August Scoutbook Update

Woo hoo!! Thank you scoutbook.com!!!

This is great news, especially for units on a budget!

Amazing! We need to get the word out :)

Yes we so needed this celebrate!!! WOO HOOOOOO !!!!!!!!

Great to hear!

Yay! Wish I hadn't just paid for a renewal and increase in number a few hours before this announcement. :-(

Great news. I am hoping, in the effort of good customer service and trustworthiness, this does not lead to slow the progress of updates and maintenance of the site.

Great deal.

This is great news!!

Tom, read the FAQs

Nik,
send and email to scoutbook.support@scouting.org with your details.

That is really great news!!

Our subscription expires on September 1st and I proactively renewed and PAID yesterday for 100 scouts. Can we get a refund since we technically did not expire until September 1st.

Excellent news!

Dayna
send and email to scoutbook.support@scouting.org with your details.

This will be helpful when they decide to fix such things as leaving requirements out of the Venturing Ranger Award. They are missing the SCUBA and the Shooting Sports requirements. The have known this for several years (see the error tracking notes). I can only assume that Venturing is not important enough to have things correct. I know several Venturers that are working on Ranger with these options, hopefully this will be fixed before they pronounce Scoutbook the only way to track and report advancement.

We just renewed last Friday. This is frustrating. Glad for the future... but frustrating. Packs typically run on a school year calendar.

send and email to scoutbook.support@scouting.org with your details.

Question about Scoutbook Lite then.. I see it is still going to be implemented. Seems to me like a waste of resources to keep developing that. I mean why would I use the LIte version if you can have the full version?

Where is the LIKE button? This is awesome! Way to go BSA!

I almost renewed last night... glad I waited!

I'm just learning of scoutbook and was trying to do a trial today. The system will not let me add a unit. I've submitted a punchcode request. Any ideas?

This is great to hear, but we literally just renewed our Pack subscription last week so the no prorating/refund policy is simply a bad business practice. I understand you want to encourage new enrollees, but I don't think it is very professional to screw over your long term users. Why was there no advanced notice given before your suspense date? Definately shady.

Brian, I have the same concern about support, that when the subscription funding income stream dries up that Scoutbook dev resources may be viewed as non-critical the next time BSA needs to find some cash. I have my fingers crossed that this instead represents a renewed commitment from BSA and that additional resource will be forthcoming to allow them to address the product backlog more quickly. With trying to bring everyone on board at once the volume and pain of outstanding issues is going to rise very quickly and I hope the development team gets beefed up sufficiently to be able to keep the volume down to a grumble as opposed to a scream.

I don't think I would worry about that. The BSA is committed to Scoutbook and Scoutbook Lite. Without spilling the beans too much. Look for more enhancements this year.

So at this point, why would anyone now want to use Scoutbook lite?

Our pack also just renewed, and now we can't get a refund?? Maybe I misunderstand but that seems very unfair

Eddie
see my notes above

We just renewed as well. It'd be nice if they would refund those who renewed the last 30 days.

So I made a account last night, and trying today to do the free trial. I can't seem to find anyway to do it. Did they remove that option now that its going free in 4 months?

Bill Nelson,
You need to stop telling everyone to send an email to scoutbook.support@scouting.org. The answer of no refunds isn't changing. I got a loud and clear NO immediately.

good move BSA

Awesome! Can not wait, can save that money the pack places to use this and place it some where else

Same as Brian. No need to get anyone's hopes up Bill.

I will say that that is extremely disappointing considering we have been loyal users for a couple of years now and our money has helped to make Scoutbook what it is today.

Yay! Unfortunately, I literally paid to add 40 scouts at 7am today and hours later everyone was upgraded to 1000 scouts for free and then I was told I would not get refunded even though they sold me what they knew they would be giving away. One of the volunteers said to write support and explain and they would understand. Nope, straight out told they would not refund me no matter what, even thought it was only hours.

While this is nice, I wish this news had been put out much earlier. Our subscription was expiring yesterday and so we went ahead and renewed it. If we had waited 2 days, we would have gotten it for free. Not cool.

This is great! But you should just open it up free starting next month.

Smart move Scout org. Sorry for those who paid during the last hours or days before the change-over.

