Hey Everyone,
It’s ironic, I know, the customer support staff asking a question, but I need some help from the community.
You see when I was in BSA I never used an online software, and recently we have some users who are interested in using TroopTrack asking about how the process works for registering nationally and then with the Troop.
This is the question they asked:
“Can you help me understand what the desired flow for new parent registrations is? It’s my understanding that a family should first register with BSA, then the pack (which can be handled through TT). How do you recommend or how have you seen other Packs handle the BSA portion? I see how you can generate a BSA application from within TT but if that step should be handled first, how useful is that feature?”
So everyone what have you seen work best for this process, and how have you handled it using TroopTrack?
Thanks,
David Keener
TroopTrack
Hello @Keener-Trooptrack,
I personally encourage all of my new Pack participants to use the BSA Online Registration process. Here is my typical process:
- Parent contacts us interest in Scouts, I encourage them to come to a meeting and check us out. At that meeting I have them fill out a contact information form and I add them, parent(s) and scout to TT, so they start to get all of our communication and information. I encourage them to come to a few meetings before doing the BSA registration to make sure it is something they will really want to do long term before they put down all that $.
- Once they decide too officially join I give them the option online or paper application. Most choose online. Once they complete online I take that information from my.scouting and add their BSA ID and other information into TT. If they choose paper I typically have BSA applications on hand to give them, I honestly didn’t think about doing the TT pre-filled app for this but could be used, I may add that info as an option for those wanting paper for the future now that I have thought about it.
The other thing the pre-filled app is great for is when Scouts bridge to a Troop they can print an application, add in their BSA ID and use that to transfer to their new Troop since they will have an existing BSA registration and just need to do a transfer, which the online system does not do.
I am also part of a Troop and we follow mostly the same flow. The only difference has been they tended to do more paper applications as the person doing registrations wasn’t familiar with the online option. I am working with her to move more that direction.
With the new TT Import option it would be possible to wait until they register officially with BSA then export information from Scoutbook.com and have it imported into TT, I don’t personally like that flow since we have everything run through TT so I want them in there to start getting information right away.
Hope this helps and it is only my two cents, I am sure there are many different ways of going about this and different opinions.
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