Journey to Excellence

What is Scouting's Journey to Excellence?

Scouting’s Journey to Excellence is the performance measurement and recognition program for councils, districts, and units to measure their performance against the BSA’s standards of excellence.  The goal is to align unit, district, and council performance to maximize results in key performance areas that are directly related to producing a successful, growing, and sustainable Scouting program and membership.  For councils and districts, performance will be measured on an overall basis, as well as in 18 individual and key performance indicators in the areas of finance, membership, program, unit service, and leadership and governance.

The standards are based on the Kaplan and Norton balanced scorecard, which was selected by Harvard Business Review as one of the “most important management practices of the past 75 years.”  Many leaders in both for- and not-for-profit industries have adopted the balanced scorecard approach with award-winning results. 

What Is New in 2020?

  • Scorecards encourage units to be inclusive in diverse markets
  • Troops serving girls under a chartered organization with a Troop serving boys may have a shared unit committee.

Tri-Level Recognition Program

  • Bronze – Satisfactory
  • Silver – Effective
  • Gold – Exceptional

Bronze, Silver and Gold levels are tracked 
in overall performance and in each of 18 
different criteria for councils and districts.

Performance of high performing councils is 
published to encourage sharing of best 
practices.

Measuring Results

  • Scouting’s Journey to Excellence for councils is based on largely information councils are already submitting or recording.
  • A council–level dashboard in MyBSA for professionals and MyScouting for council-level volunteers shows areas of strengths and weakness with trend data at month-end.
  • A district–level dashboard in MyBSA for professionals and MyScouting for district-level volunteers will help districts improve performance and focus on serving units.
  • A  specially designed Voice of the Scout dashboard displays on-line survey responses from youth members, parents, unit leaders, chartered organization partners, and district/council support volunteers.

How to get JTE awards:

  • Ribbons are provided at Roundtable or can be picked up at the Scout office, while ribbons are left.
  • Each Scout and leader can wear a patch on their uniform; you can buy these at the Scout office any time.
  • JTE awards are given on the honor system; the district won't conduct any verification. As soon as you submit your JTE worksheet, you can buy your patches.