Charter Renewal

The Unit Key3 are responsible for the annual charter renewal.  Most Mountain Valley Units have a December 31st deadline while most Monticello Units will have until the end of February.  To begin the process, login at https://my.scouting.org/ and navigate to your Unit Roster.  Approximately 2 months prior to your Unit renewal date, the “Unit Renewal” option will become available on the left menu bar.  Please see the sidebar links for additional information and links to how-to-videos.

The biggest change for 2024-2025 is that membership renewal is no longer part of the Unit renewal process.  Membership renewal and recharter became simple and separate tasks effective March 2024.  Families are now contacted by BSA National to pay their membership renewal beginning 60 days, from the anniversary of the end of their joining month (or recharter date for those who joined prior to August 2023) with a copy to the Key3.  Subsequent reminders will be sent at 45, 35, 15, 7, and 0 days out as well as 7 days after registration has expired if the renewal is not complete.  The Unit Key 3 still has the option to pay for members, so please communicate early and often with your parents to ensure everyone knows who is paying for membership.

Unit Renewal simply involves confirming your leadership, their required training, and paying the $100 recharter fee.  Required training includes YPT and for any youth facing positions, Hazardous Weather Training.  Both of these courses will expire, so be certain they are current to avoid having leaders dropped from your roster.  VAHC requires YPT be current through the duration of the charter cycle, not simply at the time of the renewal and will therefore need to be taken every year (not every two).

Only the Charter Organization Representative (COR) or the COR Delegate has the ability to change leadership positions.  This can happen both during and outside the renewal period via my.scouting.org/organization manager/position manager by selecting and dragging leaders into their new roles and clicking save changes at the bottom of the page.  At this time, there is no way to retire a leader from the Unit without going through Council so you may chose to place them as Unit Scouter Reserve, or Committee Members to ensure they do not have access to youth records.  Members will automatically drop off the unit roster as their memberships expire.

The annual charter agreement can be found at https://www.scouting.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/BSA-Annual-Charter-Agreement-Charter-Orgs_2024-2025.pdf.

Do not forget to complete your Journey To Excellence (JTE) Scorecard for 2024.  The JTE program was expired on December 31, 2024, but 2024 patches are available!  You can turn these in along with your payment at the District Roundtable or Council Office.

Reach out to your Unit Commissioner or membership@virginiaheadwaters.org with an questions.

What if we aren’t going to recharter?  In the unfortunate event that your Unit will not be renewing, we want to assist families in finding another opportunity to continue Scouting.  Please reach out to your Unit Commissioner or membership@virginiaheadwaters.org so we can help.

What if I have a new Executive Director/Institution Head and they’re not on my roster?  If you need to add this $0 position, please provide a paper application to Terry in the Council Office to have this no fee registration added to the Unit roster.

What if my Unit is really small and we don’t meet the minimum requirements to renew online?  If your Unit is struggling to meet the minimum requirements to complete an online renewal, please contact Sue in the Council Office.

The system didn’t flag anyone for needing YPT, is everything good?  VAHC still requires that Youth Protection Training (YPT) be completed on an annual basis.  Please confirm that training does not expire prior to the next recharter deadline for your adults (the online system will only flag if they are expired).

How do I know which parents need to be registered?  In addition to leaders, all adults who overnight with a Troop must be registered in their role with the Unit (i.e. Scoutmaster, Assistant Scoutmaster, Charter Organization Representative (COR), Committee Chair, Committee Member, Unit Scouter Reserve (great for the adult who’s not active with your unit, but called if you need an extra leader for an event); Merit Badge Counselors are not permitted to camp with Units).  Multiple registration of adult leaders can be done for no charge online at beascout.org by “joining” the additional Unit.  Upon logging in with their my.scouting username and password, adults will be prompted to “transfer” or “continue”.  Select “continue” to create a multiple registration (and coordinate with your Units so they know which is the primary for recharter fees).  Note:  only the COR can approve an adult membership online.

My AOLs are crossing over in February.  Where do they recharter?  The beauty of the new system is that it separates Unit renewal from Membership renewal.  Youth are registered independent of the Unit and parents can pay the renewal fee directly to National.