Distribution: All Active Volunteers
Key takeaways this month:
  1. Please review the SCORE policy updates below.
  2. The SCORE website will be offline for a few hours later this month for an update. Watch your inbox for a notification before the update occurs.
  3. We're looking for historical SCORE items for our 60th anniversary celebration. Please let us know if you have any we can use.
SCORE Policy Changes
New Mentor Profile Privacy Policy

SCORE respects the privacy of its mentors and recognizes that some mentors may not wish to have their profile information publicly available. This policy allows mentors to elect to remove their profile information, including name, expertise and headshot (if applicable), displayed on the SCORE website. SCORE’s standard is to require that all active mentors have their profile on the website, and this exclusion is only granted in rare circumstances where a volunteer’s safety or security is potentially compromised by the existence of the profile.

Mentors who request not to have their profile information displayed on the public SCORE website should note that doing so may limit their visibility to potential clients seeking mentorship.

Existing mentors can request that their profile information be removed by contacting the SCORE Helpdesk. They will be asked to confirm their identity, and their profile information will be set to non-public. The Helpdesk team members will secure permission from the relevant field leader and field operations staff leader to make the change.

Get more information on this policy on the Support Center.

Financial Policy Updates

A team of SCORE staff and volunteers have recently reviewed the SCORE Chapter Accounting Policies and Procedures (CAPP) and developed the recommendations linked below. The proposed revisions have been reviewed by various volunteer groups, including the SCORE RVPs and Treasurer Advisory Group. SCORE is aiming to phase in the policy changes starting October 1, 2024. If you have any questions, concerns or suggestions about the changes, please reach out to help@score.org.
One SCORE Pilot Update
In our recent seven regional meetings, we reviewed pilot findings to date and gathered additional feedback from regional representatives. Our ‘Why’ was reiterated and strengthened.

Why: One SCORE is both our culture and strategy, allowing us to meet the increasing client demand and be the first stop in the small business ecosystem for entrepreneurial support, mentoring and education.

One SCORE Pilot programs helped us gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced in each of our core service lines and, thanks to feedback both in the pilot regions and throughout the country, identify the support needed to strengthen our organization.

We are in the early stages of analyzing the pilot program results to determine the optimal One SCORE framework rollout for the rest of the country by considering our learnings, feedback and ongoing continuous improvements. Our plan will focus on clarified roles, responsibilities and system improvements.

Critical changes identified include:

  • SCORE Headquarters Structural Alignment: To enhance our internal dynamics and better support SCORE services, we have partnered with Brighter Strategies, an organizational development firm. This partnership, which began in April, aims to address challenges like silos and redundancies and improve our support structure. The project has two phases:
  • Phase 1: Organizational Readiness Assessment. Brighter Strategies is working with our internal Task Force and Executive Leadership Team to understand our organizational culture and define success metrics.
  • Phase 2: Organizational Assessment. This ongoing phase involves a thorough assessment of SCORE, including employee interviews, workflow mapping and exploring structural possibilities based on the findings.
The development of our rollout and change management plan is underway, with priority given to changes that support SCORE’s field and client service delivery.

  • Technology and Systems Updates: The pilot has highlighted the need for critical updates to SCORE’s technology and systems. 
  • Key improvements include:
  • Enhancing access to management reports in Engage
  • Measuring client assignments and potential capacity in Engage volunteer profiles
  • Updating Engage to align with process flows
  • Automating current manual processes
  • Revising the mentoring request form for better client-mentor matches
  • Providing scheduling tools for various interactions
  • Updating Engage notifications

We will provide more detailed information on these updates soon. To ensure the smooth integration of adjustments, we will adopt a phased rollout strategy.

Thank you for your continued service, feedback and patience as we navigate this exciting journey towards future improvements.
Accessibility Best Practices
Ensuring accessibility at SCORE events, whether in-person or virtual, is crucial to providing an inclusive and welcoming experience for all participants. This is a set of best practices to achieve accessibility.

By incorporating these best practices, SCORE can create a more accessible and inclusive environment for all participants, whether attending in person or virtually.
Website Updates
We plan to release the Drupal 10 update later this month. This release includes the Drupal update and fixes to the website functionality.

This update requires that the website be offline for three hours. We plan to do this on a Sunday morning to minimize the impact on website visitors. An alert will be added to the website while it is unavailable, and we will notify all SCORE volunteers beforehand.

To learn more about these updates, see the release notes on the Support Center.
Reminder: On 4/12/24, for security purposes, we disabled older, shared webmaster logins for each chapter (admin.#### where the last four digits represent the chapter number). These have been replaced by unique individual webmaster logins.

If you serve as the webmaster for your chapter and have not requested a new individual login, please complete this form.
WANTED: SCORE Historical Photos and More
SCORE’ s 60th anniversary is Oct. 5, 2024. As we prepare to celebrate this milestone of service to America’s small business owners, we need your help.

We are looking for:
  • Old photos of SCORE meetings or events, especially from the 1960s, 70s or 80s.
  • Historical SCORE artifacts such as newsletters/magazines, brochures or promotional items through the years
  • “Famous” SCORE clients – for example, did you know Vera Bradley, Ben & Jerry’s and Jelly Belly were all SCORE clients? Who else can you think of? 
Contact media@score.org to share your memories by Sept. 1. Thank you in advance! Look for more information soon for ways YOU can help celebrate SCORE’s 60th anniversary.
A Culture of Inclusion Success Story
SCORE Lancaster-Lebanon's Journey and Commitment to a Culture of Inclusion

SCORE Lancaster-Lebanon recently released a newsletter detailing its efforts to increase inclusion within its chapter. Learn how it used mentoring and education to grow client services and increased diversity with chapter volunteers who were more representative of the community it serves.

Read all the details in the post on the Support Center.
Upcoming Events
DEI Networking Events
Join fellow volunteers across the country to network under the common value of inclusivity within SCORE.
Upcoming Live Engage Trainings
Join live Engage trainings throughout the month for both new volunteers and seasoned volunteers based on your roles in Engage and how you may use the system to support SCORE clients.
SCORE Department Webinars
Join monthly webinars based on SCORE functional areas of expertise including marketing, website, social media and accounting.
Webinars for Small Business Owners
712 H St NE
PMB 98848
Washington, DC 20002
Tel: 1-800-634-0245
Website: help.score.org
CONNECT WITH US:
Funded in part through a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Small Business Administration. All opinions, conclusions and/or recommendations expressed herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the SBA.