Journey to Excellence
The 17 Journey To Excellence evaluation criteria are grouped in 5 categories: Finances; Membership; Program; Unit Service; and Leadership and Governance. The Northeastern Pennsylvania Council’s status in each of the 17 criteria is discussed below.
Current as of December 31, 2011
| 1. | Fiscal Management | -0.12 | No Score |
| This criteria evaluates the overall financial health of the Council’s operating fund by comparing operating assets to annual operating expenses. Due to prior years’ negative budgets, we began 2011 with a negative $164,000 unrestricted operating assets. We were able to reduce this by $17,000 in 2011 to negative $147,000. Our long-range plan is to achieve a positive operating asset position within the next 3 years. | |||
| 2. | Fundraising | -16.87% | No Score |
| This criteria evaluates the Council’s generation of operating income through its Friends Of Scouting campaign, Special Events, Project Sales and Foundation support. The current year’s fundraising performance is evaluated against the prior year. We did not achieve the 2010 end of year amount, due to some special foundation grant funding we received last year that was not available this year. | |||
| 3. | Endowment | 0.49% | No Score |
| This criteria evaluates the Council’s ability to increase restricted assets in its endowment fund as compared to the operating expenses of the council. To achieve Bronze status, we would need to receive about $12,000 in new endowment gifts. We received $5,900 in 2011. | |||
| 4. | Market Share (Density) | 9.54% |  |
| This is the percentage of all registered youth members compared to all of the youth within the council’s defined geographic territory that could be members. We dropped 0.34% behind prior year due to a decrese in membership. | |||
| 5. | Membership Growth | -3.34% | No Score |
| This is the percentage increase (decrease) in the number of traditional youth members (Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturers and Explorers) in the council as compared to prior year. The NEPA Council, like most councils in the northeastern United States, has experienced membership declines for many years. Our current traditional membership is 4,155 (144 less than December 2010). | |||
| 6. | Youth Retention | 75.08% |  |
| This is the percentage of registered youth members that remain as members one year later. We have improved to beyond the 75% gold level benchmark and are currently 1.20% ahead of prior year's 73.88%. | |||
| 7. | Cub Scout Advancement | 84.96% | |
| This is the percentage of Cub Scouts who have advanced one rank. This is an improvement of 18.84% compared to 2010. | |||
| 8. | Boy Scout Advancement | 42.17% |  |
| This is the percentage of Boy Scouts who have advanced one rank. This is an improvement of 0.25% compared to 2010. The gold benchmark is 50% | |||
| 9. | Cub Scout Camping | 25.50% | |
| This is the percentage of Cub Scouts registered on June 30th who attend Day Camp or Resident Camp. We increased our percentage of Cub Scouts camping, primarily in Cub Scout Resident Camp, in 2011 to 25.5% as compared to 22.4% in 2010. Our successful Parent & Pal program is not included in the 2011 JTE program but National has indicated it will be in 2012. | |||
| 10. | Boy Scout Camping | 65.13% | |
| This is the percentage of Boy Scouts registered on June 30th who attend long-term summer camp, high adventure base or jamboree. We decreased slightly from the 65.4% in 2010 because of the 2010 jamboree and high adventure treks. | |||
| 11. | Community Service | 5.07 hours | |
| This is the number of community service hours logged into the JTE website divided by the number of registered youth members. We had an increase of 1,022 hours of service compared to 2010 with a total of 21,094 hours. | |||
| 12. | Youth Serving Executives | -1 | No Score |
| This criteria measures the number of Youth Serving Executives as compared to the Total Available Youth within the council’s geographic territory. We reduced our district executive staff by one in 2010. | |||
| 13. | Commissioner Service | 3.21 units per commissioner | |
| This criteria measures the number of units per registered District Commissioners in the council. We have increased the number of unit commissioners in the council this year. | |||
| 14. | Unit Visitations | 62.00% | |
| This is the percentage of units that have received at least 6 visits from unit commissioners in the year. It is prorated throughout the year. We are currently ranked #2 among all 295 councils in the BSA in this category. Only 9 councils achieved gold status. | |||
| 15. | Council Leadership | 3 items | |
| We have completed all three items required for Gold level. The Northeastern Pennsylvania Council was recognized in August for Leadership and Governance excellence in the Northeast Region of the BSA (the only council among the 66 NE Region councils being so recognized). | |||
| 16. | District Leadership | 54.5 members | |
| We have an average of 54.5 members on each of our District Committees which is well above the gold standard of 30 and among the leading councils in the nation. | |||
| 17. | Unit Leadership | 46.27% | |
| This criteria measures the percentage of direct contact leaders (e.g. Cubmasters, Den Leaders, Scoutmasters, etc.) who are trained for their position in scouting. We are 2.04% above prior year. We are among the leading councils in the country due to our Board’s commitment to trained volunteer leaders a few years ago. | |||
