Zach
I am sharing the feedback with the developers.
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Thanks @WilliamNelson. Don’t get me wrong, I like some of the simplicity of DLE with access to resources, ability to more easily take attendance and see what is upcoming with meetings. It’s just that cookie cutter approach doesn’t work for all Den Leaders (coming from a Den Leader, Eagle Scout, Wood Badge Staffer). Take it a step further, there has to be some ability to adjust just based on seasons and the activities involved (I.e. might need to perform adventures requiring a hike first thing in the fall before it’s too cold [or delay while it’s too hot]). We appreciate the work being performed, just wish there was an option for more “in the trenches” feedback before this was wildly available and causing so much consternation.
Just so it is clear. The initial audience for this tool is not someone with your experience. It is the beginning den leader who doesn’t have a clue what to do.
I understand (and am crystal clear) but even those new souls still need the flexibility I just described. They need to be able to adjust better as conditions dictate. I was a “new” Den Leader with my Lion Scout last year (I’ve been a volunteer at the Council level and this was my first excursion back into a Unit leadership role since my youth) and saw first hand how meetings had to be adjusted to better fit an adventure. Having a meeting plan already prepared is absolutely invaluable for those new to the program, I just think there needs to be some choice (instead of setting everything on the calendar automatically, offer, which month do you want to work on “x” and walk through all the required adventures to earn rank. This will let them fine tune based on climate, timing of year, better fit community involvement with outside speakers, etc…). Also, with a walk through scheduling, you get a mini-training into how the program works. Win-win.
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There is a video walk through video and a PPT that can be utilized for presentations here: What is the "Log In as Den Leader" For? What is Den Leader Experience? (SB) - Scoutbook Knowledge Base
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Thank you, Bill. We all want to continuously improve the program for the benefit of the Scouts.
Bill:
Thank you.
Chuck
One thing I noticed by it putting the calendar of meetings together for us was that it didn’t take into account that one week is a pack meeting so that has to then bump all the other meetings.
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Joy,
The development team is working on improving the setup of the meetings and will include avoiding pack meetings.
Bill:
It isn’t just Pack meetings that there needs to be a way of avoiding conflicts when setting up den calendar items. There are also other Pack events, like committee meetings, and district Cub Scout events that units need to be able to program around.
I have followed the suggestion about changing the date for the dummy den meetings that were inadvertently put on the calendar. The agenda for September 1, 2014 sure looks like it was a busy one as that is the date I have exiled them all to.
Chuck
Charles
Everything in the Pack calendar is displayed to the den leader when they look at the calendar in the Den Leader Experience today, so they can easily move meetings around to avoid them.
As mentioned before the developers will also be making moving meetings easier for the den leaders.
I just found this same issue in the last few days. Insane that there is no way to delete a calendar event once created. This needs to be fixed. I don’t care the intent, a Pack Admin or Den Admin for Den events, should have the authority to delete any event to which they have admin rights.
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As it was explained to me they are preventing the deletion of a meeting to assure that when all the meetings are complete the Scouts make rank. Noting is inadvertently removed by a deletion.
We get the intent but the problem is that the designer’s approach made no allowance for human error.
In the rush to get the app out for the new den leaders, they made it too rigid. If you opt to use the app, everyone must do den meetings the programers’ way.
The result is we are telling new leaders to stay away from the app until this is fixed.
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Please fix this, the automated process only takes into account a few variables. Due to weather, location and many other real world issues we need to be able to completely edit and/or delete these algorithm created events. I really enjoy the Before/During/After part of the program made/designed events however these should all be click on or off style when we are making our events. Admin level should be able to EDIT and DELETE every event made and every aspect of the events. As of right now I would love to have the program make events and then we tailor them to our pack needs, however, right now all Den Leaders are instructed to not log-in under the Den Leader part of Scoutbook.
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One of the fun meetings this scheduled was Meeting 1: Bobcat… we don’t have any new Scouts in our den this year. Even if we did, I don’t know if we’d devote an entire meeting to Bobcat for one Scout. Can’t get rid of it now. I understand the intent, but there needs to be flexibility in assigning the dates. As was pointed out above, we complete our religious adventure at home, I don’t need to have several meetings for it. The meeting plans are a great resource, but you should be able to select them for usage, not have them assigned. This reminds me of “Common Core” in education, and that didn’t work out to well.
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The system allows meetings you don’t need because the Scouts already have all the requirements completed (e.g., Bobcat) you can move into the past. You can also stack meeting plans to the same night if you are more experienced den leader and feel comfortable tackling more during a meeting.
Moving a meeting into the past, doesn’t work from a practical application. If the meeting is in the past, Scouts have their participation levels impacted, unless I mark them in attendance. If I mark them as having attended, will that change the date that they completed those requirements (i.e. they do the faith requirements at home with their family and they are signed off, then I move my meeting into the past and mark them present, which date will be recorded for the adventure loop?)
I have stacked them all to the same night… Aug 1, 2020. I don’t know what to do with these things. If I have an outdoor meeting scheduled, and then weather causes us to go indoors, I might be able to complete some of the requirements, but not all… how do you take attendance for this? This has created a very rigid structure that does not work in the real world.
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I understand the desire to “standardize” the program, but this is just way too much. We have the Den Leader Guides, which are standardized, but doing every adventure in order doesn’t make sense. An adventure that revolves around camping should be done around the Pack Family campout. And yes I know we can change the date, but that involves a ton of touch time on the users part, especially if they set up the meetings wrong. There needs to be a way to delete the meetings, or back out the changes a well-meaning leader makes on accident. An online tool is NOT the place to promote standardization. Training and Roundtable are the correct tools to push the bastardization. A new Den leader, not knowing how to schedule their meetings, can ask that question at Roundtable and many experienced Cub leaders will answer. That is the correct way. Please change this or give me the option to disable this whole thing for my Pack and maybe all the units in my district so I don’t get the calls to fix this.
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You can move the meetings around to suit your needs
