Adult Training Awards

I know leader awards have been brought up several times before, but I’m bringing it up again. Typically, the response has ranged from “BSA Policy is No” to something like, “It’s in the backlog, but we prioritize youth program stuff.”

As an incoming Pack Committee Chair, I think the leadership training awards (Den Leader Training, Scouter’s Training, and Scouter’s Key), and potentially BALOO, IOLS, Wood Badge, etc., should be in Scoutbook. As for the rest, it would be nice but I agree that youth functionality comes first.

That said, at the unit leader level, it would be beneficial to the youth program to have these Training Awards tracked in Scoutbook. A trained leader makes a better youth program and I view these not as prizes but as incentives to maintain continuous improvement and a visible differentiator to encourage new leaders toward greater sustained participation.

It’s often said that, “You get what you measure.” In addition to allowing unit leaders to track the progress of den and other leaders. Those leaders, who are regularly in Scoutbook, receive a constant reminder of the next step. I personally believe that a culture of leader recognition for youth program enhancing activities builds a strong and sticky (i.e., longlasting/persistent) volunteer cadre and a better youth program.

In addition to tracking leader participation, it would creates an easy way to identify dedicated folks early on for succession planning (another thing that improves the youth program).

I’d like to see this elevated again for these reasons.

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2 points to consider. First Baloo, IOLS, Woodbadge are not Awards - they are trainings. Trainings are recorded in my.scouting Tools. Secondly the various Adult awards are awarded by Council or above organizations; therefore a unit cannot enter them. Also these awards are rarely entered into the tracking system that exists today; councils do not have time for it - I know a Silver Buffalo, and that is the only adult award entered, not the Silver Beaver or Silver Antelope, or the many other well deserved and earned awards they have.
Scoutbooks key role is Advancement, and adult awards are not advancement, they are recognition of service.

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Definitely true, but I think the user’s thought is many of the square knots have requirements just like youth awards. So, it is certainly seems compatible with scoutbook. I’d be in favor of it, but lots of things are higher priority (and likely always will be imo).

As for training qualifications, I agree:

  • Not the highest priority on the Scoutbook ‘To Do’ List
  • Training requirements aren’t awards, but they are achievements worthy of recognition
  • The training qualifications can be retrieved via the Training Reports available in My.Scouting by following the report link currently in Scoutbook. This report is fairly easy for the training chair (or anyone with the appropriate privs) pull, and can be used by adult unit leaders to track progress and identify shortfalls.

That said, I also agree some improvements could be made to the reports that are available, and I think there may be benefits for showing advanced qualifications in Scoutbook Dave didn’t mention. Having those qualifications appear as a sort of icon in addition to the ‘trained’ flags currently in Scoutbook sends a message to both the parents and scouts about the dedication of the adult volunteers-- those adults they are trusting their young scouts to: “This Unit’s adult volunteers take their roles very seriously and do far more than just show up for unit meetings.”

While we wait for Scoutbook improvements, logical suggestions include:

  • When a leader completes the training for a position or completes an advanced training course-- recognize their achievement at Pack Meetings/Courts of Honor.
  • Also, note training levels/deficiencies/needs during committee meeting.

First Baloo, IOLS, Woodbadge are not Awards - they are trainings. Trainings are recorded in my.scouting Tools.

Acknowledged. That goes to the bigger issue of the many systems we interface with, but I’ll let that go for now as solving that would be winning the war.

I think the user’s thought is many of the square knots have requirements just like youth awards. So, it is certainly seems compatible with scoutbook.

This is my point exactly. We already have a GUI for awards that allows for checking stuff off with dates. The training awards require higher level signoffs, but the information could be stored and tracked. Perhaps limiting approval to Key 3. Not sure how permissions are tracked.

The Den Leader Training Award Record is essentially a checklist as are the Scouter Training Award and Scouter’s Key. This should be an easy DB object to create. If there is a better system to store the info in, great I’m all ears, but SB is the one most contact leaders are familiar with and use regularly.

While I recognize that there are other priorities, I note that leader dues also increased over the past few years and leader quantity requirements have also increased with the YPT rules and integrated dens. Making it it easy to track and reward contact-level leaders (particularly in cub scouting) is important to the program.

I am working with a pack that serves an area previously served by 5 packs which imploded as a result of the pandemic. Rebuilding is my challenge, I’m simply asking for ways to manage the massive increase in volunteers that is needed to regrow.

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As a new Unit, I would very much like to see more listed for adults in Scoutbook. It is VERY HARD to track what has been given to a leader at this point. I do realize that Youth were the priority in Scoutbook in 2019; but I believe it has been long enough to add this feature. It would most certainly help those of us that have heavy military populations around us that move frequently.

I have noticed that leader Trainings dont seem to transfer in the system either from Council to Council either. Having “Trained” populate in Scoutbook would help reassure parents more too following the lawsuit that we know what we are doing. Our unit has taken a BIG PUSH to get our parents and Scouts all using the My Scouting APP for Scoutbook and Internet Advancement & it would be extremely useful to have leaders tracked accurately in it.

