What the heck-fire just happened on Scoutbook with this “Den Leader Sign In” thing, what’s that about, how do we use it, and what’s it for?
This is a new product we did not know was being launched today. We believe it is called Cubs 123 (or Den Experience or Scoutbook for Den Leader’s- depends on who you ask.) We saw this first ~17 days ago.
It is a calendar webapp for running den meetings, taking attendance and recording advancements. It is supposed to message parents when something is missed and tell them what to do (we have not seen that functioning.)
I think for Green Den Leaders it could be a great thing, as they can go in and press something like setup calendar and it will build a calendar with all of the required adventures for their rank (NOT the elective.) It provides resources for before the meeting to the Den Leader. When you take attendance it records the advancements for the scouts in SB (this failed for me this morning on the test server which was the first opportunity the I had had to confirm it).
EDIT: I think even second year den leaders will find this limiting as we all learn you have to go with the flow to get a den through. Once den meetings made is scoutbook with planned advancements roll in it will be very useful.
Den Meeting put into Scoutbook with Planned Advancements are supposed to flow in (they do not right now in my testing.)
I imagine this will be my only post of support on this product at this time.
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I’m clueless here. What is it and where do I find it?
None of the SUAC are users of this tool.
Well, whatever it is, it offers access to a pdf copy of the Den Leader’s guide for free. Wish I had known before purchasing my print copy. I welcome that addition as Den Leaders should have access to these tools electronically (Den Leader guide) and for free. It looks stylistically like the Scouting app so makes me wonder if a companion iOS and Android app is also being readied for release.
Zach, how did you find it?
In the future, can you please have the development team announce the roll-out of major software revisions like this so we as users can prepare for it? Also, a user’s guide would be a big help to explain what it’s about and who it’s for.
We need to work on our communication.
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This app is in a ‘pilot’ stage at this time even though the login has been displayed. An announcement will be coming out very soon about it. Stay tuned.
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I used Den Leader sign in this morning.
USER BEWARE… don’t set up your den if you already have a plan and meetings in place.
As I “set up my den” the app asked if den meetings were weekly or bi-weekly. There were no options for monthly etc. This feature did not give any control over which advancements/awards were to be discussed at meetings. I selected weekly and then the app added meeting events for my den. This was an unexpected result… that I suppose would work well for new leaders who don’t have anything planned out yet. I ended up manually deleting the den meetings that the app added.
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I’m the Cubmaster of my pack, and Scoutbook won’t let me use the log in as a den leader feature. It says my position needs to be upgraded.
Doesn’t it seem counter-intuitive that the person responsible for coordinating activities among the dens would not be able to see what those dens have planned?
Peter
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I’m convinced to tell all our leaders to ignore this “feature” from this point forward.
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All comments and issues should be sent to scoutbook.support@scouting.org.
This app is in pilot mode and the SUAC isn’t supporting it yet.
Peter cubmasters are not den leaders
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I’m going to tell the den leaders in our pack to stay out of it until it’s out of the beta stage. It sounds like more problem than it’s worth.
Though I am greatly intrigued by a feature that notifies parents of what would need to be made up from missed meetings. I would love to see the bugs get resolved and that feature optimized. It shifts a portion of the responsibility to the parents for unfinished work and would hopefully minimize my having to chase people down at the end of the year.
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ZachEagle - You still have to buy the handbook. If you click on “leaders guide” it gives you two options: Buy the print version or buy the e-book.
only for the moment. I’ve been playing with it - i am convinced that for my “new” den leaders… this is GOLD.
you will probably need to set yourself as a “den admin” for each den in scoutbook. Or assistant if you prefer… you need a “role” for each den. I was able to “add leader” then search for my name, leave the role blank , check the “Den admin” box and submit. The other den now shows.
@DavidPolk handbook, yes, but as of last night, the leader’s guide linked to a free pdf of the leader’s guide (which, again, is very valuable to a new Den Leader and nice to not have to buy a print copy of that).
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