You think you’re making all the right moves for your Cub Scouts, Scouts, or Venturers, but do you really know? With the BSA’s Journey to Excellence scorecards in hand, you can answer that question with a satisfying yes.
Journey to Excellence, often shortened to JTE, is a self-evaluation tool that lets unit leaders see, quantitatively, how well their unit is meeting the goals of Scouting. Think of it as a progress report. You can check in regularly to make sure you’re delivering the best possible program for our Scouts. The process is simple, and the benefits are tangible.
Why is JTE worth your time?
JTE scorecards offer these benefits:
- A framework for planning the year with standards based on what successful units do to continually improve.
- A method for evaluating your unit in tangible ways (number of campouts, number of youth advancing, etc.)
- Guidance in areas where you might do better and early warning of potential problems.
- Specific guidelines and standards of what is considered good performance.
- Benchmarking to get ideas and tips from other good units.
What do I do?
Download the JTE scorecard for your unit. At the beginning of each calendar year, print out the latest JTE scorecard from this website.
Ask your Unit Committee members to fill in the sections corresponding to their function in the unit: finance, membership, program, leadership. This is where tracking workbooks, available here, come in handy. The JTE scorecards work best when several Scouters participate in tracking.
Review your progress. At the end of the year and at regular intervals throughout the year, monitor your progress as you go for gold in JTE. See where you aren’t maximizing your JTE points and find specific improvements. Appoint a volunteer to hold the unit accountable for those changes.
Complete your scorecard and turn it in. On December 31 of each year, JTE scorecards are due to your unit commissioner and district executive.
Units that plan ahead aren’t surprised by their score; they’re expecting it. Like a marathon runner checking his or her watch after each mile, a unit should check its scorecard regularly to aim for gold.
