Greater Tampa Bay Area Council
Boy Scouts of America
Joint Statement on Unit Recharters
Issued by Nick Digirolamo, Council Commissioner and Bill Guglielmi, Interim Chief Operating Officer
January 27, 2022

The National Council of the Boy Scouts of America developed and fielded a new automated system for the processing of Unit Recharters—right at the beginning of our rechartering season. We are aware of the challenges units have faced during this process and can tell you that we and many of our counterparts across the country have experienced significant challenges in our ability to aid units in the processing of their recharter packages.

This purpose of this statement is to fully explain the situation and the actions we are taking to alleviate the challenges.

  1. We would like to start by saying that in the loudest voice possible that NONE OF THE CHALLENGES WE ARE FACING WILL HAVE ANY NEGATIVE IMPACT ON UNIT OPERATIONS NOR ITS ABILITY TO CONDUCT PROGRAM. INSURANCE COVERAGE REMAINS IN PLACE AND ALL INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENTS ACCOMPLISHED DURING THIS TIME PERIOD WILL BE RECOGNIZED.
  2. We would now like to address some of the specific issues found. The new system does the following to each recharter package it receives:
    1. If it perceives no problem with the package, it fully processes the recharter, and no further action is required. To date, approximately 30 or so units have had their recharter processed in this fashion.
      • Action Taken: We report this information to District Commissioners and District Field staff on a weekly basis.
    2. If the system perceives an issue, it refers the recharter package to the Council for review. The system does not show the issues up front, so the Registrar’s Office must individually research each referred package individually.  Currently, there are 158 packages in this status, which the system identifies as On Hold.  This number of packages in this situation fluctuates several times in a day.
      • Action Taken: We have directed the Registrar to individually research each On-Hold package in the order received at the Council Office and to try to resolve each as expeditiously as possible. Resolution actions include:
        • If the correction can be done at the Council level – take that action immediately.
        • If it is a minor issued that can be resolved with a phone call – take that action immediately.
        • More complex resolution actions entail involving the District Commissioners and or District Field Staff in the corrective action. These issues will be resolved as soon as possible after the needed information is provided.
  3. We have also uncovered and reported other system issues that have an indirect impact on unit recharter processing. These include, but are not limited to, such things as processing Council and District personnel (Council Officers, Council Board Members, Council Members at Large, District Officers, District Members at Large, etc…) and the processing of multiple registrations. These issues require time to resolve and slow processing. No added action is needed.

We are facing a unique set of circumstances and that satisfactory resolution will require patience on the part of all of us. We request all units refrain from calling the Council Registrar Office asking for updates on their recharter status.  We will, beginning next week, publish updated status on the Council’s website. Questions about these statuses should be directed to your Unit Commissioner, District Commissioner, or District Director/Executive. Additionally, we ask that you respond quickly to any requests to your unit from those individuals or the Council Registrar concerning more information needed to process your recharter package.

We are still committed to complete the entire recharter process by February 28, 2022.

Working together we can achieve this record setting goal.