People searching for our Troop at BeaScout.org are not able to find it at the top of the list where it ought to be.
Reproduce this: searching for troops in 91604 (or use the easy link https://beascout.scouting.org/list/?zip=91604&program[1]=scoutsBSA&scoutsBSAFilter=all&miles=10) and then search the page for “0189”.
Expected: Troop 189 should be at the top of the list, <1 mile from 91604.
Observed: Troop 189 is listed at #25 (6 miles away).
Scoutly seems to use the same paradigm: when you ask for Troops within 5 miles of 91604, you get a JSON payload that filters correctly, but then geolocates incorrectly.
Here, on this map, the pin shown is NOT where it should be.
The JSON provided to Scoutly has the pack and troop at the top of the list as it should be, and it reports the correct address, but the location lat/long and the distance is not correct. The correct coordinates for the address are 34.14118, -118.39250. The correct distance for this query is 0 miles.
Can you update the lat/lon to match the address of the unit?
@JamesReifsnyder-Smit
The team that handles bras out.org is not on the forums and only accepts bug reports via a Member Care ticket opened by council staff. You will need to contact your council and ask them to report this issue.
Update: our council opened a Jira and the response was “These settings, (latitude/longitude), can be manually entered into the Beascout Map using the Unit Pin information.”
However, no such setting is available to me. I can update the address, but not the lat/lon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
We’ll try to open a new ticket tomorrow. Stay tuned.
FYI from Facebook’s “Scouting America Membership Engagement” page AND my.scouting 7/6/26 announcement:
“Beginning 8/3/26 BeAScout will launch an updated experience designed to give prospective families the information they want before contacting a unit. Starting 7/9/26 unit leaders can update these new fields in their Unit Pin within my.scouting Organization Manager. NOTE: Any updates made to these new fields before 8/3/26 will not appear on BeAScout until the new experience launches 8/3/26.”
Another option you could share on socials or unit website is that you can copy a link directly from your BeAScout unit page by clicking the 3 dot ellipsis and share that instead of the standard BeAScout link. But it could inadvertently send families to you who are further away.
The power of BeaScout.org is that we can advertise the simple url in our socials, and people can find the unit that’s right for them - even if it happens to not be our unit. If we get all the units in our organization to drive people there, we all win.
But it has to work. Right now, there is a huge and tragic gap between the people who are building the site and the people who are using the site. From little things like “family” packs being labeled “F” which confuses people who think they are “Female,” to interface elements that make it quite difficult for people to identify the program that they’re looking for, when they are new to Scouting and don’t know the lingo. We just got an inquiry for a 14-year-old from 20 miles away, who is interested in our Crew, because we are listed in the wrong location and the interface is so confusing to newbies.
I’ve been trying for four months to get our Pack and Troop to show up when somebody searches for us by zip code, putting direct QR and shortlinks in our socials because BeaScout is broken and we cannot get support through the unit–>district–>council–>national–>developers–>national–>council–>district–>unit pathway, only cryptic things like “fill in the fields for lat/lon” that are not part of the interface.
And yes, the new features will be helpful, and build on something that is already good, but we also need a little bit more work on the foundation before we start building on top of it. (yes, that’s a reference to that building in New York City).
Update: After escalating this through the Council and three frustrating exchanges, I was advised to try to change the zip code by one digit, save it, and change it back. Suddenly, it updated the lat/lon for the first time in four months.
So if this happens again, simply find somebody in your District who can find somebody in your Council who can open a ticket to National. When you get a response that makes no sense (like “type the lat/lon into the fields [that don’t exist]”, push back through the chain you discovered two more times until they give in and contact the developers, who will fix the wordpress hook that broke in the last update. At that point you can change the address and wp-admin will recalculate the lat/lon based on the zip code.
(I’ve been in this business for 20+ years and I’ve never worked in an organization of a size even half of BSA’s that doesn’t have a trouble ticket system that every user can submit tickets to.)
There was one years ago prior to the backruptcy. However, that avenue was closed (and I presume the associated people were RIF’d) and as volunteers/parents, we either have the volunteers like SUAC here (for SB+, classic SB and the Scouting app for parents/scouts) or submitting a ticket via council (for everything else or for things that SUAC can’t help with on the preceding). It’s obviously frustrating for a lot of folks. Hopefully they eventually open that avenue back up at some point in the future.
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