Adults:
Adult Volunteers:
Volunteer adults and adult leaders who are responsible for developing and implementing the Youth Programme, supporting other adults, and/or take part in the organisation’s governance.
Paid staff (if any):
People recruited to serve Scouting in a specific role or function
in a paid, and often full-time, capacity. They may or may not have taken
the Scout Promise, but they are committed to the Mission and values of
Scouting, and the priorities of the Scout organisation they work for. In
addition to carrying out their paid role or function, professional
staff may support Scouting in volunteer roles or functions that do not
conflict with their professional roles or functions.
Others:
Volunteers or helpers involved in different activities without
monetary remuneration (although the reimbursement of expenses may be
allowed). This involvement is undertaken entirely of the individual’s
own free will. The benefit of this involvement is directed at supporting
Scouting to achieve its Mission rather than at the volunteer (although
the volunteer should also gain and develop from their involvement).
For NSO admins: Managing the membership census of your NSO
The membership census can be managed by expanding the census widget
on the NSO Data Portal. Different tabs appear to view reporting,
historical data, submit census and export data.Managing age sections
Managing age sections
On the “submit census” tab, the age sections can be managed. If
your NSO has different age sections then the standard age sections of
WOSM, you are invited to customise the age section titles and age ranges
through the “manage age sections” function. You can then report the
census data according to your NSO’s records.
While you can customise the age sections to match your NSO, you
need to select the best suited standard age section to customise to
allow for data analysis across WOSM.
Missing age sections and age ranges
If you customise the age sections for your NSO, all age sections need
to be customised, including the fields for adult members. Additionally,
all fields need to be customised including the section title and age
range. If this is not done, then they will not appear on the census
submission view. Please note that the youth age sections cannot have
overlapping ages.
Submitting membership census
The membership census data is required to be submitted on the NSO
Data Portal by the deadline stated on the submit census tab. Census data
can only be submitted when the collection period is open.
NSOs are asked to report their membership census by age section and
have options to report membership broken down by male, female or other.
If the organisation does not report by gender, please enter the data in
the “other” column.
The Adults in Scouting section builds on the adult data your NSO already provides in its official membership census. Where the information is available, it gives a breakdown of how adults contribute to Scouting through local delivery of the Youth Programme, operational support and governance. It helps us to better understand adult involvement, particular where people hold more than one role, including Rovers who benefit from the Youth Programme while serving as leaders or in governance roles. We recognise that NSOs vary in their organisational structures and in the availability of data for different sub-structures. If a particular Adults in Scouting data point is not available for your NSO, please feel free to leave the relevant field blank.
This detail helps your NSO and World Scouting better understand adult to youth ratios at local level and patterns that may inform volunteer recruitment, retention and support. The Under 30 figures also show where young adults are taking on these roles, offering one way to see youth leadership across the organisation.
- Adults at local level - Those who directly contribute to the design, delivery and support of the educational programme of Scouting at the local level.
- National Board Members (with voting rights) - Those who are official members of the NSO’s highest decision-making body and hold voting rights on governance matters (excluding non voting and advisory members).
- National Governance Committees - Those serving on national-level committees responsible for governance, oversight, and strategic guidance of the NSO (i.e. non-voting members of national board, advisory boards, audit committees, ethics committees, or similar governance bodies).
- National Operational Teams - Those involved in the planning, development, and execution of the organisation’s programmes, services, and operations at the national level (i.e. members of educational methods, adults in Scouting, programme development, communications, finance, or events management teams).
- Support teams (local sub-structures) - Those who provide leadership, coordination, and support at intermediate levels of the organisation (such as district, regional, or equivalent structures), enabling the implementation of Scouting across the organisation.
Submitting AiS data
On the “submit census” tab, go to the “Adults in Scouting” section and enter the number of people in each role for which your NSO has data. Use the male, female or other columns, following the same approach as in the membership census.
For each role, enter the number of people Under 30 in the row directly beneath it. This number is part of the role’s total, not an additional count. A person who holds more than one role should be included in each relevant row. As a result, the Adults in Scouting figures do not need to add up to or match the adult total in your official membership census.
Example: A 24 year old Rover is also a leader in a local Cub Scout section and a voting member of the NSO’s national board. The NSO would include them in its membership census under the Rover age section. In the Adults in Scouting data, they would be included in the Adults at local level, and National Board Members(with voting rights) roles. They would also be included in the Under 30 figure for each of those two adult roles. This reflects one person’s different ways of contributing to Scouting.
Census collection period
The data is submitted for the previous year, or for the year
indicated for the census collection. For example, if you are submitting
the annual reporting in the year 2023, then your census shall reflect
relevant data as at 31 December 2022 (or the end of your most recent
full year of operations).
Federation membership census
The membership census of the NSO Federation is a consolidation of the
census submissions of all of its constituent associations. The census
can only be submitted through the constituent associations and cannot be
submitted at the Federation level.
Submitting beneficiaries data
Beneficiaries of Scouting include those individuals who are not
registered as a Scout member but are positively impacted by Scouting’s
programme in their community. This is an important aspect of the annual
reporting as it allows us to determine the impact our Movement has in
our communities. For this purpose, as part of the submit census tab on
the NSO Data Portal, we ask NSOs to share their beneficiaries in 3
categories:
-
Humanitarian beneficiary: Those benefiting from
humanitarian actions of Scouting (e.g., refugees, migrants, those
displaced by natural disasters, or living in poverty).
-
Social beneficiary: Those living in difficult
circumstances and benefiting from Scouting (e.g., those in social
centres, affected by chronic health conditions, living with
disabilities, minorities, orphans, or street children).
-
Educational beneficiary: Those participating in
Scouting activities but not registered with WOSM (e.g., members of Red
Cross, YMCA, YWCA, sports clubs, adventure clubs, or participants of
summer camps).
Updating historical census data
Once a WOSM census year is closed, it is standard practice to not
add late submissions or make edits to ensure accurate record keeping and
alignment of data for reporting purposes. All census data is to be
submitted by the deadline. If the deadline is passed, please share any
up to date census data with the World Scout Bureau for keeping in its
offline records by emailing
reporting@scout.org.
If you identify any historical census data for your NSO which needs
updating, please contact us through the Help Chatbot or by emailing
reporting@scout.org
with the correct data as per your records. The World Scout Bureau will
review your records against its NSO data on hand before considering
making updates.
