For better or worse many Scout Leaders will remember 2015 for The Scout Associations new membership system Compass. There is no doubt that there have been more than a few teething problems, with a revised version of Compass being released at the end of January 2016 after many months of delays. It is of little surprise that a large chunk of our recent In Conversation With Matt Hyde was dedicated to Compass.
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Matt’s first words on Compass summed up the issues that not only grassroots level Scouters have had but also the issues experience at headquarters.
They say Scouting is about character building and certainly my experiences of Compass would say that is exactly the case.
As has been stated many times before, Matt was keen to again apologise for the impact that Compass has had across Scouting.
We are acutely aware of the impact that compass had made on the movement, both in terms of morale and making life more difficult for volunteer managers in particular. We have apologised for that and have continued to apologise for that.
Whilst Compass has been ‘down’ for the best part of a year, it has given The Scout Association time to reevaluate their support strategies and documentation.
We have doubled the number of staff in the Information Centre so that we can give additional support to the movement, that includes opening on weekends as well.
Ultimately only if the functionality is useful to people will they use it…that is going to take a bit of time and along the way we are going to have to give support to leaders at all levels to ensure that they are making the most of this system.
Whilst there has been an undoubted wave of negativity about Compass and the way it was handled its very clear to see that The Scout Association, had understood, have listened and are now delivering a membership programme that will not only be used for many years to come but also make the lives of many volunteers a lot easier.
More articles about our In Conversation With Matt Hyde will be released throughout February. To find them head to scoutradio.org.uk/questions.