To be clear regarding the FAQ and what has occurred regarding the announcement. The FREE subscriptions start 1/1/2019. BSA did give 4 months advance notice AND also decided to waive any renewal fees for current loyal users for an additional 4 months over any other new Users. This is in advance of the actual date of the BSA funding unit subscriptions starting with the 1/1/2019 budget. Although those that renewed 4 months + 1 Month, 1 Week, 1 Day, 1 Minute, etc. before 1/1/2019 find that 4 additional months notice was shorter than what they would benefit from, a third of a year notice from the BSA was quite fair (especially in this day and age).

Rest assured, the volunteers of the Scoutbook User Advisory Council have ALWAYS aggregated User input, questions, concerns, etc. and lobbied on behalf of the entire User base. This week is no different. However, we are doing so in light of the BSA already offering a PAID product that has become FREE FOR ALL already. There is no feasible way that the timing would ever suit everyone. (4 months advance notice with no renewal fees accepted could have been 3 months, 2 months, 1 month, or even zero months just as easily as it could have been more than 4 months in any way shape or form.)

How was this 4 month notice given? I never saw it and purchased our renewal yesterday.

Veronica,
Notice announced today that on 1/1/2019 subscriptions and renewals will be free.

Please fix the logins!

WAIT!?

So WHY are you going to continue to waste our organizations money on further development of Scoutbook Lite?!! That makes no sense and does not strike me as being a good steward of the resources of the BSA.

If the regular Scoutbook is going to be free, then DROP Scoutbook like because there is now zero reason to have it.

Nothing is free in life. Soooo... how much is the annual scout registration fee increasing? Likely a BSA strategic move to assure a fixed resource across every scout and scouter. Wonder when this announcement will come for the recharter.

Great!!

Let's take a moment and review... internet advancement is going away
Scoutbook lite/full use will be the database of record
Some folks do not like scoutbook
They need scoutbook lite
I fail to understand the disconnect

I hope they continue to improve Scoutbook! Like adding functions like being able to group people to one group for Camping committee or group for this specific activity so we can easily send an email to just that group. Checkout scouttrack it's user abilities were awesome.

Exactly Stephen. Scoutbook.com and Scoutbook Lite will continue improvements now with funding from other aspects of BSA I.T. that are being retired due to age. There will always be I.T. requirements. It is now better than ever for Scoutbook.com to be free because Scoutbook Lite is on a newer "code base" that Scoutbook.com is moving to over time naturally as well. SOME things that Units who are still importing data into Scoutbook Lite can use can be simultaneously offered to Scoutbook.com users and vice versa. Some Scoutbook.com development can be brought to new code without there being additional development or User load from Scoutbook Lite users because it would nt be needed for batch uploads from those choosing to use alternatives to Scoutbook.com (whatever those may be).

Great choices but still more efficiency in development.

I am one of those whose renewal was scheduled for August 22 and we renewed on the 26th. We are on a tight budget for our pack. I know that we will be using the services and technically the free period does not start until 1/1/19. Could Scoutbook refund the portion of our payment that would be in the free period either 9/1/18 or starting 1/1/19 (66%)? We don't ming paying what's fair, it just seems unfair that there is a free period and we have paid for what now is free.

I was asked a Scoutbook Lite question from someone that I don't know the answer to. Once Scoutbook Lite replaces the legacy Internet Advancement does that mean that 3rd party products like ScoutTrack, PackMaster, etc. will no longer be able push advancement directly to BSA?

Steven,

The BSA has announced that there will be a path for 3rd party tools to upload data to Scoutbook Lite. At this time we do not have any information on that data format.

Most of us got "cheated" out of a portion of our 12 month subscription unless you were lucky enough to fall in the 4 month transition window. It appears Scoutbook did their best to come up with a roll-out that considered a typical October recharter/annual plan and tried to get ahead of that wave. I applaud the effort.

The "renewed yesterday" folks aren't cheated out of the 12 months. They are getting 4 month of what they paid for then are getting transitioned like the rest of us. Thank you for catching as many units as you did with this 4 month transition window, BSA.

Yes. The BSA produced a 1/1/2019 budgeted support for Free Scoutbook for all (including increased support for those that paid for a portion of 2019). They then also waived any renewal charges being accepted for a full 4 months (1/3 of an additional year) prior to the announcement so no further payments had to be paid beyond the date of announcement. That is quite an aggressive rollout commitment.

