What is the Chartered Organization?

Your Troop is "owned" by a Chartered Organization. It receives a national charter that must be renewed yearly to use the Scouting Program as part of its youth work. These groups that have goals compatible with those of the Boy Scouts of America, include religious, educational, civic, fraternal, business, labor, governmental bodies, and professional organizations.

Each chartered organization using the Scouting program provides a meeting place, selects a Scoutmaster, appoints a troop committee of at least three adults, and chooses a Chartered Organization Representative whose duties include:

• Is a member of the chartered organization
• Serves as head of "Scouting Department" in the organization
• Maintains a close liaison with the troop committee chairman
• Helps recruit other adult leaders
• Serves as a liaison between the troop and the chartered organization
• Assists with Unit rechartering [each March the Troop must go through a re-chartering process]
• Encourages service to the organization
• Is an active and involved member of the district committee

As the Troop Committee works on behalf of the chartered organization, your troop must be operated within the organization's policies.

The chartered organization must also approve all adult leaders. The Chartered Organization Representative is your liaison to the troop's operating organization. As a member of the chartered organization, that person will guide you on the organization's policy. The representative will also know the most effective ways to get the organization's assistance and maintain a mutually satisfactory working relationship with the chartered organization.

In the chartered organization relationship, the Boy Scouts of America provides the program and support services, and the chartered organization provides the adult leadership and use the program to accomplish its goals for youth.

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