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Let's talk about Unit Numbers


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I can promise you that BSA is not trying to use 4 to start all girl's troops. If they want 4 digits give them 4: 0422.

This is all based on one person at council saying something. Kind of like the one person in another thread saying the insurance won't cover an activity, or that there's a limit on blade lengths. People pass on rumors.

If you want 422 then tell them so and if they complain ask them to show you the official documentation that states all girl's troops will begin with a 4. 3 digits is hard enough to sew on a sleeve.  Anyway, have fun with it.

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3 hours ago, mrkstvns said:

Low unit numbers are cool.  They imply permanence and solid roots. The low number says you have identity, while the high number says you're just another cog in the machine.

My unit is 76 years old, all 76 years chartered with the same church. Some of the names on our original charter are family of current members. Permanence and solid roots are in our DNA, despite our 3-digit unit number that we got saddled with because of multiple Council mergers.

I really dislike the notion that our 3-digits say anything about how we stack up to single-digit units. It's just a number, and Packs/Troops come by their numbers in a variety of ways. It's not just a "roots" thing.

Edited by FireStone
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2 hours ago, FireStone said:

I really dislike the notion that our 3-digits say anything about how we stack up to single-digit units. It's just a number, and Packs/Troops come by their numbers in a variety of ways. It's not just a "roots" thing.

The strongest units by us are all 3 digits units (our Council doesn't use 4 digits).  The few two digit units we have are all struggling.

The strong packs & troops around here are ones that have focused on building a strong organization, great program, and solid recruiting.  Mostly that happens because a few adults in that unit's history raised expectations and challenged them to grow and becomea a strong unit.  Sadly in our neck of the woods those are not our oldest units.

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3 hours ago, MattR said:

I can promise you that BSA is not trying to use 4 to start all girl's troops. If they want 4 digits give them 4: 0422.

This is all based on one person at council saying something. Kind of like the one person in another thread saying the insurance won't cover an activity, or that there's a limit on blade lengths. People pass on rumors.

If you want 422 then tell them so and if they complain ask them to show you the official documentation that states all girl's troops will begin with a 4. 3 digits is hard enough to sew on a sleeve.  Anyway, have fun with it.


I am almost positive this is a council decision, where the council wants all of its girl troops to have "4" as the prefix for some reason.  The best person to talk to is the council Registrar.  There might be a way to suppress the prefix in various BSA reports.  It can certainly be done with leading zeros.

Regardless of how that all turns out, you can ignore the prefix on your uniforms and just wear 422.  I know several units with an official prefix, but they ignore it on their uniforms.  The main thing is to be consistent, as @FireStone already said.

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A District Commissioner is likely not the final authority on unit number assignment.

If you're on the verge of starting a new unit, your council should have assigned you a District Executive ("DE") to help you with the process. This professional staff member should be tripping over themselves to answer your questions and resolve any roadblocks you face. Picking a unit number should, to them, be almost a non-issue. As long as the number isn't already in use by someone else in your area, I'd be shocked if they tried to enforce some arbitrary numbering scheme. Yes, there may be some computer system backend code that uses some other ID number for your unit, but that you should really have to deal with on day to day basis.

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I haven't heard of the girl Troops being required to start with a four or have to have four digits, though we have a new Troop 1885 for girls in my city. I have heard that if a boy Troop and a girl Troop have tbr same CO then they can have the same number but to differentiate at council level it would be (example Troop 492-B and Troop 492-G) Not sure if its hyphenated or not but just from what I have read. 

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Our Troop and Pack are both 368.  I've never seen a leading number, but like others have said, you wouldn't necessarily see it anywhere.  We also have a Troop 68 in town, and we used to have Packs 268 and 468.

For the Venture Crew, which is in a different town (was the only active one in the area), we're Crew 28, and one of the two Troops in that town is also 28.  The other is Troop 8.  They use a single digit on their uniforms.  It almost looks strange to me, lol.  When the town started their girls' troop, they could've used 18 or 38, I suppose, but they chose to go with 280.

Does your CO also charter other Troops/Packs/Crews?  Maybe go with something similar if they do?

Edited by swilliams
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On 6/10/2019 at 12:27 PM, reeddma said:

Our number is 1983, the year the Troop was chartered.

Makes it so much easily to know how old the troop is, My daughters troop is 2019 for the same reason

On 6/10/2019 at 1:41 PM, The Latin Scot said:

Well well! Your troop and I were born in the same year. ;)

me too!

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