In its first year of eligibility for a Journey to Excellence unit award, Troop 50 achieved the top-level "Gold Award" unit status through metrics designed to measure various program-related outcomes in Cub Scout packs, Boy Scout troop, and Venture crews.
First implemented for calendar year 2011, "Scouting’s Journey to Excellence" is the Boy Scouts of America's performance recognition program designed to encourage and reward success and measure the performance of units, districts, and councils. The program, also referred to as “JTE,” replaces the previous Quality Unit Award program and provides an annual assessment system for Scouting units, as well as for councils and districts.
Scouts and leaders in units that achieve gold-, silver- or bronze-level awards in the JTE program are able to wear a patch designating that recognition on the right sleeves of their uniforms.
Through the JTE program, units are assessed on performance in key areas, which include increases or decreases in the amount of advancements earned by their Scouts, membership recruitment and retention rates, prevalence of required training among registered leaders, frequency of short-term and long-term camping, use of the patrol method and boy-led troop concept, frequency of service projects, Webelos-to-Scout transition, troop budgeting, courts of honor and parental involvement, integration of physical fitness programming, and timeliness of unit recharting.
Some take-a-ways regarding Troop 50's performance in 2013 include:
- 50% of Scouts advancing in rank
- 100% membership retention — 15% above the maximum required of gold-level units
- 31% increase in membership — 21% above the maximum required of gold-level units
- 8 short-term camp-outs
- active monthly PLC meetings and an annual planning meeting
- 14 service projects — 8 projects above the maximum required of gold-level units