2023 – 2024 Membership Fees- effective August 1, 2023

Download the 2023 Flyer for more information:
BSA National Membership Fees 2023 (Chief Seattle Council)

To deposit additional funds into your unit’s escrow account, you can:

• Send a check to 3120 Rainier Ave. S, Seattle WA, 98144 (be sure to include a note with your unit number and the purpose of the check)
• Call the council office at 206-725-5200 to make a payment over the phone

Information for 2023 recharter is available now. We encourage you to complete this process by November 17, 2023.

To start the recharter for your unit, go to advancement.scouting.org and log in using your existing Scoutbook.org/my.Scouting.org user name and password. Now is the best time to confirm your unit roster and ask families to update their information on my.scouting.org, this will make recharter much easier. 

The complete guide on how to use the recharter system is located below in a downloadable file. If you need assistance in this process please contact the district executive for your territory or email membership@seattlebsa.org. 

Everything you need to grow your unit in a variety of ways can be found  here. You’ll find ideas, images, webinars and loads of things to support you and your units growth plan. 

Still looking for more? Try the BSA Brand Center, more tools, pics and ideas by age and unit type. If you support a Crew, Ship or Explorer Post you’ll want to check it out. 

If a simple join night is your plan here are six steps to help you have success:

Step 1: Pick a date and decide what to do

• You will want to go as early in the year as possible to get kids interested and engaged before they get busy with all the other school stuff
• This can be a simple event- no need to complicate it. A bbq at the park, ice cream social, make paper airplanes, etc. are all great ideas
• Keep it casual, no need to have everyone in full uniform (this can be intimidating to new parents). Consider just having the cubmaster in uniform and everyone else in casual clothes
  • Pro Tip: have your join night at the school if possible, or at a nearby park if the school is not available. Parents are more likely to attend an event at a location they are familiar with and that is neutral than at a church or a location that they have never been to before. 

Step 2: Advertise, Advertise, Advertise! Find tools to help here.

• It is important to get the word out to as many parents as possible. If you don’t advertise, no one will show up, no matter how fun and awesome your pack is
• Fill out the Marketing Materials Request form to get free marketing materials from the council (must be submitted at least 5 days before you need to pick them up)
• Advertise on different platforms to broaden your reach. This can include facebook geofences, next door, sending a flyer to the PTSA to put in their newsletter, submitting a flyer to peach jar, yard signs and more!
• Placing yard signs at the entrances to your schools and around your neighborhood is a great way to get people’s attention and get lots of good visibility
  • Pro Tip: keep the message on your yard sign short and sweet- the less words you have, the larger and easier to read the font will be

Step 3: Get everything together and make sure you have a plan

• Make sure you have youth applications, adult applications, sign in sheets, and pens ready to go
• Know how much you plan to charge any new scouts who want to join that night- a break down of the pro-rated membership fees can be found at seattlebsa.org/membership. Don’t forget to add your pack dues to the total amount
• Have copies of your pack calendar printed and ready to hand out. Parents will want to be able to see what kind of activities their kids will get to do, and they will want to know when the next meeting will be
  • Pro Tip: Designate one volunteer to be the one to sit at a table and collect any filled out youth applications and fees. Make sure they know how they will keep a record of who has paid the membership fees and how much each person has paid

Step 4: Gather Information and talk to the parents

• Make sure that you have each new family sign in when they arrive using the sign up sheet (available on the marketing materials request form). This way you can get their contact information and reach out to them after the event
• Also make sure that each new family gets one youth application per interested scout
• Have a couple of volunteers gather all the kids and take them to do the pre-selected activity while your (or other volunteers) stay behind and speak with the parents. This will give you a chance to answer questions, go over the pack calendar, tell people how they can sign up, and let everyone know how much it will cost to join
• Before they leave, make sure everyone knows when the next meeting will be
  • Pro Tip: when speaking with the parents, make sure you let them know that they can join scouts tonight if they fill out the youth application. Parents are there because they are interested in joining, so don’t hesitate to actually ask them to sign up.  If you are able to collect applications and fees that night, the families are much more likely to show up to the next meeting

