Scoutmaster Archive

[kmcsenior 1]

Does anyone know if there exits a list of Scoutmasters that have served? I am trying to locate a list of Scoutmasters that served in a particular troop back in the '60's. I called the Council but they told me no such list exits. It seems to me that the BSA must keep an archive somewhere. Does anyone have any information?

[HashTagScouts 437]

I would never presume that BSA keeps such a list of significant detail on the position that a registered adult served in going back in time, just that an individual was registered. There would be a pretty slim chance that anything from the 60's has ever been digitized to easily scan, and most likely those records are archived. My particular council has only existed for slightly longer than five years, and the legacy councils that merged were also resulting from mergers over the previous four decades, so something that old I can guarantee for our council is kept in a Banker's Box in a storage locker. 

We get requests for OA membership info from time to time, and folks are generally a bit shocked that aside from those who have received Vigil honor, National keeps no records of OA membership, and much of our Lodge membership data logs from 10+ years ago are printouts kept in binders that have many, many "holes" in the timeline.

 

That's just my $.02.

[skeptic 997]

I do not know if our council is representative, but finding info going back is a real challenge.  Digging through old charter paperwork is where I found much of the info on our unit, but it is mostly in boxes and minimally sorted in storage.  If a unit does not keep its own history, finding it is a major effort, and it will literally give someone a headache trying to read old forms that are carbonized and so on.  Good luck.  

[Tron 82]

Your council will have a paper archive of all those old documents that pre-date the electronic filing of recharter, etc ... You will need to contact your council registrar and ask for access to review old documents. 

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

50 minutes ago, Tron said:

Your council will have a paper archive of all those old documents that pre-date the electronic filing of recharter, etc ... You will need to contact your council registrar and ask for access to review old documents. 

That is IF, and I stress IF, they kept the records and/or the records have not been lost or damaged. For my troop's 100th anniversary, we wanted names of all SMs.  We had most of them, but not all of them. My council did not have the records.

 

[curious_scouter 134]

our troop is only 20 years old.  I tasked our historian with this and was surprised that one phone call to council got him a list of the SMs from the past 20 years.  So... our council had that much.  Beyond that you will probably be challenged because people disperse to the wind.  Our first two SMs are sadly no longer with us.  Would definitely call council, they should have some amount of history for you.

[Tron 82]

On 11/29/2023 at 10:05 AM, Eagle94-A1 said:

That is IF, and I stress IF, they kept the records and/or the records have not been lost or damaged. For my troop's 100th anniversary, we wanted names of all SMs.  We had most of them, but not all of them. My council did not have the records.

 

Your council has it. The question is does your registrar know where it is and does your registrar have the intestinal fortitude to work with you to find it.

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

23 minutes ago, Tron said:

Your council has it. The question is does your registrar know where it is and does your registrar have the intestinal fortitude to work with you to find it.

Yes she knew what happened to them. Some got lost in moving HQ locations. The bulk thrown away when the storage unit they were in had water damage.  I knew about the lost records as it happened before my time. The water damaged ones happened while I was gone.

My council is now using records laws to keep stuff the legally required time. Then it is destroyed. I am told a lot of councils have been doing this

[SSScout 1616]

"It depends".    I once asked that question, seeking history, old names.  I was directed to a MICROFICHE archive, several boxes.  The paper had been disposed of.  1950's, 1960's....   The microfiche was hard to read but it was there..