Welcome to the New Scouting Year!
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Welcome to the New Scouting Year!
Welcome back from Summer!
Based on recent site traffic it is clear that Scouting is back in full swing in Scoutbook! We also passed, yesterday, an important milestone for Scoutbook - 1,000,000 connected users. Yep, a million Scouts, Scouters and families using BSA's unit management tool. The Scoutbook team would like to thank all of you for your support and continued usage and personally I would like to thank Shawn Jackson, creator, for his vision and continued involvement as lead developer.
The flip side of this increased user base and return to more active Scouting/usage of Scoutbook is that we have recently had some unacceptable site performance. Many of you may have noticed slow response, especially during the evening hours. For this the Scoutbook team apologizes. We are aware of the slow performance, have identified a number of actions which will help speed things up and the team has this as our number one priority at this time. Please be patient as we work to improve the situation.
Last Friday we made an unannounced change to ensure that all parents were copied on emails sent to youth members. In making this change a) we failed to give users proper prior notice and b) we inadvertently took away the legitimate ability to use the BCC function, hence all email addresses were visible when emails were sent. We should have communicated the change in advance, sorry, we will do better in the future. The BCC functionality has been reinstated effective yesterday. Parents will continue to receive a copy of all emails addressed to their youth member.
Two reminders:
- Passwords: Beginning tomorrow, 9/15, all Scoutbook users will need to have passwords which comply with the new complexity standards announced previously. This has already been implemented for new user accounts and password change requests with little fanfare. Current users will be required to change non-compliant passwords when they login beginning on 9/15 if they have not already done so after 9/1.
- Membership ID: While completion of the advancement sync has taken longer than expected it is still on the Scoutbook roadmap for this year. When implemented, only youth with a member ID in their profile will be able to participate in the sync. The sync eliminates the need for leaders to export advancement files from Scoutbook and then upload them to Internet Advancement so the sync will be a definite time saver for leaders. Take full advantage by making sure every youth has their proper member ID in their profile.
Thanks again for everything you do for Scouting.
User 1,000,000 (actually ACTIVE USER 1,000,000 - excludes deletions) Sept 13th, 2016
CONGRATS ALL. How about 2,000,000 by next year?
(Good to hear speed issues identified and #1 priority. Return of BCC also welcomed. A "BCC-ONLY" toggle controlled by Unit Admins has been requested and is a good request as well.)
On the lines of "Internet Advancement" bi-directional syncing, is there anything on the near horizon related to updating training? All the adult training modules in ScoutBook are related to the old on-line course codes (C42), not the new course codes (SCO_200)?
https://www.scoutbook.com/mobile/blog/63/security-update-and-merit-badge-counselors/
I did receive a email from a forum post yesterday that was offering me a VERY INAPPROPRIATE service. I have not found a way to do this as of yet but I thing there should be a link where to a person so that this type of thing could be easily reported.
Thanks! I missed that bullet point.. Was focused on the security updates. :-)
Obviously, copying parents/guardians (which has universally been true since Scoutbook started other than this one missed "bug" of when the Scout initiates the message) is one way to avoid "no one-on-one" contacts. As you note though, BSA policy does not mean a parent MUST BE included on all communications. Two leaders and a Scout or even two Scouts and a Leader communicating complies with "no one-on-one" as well.
Good input.
I really hope the scalability issue gets addressed sooner than later. It makes the site very ineffective right now. This is a really big failure on the part of the BSA.
I am very concerned as the site has always had scalability issues and has only gotten worse. This should have been a top priority and have been very well funded by BSA when the decision was made.
Just went through a password reset with my initial logon this morning. Not a biggie for "me" as I was already aware and prepared. BUT - I realllllllt think you should have the NEW password requirements POSTED on the page asking for a new password! All it says is enter old password - enter new password. UGH. I can see my parents reallly struggling with this trying to know what is and isn't allowed for a password now. Shouldn't you have the requirements there on the page asking for a new password?
You are right, it is definitely great to be able to have a system that electronically works <basically> like the Scouting program works. Scouts able to track themselves and Leaders able to easily approve and take care of things from there.
