Transforming Scouts - What to do now
Cleaning up your Compass data
A key element of how we will Transform Scouting will be the introduction of a new Membership System. This will be accessible to all adult volunteers through a single sign on from within the Scouts.org.uk Web pages. The new system will incorporate three areas covering
- New member joining
- Membership Records
- Learning
As Scouts we have a fantastic Motto – Be Prepared. We need to start preparing ourselves so that when the new Membership system is switched on and the old one (Compass) is switched off, we don’t want to lose any of your precious training records, your years of service or any really important information.
Of the 1,500+ adult members we have across Gloucestershire, the VAST majority of you have got a unique email address stored in Compass right now. An email address that only you use and only you have access to. This means that if the Scouts had to send you some important information, they can do this safely knowing only you are likely to read it.
Some members share their email address with someone else. Maybe it is with their spouse or partner, maybe it is a family email address. Because this is not only used by you as a member, we would not be able to use it as login details for the new membership system because your data is unlikely to be safe. Something that all organisations, businesses and charities are not allowed to do.
Some members have email addresses that do not permit Scout emails to come to you. The Scouts already regularly send out useful communications based on your role in Scouting and right now it is likely you are missing these. Examples of this type of email are NHS.co.uk email addresses.
These emails, because of the data protection responsibility of the organisation do not allow Scout emails to arrive in your inbox. So, if you ever HAD to change your Scouts password you would never be able to do so and may never be able to access your Scout membership information. This would also mean you cannot do some of that really important training when it comes up for renewal.
Some members do not have an email address at all, and some have an email address that is not valid any more, maybe they set it up many years ago and now don’t use it.
We need for every member to have a unique, current, accessible and valid email address and we want to start thinking about this now so that when the changes happen, we are ‘Prepared’.
If you have an email address that is shared with or can be accessed by someone else, then we need you to create your own unique email address that can be used going forward.
The Scouts promise not to share your email address with anyone that we are not supposed to, and we promise that we will use it only to send you useful communications and enable you to log in to the membership system. If you never want to read your emails, then that is fine, as long as you can access your account if you need to change your password.
There are many providers who can set you up with a unique email. Over the coming months we will share more information that can help you if you need to do this. Right now you could use this link to create a unique Gmail (by Google) email address. This will take about 10 minutes to do.
The next thing is to log in to Compass and check what email address is stored right now. Soon, we will share instructions on how you can do this.
When you log in, check the email address in the Personal Details area is
- Not missing (If it is, please add your current email address, or set up a new email address so you can use the Scouts membership system)
- Completely correct (If it is not, please do correct it)
- Is not an email where you cannot actually receive emails (If it is please set up a new email address so you can use the Scouts membership system)
If your email address in Compass is current, correct, unique to you and accessible, then that’s it, there will be nothing else for you to do at this time.
These links may be useful to you