GSC’s Renewal Process

Our process for the 2025 – 2026 renewal season is based on what we learned during the 2024 – 2025 season as well as improvements made to Scouting America’s computer systems by National. Our strategy this year is to renew the units first, followed by the individual membership renewals. Once again, there is no reason to hold up your unit renewal because of incomplete membership renewals.

GSC’s Goal: Renew EVERY Unit before its expiration date!

Most of our units and members expire on December 31^st; they will be available for renewal on November 1^st. Because of the volume of units renewing in December and to avoid the distractions of the Holidays, we’re setting Friday, December 18^th, 2025 as the deadline for Unit Renewals.

Unit Renewal

Prepare for unit renewal by doing these two things:

• Make sure your leaders’ registration is current and renew their membership if needed. This is also a good time to make any leadership changes in your unit.
• Verify that each leader’s Safeguarding Youth Training (or Youth Protection Training) is up to date.

The unit renewal process is described in the Unit Renewal Guide and this video. If you choose to pay at the council office, print the Unit Renewal report and bring it to the office with your payment.

Membership Renewal

Membership Renewal is done Every Month, All Year Long. Your renewing members are listed in the Members Due to Renew report in My.Scouting.org – Roster – Reports.

Membership Renewal can either be managed by the units or left up to the individual members and their families. In either case, the families will still receive renewal emails starting 60 days before the member’s expiration date.

Unit Managed Membership Renewal

• Unit leaders should tell their members to disregard the renewal emails and that the unit will be doing the renewals.
• Unit leadership can renew their members as described in the Unit Renewing Their Members Guide and this video. Payments can either be made online or at the office. If you choose to pay at the council office, print the Summary of Fees report and bring it to the office with your payment.

Individual Member & Family Membership Renewal

• Unit leaders should tell their members that they are responsible for their own renewals and they should respond to the renewal emails from National.
• Individual Renewals are described in Adults Renewing Their Membership and this video or Parent Renewing their Youth’s Membership and this video. Payments can either be made online or at the office. If you choose to pay at the council office, print the Summary of Fees report and bring it to the office with your payment.
• Unit leaders should monitor the Members Who Have Renewed report in My.Scouting.org – Roster – Reports to verify that their members are doing their renewals.

More information

This section contains updated news from National, answers to questions asked by our leaders, and other hints and tips we discover as we go through this process.

• The system default is to subscribe to Scout Life. If you, or your members, don’t want Scout Life, be sure to turn it off!
• The Opt-out function should only be used when a member doesn’t want to renew their position. Both members and units can Opt-out a member. Only office staff can remove the Opt-out flag.
• A few words about the “Grace Period” – Members and units who pass their expiration date without renewing are Lapsed. This means that their membership has expired but can be reinstated easily. The lapse period is 2 months. After that, they are Separated. Separated members and units can be reinstated according to the following guidelines:
  • Youth Members: Can be reinstated up to 3 months after they lapse. After that, a new application is required.
  • Adult members: A new application is required as soon as the adult lapses. The Chartered Organization Representative must approve the application.
  • Units: Can be reinstated up to 6 months after they lapse. After that, a New Unit Application is required. The organization’s Executive Officer must approve the application.