ALL of us volunteers are anxiously awaiting being able to use the great features of Scoutbook without the sluggishness we're experiencing over the past week-and-a-half. Only the professional BSA Team are able to work on the actual system of Scoutbook. Security is very stringent. The SUAC members volunteer time and some members are tasked to test a "snapshot" of development changes (often finding out what will be tested the day or two before it is set to go live on Scoutbook.com). However, we are unable to help test speed improvements for the most part because the improvements must be live to everyone to be able to test their effectiveness.
We do know (just like everyone here knows from Bob's forum post above) that BSA is working hard on this topic as the #1 focus right now.
Suggestion- we have to use a separate service for signups- Signup Genius. Is there anything in the works to have a feature like this integrated into Scoutbook?
"Many of you may have noticed slow response, especially during the evening hours. For this the Scoutbook team apologizes. We are aware of the slow performance, have identified a number of actions which will help speed things up and the team has this as our number one priority at this time. Please be patient as we work to improve the situation".
There is nothing like signup genius integrated with Scoutbook. If any of those services allow you to provide a URL, you could put that into a calendar event.
I put my faith in Scoutbook, and advocated for our troop and pack to leave Troopmaster since this was going to be the official BSA system. I am extremely let down, and it wasn't just over the lost email. That was just the last straw. I can't afford to waste mine or other volunteer's time.
If you are using Scoutbook and have never tried Troopmaster, you should. They understand how things should actually function in an advancement tracking system. They have been doing it for MANY years. Troopmaster may not look as snazzy as Scoutbook, it may not be perfect, but I used it for years without the amount of heartburn I've gotten from this "attempt".
Thank tou for the update. Unfortunately I am just reading it as the site is still wonky at my end. Loading times are seriously lagging making it very hard to do anything unless it's on my cell phone. Not sure why it isn't working with my Mac at all
While I respect the desire for individuals to keep their email private, there needs to be a mechanism in the program to allow a REPLY ALL to emails received through the Scoutbook system so that email conversations can occur once the initial message is delivered from the system. Otherwise the system need to be circumvented.
Congratulations on the milestone. And I, for one, appreciate the return of the site performance. Thank-you.
I have a question, and this may be the wrong post to ask it. I'm a novice when it comes to blogs and blog searches.
I'll ask anyway...
As a Webelos Den Leader I have been using Scoutbook. I like alot of what it allows me to do, particularly Advancement tracking, service hour tracking, and sending reminders to my boys.
I am an ASM in our Troop. Several of us would like to consider using Scoutbook. There are concerns that the Boy Scout side does not have the same functionality as the Cub Scout side, in particular Advancement tracking, service hour tracking, and Leadership position tracking. Our Troop currently uses Troopmaster, and these functions are said to be crucial. There also seems to be concerns regarding the recharter process, and syncing records with the main BSA database.
Is there someone or someplace that addresses these concerns? Is there a way for our Troop to trial Scoutbook alongside Troopmaster to see if Scoutbook really does do all we need it to do?
Thank-you for all you and your team do.
I appreciate any assistance in pointing me in the right direction.
YiS,
Chuck Byers
You can get a free, fully functional trial subscription to Scoutbook. Again, the forums are the best source of information on setting up a trial.
Thank-you for your response. Reading through some of the earlier posts got me a little concerned that Scoutbook may not be a good solution for our Troop. I would still like us to give it a try.
Regarding Scoutbook Forums: Is that an "official" web site, or are they a collection of interested Forums started by users? I am presuming the Scoutbook Forums are not found within Scoutbook.
I apologize for the lack of understanding. I tend to stay away from social media, and only venture, when absolutely necessary, to Blog and Forum sites. They are usually too difficult to navigate and it is too easy to chase down rabbit holes.
I appreciate what you and others have done to assist us, particularly those who are less technically inclined.
YiS,
chuck
I have a suggestion for an improvement I ran in to today. The ability to attach files to a calendar event would be fantastic! Our pack posts all of our local council events on our calendar for our families to keep track of more easily. However, because it is not our event we do not control registration and would like to make finding registration instructions easier than having to search for an old email.
I'll look forward to hearing some feedback soon.
Thanks,
Jason
Edited to spell out an acronym.
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