Please think about this!!!

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This is actually achieved by adding the “new” BSA IDs for each council to the my.scouting account using Manage Member ID. Scoutbook does not independently track training. It relies on the status in my.scouting. It takes 24-48 hours for the training to “synch” to/from the newly added BSA ID. However, this all relies on making sure that the PII all matches (including the form of name used) when scouters move around.

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@DonaldNecaise When a user uses Manage Member ID to add their BSA member numbers, their training should merge onto the BSA member number that is set as “primary”. The training merge usually happens pretty quickly, but can sometimes take up to 24-48 hours.

If you have the permissions, there is a way to see adult awards at my.scouting. Go to the unit Roster page, select the individual, click on the “Print” menu arrow / carat, and select “Unit Advancement Details Report”.

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So, these can be in the system, but like @jacobfetzer says, many don’t get entered. Our registrars are awesome and have the time to do it.

These reports are available to the key 3 in a unit at my.scouting. It includes award and training. It has every single module from the training, so “big ones” can get mixed in.



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This is very helpful, its good to know that there is some way to view it. It still doesn’t address tracking progress. Further the fact that visibility is limited to Key 3 is problematic. All leaders should be able to view their own records and a DL should be able to view their ADLs. Overall, these tools seem to have VERY restrictive permissions. If the Key 3 aren’t savvy nobody at the program level knows the resources are their. All registered leaders should have RO access to their info at a minimum.

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I personally think scoutbook should remain dedicated to unit advancement. Tracking 3rd world generals and their 15 thousand knots is not advancement. Honestly the folks who chase after adult recognition are the least scout like and most obnoxious folks i have come across

And its scoutbook not adultbook

That’s certainly an opinion, and everybody’s got one. Cynicism is one approach, although others might consider it obnoxious. I think you’re missing the distinction in my original post between “chasing knots” and using the 3 training awards as a way for the Key 3 to measure and recognize sustained leader development beyond a few online modules and the “Trained” patch. Whether leaders pursue continuous improvement to get the knot or the knot simply recognizes continuous improvement, the result is the same: better trained leaders. They’re part of the program for a reason.

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@DaveMorris - I understand your point but the issue comes down to the fact that these things are not universally tracked by all councils. Beyond that I am not sure that the Key 3 would look to scoubook on that information. I am also not sure how many parents or other leaders look at the profiles of the other leaders. I am not certain that BSA will devote the time and effort to track leader awards an other items related to the registered adults.

Of course they aren’t universally tracked, there isn’t a decent system to track them in. It’s all paper and a lot of folks barely know they exist. That is the whole point. We have national standards that could be used to improve leader development, succession planning, etc. But they aren’t used because they are run off poorly organized paper records – in 2023. Good ideas with half-baked systems for implementation fall apart. If BSA has a better tool to implement this, by all means let me know. But many tools are inaccessible, inflexible, or impenetrable. Scoutbook is the system folks know best. If national declares victory because they have a solution, but nobody uses it because it drains the volunteers’ time to figure it out and make it work, there isn’t really a solution.

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I think there are a few issues. The current system in my.scouting can only be inputted to from registrars. Some councils don’t staff properly to get the core work done and adding adult awards into the system isn’t base business.

The BSA has been in bankruptcy and has laid off many many resources. They struggle to keep the systems going that we rely on, and keep the systems updated for use of the youth program. Adding adult awards makes sense and is a natural next step. These have been low priority (not acted upon) based on current resourcing.

Another point to consider is that not all units use scoutbook but would use IA or at least upload to IA from third party trackers. Ultimately the items would need to be added to IA which is the data link to scoutbook. I am not certain what other trackers do in the way of adult awards, but more then likely troop/packmaster may well have these or custom awards which end up as free-text items which would not upload to IA as that only track completed items rather than in-progress reqs.

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From a training tracking standpoint I think I would prefer something added to My.Training or Internet Advancement that lets district and council training committees see ever current registered position and what training modules are required to get a scouter “trained” in that position in addition to having BALOO, Hazardous Weather, IOLS, etc … For example districts and councils don’t seem to have the ability to see how many BALOO or IOLS trained individuals are out there.

Are you sure? The data is there (if it was entered), no report? My BALOO and I think IOLS are there. But, for example, my train the trainer was never entered.

You have it!

Maybe this is a configuration issue and perhaps district/council wide for my committees. I am on my district and council training committee and I don’t see what you see when you go into those reports, and my fellow committee members have voiced the same concern as me so I suspect they do not see the same reports that you have. (I am assuming you’re looking in the Roster > Reports of my.scouting.org/my.training.) I see in your screen shot the "NOT TRAINED REPORT (TRAINER LEADER STATUS). I am not sure what report you are running to determine course selection as I don’t have any options to even bring up an interface such as that. Do you have access to a different org level? I currently have access to my individual units and my district reports.