The Scouts BSA program works best when it’s guided by adults who implement the program as it was designed to be implemented. The official Scouts BSA Troop Self-Assessment tool is designed to help ensure that you’re doing just that.
The Troop Self-Assessment program is a series of questions on a variety of Scouts BSA-related topics. The online program will automatically calculate a score to help you understand how your troop is doing and where it can improve. Each survey takes just 10 minutes to finish.
“The Troop Self-Assessment tool helps troop leaders gain thoughtful insights about their troop’s health and connects them with relevant, helpful resources,” says Angelique Minett, chair of the National Scouts BSA Committee. “This resource reflects our commitment to building simple, helpful solutions to support troops in delivering the best possible Scouting experience for our youth.”
What areas of the program do the self-assessments cover?
There are nine self-assessments that cover the following aspects of the Scouts BSA program:
- Membership. This section helps you do the right things to retain your current Scouts while adding a reasonable number of new ones.
- Troop Meetings. This part helps ensure that your troop meetings are fun, engaging and useful for all members.
- Activities/Outings. This section can help you fine-tune your outdoors program.
- Advancement: This section will help make sure that your Scouts are advancing at a reasonable pace.
- Patrols and Patrol Method. This part helps your troop take full advantage of the patrol method.
- Youth Leaders. This section helps ensure that your program is led by the Scouts, with guidance from adults as needed.
- Scoutmaster Team. This section helps make sure the Scoutmaster is getting the support they need to fill their role.
- Troop Committee. This section will make sure your committee is fully staffed with clearly defined roles.
- Troop Administration and Finance. This part will help keep your unit financially healthy.
What should Scouts BSA leaders care about these assessments?
The Troop Self-Asessment program is designed to help a troop leader find areas and opportunities for improvement and connect them you with resources. If you have concerns after taking an assessment, a good person to talk to would be your unit commissioner. If you don’t know who your commissioner is, your local council can point you in the right direction.
How are the self-assessment tools different from unit metrics?
Unit metrics are automatically calculated behind the scenes by Scouting America’s systems. They are designed to provide objective scoring to commissioners and unit leaders in many of the same areas covered by the self-assessments, including the number of trained leaders; unit size, growth and retention; advancement; and outdoor activities. They are available to Scouts BSA leaders in their unit dashboard on My Scouting.
Self-assessments should be thought of as tools to help you improve your unit metrics. While unit metrics look at a few key numbers, the Troop Self-Assessment surveys take a deeper look at things, such as how many trips your troop goes on, how fun and well-attended they are, and whether they help Scouts of different ages and ranks.
How often should I take a self-assessment?
As often as you’d like. The Scouts BSA leadership team suggests you use them at least a few times per year. You might find them most useful when you put together your annual program plan.
Click here to learn more about the Troop Self-Assessment program.
Photo from the Scouting America archives
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