Lone Scouts

Caution

Lone Scout support is switched off until the council and MySummitKeep turn it on. The text a parent reads when approving a counselor is a draft for counsel and is not final.

A Lone Scout is a Lone Cub Scout (ages 7 to 10) or a Lone Scouts BSA member (ages 11 to 17) who registers with the council, not with a unit. A Scout is one or the other: a Lone Scout cannot also be a member of a unit. Each Lone Scout has a friend and counselor, an adult who guides and reviews the Scout on each step of advancement. The best choice is the Scout’s own parent.

The friend and counselor

A counselor can only act for the Scout while all of these are true:

• they are 21 or older, with a date of birth on file
• they are registered
• their Youth Protection training is current
• the council has approved them
• if they are not the Scout’s parent or guardian, a parent has approved them too
• the Scout’s own registration is current

MySummitKeep checks this each time, not once. If any one stops being true, for example the training expires, the counselor falls back to the ordinary rule and the normal approvals apply again.

What changes for advancement

Normally a parent or guardian who signs off their own child’s advancement needs a leader outside the family to confirm it. For a Lone Scout this is the one exception: their approved, current counselor may finish the Scout’s advancement even when that counselor is the parent. Every time this happens, and every time it is refused because something lapsed, it is written to an approval trail.

Council view (/council/lone-scouts)

Council staff and commissioners see every Lone Scout the council has registered, the counselor, which approvals are in place, and whether the counselor is in good standing or needs attention. A Council President can view the page but not change anything.

To register a Scout, type part of their name and pick them from the list, pick the program, and set when the registration expires. The records unit defaults to the unit the Scout already sits in, and you can change it to another unit of your council that holds the Scout’s advancement records; a Scout who already has a youth seat in a unit can only be registered with that unit as the records unit. Then Propose a counselor, choose whether they are the Scout’s parent, guardian or another adult, and use Approve Counselor once the parent has approved. End Counselor and End Registration take effect straight away.

Parent and counselor view (/lone-scout)

A parent sees their Scout, the counselor, and every approval, and can Withdraw This Counselor at any time. When a counselor who is not a parent is waiting, the parent sees an Approve button with the approval notice. A counselor sees the Scouts they serve once the council has approved them.

Safety

• This feature sends no private messages to a Scout. Anything else that reaches a youth still copies a parent.
• Approvals are recorded with who, when and for which unit, and the record cannot be edited in the app.
• Safety features are never held back for a paid plan.