As you’ve noted, there is not ANY date/time of advance notice that would reach every unit but all of the Units that have paid will be getting nothing less than they paid for (which is an outstanding value already) and THEN the BSA Development is able to ramp up in support of the entire BSA now - not just those that paid in the $1/Scout/year in the past before 9/1/2018.

AWESOME!!!!

Great news! Now integrate online registration into www.scoutbook.com to solve the next biggest headaches for units.

I rarely ever post a comment, but ...
I can't tell you what an asset ScoutBook has been to our Pack.
Enough so that I have been paying for the Pack's subscription out of my own pocket and would be more than willing to continue doing so.
I quit looking for perfection decades ago, and have learned to be delighted with the "exceedingly more than adequate".
I'm sure the program will continue to be improved and expanded and BSA's commitment to the program only assures that.

I first joined Scouts in 1962 when a pencil sharpener and a blank piece of paper were considered improvements.
We had a hand crank telephone where our Den met and had to learn the ring signal on our party line.

Yeah, I'm one of your biggest fans.
Thanks for becoming available to everyone.

Now for those of you complaining about having just renewed, let's get real. The cost of this program was a buck a kid and if you even used half the features offered it was well worth it. BSA had to make that cut at some point, but going forward it is now Free, so Yes maybe your out 40 or 50 dollars that the person who renews next month didn't have to pay, but so what! Next year you will get to pocket that extra 50 bucks and chances are the product will have even more features to make your life easier.

How does this announcement affect the release of scoutbook lite?

Justin,

From the announcement above:
Q. How does this affect the development and roll-out of Scoutbook Lite?
A. This Scoutbook announcement does not affect Scoutbook Lite, which will be rolled out later in 2018 and feature a new UX (user experience). Scoutbook Lite in its initial rollout will feature only advancement reporting.

We now have Scoutnet that National and the professionals use. We have my.scouting where we can track the volunteers and their training and our unit youth and adult membership. Now we have Scoutbook where we can track and scouts and parents can track progress. What is even better is that all these programs talk to each other so if the correct entries are made we will have a better recording and reporting system. This will make advancement so much easier and charter renewal becomes easier.

Thanks so much!

What does Lite do that full blown Scout book doesn't? And vice versa? I can't even see lite.

Is there any chance that National will once again raise Annual Recharter fees to cover the cost of “free” Scoutbook for all?

Really appreciate this move. I've found Scoutbook to be a significant help in running our Pack. It was a bargain at $1/Scout/year and now it's free! Like many other people posting I hope that it is adequately supported and development/improvements keep happening.

David

Scoutbook Lite is a replacement for Internet Advancement. It is only for recording final completions. Think of it as a subset of Scoutbook. The BSA is not requiring units to use Scoutbook so Scoutbook Lite will be the path report advancement for those units that do not use Scoutbook.

At this time we do not have an estimated release date for Scoutbook Lite.

Way to go. We just started using scoutbook and we love it. Thank you

This is great news, but I'm pretty ticked off that I JUST renewed and won't be reimbursed for the cost. And I mean just renewed too. Like in August. I had to wait a bit even until I had money to pay, and it's not like the subscription was a ton of money, but it's the thought that counts! If I'd known this, I'd have waited until September to renew. I understand that it would be a huge deal to try to figure out who to pay back, and I know the scouts don't like to let any money be returned for any reason because they'll just apply it elsewhere, but that really stinks!

James,
Most all of us renewed this year. That is the nature of announcements like this. It is about renewing in the future, not what happened in the past. This change applies only to any new Scoutbook subscriptions effective January 1, 2019 or later—and to any renewing Scoutbook subscriptions that would “normally” be paid between September 1, 2018 and December 31, 2018.

For those of us who have been advocating for this for years, it is great news.

Fantastic! Thank you!

Bill, Ed, I'm hearing a rumor and need a point of clarification. Any unit not previously holding a subscription (Trial or otherwise) now has to wait until January to start a subscription with Scoutbook? As a commissioner whom has spent years advocating for Scoutbook am I now asking for the units whom have not yet moved to the system to wait until January, or Contact Member Care? I'm looking for a what do I tell them. Yes I get that leadership wanted to wait for "Top Hands" to put out the word. That's not my issue. I'm looking for what to I tell my troops and up and coming packs as this is the recruiting season and we have been trying to get 5 new units started. I want them to get started off on the right foot.

