Be Prepared

Bob

Thank you for the wonderful update and for the continued progress!!!

Currently we are using Scoutbook for all 3 of our chartered units. Within each scouts profile we have identified if they are part of the Troop, Team, or Crew. We have validated the Troop (The only one we actually have a registration for). How should we validate the Team and Crew units so that the information will sync?

*We only use the Troop, Team, and Crew as defined by the rules of our chartered organization, but currently all Scouts regardless of their unit are only working on the trail to eagle within Scoutbook.

Thanks for your help.

Fix the Report Builder.

What is going to happen to Lone Scouts using ScoutBook when this integration happens? As I said before we don't have a pack or den number and can not use Akela. Is there a fix in the works before the integration happens? I know a few ideas for a fix have been tossed around in the forums.

Be prepared

Thank you! This is great!

What is Akela? Is that a different website or something?

Akela and ScoutNet are both names for the BSA scout and leader database.

Will advancement auto-sync, or will there be a button/process to synchronize advancement much like a roster import?

@James, advancement will auto-sync

What are the consequences of not having a member ID associated with a given scout or leader?

This is recruiting season, and there will be many cases of scouts and leaders who are in Scoutbook, but whose membership applications have not been processed yet.

Are you saying that we should not put them into Scoutbook without an ID? (and be forced to communicate with them via other means until that time?)

My understanding is that they will not sync until they have a BSA ID. Once added, they will.

I always appreciate the programs being updated but when are the Varsity and Venture programs going to get online rather than being patrols under scouting??

Will you be providing a final cut off date for having the BSA ID's entered?

Thank you for the wonderful update, this is awesome news!!

If the information from Akela doesn't sync with scoutbook, will the information in scoutbook disappear?

Holly, no, nothing will disappear. Just more info could be added to one system or the other as needed.

Pamela, based on other comments, I'd say the date to complete this by is about 60 days out. If you miss that date, you'll just miss out on the initial sync from day 1. Once you enter all he IDs, it should sync (or shortly after).

Does anyone know if you can turn off the access to the old belt loop programs? I have parents who keep finding the old sports programs and entering achievements with them under the quick link. Our Pack should not have anyone on the old programs anymore and i would like to prevent these old options from being available.

thanks for your reply.

Matt, it can't be disabled. You just have to tell your pack not to use them.

In no particular order:

- We will disable the old Academic and Sports program and the 2010 rank requirements later this summer.
- If member ID is not there or does not match, no data will transfer.
- Varsity and Venturing are being discussed in a roadmap meeting tomorrow. I will update when I have something firm.
- Lone Scouts: We are also discussing this at the roadmap meeting. The lack of unit connection is an obstacle to implementing in SB but we are looking for how.

Our pack discovered the solution to a syncing problem between scout net and Scout book because birthdays were missing in scout book. Hope that helps.

Awesome news about Loan Scouts. Hope the meeting goes well and something comes out of it. I know there are lot of ideas in the forums on how it could work. Hopefully those ideas will help out.

Thank you Bob! We truly appreciate the updates. Please let us know if there is ever any way we can be of assistance.

I ECHO Tim B. As a Troop Adult, Scoutbook is proving to be a wonderful step forward. Other than recurring events being an opportunity for success, it is purely education for the Scout and Parents to keep their data up to date. A far cry better than our old stand-alone data system.
As an Advisor for a new stand-alone Venture Crew (Crew 3483) I'd like to lobby for getting Venture and Varsity modules sooner. I'm building all records from scratch and whilst a paper system can suffice it would be wonderful to promote the Venture achievements where the Crew Member and Parents can see them.

Signed
Patiently Waiting and training for the future

Is there some way to double check that we have validated the unit number & description?

@Pack 297 When you go into your Edit Pack page if you don't see mention of the BSA Description drop down that means you already matched up your unit and you are good to go.

Next thing is to run a Roster Report to see if all BSA Member ID's have been entered. From your roster page look toward the bottom for a link called Print Roster. Check the BSA Member ID field.

Hope that helps!

When creating a link for a parent to follow the son's advancement for the invite request and you type an incorrect email address is there a way to correct that. I've tried using the edit profile for that parent but it gives me a message that the email is tied to another scout in the family, who now is 18 years old. Any suggestions?

Pat, if I understand correctly, the correct email address was previously used by a scout, and now you cannot use it for the parent because it's already in use? What email address was used by that parent? Did you create two accounts for the same parent? My thought is that you should be able to search for an existing adult to connect to the younger scout depending on the answers to my questions.

Pat, the parent can log in and change the e-mail address to the correct one. Alternatively, the parent can send an e-mail to scoutbook.support@scouting.org and request that it be changed. I would think that a Scoutmaster, Committee Chair, or Troop Admin could also send an e-mail requesting the e-mail correction.

The new release that requires you to log on each time, I suppose is needed for liability reasons, but giving the user the choice of staying logged in would allow scouts, parents and scouters an easier way to not only learn the program, become proficient with the program etc. Other social media sites give the user the option, especially when using it on a mobile device.

When will the leader or "My Awards" piece of Scoutbook be available? This link has said coming soon for the last year.

Thank you

Gordon, leader awards are not yet on the published development priority list which Bob periodically discusses on his blog. The Coming Soon notice was put on there before BSA purchased Scoutbook and development priorities changed. I would not expect to see any movement in leader awards in the near future.

Is there going to be an "account balance" for leaders?
We have many leaders who pay the pack for their training (ie: Woodbadge) who don't want the funds to come out of their scouts' accounts.
Would be nice if they could have their own balance account.
Thanks

As we prepare for the auto sync, our ScoutBook users still need to upload the ScoutNet File to Internet Advancement. I was helping a unit the other day who was trying to do this and getting an error message on all scouts of Member Mismatch, no advancements to upload. They had entered all their members BSA Id numbers and could not figure out why they were getting this message. They came to my office for help. After they logged in, we noticed every scout had the default date of birth of 1/1/2006. After 40 minutes of updating every scouts date of birth to their actual date of birth, we refreshed the ScoutNet csv.file and it uploaded successfully to Internet Advancement. With the ScoutNet Update on September 13, where they have taken away the full date of birth from unit rosters, you may see some units having problems in the future if they do not have the dates of births loaded correctly into ScoutBook. In the future if units need to get a roster with full date of birth on members, they will need to request the Charter Renewal Roster from their local council.

Cool

Our Pack synced a couple weeks ago, and we're new in scoutbook, but I'm wondering if our tenure patch, 25, is supposed to show in SB just like it is displayed on our uniform? It's not there.