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Who is “BSA Administrator”? Is there some way to determine what person or automated process is wreaking havoc with our troop records?
We had a scout achieve first class. His BoR was completed on 4/29. This, as well as his rank completion were entered into scoutbook that day. Fast forward to May 17, we’re trying to create a PO to buy awards for the troop’s CoH for 65 scouts. Oddly several scouts’ rank awards weren’t in the PO. Investigating, we see that these entries have changed, and instead of being completed and approved in April, are now marked in May and entered by “BSA Administrator”. His earned date is still listed as April, but for PO purposes, his rank award is not getting added. Even if we regenerate it.
What the heck is going on here, and how can we figure out what happened?
We are manually generating paper PO to work around this, but would dearly like to know the source of these changes and eliminate them from happening in the future.
I think the “Mark Completed on [date] by BSA Administrator” means that all of the underlying requirements were marked as completed, and the code rolled up and marked the rank as completed overvall.
In the activity we have spotted so far, what we see are bits and pieces approved.
For Rank advancement situation. The BOR was signed off , but this was already handled. It was damaging this Scout’s record by changing the date 3 weeks.
For the Merit badges (which are not part of the PO/Advancement report bug) - specific requirements that had been approved were signed off again.
The big concerns
keeping the records of up and coming Eagle Scouts on track.
The routine chore of generating a PO, recognition report and “needs awarding report.”
@LinneaLemon I understand your concerns. If you see this happen again, please let us take a look before you start making corrections, so that we can identify the bug and take it to the developers.
Is it already marked awarded? That would prevent it from showing up in needs purchasing or a PO. If not, go to the needs awarding report and see if it lists a PO for that MB on that scout.
@jacobfetzer was asking you to check the status of it, rather than whether or not you or one of the other unit leaders marked it Awarded.
The SUAC folks are trying to diagnose two (potentially) different issues.
One issue is why things aren’t showing up on the PO. If they are marked as Awarded, they should not be showing up, and that part is working as designed. If they are not marked Awarded, more investigation is needed into why it’s not showing up.
The second issue is why items are showing up as approved by BSA Administrator on a date later than when it was believed to have previously been Leader Approved by someone in your unit. Please note that, for record-checking purposes (e.g. Eagle advancement reviews), it’s not about the date it was “Marked Approved” or even “Marked Completed” (which are simply database tracking information), but rather the date which is listed for the Completion, which you indicated in your original post was unchanged.
@LinneaLemon - @JenniferOlinger offered the best advice is that if there is an issue, please leave it in its current state unless it is hyper-critical to fix it locally. Additionally, it is often good to provide screen shots of the issue to enhance understanding of what the problem is. Verifiable, recorded, and visual evidence is always far better than there was an issue and we worked on it.
You nailed the Rank achievement issue. This Scout is “fine” according to what was sent to national and chasing down to get the other dates “right” won’t impact the Scout. Our plan here is to leave the PO open, and submit a handwritten form for the advancement/purchase of that one patch.
The other issues appear to be creating digital “noise” on the record of these others Scouts. Any dates that are amiss after the upcoming COH can be adjusted.
So we are going to let the dust settle, track the activity, and clean up with priority on the Scouts who are tracking toward Eagle in the next 8 months. We have a cluster, and want to support their journey.
Then I can assemble Screenshots (as advised) and present it to the team here for follow along help.
update on the issues: Had the COH and are creating a separate inventory for the Scout and awards.
The advancement team members generally “stay in their lane” - and we have seen a big improvement in the quality of data tracking and a reduction in misunderstandings/missteps related to Scoutbook. This issue was timed well because the other active members were on vacation when it happened.
We are sorting out how to upgrade our methods to better discriminate between our data errors and SB issues that need fixing.
As you’re doing that, are you already familiar with the Scoutbook audit log report? It can be helpful in tracking who’s doing what (within some limits). It’s available to Unit Key 3, Unit Key 3 Delegates and Unit Scoutbook Admins under the unit reports menu. It’s found here:
Scoutbook → My Dashboard → Administration → My Units → Unit # → Unit Reports → Audit Log Report
The output can be occasionally arcane, but in general I find it pretty usable. Even if it doesn’t fully answer a question, it can be helpful in ruling out potential answers to help narrow the field.
