Hi,
In the new Scoutbook Plus Is there a Den Dashboard where you can see all of a specific Den’s adventures, advancements, and progress in a quick glance?
Thanks,
Ryan
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@RyanHendrickson a custom report achieves this better as each leader is looking for something different
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Hi @DonovanMcNeil ,
Thank you for the quick reply and the tip regarding the Report Builder!
While I appreciate the workaround, your answer does confirm that there isn’t currently a native “Den Leader” experience or dashboard in Scoutbook Plus. I wanted to take a moment to advocate for this feature—not just for the sake of convenience, but because I believe simplifying our tools allows us to focus better on our “North Star”: The Scouts.
To put Scouts first, we need to support the volunteers who lead them. When administrative tasks are difficult, it takes energy away from planning great meetings and mentoring kids.
I recently timed the “Report Builder” workaround for a brand-new leader. It took about 10–15 minutes of trial and error and required over 20 clicks—navigating away from the modern interface, into the “Legacy” system, setting filters, and saving configurations. That is a lot of friction for a parent who has just volunteered their time.
A native, pre-configured “Den Dashboard” would be a game-changer for the program for several key reasons:
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Immediate Situational Awareness: When I log in to plan a meeting, I shouldn’t have to run a report to ask, “Who still needs this Adventure?” A dashboard gives that answer at a glance, allowing me to tailor the meeting to the Scouts’ actual needs.
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Lower Barrier to Entry: We are actively recruiting parents who may not be tech-savvy. Asking them to learn a legacy “Report Builder” is a hurdle. A default grid view helps them hit the ground running with confidence.
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Den Health & Motivation: Seeing the Den as a group helps identify Scouts who are falling behind. It shifts the mindset from “managing records” to “leading a group,” ensuring no Scout feels left out.
In the spirit of making the Den Leader role as seamless as possible, here are 10 additional ways a dashboard supports the “Scouts First” mission:
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ADL Continuity: If a Den Leader is sick, the Assistant Den Leader (ADL) needs to step in immediately. A shared, standard dashboard ensures the ADL sees the live status of the Den without needing a custom report emailed to them.
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Faster Approvals: A dashboard with a “Needs Approval” column allows leaders to clear the administrative backlog in seconds. Less time clicking profiles means more time focused on the program.
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Succession Planning: When a new parent takes over, they should inherit the Den’s data, not struggle to find the previous leader’s custom report settings. This protects the Den’s history.
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Safety & Trip Planning: Activity Coordinators could quickly see “Medical Forms” or “Whittling Chip” or multiple future RSVPs status in one view, ensuring safety compliance for hikes and campouts.
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Youth Leadership: A simplified view can help a Scout serving as “Denner” see what the group needs to work on, teaching them real project management skills.
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Efficient “Quick Entry”: A prominent “Quick Entry” button on a dashboard streamlines post-meeting data entry, saving volunteer sanity so they don’t burn out.
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Mobile “Parking Lot” Planning: Many leaders plan meetings in their car 10 minutes before the start time. A responsive dashboard works on a phone; legacy reports do not.
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Identifying “Drifting” Scouts: A grid view makes empty rows obvious. If a Scout hasn’t earned a loop in months, the leader sees it instantly and can reach out before the Scout drops out.
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Awards Coordination: A rollup view helps the Advancement Chair purchase the correct awards, preventing the heartbreak of a Scout not receiving their recognition at the Pack meeting due to a clerical error.
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Key 3 & Committee Oversight: A standardized dashboard allows the Cubmaster and Committee Chair to quickly “pulse check” a Den’s health without relying on anecdotal updates. If leadership sees a Den with stalled progress, they can proactively offer support or resources to that leader before the Den struggles, rather than waiting for parents to raise concerns.
Ultimately, we want the Den Leader role to be seamless, efficient, and effective.
If we can give leaders a tool that works for them rather than making them work for it, we lower the barrier to entry for new volunteers and keep our current leaders happy. That, in turn, leads to a better program for the Scouts.
Thanks again for all you do for the community! Please let me know what is required to advocate for this to the community who builds and prioritizes features with Scoutbook Plus. I would be happy to offer MVP ideas, provide feedback, and share why these reasons will make current cub leaders on the ground more seamless, efficient, and effective.
Thanks,
Ryan
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@RyanHendrickson- so all of that to say you want a new den leader experience to replace what was abandoned. There currently is no dashboard/den view. Additionally cub scouts are not the only user base and your suggestion will make this the experience for all..troops, packs and crews. I for one would not want YOUR concept of how things should be forced on me.