We were waiting until after our recruitment night to take a our trial to a full subscription, so we know how many "seats" to purchase.
If I read correctly, we now do not have the option to continue SB util later this year for the Lite version or until 1 for the free version?
I hope this is not correct, we touted SB during our recruitment period and have ~ 65 scout families expecting to utilize the program.

So my subscription is about to run out, I log in and see messages about the change to Scoutbook, yet I can no longer access any part of my Troop on Scoutbook and also can't renew my subscription. What a great thing to happen on a three day weekend here in the US. We just have a Court of Honor this past week and I wanted to make the updates. Oh well.

Tim

If your subscription did not expire prior to Sept 1 it should be extended automatically. If you explain what is happening on the forums we may be able to help you.

Keith and Dana, their are no NEW subscriptions until the Subscription Center reopens in 2019 when the 2019 bandwidth budget, etc. goes into effect for all Units in the BSA.

Jeremy and Tim, if you had a subscription prior to Sept 1st (trial or full) it will continue with unlimited Scouts available (well 1000 actually) from this point forward.

Is there really no way to create a new trial at this point? I was scheduled to do a Roundtable breakout session on Scoutbook next week (was scheduled two months ago) and it seems like it should be delayed if units will not be able to set it up until January.

I am having the same problem as Tim. Also, unfortunate timing! I can’t access any information or send messages to families. When I attempt to do this, I get an error stating I don’t have an active subscription. Then, when I attempt to go to the renewal, I get “please email” support!

The Scouting Adventure moves on with God's Grace.
Thanks for the Scoutbook program. Our unit appreciates everything you do to make our volunteer one hour a week easier. Woop!

Tim and Cathy
Subscriptions should automatically renew. Ignore the yellow flag warning if you get one. They should be removed soon. If you run into any issues where your subscriptions that is valid today does not automatically renew, send an email with your unit details and details of the issue to: scoutbook.support@scouting.org

@Scott Fisher, Thanks for the info.

I see where we have 1000 seats available, but still have the expired subscription notice. I have an email in, maybe they will clear it up after the holidays.

Edit 9-/4/18 :All is well after the maintenance was performed today. Thanks for the info

Jeremy
If your subscription expired after 8/1/18, Check now. You may have to log in and now for the expried notification to go away.

Works for me now! Whew.

2018-09-05: Scouting magazine announcement to all adult leaders

"BSA will make Scoutbook free for everyone beginning Jan. 1, 2019", by Bryan Wendell, 31 Aug 2018,

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2018/08/31/bsa-announces-its-making-scoutbook-free-for-everyone-beginning-jan-1-2019/

The FAQ has been updated, see the 1st post in this blog thread.

Thanks BSA, and thanks Bill Nelson for the added glimmer of hope (without spilling the beans)!

We are currently in the trial period. Will we have to pay through the end of the year or will it be free as well?

Jason,

No. See the FAQ linked above.

Great news!

While I'm happy it is going to be part of membership from now on I would really like to see the updates. None have been posted for two months. This is the flagship program but there are still a lot of holes to be fixed and no apparent progress. With thousands of new users coming on board in the next several months we need a fully functional system sooner rather than latter.

Great news! Except that I just renewed August 16th and added to our subscription. That's $80 we lose for something that is now free. How about a full or partial refund Scoutbook?!?!

Very cool! We have been very happy with Scoutbook and look forward to it growing and expanding even more!

Cool!!! now if only we could get our parents to actually log in... ;-)

John,

There have been updates to Scoutbook just about every week for months. Watch the Change Log forum for announcements.

Okay, this is a great program, we have used it for years, However, we use a different program for Boy Scouts that allows us to also track tribal advancement. Will there be an option added to be able to do that to Scoutbook? And what is scoutbook lite? I have never heard of it

Is there an accounting system in scoutbook? We use troop track and it allows us to show the monies in the kids accounts, use funds for paying for camping etc. Wondering what kind of system Scoutbook uses.

Jessica,

I don't understand your comment on tribal advancement. Scoutbook only tracks BSA programs. Scoutbook Lite is the replacement for Internet Advancement. It is in development.

Diana,
There is a Payment Log in Scoutbook that can be used to track Scout accounts.

Jessica, are you referring to the Tribe of Mic-O-Say? It is not a national program of the BSA.

Excellent!!

Forcing units to pay for a mandatory software program was a bad business decision. Glad someone saw the light.

