Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info â Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
I like the new permissions changes overall. They are much easier to understand now that they are more unix-like.
Our unit is blessed with enough in the Scoutmaster Corps to have each patrol with a SM coach. Advancement approval is by default with the SM. We typically allow the ASMs to approve of advancement up through first class for their respective patrols they coach, with the SM handling Star and above. However, advancement approval is an all or none prospect in SB+ from what I can tell.
The feature request is to create a range (perhaps by rank) of how much into rank advancement an ASM can approve.
I think earlier, ASMs were allowed to only approve of advancement with the patrol they were assigned to.
We trust each other, but not every ASM is as involved and sometimes doesnât direct the Scout to the SM when appropriate.
I doubt approval request for leaders will change beyond what is already there. ASMs should be trustworthy enough to only approve advancement for âtheirâ patrol.
We did add the ability to give Scouts permission to approve rank requirements for any rank through First Class. They are not able to approve the Scoutmaster Conference or BOR requirements. I do not envision Scouting America IT extending this granularity to adult leaders.
I havenât experimented with this, but have you tried using the Subunit Support functional role for the ASMs on a per-patrol basis? That would at least constrain the approval capability to that particular patrol. Then, the ASM training just becomes âdonât approve anything more than First Classâ since they canât reach outside of their assigned patrols.
There is no sub-unit permissions for Troops. Sub-unit permissions only exist for Packs where it is much easier to handle because Cub Scouts must be in a sub-unit (den). Scouts in a troop are not required to be in patrols in Scoutbook Plus.
Ah. Bummer. I didnât see that limitation in the PDF list of permissions, and didnât have easy access to my desktop to check it out on my troop.
That would be a nice thing to have implemented, though, for just this sort of situation. It seems like if the logic exists to create a sub-unit for a troop in SB+, even if itâs not mandatory, then it would be âDilbert easyâ to extend the sub-unit permissions structure. Thatâs proof I donât have any insight into the code base! :â ^â )
It seems like it should be an easy problem to solve but there are a lot of corner cases because Scouts in a troop are not required to be in a patrol in Scoutbook and get frequently moved in and out of patrols.
Like I said âDilbert easyâ: meaning itâs easy because I donât have to do it myself. :^)
Although, it looks like Dilbert Easy has somehow gotten confounded with the Dilbert Principle (i.e. being promoted out of direct technical work to keep a person from causing greater damage), so maybe I need to update my euphemisms.