The report builder is not legacy as it is part of scoutbook plus and reports there are able to be shared. If a den leader is unable to be present who are the two registered required leaders going to be….
I agree with Donovan…use a report and not a dashboard
I have to agree with Ryan. While I’ve learned to find what I need in Scoutbook Plus, and could manage building a report, we have many den leaders who are not very tech-savvy and don’t have time to do a lot of trial and error. It would be very nice to have one place to go with some basic den info at a glance, such as which Cubs have competed which rank requirements. This isn’t a pressing priority, but it would be a nice addition once the conversion from Scoutbook to Scoutbook Plus is complete.
@PeterCollinge- you do realize that once you build a resource can save and share it. Then the less tech savy can just click in that report and run it. And you do also realize I trust that troops and crews use scoutbook plus. Why force the cub world into their realm
Hi Peter,
I agree with your assessment and the timeline you’ve outlined. This isn’t a pressing issue, however as the current migration tasks taper and legacy Scoutbook is sunset, having a list of highly desired features from the front-line volunteers (who are the key drivers for membership) would be welcome.
Hi Stephen,
I appreciate the feedback. To clarify, I wouldn’t want to force a ‘Cub’ experience on Troops or Crews. The intent is for this to be a role-specific feature—meaning it would only appear for Den Leaders and other specific Cub Leaders roles, leaving the experience for Scoutmasters and Crew Advisors as it is today.
To answer your question on why the “Cub world” needs a specialized view:
1. Different Leadership Models: Scouts BSA is Scout-led, meaning Scouts manage their own advancement and the Scoutmaster guides them. Cub Scouts is Adult-led (specifically for K-5th grade), meaning the burden of tracking and management falls 100% on the volunteer. A Den Leader effectively has to manage the “paperwork” for 8-10 children who cannot do it themselves.
2. Volunteer Experience: Den Leaders are often brand-new to Scouting. They don’t yet have the institutional knowledge that a seasoned Scoutmaster has. Lowering the barrier to entry with a “what do I do next” dashboard helps recruit & retain these new volunteers.
3. Membership Impact: Cub Scouting currently represents the largest segment of the Scouting America portfolio (historically accounting for roughly 60% of total youth membership). Prioritizing tools for this group isn’t about ignoring Troops; it’s about empowering and supporting growth of the “front door” of the organization where the majority of our members—and future Scouts BSA candidates—start their journey.
I agree that the Report Builder is a powerful tool for those of us comfortable with it, but my goal is to advocate for the parent who volunteers on Tuesday, has to lead a meeting on Wednesday, and record the requirements on Thursday. A dashboard simply helps them survive and their den thrive.
If there are further constructive ways to provide feedback to those who manage Scoutbook’s requirements and priorities, with a healthy two-way dialog, please let me know.
Thanks,
Ryan
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@RyanHendrickson- what you are asking for I sincerely doubt will ever be done as it is a user specific build. You are essentially looking for scouting america to bring back the DLE in scoutbook plus.
I joined as a leader just as they were ending the den leader experience. I thought that tool had some good points but was very poorly implemented. from what i have read in this thread Ryan isn’t asking for that full experience just as simplified dashboard to see at a glance the status of a den, with easy to find buttons for quick entry of info. and as an ASM I could see it being a good tool for Patrol leaders at the troop level. I find the custom reports to be a pain to setup, and not very user friendly when run.
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I have heard many den leaders, in online discussions, at roundtable, and in one-on-one discussions, remark that they missed the old den display in SB Legacy that let them quickly figure out who needs what adventure. For my own unit, I built a custom report for each den and shared it with the other leaders so they can get that kind of info quickly. It seems like it would be possible to implement such a report as a standard report that every den leader automatically has available. Right now, they can create the report, but the vast majority of users aren’t going to have the time to figure out how to do that (and some won’t be able to do it without a lot of assistance). Adding this kind of default report option would help many den leaders (and other pack leaders assisting with advancement) to be more effective.
Here’s a screenshot of what my report looks like. There are separate ones for each den; this example is from a wolf den.
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@WhitneyD yeah I have similar but limited one to Required Adventures as the base. The Elective adventures are covered for most Scouts with Pinewood (or one of the other races) and Bike Meetings.
I tossed some of the details of what a Den Dashboard could look like into AI and it produced a few mockups. Here’s two examples:
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