It would be great to have an additional details field, probably between the “Event Description” and the “Notes / Agenda / Minutes: (only seen by admins)” field. This would be information that would NOT be placed on the calendar but WOULD go out on reminders and be visible on the event webpage. This would be useful for Zoom links, organizer phone number, etc. Definitely don’t want that kind of information on a calendar that is viewable by the public and doesn’t require login due to “Zoom bombing”, spam, etc. but it would be really nice to have this kind of information available to the troop via the reminders and on a page that members can get to with their ScoutBook login.
@PeterRow well users cannot see the info now unless they are invited - it is not a public calendar - it could prevent it from being on the ICS to provide some security
So (as an interim step), what we did when we were hosting virtual meetings during COVID was to post the zoom link and similar types of information in the first comment for the event. The comments were visible to anyone who logged in and went to the event, but were not visible on the ics calendar feed. The major drawback for your case is that they would not be sent out to folks in reminders, but the reminder could be structured to remind people to log in to Scoutbook+IA and view the calendar comments to obtain the link (or whatever other information you wanted to distribute strictly internally).
The BSA says to use the Waiting Room function to avoid people who should not be present from attending an online event or meeting. See Digital Safety and Online Scouting Activities | Boy Scouts of America for details.
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An important point, for sure. Making it harder for unrelated folks to end up with the link in the first place makes it easier to manage the influx of folks appearing in the waiting room, especially when the name in the waiting room might or might not look like someone who’s coming. Not everyone knows how to edit their Zoom name before connecting, and might be using a parent’s/guardian’s Zoom account, for example.
These calendars are not secure. I just downloaded Troop 0308 Mid America Council’s calendar, simply by taking my calendar link and subtracting one number – no password required. All of these calendars are readily available to anyone who has a little internet savvy. This is the reason for not having addresses, phone numbers and Zoom links on the calendar.
But my point remains that phone numbers, addresses and Zoom links are very valuable in the reminder email, and on the event webpage – which does require a password to view. I think your users would really appreciate a field like this.
Charley, this is a great work-around. But it would be even nicer if a work-around was not required.
There is a story in the backlog to make it extremely difficult to guess the ICS URL. At this time we do not know when this will be scheduled for implementation.
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