That good to hear. How do I make sure my program is current? How can I update

Jeff was never and is not now mandatory. Scoutbook Lite which has not been released yet was always free and is the replacement for internet advancement

Mark, Scoutbook is a web site, not a program. There are not updates to be made on your system.

Awesome news! Thank you Scoutbook people :)

What if we just renewed it in March to make sure that we were good to do things during the summer?

Joseph,
See the FAQ linked at the top of this blog.

I think this is a great idea and Scoutbook has become pretty good.

My only concern is that the development efforts for Scoutbook continue at the current level, if not increased. It seems like new functionality takes a LONG time to release. I'm a professional programmer so know best-practices, which includes frequent incremental releases to get new functionality into users' hands. That doesn't seem to have been the case with Scoutbook.

Stew,

There have been updates to Scoutbook just about every week for the past few months. Follow the Change Log forums for announcements.

This is very good news. I am glad I subscribed last year and am familiar with it. There is definitely a learning curve. Interested to see how it is accepted and implemented with non-users.

Bummer. I would prefer to continue paying to be able to pay extra developer staff for aggressive development of improvements.

I would love some sort of help/response/ when I have Scoutbook questions. I have sent email in the past, no reply yet.

Verla, we can help a lot of users with their questions in the Scoutbook forums. Most questions are answered in 30 minutes or less.

Awesome.

Yessss

Does this mean that the My Calendar feature is not going to be "(Beta)" anymore?

Nice! Hope to see lots of improvements in the tool. Lots of feedback to come back from a larger user base.

Like Stew, I'm a developer, and I've been using SB for quite a while now. I would even be willing to pitch in on a bug board, contributing patches, etc. Perhaps there could be some polls conducted to determine top picks for new features, enhancements, bug fixes, UX changes? (I'd LOVE to be able to smoothly bulk-add calendar events)

Kris,

The volunteer written and supported Feature Assistant Extension for Scoutbook for Chrome and Firefox can import a csv file to the calendar and add recurring events. Search the Chrome or Firefox extension stores (or the Scoutbook forums for links).

There are plans for a major calendar rewrite and eventually Scoutbook will adopt the UX from Scoutbook Lite.

The BSA does not use volunteers for Scoutbook development.

Cannot get a pack setup and no one responds to emails. Any other way to get help?

David,

Ask your questions in the forums. You will typically get an answer within 30 minutes.

Yay!!!

Great.. next we need a PopcornBook.com for helping raise funds for units and BSA.. a popcorn kernel tool (currently developing for our local pack, but others out there already <since 2007>! Just need to get one and provide as well to have repeatable kernel process for show&sells, den sales, and individual inventory sales, as well as the usual on line and take orders).

Yes thanks, Scoutbook.com!!!!

OK but when will the JTE tracking go live???

Keith - not all councils use the same vendor, product line or commission structure for fundraising. The system would need to gather all of those variables.
Michael - not all councils use the same metrics...most do but some do not. Neither are all of the data points captured in scoutbook.

How long do you normally have to wait for the “help desk” to respond? Trying to setup an account for my Pack, have submitted all of the requested info a week ago, received a request number SSD-29845 back, but nothing since. Is a week plus normal? Is there a phone number to call? Thanks

Ok, just re-read the FAQs and this can’t be right. If my Pack doesn’t have an active account, we can’t have one until 1/1/19...is that right? Not even a trial?

Yeah!!!! We use this all the time. It is amazing, I am so glad it will be more available to everyone without the cost.

So we've been planning to do the free trial for our Troop to evaluate. We put it off for a few weeks to allow out Advancement Chair to process all of the summer camp achievements without having to first learn a new tool. Now it appears that we can't even set up the trial account to evaluate until January.

Brian, that is what the BSA has said. We have not been given any more information.

Thank you Ed! I appreciate the response. Guess we’ll hang loose for the New Year...

This is Wonderful News. Thank you BSA and Scoutbook Team

Great news - I wanted to comment on others stating they have not had a response on tickets and emails sent for ScoutBook issues. I have been pleasantly surprised at how fast issues have been resolved for me in ScoutBook. I have had immediate email responses stating there is a ticket received. My issues have all been resolved by the next day at the latest. I work in the IT industry and wanted to give credit where it is due. I've been very impressed with the speed and effectiveness of issue resolution with ScoutBook.

Well, I'm new at this, so I'll bring my questions this evening.

