Unit Program Planning

The units that plan, promote and execute their Ideal Year of Scouting offer unparalleled experiences for more youth, and are recognized in the Journey to Excellence program.

How would you like:

• A stronger program for your scouts at less personal cost to you?

• More parental involvement?

• More scouts camping?

• Better retention?

• More funding with less time spent fundraising?

• To eliminate out-of-pocket expenses for your parents?

• Enough money to do all of your activities?

• Scouting to be simpler, easier and more fun?

By following the steps in this guide, you can provide a year-round, quality Scouting program; provide unparalleled experiences for more Scouts; and also earn the Journey to Excellence Award.

Journey to Excellence Recognition Program

The Journey to Excellence (JTE) is the tool we’ve adopted to measure the quality of the Scouting program in our council. A unit that plans their Ideal Year of Scouting, based on goals and standards set forth in the Journey to Excellence, can be confident they’re delivering a quality program, supported by a healthy unit with trained  leaders.

How to Stay on the Journey to Excellence Path

We all need to understand that Journey to Excellence makes Scouting stronger. Every time we are working on a Scouting project, activity, meeting, etc. we need to think back about how it relates to the JTE.

This is important. We want you on board and we want you to be dedicated to the journey as much as we are. You are an essential part of the council and can help us have the strongest Scouting program ever.

How to Use This Guide
Use the criteria for the Journey to Excellence Award as your VISION. There are separate criteria for Cub Scout Packs and Scouts BSA Troops, and we’ve provided resources for each. This guide and our Ideal Year of Scouting Web site will provide you with the tools needed to plan your ideal year. During the coming weeks, work through this book to set your goals and make your plans. By July of 2019, you should have a clear picture of the program you will offer from August 2019 through the summer of 2020.

1. Plan: Map out the advancements, activities, camping and training you’ll need for your Ideal Year of Scouting.

Steps to Develop Your Yearly Program Plan

• Brainstorm: Hold a brainstorming session with youth and make a list of activities. Include a wide range of activities like field trips and service projects

• Evaluate: The unit committee evaluates each suggestion and goes back to the unit with an “approved” list.

• Vote: From that “approved” list, have youth vote on their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choices. The activities receiving the most votes should be put into your program plan.

• Finalize: Put the program plan into your unit calendar and form budget.

2. Fund: Determine the expenses from all the activities, advancements, camping and training your unit wants to do, then decide how much fundraising your unit must do to cover those expenses.

3. Grow: When you have a good plan, communicate it to your current and potential scouts to engage more scouts in the program, along with their parents to help make it all happen.

4. Train: Plan to promote trainings to your current and new leaders; every Scout deserves a trained leader.

Keep Your Unit Running Smoothly: Five Steps for Planning Success

1. Review last year’s work and build on the successes. Analyze the problems and try to solve them.

2. Use the planning tools in this guide and ask questions of your unit commissioner.

3. Take into consideration all the district and council activities that are scheduled and build your program around them, while planning to participate in district and council events.

4. Don’t forget to include your Blue & Gold Banquet, your Court of Honor, your Family Friends of Scouting presentation, district camporees and Klondikes into your Unit Plan, as well as Family Camp, Cub Akela Camp, Cub Adventure Camp, Webelos Camp or Scouts BSA Summer Camp at the Lake of the Ozarks Scout Reservation!

5. Publish your unit plan to all your families and chartered organization leadership. And make sure you distribute your unit calendar at your joining event to all the new families that are interested in joining!

Resources:

Editor's Note: On the printed version of a few of the documents, we noticed some errors:

• In the Ideal Year of Scouting:Unit Program Planning Guide we noticed that the popcorn sale dates box on page 14 had the wrong dates listed. Correct information can be found on the Ideal Year of Scouting:Unit Program Planning PDF listed below. We also note that on page 11, the bullet point referrring to "review pages 22-23" is a typo, there are only 20 pages in the booklet. This correction has not been made in the online version.
• We noticed SLOO dates were missing from the Council Calendar. When those dates are avialable, we will distribute them accordingly.
• In the Unit Program and Information Guide, the Popcorn pickup date is listed as Dec. 3 and should be December 5. This correction has been made in the online version.