Hello. Long time scoutbook user and fan. So, my question is simple… Is the new Scoutbook Plus Internet Advancements calander some sort of April Fools Joke? When is the old one coming back? Seriously the new interface is horrible from a user stand point.
I have worked as a software developer for 25 years in a variety of Microsoft Technologies so I understand the need to update from old Classic ASP to newer platforms (ASP.NET, MVC, etc) However in your design process you overhauled the entire look which is not needed with a rewrite. You also have made it very hard for users to use. I have a decent sized troop and I am also a district chair. I have received complaint after complaint about the changes. Right now my main issue is the RSVP feature. I have always liked the OLD feature to track who was coming to an event. It was simple for parents to use, and the email that was sent included a link for the parents.
Now, there is no link, and everyone complains about how hard it is to use. On top of that when I go into an event, it shows me EVERY REMINDER EMAIL sent for EVERY PERSON… i.e. if i have 30 people i my group and i send ONE reminder, it shows that sent reminder 30 times!!!
If the pay was enough I would offer my services to help rewrite Scoutbook.
On behalf of EVERY SCOUTING PARENT AND LEADER
Change it back!
The old calendar is not coming back.
There are known issues with RSVP that are being worked on.
Agreed. This new format is absolute garbage. If this were a for profit company, someone would have been fired.
This new calendar is feeble!
1 when the reminders go out to the pack - they state it’s from Boy Scouts of America - totally going to get missed by the pack parents used to seeing things from Scoutbook
2 the info regarding an event that was painstakingly entered by our leaders (links to registration and fees associated with events) didn’t transfer over.
3 The rsvp function isn’t working AT ALL!
Calendar and Communications with parents are not a ‘Do Your Best’ item in the business of cub scouting.
Please totally test these changes before implementing nationally in the future
I would say it isn’t work for some. It is working for our unit.
The ASAP reminders should be disabled until this is fixed.
Well, then the new version should not have been released until major functionality like this had been tested properly.
-Drew
25+ years Microsoft Technologies Developer
C++/VB.NET/C#/SQL/MYSQL/MVC/ASP/ASP.NET
The new calendar has been available to ALL UNITS for testing since December. The number of issues dropped to the point where the BSA felt the quality was such that it could be rolled out to all.
The developers are working hard to get issues fixed quickly but some things can’t be fixed until the BSA no longer needs to support two calendar systems in parallel.
Keep in mind, the BSA just exited bankruptcy. They are not Microsoft or Apple with an army of developers and a pile of development dollars available. The legacy Scoutbook must be retired because it cannot scale further to the capacity needed and is written in an unsupported language that finding developers is extremely difficult.
@DrewMorton - i don’t recall authorizing you to speak on my behalf about the calendar. I have been working with it since December and have had no major issues. Change is what everyone is upset about.
I’ve been using it as well, but families were not. The inability of parents to RSVP for their Scout is causing issues! I’ve been a fan of Scoutbook, but this most recent roll out has me considering looking at Troop Web Host or some other option!
This was my concern when @LianneRutty was saying one can’t RSVP. They can. There just isn’t a link to do so if an email reminder is sent ASAP. So, you have to dig deeper. Where are the parents having the issue?
I joined SB+ in December 2023 as my first position in Cub Scouting. The IA Calendar is the heart of the program. It is not comfortable or intuitive. The overall outline to track unit activity is there, but some frequently needed pages are too many clicks away. especially for local single or repeating unit and sub-unit activities that use invitee and attended lists.
Sorry about the bankruptcy. It may take more time if there is less financing.
Two at a time is not necessary. The old can be tabled except for fatal update repairs.
The new beta will take more than 3 months because there are significant changes and may be done with a limited test audience.
- RSVP link not near the top of the notification
- Expandable lists of units and subunits not clearly marked or in tutorial – invitee and attended
- The calendar font looks smaller than 6 point on my 27" monitor. Too small. Love the colors.
- Other option that may be at top of mind for the user are several clicks away, though logical. Software is for the user, not the programmer. Of course, you know that. Think like a user.
Thanks for your efforts to keep our SB+ in step with today’s technology.
Will our scribe still be able to take attendance with the new calendar that just took effect or are the leaders now going to have to take attendance?
As scouters posting to a public forum, I’d like to offer a gentle reminder that all of our words are available for anyone to view. Everyone working on migrating old Scoutbook functionality to the new platform is doing their best with limited resources, and many people are volunteering their time to help test and improve the platform.
I have done some testing myself and have reported bugs or missing/confusing functionality with as many details as possible to help the developers address the issues. I’m not a professional tester or developer, so I can only do my best. But so far, several reported issues have been addressed if they were bigger and reported by numerous people, and others have been explained to me that I wasn’t using or understanding the functionality properly. Either way, the product is better or I become a better user. There are a few requests still out there, but I am hopeful that they’ll be addressed in an upcoming release.
The more we can check these forums for existing issues and help add our detailed experiences to the places where there are problems, the sooner our developer friends will be able to address them. I do have several decades of technology consulting experience and I’m sure all software professionals would agreed that software migration and testing is never perfect and that thorough testing and detailed test result reporting are key to ensuring the products we use do the things we want. This is where we can help as users of the product who can articulate how we think it should work. It’s frustrating, to be sure, when functionality doesn’t meet our expectations, but we are all volunteers working together to give the youth in our care an awesome experience in scouting.
In everything we say and do, we are setting an example for the youth we lead and providing a public picture of scouting.
Yes, a scribe can take attendance if given the role “Calendar Editor”. I tested taking attendance with one of our Troop Guides. There was a bug with saving the data at the time, which I was told has been fixed, but I haven’t re-tested yet. Our Troop Guide figured it out quickly on his phone and thought it was cool and useful.
Many of us learned in Wood Badge “change is inevitable” and we need to try new things. The new calendar format looks more updated and fits better with most applications.
I also have concerns the generic sender “Boy Scouts of America” and the generic subject “Calendar Event Reminder” will be too easy for our families and scouts to overlook or accidentally get caught up in mail manager rules.
Are there any options to include the calendar event in the subject line of the notification?
