, awkward mechanism. Never really seen anyone use it.

[evmori]

Well, Molly, registered doesn't equal active. A Scout can be registered & not active!

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[MollieDuke]

I went back to last year's paperwork, and this particular paper was not among the recharter things I was sent for last year on any of the groups I work with. Seemed like this year on the forum was full of posts here on "active" and how you can't define active by percentages and such comments which I will not restate here since it has little bearing, and so I was surprised to see this on the directions.

 

I think what I will do is, list those attending meetings/advancing/etc as active, and question mark the rest until I get clarification from Council. Only problem was that I have four recharters due by the end of January and only one day in my work schedule to make the 2 hour trip to the council office to submit them. I want as much correct as possible. Normally, this is terribly easy for me, but this one thing tripped me up a little.

 

Does this sound reasonable to those that know what council does with this distinction?

 

Thanks for helping out.

Mollie

 

 

 

 

[TheScout]

Instead of a question mark, why don't you just mark those scouts who are not active as inactive?

[MollieDuke]

While I believe I now have my answer thanks to several PMs, I do want to respond to Scout just because he brings up a great point that after re-reading my initial post I agree sounded odd.

 

That said, I have two boys, both seniors, that I'm told joined BSA two years ago just to put a membership in BSA on their college resume. I've never met these two boys and according to the scribes records, they both attended two meetings last spring and have never been since. I feel these two could logically be inactive. However, I have another boy who works every meeting night and has not been able to work out an arrangement for that night off. He goes on campouts when possible, meetings when possible (although it was less than 1/4 of this past year), and he works with MB counselors to gain badges. While this child is not sitting in the meeting room, he's doing what he can. I don't feel he should be inactive because he's still doing "stuff" just not meetings. Those seem simple to me. But then, I have one boy who has after school practices all year for various sports. I'm told all his practices are over by 6pm and meetings start at 7 only one block away. He does no MBs that are not at camp (and it's been two years since he went to summer camp). He's not advanced in a year and hasn't held a POR for that time either that I can see. He's attended no meetings since September with the exception of the Christmas meeting which was basically a food fest. SM conferences have not helped nor have phone calls. SO, is this boy "active" or "inactive" as far as the National office paperwork is concerned?

 

This is the Cliff's notes version of the above examples, but that's why I'd put a question mark by the third example. I would have said maybe inactive, but he came to the Christmas food fest, so he still has come recently. It's just not black and white always. It can get very subjective.

 

 

As I said, I feel I have my answer thanks to the several PMs I received from forum members. I appreciate everyone that replied. I've never been asked for this info in a recharter before, so I thought I'd best check it out. Again, thanks for the help, and have a good new year.

 

Mollie