Adding scouts to patrols resets membership and creates a new one

Scoutbook Scoutbook Bugs
1

When adding an unassigned scout to a patrol, Scoutbook creates a new membership within the unit and reverts the number of days in the unit to zero.

It should:

  1. Add them to the patrol and RETAIN the dates in the Troop, not reset them
  2. Retain their current membership and not create a new one.
2

I haven’t seen that behavior before. What steps are you using to add the Scout to a patrol?

3

Using the reassign Scout button, the only option available to add scouts to a patrol. New Scout button opens up the dialog to add a new member to the unit.

4

this is the way the system works

5

@RichardScalzo - when reassigning scouts, do not use add new. Let me see if I can find the help guide.

6

OK, well that is a really unhelpful response. What you are basically saying is ideal with it. Its too bad that The Scoutbook Advisory Council members find it OK that it works so poorly.

Is there anyone out there with anything constructive address this issue?

7

Stephen,
I did not use add new. This happened when using reassign. At least I stopped at the first few.

8

@RichardScalzo - here is how to manage membership

9

I do not understand? You click Reassign >> You Select a Scout >> it adds them to patrol. Yes it is a different membership - because they are now in a patrol. You should never need to press NEW SCOUT

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10

Its not a new membership. They are a member of the unit. Its a patrol assignment. Think it through. You are not updating there membership so the number of days in the unit should be the same. Since when is a patrol assignment a membership in a troop. That is is the disconnect. Memebership per the BSA is at the unit level, not a patrol level.

11

Why did you mark this solved, this is not solved. This is broken and a great example of why so many units do not like Scoutbook.

12

Well as being on SUAC about 5 years and no user has ever complained about this, as the system is very logical, this is not an issue to the vast majority of users. Scoutbook is about tracking Advancements > Membership data is a different Database AKELA.

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13

@RichardScalzo - do you also have a date joined scouts BSA in the scout profile ?

14

Yes, its there. Its not carried over.

15

@RichardScalzo - when I look at the tenure for my son, which has 3637 days it is also including all scouting membership from tiger on. I am certain that if I pull the scouts BSA report it should show his tenure from 2/2016 to today.

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16

Scoutbook is about tracking just advancement? Really, I guess you have a very different message? Why then is membership and patrols assignment and editing even in there? Or activities? Or a calendar? I find your simplistic view of it in stark contrast to the message that I get from SUAC members here in our council.

17

I use this method to get the correct membership established in a den in our pack. The cumulative number of days is not changed by this process. Then I correct the dates.

In the ended membership, the one without a den, I edit the end date to match the start date. This results in a membership with zero days.

With the new membership, in a den in the pack, I edit the start date to the actual date the scout started - sometimes the same as the zero entry start date; more often, earlier because of paperwork delays.

18

Stephen,
I am sure at the SCOUTNet level it will too. Maybe one day the SUAC will take a good hard look at this. Its not a new membership and if you can’t edit, then Scoutbook will never be a true representation of Scouts history with the unit.
I appreciate the time you took to try to help. But the issue has already been marked solved by the SUAC. So I guess I have to manually edit the start date to get Scoutbook to be correct.

I was trying to convince the other board members that we could do everything we are doing now in Troopmaster with Scoutbook. After this experience, I am not sure I am able to convince myself.

19

Doug,
Thank you for the workaround. I guess you have seen this before. (I am not the only one) Hopefully the SUAC will read your input and use it as a guide to implement it as a solution.

20

I’m kinda confused about the issue. I think I get the principle of the issue you’re raising. I’m not sure if I get the actual impact of the issue. Can you explain more about why having separate memberships (and membership dates) for separate patrols is a functional impact? I would just add up the various patrol memberships to track time, although can’t figure out a situation offhand where I would care all that much about their tenure in a particular unit.

It looks like Scoutbook tracks two different things. The first is the “active” membership, which for scouts in patrols shows only tenure in that patrol. That’s kinda clunky if you’re looking to see how long a scout had been in your unit, in that you have to add up the various “pieces” of the memberships. However, I don’t see that as a bug, since Pee Wee Harris has only been in the Dog patrol for a certain period of time. If a scout changes patrols, are you suggesting that the change shouldn’t be tracked? I’m not quite clear how you think this should work for a scout who changes patrols (vs one who is being added to their first patrol after joining the troop).

Scoutbook also tracks “tenure”, which appears to sum all of the days in any BSA unit/subunit (e.g. pack and troop), not just in the current unit. This excludes double-counting of concurrent days (e.g. crew and troop) registered.

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