So, is this a confirmed thing then that if a unit doesn’t have an active Scoutbook subscription, that they cannot initiate one until January? Our Pack’s subscription renewed, but I know a few Troops in the area were not using it yet. It seems self defeating to not allow units to use the site when we are all starting a new school year.

Thank you BSA & scoutbook for giving this to us for free!!! So glad the decision makers at the BSA are adding this in to membership!

Yeah, paid subscription on 8/20.

I created an account last night, got confirmation email today to activate account. Can not get anywhere. Was looking to purchase til end of year. Asked my council and got no answer.

I been trying to set up my pack and since they removed the "subscriptions" options, how can we set up new pack? Do we have to wait until January? Submitted a ticket at support email, but have not hear or received any kind of response for a week. Any had any luck contacting the "support desk"?

Rafael,

At this time, the BSA is not allowing any new units to be setup in Scoutbook.

Hi,
Our Council is one of the ones which purchased ScoutBook subscriptions for all units beginning in 2017. We've been working to get more units on ScoutBook with those council codes. Are we not able to use those now if the unit didn't get the activation done before 9/1?
Thanks

Great news. Be great to see this tool used and developed more. Thanks!

What about units that renewed last month?

Amy
Your council should go ahead and write to scoutbook.support@scouting.org
The BSA is working on a way to assist councils in your situation.

so how do you use this thing. Yes. I am new to blog you say. What does it compliment of current databases, email, text. How are communications improved? I just got set up by our sponsor executive. Is everyone in the beginning of the learning curve? Will other systems be replaced? Simplify. This is a football as a great coach once said to his team. I am old enough to remember it.

Mike,
We have user guides and videos here: http://bit.ly/scoutbook

So how do I make my account active for our troop, as our subscription ran out..

Great. Thanks Ben!

Thanks, Bill, I will do that.

That’s awesome! Our pack just loves this program. We use it for everything. Thanks

What about those that already renewed for a whole year will they get a partial refund?

Anthony,

See the FAQ linked at the top of this blog.

This is great news. Too bad I just renewed our subsciption last month for a year...

9/17/18(06516) In my Community, and probably yours, we have a lower than ideal participation in Scouting. It seems Scouting is challenged by after-school sports, busy parents and mobile video entertainment of many varieties, some less than ideal. As kids and parents spend more in their screens they miss other activities. I believe Scouting offers a better experiential program for youth and families than any in the USA for the foundation of values and service. Scouting also offers parents and families a platform from which to embed the Scout Law, Motto, Oath and Achievement in the identity of the child. You who are reading this on a BSA platform already know this, so I propose our job, to ensure Scouting exists forever, is to promote Scouting better by making other things second. As parents and children 11-16 is a relatively small time window. My Troop 802 has website (troop802westhavenct.com) and Facebook pages we send out in our community, yet the response remains low. FIVE PROPOSALS---I would like a conversation to develop about what your troop is doing, or is being challenged with. On a national level Councils need to address this with action, as selling popcorn does not do enough to promote the Values and Life Long Benefits of Scouting. Maybe more (1) press releases, (2) Join Scouting Homework Help Club. (3) Join Second Saturday National Scouting Hike Day. (T-@daaavecarr) when all troops in the USA have a scheduled hike. (4) environmental awareness action, and (5) Helping the Hungry in the Community. This is message an idea-seed I am planting in the BSA cybergarden as I sit here imagining the future in which all scouts will live. Sincerely, David Carr ASM802

I received this response from Scoutbook: "Thank you for contacting the Boy Scouts of America. We are in the process of making improvements to Scoutbook. Until we have completed these changes, both new accounts and Family/Unit trial subscriptions are not available. Presently, we do not have an estimated time to expect the updated release. If you need to contact us regarding this ticket, you can reply to this email. Our normal business hours are Monday – Friday, 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Central time. Thank you for your support of Boy Scouts of America. Member Care Contact Center"
and later: "Thank you for contacting Scoutbook! I’m happy to assist you. There will be an announcement made once trials and sign up become available. We do apologize for the inconvenience. If you have any additional questions you may find an answer in our FAQ: bit.ly/scoutbook"

So exactly how do we start this year then? We haven't used scoutbook yet. Continuing to pursue the 3rd party solution we started looking at last year now makes no sense at all. We just limp along and make due?

Matt and Michael, from the Blog post (at the top of this page):

"For units currently without a Scoutbook account, they can begin their free Scoutbook unit subscription on January 1, 2019."

