IH VS. COR

[Bob White 20]

There seems to be a confusion between the IH, Institutional Head (I believe the current term used on the Charter paperwork is Charter Organization Executive) and the Charter Organization Representative, the COR.

 

The Charter Org. Executive is the head of the organization, lets say the Kennedy Grade School PTO's Ethel Smith. Ethel is the president of the PTO, she signs the annual Charter Agreement, the Membership Inventory, and can sign adult applications (or can have the COR sign it). However Ethel is not a member of the BSA, she is not a voting member of the council and is not required to fill out a BSA adult application form. (No adult is a member of the BSA unless they complete a membership application.)

 

Ethel asks Fred Jones to be the Charter Organization Representative for the PTO. Fred must be a member of the PTO and must join the BSA by completing an adult application. Fred is not a member of the Pack committee but acts as the chairman of the board of the PTO's scouting program. Fred is a voting member of the District and Council. Fred can dual register as a member of the pack committee (this is often done in units that do not have enough adults to fill all positions) or he may dual register as the committee chair. The Youth Protection policies of the BSA and the policies of the Guide to Safe Scouting, prohibit an adult from serving in more than one position within the same unit. The only exception allowed is for the COR to serve as the Committee Chair or Committee Member but no other position in the same unit.

 

Since the COR is the voting representative of the Charter Organization, each organization may have only one COR regardless of how many scout units they charter.

 

Although a Charter Org. Executive could be asked to serve on the district or council committee, they would have to be voted in as a member and would then need to complete an application and become a member of the BSA.

 

This information can be found in the Troop Committee Guidebook, the pamphlet The Role of a Charter Organization Representative, The Guide to Safe Scouting, and in the Council ByLaws.

 

I am unaware of any resources or bylaws that state anything different.

Hope this clarifies things.

Bob White

[ASM1 10]

Bob, you only clouded the topic. My post in the other thread was as clear as it could be. There is no reason to continue it in this thread. What I said was the way it is.

 

ASM1

[shemgren 10]

The old title of IH and the new title COE are one and the same. A COR respents the CO to Scouting at all levels, the unit, district and council. As a COR myself, I have the responsibility to keep the pulse of of our sponsored units (one pack and one troop), keeping the units updated our our organization, voting on district and council annual ballots, repsenting the BSA to my organization.

 

I regularly attend the unit's committee meetings and they accept me with open arms.

 

COR's and COE or IH's are not the same thing. COE run the sponsoring ogranization, signs the charter and agreement, appoints a COR who in turn represents to CO to Scouting (hense the title Charter Organization Representative), and supervises the COR in the carring out of the duties of COR.

 

Look at a charter, the COE signs, but is not listed as a member of the unit. The COR is listed as a member. I do not wish to disargee with Bob, but COE's do fill out the application, but there is no fee charged. Since the CO I belong to is a American Legion Post, the Commander changes every couple of years or so, I have the new Commander app to change the status on the charter.

[Bob White 20]

Shemgren we agree on all points except for the COE needing to register. That is not a national requirement nor is it usual. The only position that national requires a registration on and waives the fee is Merit Badge counselor. Your council may have a unique reason for requiring this but it is not a common practice.

 

Bob White

[NJCubScouter 1389]

I am always pleasantly surprised when someone explains "how things are" in a particular aspect of Scouting, and the explanation exactly matches how I thought things are. Well, not how they always are in our pack, but how I know they are supposed to be.

 

The only thing I would note, Bob, is that as of the last time I saw charter paperwork (in March), my council was still using "Executive Officer" as a synonym for the IH. Hopefully they have now made the switch to "Charter Organization Executive," although it is longer and more cumbersome it makes more sense and is more self-explanatory. I have had to explain to several people (including our Cubmaster, more than once) that the Executive Officer is NOT the "CEO" of the pack, but rather is president of the CO. (Actually our CO, a PTO, always has co-presidents. We just pick one to sign the paperwork, though "by the book" it should be the PTO doing the picking according to their own bylaws. It is almost always the co-president who has a son in the pack, and at least one of them almost always does, since the CO is the PTO of the elementary school that the pack recruits Tigers from. As it happens, this year both co-presidents just joined us as Tiger Adult Partners. One of them seemed stunned when I explained her other role in the pack to her. I don't think she even knew that her own organization was the CO.)

 

I have to wonder though, why don't they eliminate the title "IH" and just have the new "COE." Two titles for the same person is confusing. If the answer is, "tradition," well, I can relate to that.

[Bob White 20]

It just takes time for changes to filter up.

[eisely 13]

Filter up or filter down?

[Bob White 20]

From national to region to council to district to units to youth. If we all agree that the youth are at the top than we are filtering up.