Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – 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.
Most of our units are not using Scoutbook. As the Guide to Advancement explains in great detail, we distribute lists of approved counselors. We need to know the counselor’s YPT dates to go with the lists so leaders can consult them…it also provides an important role in validating YPT renewal if the date on the list has passed.
More generally…a minimum number of leaders with current YPT are required on all sorts of unit activities. How is anyone running an event supposed to check YPT status if we take this tool away?
Units know this as they have their unit YPT report. So, this is a non-issue. The committee chair is the one usually tasked with keeping an eye on these dates. It is up to the unit, not the district, to bring two current registered adults.
Have you checked in my.scouting district tools? I have access to all in the district YPT status as a commissioner. It is pretty straightforward.
All Scoutmasters have access via their my.scouting login. They don’t have to “use Scoutbook” to use it for this lookup feature.
Your work-arounds sound great for unit activities. Our merit badge deans are not commissioners…are there district tools available to non-commisioners? Managing merit badge lists, and running district and council events are often lead by folks who are not commissioners. This tool has been around a long time and is available to anyone.
If there are substitute tools generally available to anyone, it would be great to hear.
I think that’s what @edavignon was aiming for in his question above. I’m just surprised that the district-level volunteers or professionals don’t have a better tool.
That said, is there a reason that a Merit Badge Dean couldn’t have a commish who is their point-of-contact, that provides that report when needed? It still seems like less overall work than having to grind through Training Validation with a list of dozens to hundreds of MBCs. I would assume that the MB Dean isn’t validating YPT daily, so a report forwarded from the commish on whatever schedule the Dean is using for validation should (I would think) work.
There can be a lot of reasons not to enroll someone in a role that they don’t actually fill. The most immediate one to come to mind is training. Having a bunch of volunteers who are either not trained for the position they are listed under (e.g. non-commish listed as a commish) or who then need to take training not necessarily relevant to the work they’re actually doing (e.g. MB Dean taking the full suite of commish training) can be a problem either for the district/council (untrained %) or the volunteer (added training not actually related to their role). That’s not the only thing, of course, but it’s something to consider.
Merit badge administration is an important responsibility, and with roughly 250 counselors per merit badge dean, it is a lot to expect that the dean has to have a partner to check YPT status. Again…YPT is important, and checking it should not be something restricted to a privileged few. Doing it in bulk is useful, and I have council permissions and help the other deans when needed. But when they get a single application or query, or note that a specific YP date has expired, it is important that they are empowered to check it themselves. Similarly, a Scoutmaster in a non-Scoutbook unit should be able to authoritatively check YPT status without having to reach out to others. Until/unless Scoutbook becomes required for youth safety, why would we remove this essential check that assures we are encouraging youth to meet with properly trained adults? Taking this away without a generally available alternative is sending the wrong message.
…Charley said it first. I’ll reinforce. Every Scout deserves a trained leader. Problems are not solved by registering people in fake roles.
Again, a unit need not be a Scoutbook unit to use it as a tool to look up MBCs. In fact, this tool is easier since it provides both the MB and YPT in one go. No different roles to register in and they already have access.
Matt,
Thanks for the continued dialogue. YES! You are correct, Scoutmasters can use Scoutbook to check YPT dates. (I can’t explain the reluctance to using Scoutbook for MBC, its as if some leaders feel they are being unfaithful to Troopmaster…)
IN ADDITION: I had noticed recently that Scoutbook allows up to 10 “Council Administrators”. (I think this is up from 2?) This role permits downloading the “mbcdetails.csv” file, WHICH INCLUDES YPT DATES for all MBC’s. So this functionality meets the need of merit badge deans to look up counselors. I will propose to my Council that we give our four deans this permission, then they at least won’t need the Training Validation tool.
Mike, at the District level, a district Key 3 can assign a number of functional positions in my.scouting to registered district leaders (e.g. MAL). That includes Youth Protection champion, Key 3 Delegate, Membership CM, Training CM. But oddly not Advancement CM. Many, if not all of these roles should provide access to the District Training Manager page, which includes a nice CSV export of YPT dates for everyone in the district. (Not ideal, but something. We actually use it as the best/only way to get an email list of current leaders.)
There’s also the “Council (District) MBC Listing” report in my.scouting, but sadly that just indicates whether YPT is active or not. And I’m not sure which (if any) of the above have access to this specific report.
The Scoutbook option may be better though, and if there aren’t other needs for Council Admin roles, maybe the deans (who certainly play a key role in helping to make Scoutbook functional) should take those spots.
Sage,
Thanks for reaching out. Can you please confirm (I expect other readers would be interested) that the District Training Manager page includes all those registered as Merit Badge Counselors in the district? (There is some ambiguity whether MBC is a district or council position…all MBC show up at the Council level in YPT Training reports.) This could offer another option, but my first reaction is that the Scoutbook role is the appropriate one for deans. It includes all but only MBC records, council-wide. Thanks again!
I will note…in passing…that Scouts can earn a merit badge from any approved registered counselor, anywhere. The current Training Validation tool allows lookup for any such counselor given a BSA ID or login. (Yeah!) Scoutbook Council Administers get reports on those within the Council, and leaders can look up other counselors if they are visible worldwide, but I think there is a visibility gap for approved counselors in other councils that have more limited visibility settings. I expect if they get linked to Scouts in Scoutbook, the leaders can check their YPT then. But otherwise this seems a loss of functionality?
@MichaelMerritt2 - MBCs are a District-position (99-44/100% of the time). If the COUNCIL chooses to manage them at the Council-level, and registers them that way, then that is their perogative.
If you have a person’s last name and BSA Member ID, anyone can use the"Betty" chat bot on the My.Scouting home page to check their training. For a few, this is doable, similar to the legacy tool.
@MichaelMerritt2 Your MBC “deans” - what are they registered as? District Members-At-Large - District Advancement Commitee? Are you sure they don’t have access to the district menu>training manager? That gives YPT and training status of all registered in all positions in the district. If they don’t have access, I would request that national change access to this report to include members-at-large or if there is an advancement committee functional role. It would be useful for YPT and for training status of the MBCs the “deans” are coordinating.
Matt,
A quick check shows they are not registered in any specific formal position as “merit badge dean”. If I could get a list of positions that give them access to “district menu>training manager”, I’d see if they could be registered in one of them. (If you know where publicly available documentation is for positions/privileges, I’d be happy to look myself. [I know, not funny.])
If you have a listening ear, it would be great to get current documentation including a list of positions that permit district and council YPT download reports.
Thanks!
YiS,
Michael
