Your Opinion Matters: 2015 Voice of the Scout

Calling all volunteers, parents and Scouts! The Voice of the Scout (VOS) survey is headed your way next week. It will only take a few minutes, yet the collective perspective given by participants will help drive relevant and impactful decisions for months and years to come. Over 600,000 responses have been collected since VOS began and this insight has been invaluable for Boy Scouts of America.

Want to see what we learned from Voice of the Scout last fall? Check out the Fall 2014 Executive Summary, which features an overview and synopsis for each audience surveyed and the Fall 2014 Infographic, a two-sided quick visual overview of the findings.

For a brief review of the references above, read about some large-scale Scouting developments that VOS has impacted:

Straightforward training and development at ScoutingU: Our volunteers and parents expressed they wanted training to be more applicable, relevant and accessible. As a result from their feedback, training for volunteers and professionals has been re-approached, re-developed and consolidated into one central resource. ScoutingU expands upon Learning for Life and will offer development tracks that align to the needs of the organization at every tier.

My.Scouting.org launched to offer member profile management:  Scouts, parents, volunteers and chartered organizations have been asking for ways to better manage their membership records – the Voice of the Scout helped make this development a priority.  Last year, we launched My.Scouting.Org, where members can directly access their accounts and update information using Scouting.org usernames and passwords. Key 3 volunteers at the unit, district and council levels receive an additional perk allowing them the ability to update membership rosters directly. If you haven’t updated your information lately, sign in to keep your account current. Volunteers can see a record of any completed trainings and youth can see a progress report of where they are in the program.

Scouting is a service-culture:  Voice of the Scout has made it clear that the most important experiences in Scouting start at the unit level. Every youth and adult involved with the program understands that it is a connection to something bigger. People stay involved in Scouting because it is an investment in the future of our communities. So, in order to properly support where this all begins, the Boy Scouts of America’s national council has re-structured. The main thrust of this shift is to drive resources toward providing relevant, applicable services to directly impact the unit experience.

Your opinion makes a difference in the way Scouting will be delivered for years to come. Anyone with paid council memberships who have been with Scouting for at least 60 days will receive a survey.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in a VOS survey, and don’t forget to check your email for the Voice of the Scout survey next week!