So we’ve made the decision. We’re going to change,” says Rex Tillerson. ”Now what?”

Less than 24 hours after the volunteer delegates voted to change the BSA’s membership policy for youth, Tillerson addressed a large room full of Scouting volunteers and professionals at the closing general session of the BSA’s National Annual Meeting.

In a powerful, heartfelt speech, Tillerson made his message clear: Change is inevitable, but “The Main Thing,” which is to serve more youth in Scouting, hasn’t changed. With that in mind, he reasoned, it’s time for all of us to unite toward this common goal.

Councils should encourage current ScoutParents to now officially register as dues-paying adult volunteers or leaders if they are not already so registered.

To help facilitate this, the unit Scouter Reserve position (91U) has been created for supportive adults who have no immediate specific leadership role. Like all registered BSA adult positions, this new role will require a criminal background check and the completion of Youth Protection training.

The position of unit ScoutParent coordinator (PC) will remain a registered position with the name changed to parent coordinator.

It was a collaborative effort of many, developed by Lucia Cronin, Central Region membership chair, and produced  by a JTE gold-level council, the Crossroads of America Council in Indianapolis, Indiana. This video should be the master tutorial for local councils to use for their current spring membership recruitment plan and training.

We hope you will take the time to share this very productive video with your volunteers and professionals. (Watch the video below, or visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTGU2zw096g.)

Yours in Scouting,

R. Ray Woods, national membership chairman

“Success in training the boy depends largely on the Scoutmaster’s own personal example.” — Robert Baden-Powell

What better quote than this one to introduce the April 10 JTE Leadership Club topic: BSA Training in its Second Century? We will discuss the impact of effective training on retention, how successful training councils have reached 90 percent or more trained leaders, Youth Protection training, and where we are—and where we are going—in training and learning. Our guests will be the chair of the national Volunteer Training Committee, Joel Eacker; and Volunteer Development Team Leader Mark Griffin; along with several volunteers from selected best practice councils.

Training is evolving in the BSA. We will close our hour by sharing a vision of the future of training and will unveil perhaps one of the most transformational projects currently in the design stage. Be part of that vision as we lead an interactive segment encouraging feedback from participants as the BSA develops itself into a 21st century learning organization.

We encourage both employees and volunteers to join in each month as we continue to discuss current topics that focus on optimizing the delivery of the Scouting experience through councils and units.

We will broadcast one session in the morning beginning at 9 a.m. CDT and one in the evening beginning at 7 p.m. CDT. We will again be “live streaming” from the second-floor Web conference center at the national office.

The meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, April 10. See session times below:

Session 1 — 10 a.m. EDT, 9 a.m. CDT, 8 a.m. MDT, 7 a.m. PDT

Session 2 — 8 p.m. EDT, 7 p.m. CDT, 6 p.m. MDT, 5 p.m. PDT

Please email your session preference to Mary Jernigan. NOTE: Participants may join either session.

The next JTE Leadership Club Meeting will be May 1.

Connection instructions are available in a previous issue of Scout Wire. (Click the link and scroll to the bottom of the story.)

Plan to attend if you are in a council Key 3 position, or if your are a council volunteer or staff member—particularly if you have a membership, marketing, or program delivery focus—who is attending the National Annual Meeting. If you’re not planning to attend NAM, come in just for the day.

Don’t miss this opportunity to uncover new ways to reach youth in your market!

Register now at www.scouting.org/nationalannualmeeting.

In conducting our year-end analysis of JTE, it’s clear who the real winners are: the volunteers and youth being served by continuously improving Scouting programs. Thanks to your support, Journey to Excellence is engaging volunteers and staff in action-oriented discussions focused on how together, we make the Scouting program better tomorrow than it is today. Our culture is embracing the JTE balanced scorecard as the corporate standard to measure Scouting achievement at the unit, district, and council levels. With this corporate commitment, we are now focusing time and resources on key performance indicators that drive success at the local council level—and ultimately attract and retain more youth in Scouting.

Congratulations to all Journey to Excellence achievers in 2012. The Mission Delivery Team stands ready to support all councils in their 2013 Journey to Excellence. Resources including copies of the 2013 JTE scorecards in English and Spanish plus tools to help you achieve in each of the 18 criteria can be found at www.scouting.org/jte.

And coming later this year: the launch of the 2013 Journey to Excellence District Dashboard. We’re excited about how this latest advance will support district executives and district committees to better serve local Scouting.

I am very pleased to announce that after a 13-year drought, we achieved growth in Exploring at the end of 2012. This was a 3.3 percent growth, with 3,701 more young adults now experiencing real-world careers than did in 2011.

How did that happen? It was a result of many factors. Our Learning for Life team simplified and revitalized the new-post organizational process. They conducted lots of research into both what works for growth and, equally as important, what does not work. Our Chief Scout Executive stood up and publicly stated that “Exploring counts.” We included Exploring in several criteria for Journey to Excellence. New sales and marketing materials were made available to councils at no cost. Our Learning for Life team traveled the country over the past two years training nearly 1,300 people—including just over 400 volunteers—from 190 councils in how to research, sell to guidance counselors and CEOs, plan post programs, and increase youth participation. We did these things to make selling Exploring easier for you in the field. You engaged volunteers to help youth learn about careers. Your efforts paid off. I applaud you!

Here are some interesting tidbits that piqued my interest and may give you food for thought as you plan your 2013 growth strategies. Our average post size over all careers increased from 19 to 22 over the past two years. The posts with the largest average size are health care posts, with 43 Explorers. (Every county has a hospital looking for future employees.) What is exciting is in 2012 the average growth of Exploring in councils with growth was 44 percent, up from 16 percent average growth in 2011 and 10 percent average growth in 2010.

The Learning for Life team has committed to helping every district grow at least 100 Explorers. Exploring has a simple plan on how to accomplish it. We have the tools. We have the knowledge. We just need the discipline to make the appointments and sales calls. Exploring is also sustainable. More and more councils are finding ways to obtain corporate and governmental funding to support Exploring. With career education a key priority in the Department of Education’s agenda, they have recognized Exploring as an important partner.

Exploring has a great future. Thank you for your efforts, and congratulations on a job well done! If we can grow Exploring and Boy Scouting, we can grow our other programs, too. As always, your National Council stands ready to assist you in your efforts to serve more young people. Good Scouting and good Exploring.

For more information about the 2013 annual local council membership validation procedures, contact Membership Resources at 800-888-4705.