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.
As a Cubmaster / Den Leader and new Scoutbook user, I’d like to be able to communicate with our den chiefs and have them get other pack/den communication sent through Scoutbook.
I searched the forums here and didn’t find anything. I googled it and found a few results from the old Scoutbook forums. I saw some feature requests for this, so I’m assuming it hasn’t been added yet?
I also saw people proposing things like adding them as cubs to their den. Does anyone have suggested work arounds like that?
If I can’t use Scoutbook to communicate with them, it’s not a big deal, I can just email them CCing their parents, but I just wanted to ask here and see what people said. Thanks!
I used to make their parents a relative of my scout - problem solved - it is a pretty huge change to the current structure of Scoutbook to actually add the scout as a leader
I want to make sure I follow. If the den chief’s parent is a relative of a scout in the den, their parent will get emails to the den/pack? Then I just have to trust the parent will relay the information to the den chief?
Wouldn’t the den chief’s parent then also have permissions to see stuff about the cub scout they’re not a “relative” of?
It seems like I’m missing something here.
Also, I’m don’t see why the scout would need to be added as a leader to get emails. Maybe it’s because I have no experience with Scoutbook at the Troop level, but I thought Scouts could have their own scoutbook accounts if their parents invited them, as a scout and not a leader.
There is no way to attach a scout from a troop to a pack as a Den Chief at this time. I know it’s on the “requested” list, but that’s as far as I think it’s gotten.
I am doing what I want! I’m asking questions because I want know the mechanics of how the system works.
Did I understand you correctly, is what I described what you suggested? I’m only using specific language to make sure I’m describing it clearly. This is new to me and I want to make sure I’m understanding the options correctly.
Thanks! It does seem like a natural feature to add, but I understand there are higher priorities to address first. I’ve been impressed how frequently bug fixes and features have been added in the Scoutbook Change Log.
You can create a fake Cub Scout account for the Den Chief and attach the parents like usual.
Or you can add a parent as an Assistant Den Leader for the den but only give them View Profile connections (minimal connections needed for messaging).
The first option looks kind of weird (from the parent’s perspective, it’s like they have 2 Scouts), but it allows the pack to include the Den Chief on all communications and the calendar (to take attendance, etc.). It also observes YPT rules.
This was one of the options I saw when I googled “scoutbook den chief” and I saw someone suggested making the account like “Sam Scout (Den Chief)” as the name so it would be clear to the parent. I guess this account wouldn’t get a bsa id or anything.
I haven’t make any new accounts, so it’s not something I know much about yet. I discovered a few scouts in the pack aren’t in Scoutbook because I don’t think they’ve ever actually filled out an application, or they did and it got lost. One has been in the pack for 2 years! lol I was going to make accounts for them, but decided to try and get applications filled out instead and just wait for them to get processed and their SB accounts to get created.
Now that I know 3 possible workarounds for getting den chiefs in scoutbook, I’ll have a better idea of what’s possible when I reach out to the Scoutmaster / Den Chiefs for the coming year.
There are downsides to all of those options, which is why there is no clear consensus on the back workaround.
Making the den chief’s parent an ADL or setting them as a parent of a scout in the den will give them access to info you may not want them to have.
Adding a fake scout can cause confusion for the parents.
None will result in the scout receiving the emails themselves since they likely would prefer to get the emails on their real account instead. (Each unique email address can only be on one account.)
