CALENDAR: More helpful default behavior for new unit meetings and sub unit meetings and/or assistant for making meetings

Scoutbook New Scoutbook Feature Requests
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HOW IT WORKS RIGHT NOW: I can create a Unit meeting or a sub unit meeting with nobody invited to it. It will show up on internet calendars.

UNEXPECTED BEHAVIOR: Some parents think we don’t have meetings because they don’t see the meetings in their scouting app. My guess is that because they were not invited, the app is not showing it to them; or maybe they are logged in to advancements.scouting.org and it is not showing up for them? Anyway this has really negative consequences.

SUGGESTED FIX: Do one of the following

  1. Make it so any member of a den/patrol is already invited to their own sub-unit events, and any member of a pack is already invited to their own unit events. This could mean adding logic so that when a unit event is created, teh default behavior is to invite all current and future members of the unit.

  2. Keep things as they are but add an assistant that says helpful things like “Gee, you just created an event and didn’t invite anyone to it; I can invite the unit or the sub-unit for you, that will likely increase attendance…”

  3. Simplify it so that everyone can see all the calendar items for their whole organization if they want to, even sub-units they’re not a part of.

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@JasonWhong- an event with no invitees is not going to show up in the scouting app or be visible except for the unit admins

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Right. Letting people set up events that their units can’t see is the opposite of how software is usually designed in America. It’s an outcome that very few users need (an event that nobody can see) but it is currently the default when you create an event.

I am asking for UX design that helps people make events that their users can see. In usability circles, the concept is sometimes expressed as “Error prevention” - the best designs prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

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@JasonWhong- that is why you invite people to the event so they can see it. Beyond that not everyone unit uses scoutbook the same way

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@JasonWhong

The calendar is supposed to show all events to everyone in the unit since they appear in the ICS feed for all. If you are seeing something different please post the Scouting America Member ID (no names) of the person missing events and enough event details so the developers can find it (date & name are usually enough).

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