BSA Membership Cards

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Our council sends out membership cards with each recharter or when new adults or youth register with the unit. I suppose that's done by all councils?

 

 

Anyone have special ceremonies or ways of using the cards in a Cub Pack or Scout Troop?

 

 

[00Eagle 32]

Your commissioner can hand them out as part of the recharter ceremony. If you have a commissioner.

[dg98adams 18]

Our council sends the charter/cards to the Scout MAster/Cub Master/Crew Advisor. My primary position is with district.. so I get mine in the mail.

 

As a UC I ask to at least be there to present the charter... I had to do it myself for a Pack this year.. only 2 cubs showed up...

[DLChris71 10]

My son's been registered since last fall and me since November. We haven't seen any membership cards. Come to think of it I never saw one when I was a scout.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Hello DLChris71,

 

 

My guess is that your Cubmaster or Scoutmaster receives the membership cards, but doesn't have the time to use them as a program tool.

 

I was in that position as a Cubmaster recently.

 

This would be an opportunity for you to offer to take charge of the membership cards and to see to it they get distributed. With a little imagination, you could make a fun program activity out of it.

 

For example, Scouts could use Elmer's to glue their membership card to some card stock and then cut it out to make it more durable. You could improve on that by printing up some pack information on some paper. Boys could cut that out and glue it on the other side of the sheet.

 

That way they would have their BSA membership card and a tool they can use to invite their buddies to join Cub Scouts or Boy Scouts.

 

The membership cards also have each youth and adult leader's BSA membership number. Each new member receives a membership number in sequence, so you can determine who is registered in sequence.

 

After making the membership cards described above (which provides durability), you could have an activity in which youths and adults line up according to their membership numbers, which would tell you who was registered in sequence.

 

That might be interesting to do.

 

As new youths and adults join the unit, you could have a simple ceremony to give them their membership card and an official welcome as a BSA registered member.

 

These are a few ideas I've had on how to use the membership cards within a unit. I would like to encourage others who might use those cards in their unit program to explain how they are used.

[Scoutfish 16]

DLChris71, Beth at the scout office gives these out to the Committee Chairs after recharter is done

 

She doesn't even print them until after recharter . You don't want to print cards for people who quit and you also want to make sure you have cards for those who have joined since last recharter.

 

So, could be your CC has them, or that the CO got them in the mail. Could e that beth still has them at teh scout shop.

 

Give her a call and she will tell you if she has them or who she gave them to.

 

[SeattlePioneer 144]

For those who don't have their cards, these can be printed out by unit leaders who do internet advancement on myscouting.org.

 

On the Update Membership Screen, there is an option to "Print Membership Cards." You can print out cards for all the youth and adults in your unit.

 

These aren't the "official" cards produced by the council, but they could serve for the activities I've described above.

[qwazse 4344]

We don't do much special with ours besides give them to the boys.

In the crew, I take great pleasure in giving them to to the girls shaking their hands, and saying, " Welcome to the boy scouts of America."(This message has been edited by Qwazse)

[Deaf Scouter 23]

No to using them in a ceremony but I do tell people to keep them in a snack ziploc bag with their training cards. Best storage place is their computer password box. They will find them very valuable for online training and awards like knots and scouting resumes. Gotta keep them practicing 'Be Prepared'... *grins

[Nike 94]

Treat them like unit coins. If you don't have a coin in the bar, you're liable for the round when challenged.

 

CMs could also have some hard candy on hand at pack meetings, ande everyone who has their cards get a piece.

[howarthe 42]

I think a recharter ceremony sounds like a great idea. It would be another chance to make a connection with the chartered organization and you could take the opportunity to let everyone know how old the pack is. I was surprised that no one wears the veteran unit bar in our new pack. It's 60 years old! That seems to me like something to celebrate.

[5yearscouter 52]

At your next campfire program, start the fire small, then call up each den and they each get a piece of firewood to add to the first to make it larger, talking about how each scout makes the pack go. Be sure to give make a big deal about how the new scouts who have just joined us are really the key to helping the pack go, and give them a piece of wood that you know is going to catch fire well--maybe put in a bit of the stuff that makes the campfire a different color(if you can figure out how to do it safely) pausing long enough for their piece of wood to catch fire and make the sparkling new color.

 

Or do it as part of the bobcat ceremony, you call them up and they add a piece of wood to the fire and give them their card and their bobcat badge to show they've joined the cub scout pack officially.

 

Annually you could at the pack meeting when they get their membership cards, call each boy on stage and thank them individually for being a part of your pack for another year,

or reprint the cards when it's time to give them their 1 year service pin and make a big deal on stage of thanking them for a year of service to scouting.

 

[OldGreyEagle 5]

The Charter president of the Crew won a significant bet with one of her teachers, she said she was a Boy Scout and the teacher said that was impossible. Some wager was arrived at and she produced her Membership card and was declared the winner.

 

No teacher has since disputed girls can be Boy Scouts, well, actually you and I know that girls can be members of the BSA, just not as Boy Scouts but I guess the teacher was not that semantically adept

[OldGreyEagle 5]

The Charter president of the Crew won a significant bet with one of her teachers, she said she was a Boy Scout and the teacher said that was impossible. Some wager was arrived at and she produced her Membership card and was declared the winner.

 

No teacher has since disputed girls can be Boy Scouts, well, actually you and I know that girls can be members of the BSA, just not as Boy Scouts but I guess the teacher was not that semantically adept

[Deaf Scouter 23]

OH Grey, that was good one. Guess it pays to always carry the card as one never knows what one can 'win'... *laughing