New subscriptions are currently on hold until they open them back up again.

Jennifer, Matt and I understand the conditions. There is no need to restate them.

Since we can't even subscribe to scoutbook if we wanted to until Jan 2019, then we are left without a management solution until then. The question is simply, why didn't the BSA make it freely available starting with the new academic year. It seems like a fairly obvious oversight.

Michael,

The BSA has not explained their decision or why Jan 1 is the effective date. The only thing I can think of is they needed time to prepare for a large influx of new users and possibly wait until the start of the BSA's fiscal year when there may be additional money in the IT budget to pay for additional capacity.

So a practical question... Should I encourage my families to sign up for the free individual accounts now or after Jan 1st?

Michael, you can use Internet Advancement in the interim. It is a free tool for units, although it only tracks completed and approved advancements / awards. Talk to your local council about how to get set up.

James,

If you already have a Scoutbook subscription for your unit, you can add your families today by going to the Scout pages and click Add Parents. If you do not have a current subscription, families will not be able to create new accounts until the BSA re-enables the sign up link on the Scoutbook landing page.

Is there any reimbursement for a Pack (ours) that paid the $40 in August 2018 for the first time only to find out the service is now free?

Robert,

See the FAQ (link at the bottom of the blog post)

I have an invitation code from my council for my pack. Is there a link to enter it? Thanks

Christopher,

Not yet. The developers are still working on the update to accept the codes.

To all of us leaders. We just need to move forward! They also have a app the links with ScoutBook, it’s called Scouting. Parents of scouts can use this as a addition to the browser site. For those who have issues need to look more into the site, it has more information than you think. I have also looked at the LITE site. Try updating to the full site. You’ll get more material at your fingertips. That’s just my opinion. I know some people don’t like other people telling them there opinions. If you don’t agree with me, just move forward to the next message. Thanks and try to do a good turn daily.

Too bad that we are forced to use an incomplete system. This would never been implemented where I have worked.

Our budget thanks you!

David, no one is forcing you to use Scoutbook. Each unit is free to continue using whatever tracking system they currently use.

Thank you!

Perhaps BSA's generosity will motivate increased donations to Friends of Scouting (FOS) from all the savings!

Wow this is awesome thanks.

I am still set to my original subscription which only allows me to have 5 scouts in my den. How do I go about adding new scouts?

Brian,

As I said in my reply to your forum post, you need to contact scoutbook.support@scouting.org.

We just started a new unit. Now I can't get Scoutbook until January! :( We want to get started with this now. Our committee discussed it and we want to pay to go ahead and get the service. This is really very disappointing!

When will Scoutbook allow all den leaders to be designated as 'den leaders' and eliminate 'lion guide', 'tiger den leader' and 'webelos den leader'?

Gary,

Lion Guide is the only one of the 3 positions that has been officially eliminated. The only announcement we have seen on Tiger Den Leader and Webelos Den Leader is that when the stock is sold out, their position patches and neckerchiefs will not longer be available. We have not seen an announcement saying the positions are being eliminated.

Bonnie Brenner - I spoke with Vijay Challa, the head of the IT department at National, about how they never considered new units. I was insulted for a half hour by the man and he would not answer the question "Did you consider new Packs when you decided to not allow signups from September to December?" It is a shame the Boy Scouts of America could treat people who give so much of themselves to start a new pack with complete and utter contempt. It is obvious, living the ideals of the Scout Law are not a requirement to work in the BSA Information Technology department. The sneering and patronizing attitude he chose as his mode of address to an Eagle Scout Cubmaster of a new pack explains why the rollout of the new ScoutBook has been shrouded in secrecy and leaves new Packs, Troops, Posts, and Ships stranded.

His direct supervisor, Assistant Chief Scout Executive – National Director of Support Services Mark Logemann, while not contemptuous, was not able to resolve this issue. Shame on Scouts for putting my new Pack, day 1, behind the curve - making me eitehr pay for a third party solution or track my, entirely new to the program scouts, with pencil and paper. I urge all of us caught by this to give Mark a call at 972-580-2000. Let him know how shutting off new enrollments to ScoutBook from September to December may save you a little bit of effort in Texas, but hurts thousands of us who spend our spare time trying to get our units working!!!!!

And yet I still can't get mine to work

Stephanie, if you would post in the forums, we can try to help.

Thank you