Step 5: Follow Up

• The day after your join night, make sure to send an email to everyone who signed in with information about the next meeting and attach a copy of the pack calendar
• Don’t forget to get the new youth applications turned into the council office as soon as possible in order to make sure that the new scouts get registered and can start recording their advancements. If you can’t get them to the council office,  contact Koby McInnis (district executive) and she will come pick them up from you and take them to the council office
• Plan a new parent orientation with those who have already turned in applications so you can discuss den leaders and the expectation that everyone will be expected to help out and volunteer in some capacity (this could include being the den leader, sharing the den leader position with another parent, and filling any empty pack positions. This will set the stage and let everyone know the expectations while also reminding them that the pack can’t run without volunteers).  This could also be a parent meeting for the whole pack.
  • Pro Tip: Looking for a way to get people to sign up? Try writing all the positions that need to be filled (everything from very small duties like bring the food for the December pack meeting or plan the pinewood derby race to the big positions like committee chair, treasurer, etc.) on different sticky notes and put them up on the wall in front of all the parents.  Then ask each parent to pick a sticky note of a job that they would be willing to do and record what each parent picks. This lets all the parents see how much work and how many helping hands it takes to keep a pack running.  People also tend to be more likely to volunteer when they actually see everyone else volunteering and everyone else can see if they volunteer or not.

Step 6: Have a fun activity or event ready to go

• Make sure that you have a fun activity or event planned for after the join night. If kids sign up and then don’t get invited to do anything for a month or more, they are much more likely to simply drop out of scouting and not come back
• Check in with each den to make sure that they are actively meeting and are inviting the new families to participate in the den meeting

Pro Tip: Looking for something easy and stress free for your follow up activity?  Invite your new parents and your pack to go to Camp Halloween in October at Camp Edward.  This is a spooktasticly good chance to let kids experience the awesomeness of camp and have a fun, engaging activity without you having to plan the whole adventure

Having an organized unit and planning takes time, here are some ideas and resources to support you and your unit. 

Unit Planning Calendar 2024:

Building your Pack Calendar with families, a 2 meeting plan:

What you Need:

• Stickers (5-10 per person, including parents and scouts)
• Giant Post-it Paper/Sticky Easel Pad
• Markers
• Sticky Notes

First Meeting: Pack Meeting/Scout Planning Meeting: 

• Step 1: Gather the unit together, including scouts and parents, and give everyone 5-10 stickers
• Step 2: Ask everyone to start calling out things they want to do throughout the year and write the idea down on the giant post it paper.  Make sure to include every idea even if it sounds far fetched or unrealistic
• Step 3: Have everyone come up and put their stickers next to the activities that they want to do the most

Second Meeting: Cub Scouts- Parent Meeting; Scouts BSA and Older Scouts- Scout Meeting

• Step 4: Organize the most popular ideas  into different categories such as travel, water, hiking camping, etc. 
• Step 5: Discuss these activities with the parents/older scouts and determine what the unit needs to do to accomplish them.  Eliminate the activities that are not feasible.  
• Step 6: Write each remaining activity on a sticky note (larger activities can be broken into multiple sticky notes).  Have all the parents/older scouts come up and select the activity that they would like to help plan and lead.  Write down who is doing what.
• Step 7: Assign dates to each activity and organize into a calendar format. Print a copy for each member of the unit and send a digital copy by email. Bring copies to give to interested families at recruitment events. 

Trainings:

Youth Protection Training: To take this training, click here

Who Takes It: All BSA adult volunteers and all adults staying overnight for a Scouting activity. They must be a registered adult in a position or listed as an adult program participant. *Limited exception for Cub Scout overnight programs. 

How Often: Once every two years

*Please note that there are occasionally technical errors that cause the completion of this training to go unrecorded.  If this happens to you (and you have fully completed the course and final exam), there is no need to take the course again.  Contact your district executive and they can get the training manually entered into the system.  You can also take a screen shot showing your completion of the final exam to show that you have completed the course in case there is an error.

Training is offered throughout the year. The first opportunity this fall happens September 15th – 17th at Camp Fife, you can register at here.

The annual Program and Training Conference (updated information soon) happens on November 4, 2023  it will be a full day training opportunity! Registration coming soon. 

For information on other available trainings and how to get trained, click here. 

Please submit your marketing materials request at least 10 business days before the pick up date to allow time for processing and printing.  If you need materials sooner than two weeks, please email Christine at cquetola@seattlebsa.org  and copy your District Executive after submitting your request to confirm if it will be possible to get it completed in time.  

To request marketing materials, fill out the marketing request submission form below.   To find marketing flyers, see the Marketing Links tab. 

Fillable pdf’s can be found in the BSA Brand Center  and the Membership and Marketing Hub provides a plethora of ideas and tools to help units grow and work together.  

Use the royalty free images for social media or flyers knowing that they have been approved for use by the BSA and are the right sizes to fit your needs. 

BSA resources help your membership team, with join events, year-round recruiting and programing activities. Follow the links below for more outstanding ways to support your units membership goals.  

• Marketing Bootcamp Webinars & resources are here
• Read the Social Media Playbook
• Sign up for Scouting Wire
• Sign up for Aaron on Scouting