Using PDFfiller to Compile Boy Scout Forms and Send Permission Slips

Who?

The Boy Scouts of America are a large national organization with almost three million youth members and almost a million active adults. In existence since 1910, the Scouts have a long history of instilling self-reliance, patriotism, and character development in their members. They rely on a range of activities, education, and outdoor adventure.

As an assistant scout manager, helps to lead a troop of these young scouts. A systems analyst by trade doing statistical analysis for research, Appel devotes much of his free time to the Boy Scouts.

The BSA was founded in 1910 and,
since then, more than 110 million
Americans have been participants in
BSA programs at some time.

The Problem

While organizing various activities and dealing with paperwork for the scouts, Appel found himself wasting time with paper documents and struggling with digital forms.

“Some of the forms that the Boy Scouts of America have are PDF forms, but they’re not fillable, they’re write-out,” said Appel. “And some of these [forms] have to be done multiple times a year in order to track service hours and all these other things that are important.”

Making sure that documents are completed and submitted properly and promptly is critical because “the boys need the service hours and all that counts towards making rank and getting to the final phase of Eagle Scout,” Appel said.

Before Appel started using PDFfiller, documents were being dealt with inefficiently digitally or having to be written out by hand. Then Appel found PDFfiller.

The Solution

Now Appel uses PDFfiller almost every week for his 40 Boy Scouts. PDFfiller expedites various workflows for Appel, from permission slips to tracking service hours.

For his permission slips, Appel digitizes them and adds fillable fields using PDFfiller’s easy drag and drop wizard. He can then distribute them to parents to complete electronically using PDFfiller’s powerful, ‘SendToSign’ feature which enables him to send the forms directly from PDFFiller using a link, URL, or QR code. Parents can then complete the forms from any internet-connected device, anywhere, and at anytime, add an electronic signature, and then return them digitally absolutely instantly. “For every outing that we go on, the boys have to fill out a permission slip,” said Appel, so “I made it fillable using PDFiller so now you can sign it online… If somebody forgets a permission slip, they can just send it to me electronically, they don’t have to go to the venue or whatever and I don’t have to follow up.”

Primarily, though, Appel relies on PDFiller to complete his Scouts’ “Journey to Excellence” forms digitally. PDFfiller allows Appel to create a template and edit a document using powerful tools quickly and easily. Moreover, PDFfiller allows Appel to consolidate and store these documents and edit them over the course of the year before he submits them. With PDFfiller, It’s easy to add and edit text at any time and from any internet-connected device and when you’re done, just sign the document with a legally binding electronic signature and save it, print it, or send it. Now, with PDFfiller, Appel can “take these forms that aren’t fillable and fill all this stuff in, which has been great.”

The Benefits of Using PDFfiller

Speed

PDFfiller is the fastest way to create, edit, send and sign PDF forms online. For Appel, it saves “probably an hour every time not writing it out, making a mistake, or anything like that. So I’ve done four forms, so at least four hours. And with the fillable form that saves everybody a multitude of hours.”

Convenience

PDFfiller makes it simple to manipulate and distribute forms electronically – “it’s easy to use,” said Appel. Powerful features like ‘SendToSign’ make it easy to transmit documents like permission slips for signature while advanced editing tools allow users to highlight, redact, annotate, edit, and erase text from PDF documents easily. PDFfiller even allows users to add electronically binding digital signatures with just the click of a mouse. Moreover, PDFfiller allows you to consolidate and archive all of your documents in one place so you can edit, send, and sign them whenever you want, from any internet-connected device, anywhere.

Savings

PDFfiller saves time and money for organizations large and small. Save on the cost of paper and document postage; just as important though, save your time and energy for more important work by using PDFfiller to streamline your document management.

Security

PDFfiller is the safest way to manage your documents. With PINs, two-factor authentication, audit trails, and unique document IDs, you can be sure your documents are safe. PDFfiller relies on Amazon’s S3 servers which offer redundant backups and high-level physical security, so you know your documents are always accessible, whenever and wherever you need them.

Ecology

The average U.S. office worker uses 10,000 sheets of paper every year. Everyday, PDFfiller helps its users go green by allowing them to convert all of their document workflow to a paperless digital solution. It’s the best way to save the environment and streamline your workflow. After switching to PDFfiller, Appel found that “I’m not handling a lot of hard copy, which is good [for the environment].”

Conclusion

PDFfiller functions like a digital Swiss Army Knife for the Boy Scouts, fulfilling a range of needs for Appel and his troop of Boy Scouts. “It worked well” on whatever task they applied it to, Appel said. Wherever you are, you can count on having the right tool for all your document needs, a flexible, powerful, and full-featured document management solution. Appel recommends PDFfiller and has found it useful, particularly for “something like the boy scouts where you have to have a [lot] of paperwork to hand in to the parent organization, anytime you can make it very clean and clear so none of the information gets lost for these boys, that’s always a plus.” PDFfiller is always there for the Boy Scouts and will be a tool in the years to come, as Appel applies it to “other forms that we have to do, …make pdfs from there, sign in sheets, all the other things, and just have it handle all the paperwork that we have to create.

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