Trying to update my election, ordeal, and brotherhood dates in profile. All were in the '70s, but the calendar selection tool only goes back to 1980. There doesn’t appear to be an option to just type the date. How can I correct these?
@DavidLemon2 all that info is fake in Scoutbook and not officially recorded Dates - so any date could be entered - I will enter a story but it will be put in the backlog - and cannot guarantee it will ever be worked on.
1 Like
@DavidLemon2 - if the dates are in lodgemaster that is where it matters
I suspect that the dates are on moldering sheets of paper which probably got lost the first time my old lodge/council merged with another. It’s not like there was an internet or computer records back then.
I suspect lodgemaster shows whatever I put down on my transfer form after decades of inactivity, since the original lodge had ceased to exist decades ago.
I guess I’ll just put in a magic date (like 1/1/80), since “it doesn’t matter”, and maybe people in my troop will stop trying to get me elected, or reminding me that I should get my brotherhood.
It’s not like any of my other scout records are there from the 60s and 70s anyway.
As a software professional of more than 50 years, I’d love to see the design constraints that drove this particular choice of implementation. “Disappointing” would only begin to cover it.
1 Like
Since OA was added before Scouting America purchased Scoutbook and it did not have many features for adults at that time I suspect 1980 was more than enough to cover what it needed to support. When OA support was extended to adults, it was probably just turned in for them and no one noticed the date limit.
Since most people that have OA added in SB are newly elected, this is the first time we have been made aware of the problem.
@DavidLemon2 - those dates in scoutbook do not link to anything other than your record in scoutbook so it is of little consequence
Not a useful response.
You’ve already told me “It doesn’t matter”, and “It’s of little consequence”, and “It’ll never get worked on”. Not even a suggestion or hint of a workaround. Do you have anything useful to actually add here? Why even bother with the second response?
Maybe understanding why it’s an issue for the user? Maybe looking at the (at least) two different date entry UIs and wonder why one of them doesn’t offer text input, and has unreasonable constraints that might lead to much more serious user problems in other situations in the future?
Nah, you’ve already decided it’s unimportant. I’m just wearing down my screen protector.
@Stephen_Hornak thank you for the explanation
David:
It does matter in Lodgemaster because eligibility for Brotherhood and Vigil are calculated based on your Ordeal date. However, because so many lodges no longer have access to their membership records from before 2009, most Lodgemaster Administrators accept secondary evidence and even best guesses.when an adult is reactivating their membership.
I coordinate elections and check the membership status for adult candidates for my lodge and there are at least 2 adults each year who are mistakenly nominated by their unit because the unit has no record of the adult having been inducted into the OA as a youth. We try to catch them before the nomination is reviewed by the committee, but sometimes we don’t find out until they check-in for the Ordeal Weekend.
As @DonovanMcNeil said, Scoutbook wasn’t designed to track adults; where is does, such as camping nights and service hours, I seriously doubt that the designers were really thinking much about the ramifications down the line. Having said that, and since my troop also uses Troopmaster, I have to say that Troopmaster isn’t much better. Both depend on the person who is in-puting data at the unit level being contentious..
Yours in Service,
Chuck Olson
Egwa Tawa Dee Lodge
1 Like
And with Council based MIDs - no one council could ever verify OA from a different council - part of the mess of MIDs
1 Like
The suggestion/follow-up was Donovan entering the request into the official backlog. Until National choses to act on that, there is nothing more that can be done. Like others have said, if you want the official system to have the official date, work with your lodge to have it correct in Lodgemaster. Until there is no work around. I personally keep a Scouting resume where I record these items for myself, my daughters, and wife.
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
