It’s a tragic loss of accumulated knowledge. I don’t know why they wouldn’t have at least archived it somewhere.
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Wow, I came here to research a question and google said the forum had my answer. And now it’s gone? What a downgrade.
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The forums were very useful for sharing information and learning best practices.
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You might try the cached page option in the Google search that gave you the results or the internet wayback machine, assuming that the relevant page was cached. Not my preferred approach, but potentially the only way to find what the search result showed.
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Yes I did that and got my answer. I don’t know long the cached pages stay in google’s server, but it’s a short term work-around. Let’s hope BSA makes a good decision and put the forum back up.
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So now “Discussions.scouting.org” is really “scoutbook.troubleshooting.scouting.org,” yeah? As a new Cubmaster who is trying to find new ways to get his young Pack and new Scout parents involved, Scoutbook IT troubleshooting doesn’t really help me too much.
That said, it’s amazing to me all the great work the SUAC does to help leaders understand how to use the online tools. But now the SUAC is basically the de facto (volunteer) IT service arm of BSA it seems. Is that what those folks volunteered to do? Should these be called Trouble Tickets instead of Discussion Topics?
/endrant
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Because of this, we started our own troop-level forums within our website.
We have a wealth of knowledge passed down from previous generations as well as current insight into camping, hiking, etc. We chose this route because we can maintain the environment, integrity, and security of the content as opposed to encouraging our scouts to use Reddit or another third-party platform where we all know can lead to same really bad things.
At least we have created the opportunity to keep the discussions internal and within our confines as opposed to encouraging third-party tools outside of our control with different standards and goals. The same should be considered here.
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Hi Greg, congratulations on being a new CM. Summer is almost here and the best way to involve cubs and parents is to take advantage of the good weather ahead and plan with your committee a fun filled summer program. Lots of advancement/recognition opportunities and families look for things to keep their kids occupied and active in a positive manner. Good Luck.
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I will join in expressing my disappointment that the Scouts BSA and Cub Scout forums have been summarily ended. There was a wealth of knowledge available through those threads. I am close to many of our Council’s professional staff and based on many off-the-record discussions with them, they do not have the time (nor sadly, the inclination) to answer every “program or health and safety question.” What this really implies is that the ideas and opinions of the volunteers do not matter to National.
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As an Assistant District Commissioner for Administration, I will be taking notes and assisting my units with any questions and directing the questions to appropriate questions to the proper people, and/or providing my units with proper documentation for the policy/program question. It will be up to the volunteers and the professionals working together to provide the best possible service to all units, Scouts, and Scouters.
Professionals don’t have all the answers, (time/inclination), no one does but this is where in person roundtables, training and annual pow wow’s or University of Scouting can really pay off. Sadly, we haven’t seen that over the past 2 years because of the pandemic. We need to really bring that back.
This is where a forum like this, well moderated with trained commissioners, could work.
Man, talk about meeting new generations where they are. I do like in person round tables, but why couldn’t this be roundtables for others?
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It does bring up an interesting point - concern over content I can understand - how do they monitor every UofS?
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Or roundtables, or…
All complaints about the abrupt disappearance aside, I hope that a better place for scouts and scouters to share knowledge and support one another appears (or reappears) online. As has been said before on this thread, most social media sites are not good forums for these discussions. There are some privately run sites, which I have patronized in the past. Some are good; others, not so much. The quality of the discussions that we had here were light-years ahead of the often confrontational ones I’ve seen in other places. We were even pretty decent at self-policing, although some of us (cough cough me) had some issues staying on topic. :^)
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@CharleyHamilton - well i know i have always stayed on topic and been well behaved. And i must admit that my son has to tend to the lawn on the morrow
I was at our council yesterday and spoke with our District Rep. He had no clue that the forums were gone. He wasn’t aware of any notice from National. Our district has a Facebook page and leaders often ask questions there.
The problem is that some of these questions required a definitive, not-debatable answer. Does Guide to Safe Scouting mean XXX or YYY? Hows does it apply in my case where ZZZ?
What about this section of Guide to Advancement?
Tasking out a BSA staffer to make such pronouncements is not in the cards, I would suspect. The number of people who could, without having to consult with a committee or legal counsel (or both) answer such questions is probably limited to 3-5 people, and they are busy in their regular jobs.
Instead, we get FAQ sections on www.scouting.org on (among other things) no doubt vetted and revetted and re-revetted before seeing the light of day
- Youth Protection and Barriers to Abuse
- Annual Health and Medical Record
- Scouts BSA - General Questions
- COVID-19
And so on.
Two years ago, National ended the direct contact phone number for Scoutbook and other support and directed people to go through their Council. I see precisely zero chance they are going to task out people to answer programmatic questions, much less anything that can have any kind of legal ramifications.
So then why does SUAC exist? I would argue, again based on the above, that SUAC provides a valuable technical service that in no way binds BSA, declares policy, or interprets any BSA policy or programmatic decisions. Having well trained, well meaning, and well versed volunteers trying to help with what amounts to an IT help desk likely has minimal to no legal ramifications, requires no approvals from the various BSA committees, etc.
SUAC is the exception that proves the rule: there is no chance BSA is going to allow person or persons to answer programmatic questions with the weight, gravitas, and yes authority of Boy Scouts of America/National that is not a) a professional paid individual b) a senior volunteer who has been vetted and approved at the highest levels (thinking of Scott Sorrells here).
In both instances, the individuals who would have the authority do not have the time to answer questions, and those who have the time to answer such questions do not have the authority, and will never be granted the authority, to answer in such a public fashion.
I don’t believe the folks in the program offices in Irving do not have time during their day to read a single forum category (each program has its own staff). Members of the SUAC read every post and still have time to get our real jobs done.
I don’t see a lot of work coming out of the program offices. It is not like they rewrite the entire handbook every year. And they do have time to answer emails with questions. Considering they could subscribe to the proper category and respond via e-mail, this should not be a big time sink.
If they are worried about some types of questions, they could simply respond with “contact your council” and close the thread. This is not a difficult problem to solve.
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I agree that this forum was serving a valuable purpose but probably the vast majority of volunteers didn’t even know it existed and so, will never miss the Cub and Scout program forums. However, most of those folks get regular local council newsletters and emails that cover promotion of training events, roundtables and other opportunities. Our districts ‘virtual’ roundtables generally have fewer than 20% of the units represented and the balance are district level volunteers. It’s sad…
I firmly believe they (National and Councils) are only driven by money and numbers (recruitment). Servicing existing members to make units and Scouters better seems to be an extreme low priority.
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