Bringing Your Council to MySummitKeep

If you run a BSA council — as a Scout Executive, a registrar, or council office staff — you can bring your whole council onto MySummitKeep instead of registering units one at a time. The public request form at /request-council collects a few details, and our team reviews every request by hand. Approved councils begin with a 30-day free trial, with no payment required up front.

This page walks through the four steps of the request form, what each piece of information is used for, and what happens after you hit Submit request.

Note

You do not need an account to fill this out. The form is open to anyone, and there is nothing to sign in for. If your council is already on MySummitKeep, use the Sign in instead link at the bottom of the form rather than submitting a new request.

Who should request a council

This form is for council-level onboarding — when you want MySummitKeep to host your council, districts, and the units underneath them. The person submitting should be someone the council recognizes as a point of contact for onboarding decisions (for example, a Scout Executive, an assistant SE, or the council registrar).

If you are a single unit leader — a Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Crew Advisor, or Skipper — you usually want to claim or register your unit, not the whole council. See the Unit Leader Getting Started guide, which uses the in-app Register a unit flow (/register-unit) instead.

Step 1 — About your council

The form opens on the About your council step. You’ll see a four-icon stepper across the top — Council, Contact, Scale, Review — that tracks where you are.

Two fields here:

• Council name (required) — the official name of your council, e.g. “Mountain View Council.” It must be at least 3 characters.
• Council number or EIN (optional) — either your BSA council number (e.g. 083) or your federal EIN (e.g. 12-3456789). Either format works. This helps us match your request to BSA records, but you can leave it blank if you don’t have it handy.

Click Next to continue. If a field needs attention, an inline message appears at the top of the form and you stay on the current step.

Step 2 — Contact information

Next we ask how to reach the person making the request.

• Your name (required)
• Email (required) — this is where our review decision and onboarding next steps are sent, so use an address you actually monitor.
• Phone (optional)

Tip

The email you enter here is the one tied to your request. If you submit and then realize you need to change something, you can’t edit a request that’s already in review — reach out to support instead. Submitting a second request from the same email while one is still in progress is blocked on purpose.

Step 3 — Council size estimates and region

This step helps us size your trial appropriately. Rough estimates are completely fine — these numbers are for tiering the trial, not a commitment.

• Estimated # of units — roughly how many packs, troops, crews, ships, and posts your council charters.
• Estimated # of members — roughly how many youth and adult members across the council.
• BSA region (required) — choose from NorthEast, Central, Southern, or Western.

Both count fields accept whole numbers of zero or higher, so an honest ballpark is all we need.

Step 4 — Review and submit

The final step shows everything you entered on one summary screen — council name, council number/EIN, requestor, email, phone, region, and your two estimates — so you can check it before sending.

If something looks off, use Back to return to any earlier step and correct it. When the summary is right, click Submit request. A reminder on this screen confirms that no payment is collected at this stage — approved councils begin a 30-day free trial.

What happens next

After you submit, you’ll see a thank-you confirmation instead of being redirected anywhere. It names your council and the email address we’ll use to reach you.

Behind the scenes:

1. Your request is saved and our team is notified automatically.
2. A real person reviews it. There is no instant approval — every council request is reviewed manually. We aim to email you a decision within 2 business days at the address you provided.
3. On approval, your council is created and a 30-day free trial begins. The trial window starts the day we approve, and we’ll follow up with onboarding next steps.

Note

Because approval is manual, there’s nothing further for you to do in the moment — no email confirmation link to click, no payment screen. Just watch your inbox for our reply.

How council onboarding differs from registering a single unit

It’s worth being clear about the two front doors into MySummitKeep, because they lead to very different places:

	Request a council (/request-council)	Register a unit (/register-unit)
Who it’s for	Council staff (Scout Executive, registrar)	A single unit’s leader
What gets created	The whole council, with districts and units under it	One pack, troop, crew, ship, or post
Approval	Manual review by our team (within ~2 business days)	Self-service — you get into your unit right away
Trial	30-day council trial begins on approval	Handled at the unit level
Sign-in needed	No — fully anonymous	No — but you’ll set up your account in-flow

If you started here but you’re really just trying to get your unit running for the next meeting, head to the Unit Leader Getting Started guide and use Register a unit instead. Once your unit is live, Member Import gets your roster loaded in minutes.