After last night’s update, we now cannot find the scout invite under edit extended info - parents are trying to invite their kids to join our troop - we have been instructing parents to log in to scoutbook and find the scouts profile to go into the edit extended info and scroll down, but that option no longer exists. has that changed again? did it move somewhere else as of the update last night?
The change actually started in a previous update, and has been rolling: August 9, 2022 Scoutbook Updates
Is there any workaround to inviting scouts to join a troop? We need to be able to email scouts from scoutbook and only have a handful of scouts in our troop. Parents are getting frustrated as we are stuck between troop track and scoutbook, having to use tt for communication but everything else in SB. Can i as an admin of troop track, invite the scouts to join or does it have to be a parent?
I mean admin of scoutbook
Only a parent can invite their scout. They might be able to work around the bug by creating an account at https://my.scouting.org for the scout. They need to use the scout’s full name as it appears in the records (not a nickname). It will ask for birthdate and some other info. I would have their BSA ID on hand when doing this, since that might be one way to verify that the system latched onto the correct account.
I am encountering a similar problem. My son is in my Scoutbook account, having moved up from Webelos to Boy Scouts recently, but I am unable to find somewhere under his profile to invite him to the account. Is there a place where I can enter his email address to give him the access he needs? Thank you.
There’s a currently bug that’s hiding it, but it moved along with the rest of the profile management to the IA2 interface a week or so ago. There’s a recent changelog post about it in this category: Scoutbook Change Log - Scouting Forums I subscribe to the changelogs for Scoutbook and IA2 so that I have at least some idea what’s going on when something appears to have broken since I last touched it. Otherwise, I’d have serious questions about whether the problem is a change or me mis-remembering something. :^)
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@KevinLeahy You should be able to work with your son to create an account at my.scouting.
Be sure he uses his full first name – not a nickname, and the account creation process should try to connect to his already existing BSA member number.
Thanks All,
I want to recap all of the various info I have gathered to get to an easily digestible process to push out to parents. If I could get confirmation of the below process from scoutbook admin/experts, I would greatly appreciate it.
As of Aug 25th, 2022:
- The edit external info no longer offers the parent “invite” button that changed on or around Aug 10
- the scout profile has moved ti inside the myscouting.org (it is title internet advancement on the page)
- permitting access to scoutbook for the scout now happens via the myscouting.org account creation.
^ are those points true?
It appears that the new way to give a scout access to the unit’s scoutbook environment is through the parents action of creating a myscouting.org account for their scout
^ is that true
The process to give access to scouts - as I see it:
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Parents register a scout for the first time - they create their own account and then register the scout to the desired unit. The unit’s registration chair accepts that registration, and the scout gets a BSA # and is added to the unit’s scoutbook system. That scout can now be moved into a patrol and can have advancement applied to their profile, BUT they cannot be communicated with.
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The parent must then create a myscouting account for the scout, using ass of the established info from registration, including the exact name as on the application, the exact BSA# created in the registration process, and the email address for the scout.
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somewhere in the scout’s account creation process is an acknowledgment that they will be communicated with via scout book, and the parent’s acknowledgment of that permits access to Scoutbook. <<< Is that correct?
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If #3 is correct, I assume that the “invite” button that used to be in place in the profile and then in the edit external info section did that account creation process <<< is that correct?
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once the parent creates the account, the scout is then reset inside scoutbook with new permissions that allow them to be available in the email list in messages.
I was able to connect my son via the profile screen invite buttons months ago, but as we gear up to get all our scouts into the system for communication, we have gotten stuck in this summer’s many system changes. We had sent out a communication to the parents to log into scoutbook and invite the scout via the edit external info screen, but by the time we did that, the update happened, and the button disappeared, so we have a bunch of frustrated parents. Before we send out new instructions, I want to confirm that this is how parents must enroll their kids into our system.
If it is not, Could an expert or admin clearly layout EXACTLY how to do it? there are a lot of threads and places to go to piece some of this info together. We are communicating via troop track and recording advancement via scoutbook and would very much like only to be using scoutbook.
Enhancement request:
When clicking on the name of a scout who is in the system and needs to be communicated with, it only selects them. In other messaging options, where you click on a patrol, it selects scouts and parents. Could the default system function be that when you click on a scout, it also selects the parents? If all this security is for YPT, making the extra steps to then have to select the parents is frustrating. I think by default, any scout being selected for communication should include the parents.
The last thing I’d say is I occasionally get remarks to my forum questions that I would consider snarky. I’m a volunteer with a big troop job and hold down a challenging real job. I don’t always have the luxury of spending hours searching through the forum for answers. It might seem simple, or you may know exactly where the white pages that explain the changes are, but I don’t always have the time to find them. I would appreciate collegial, respectful responses that help solve the questions - and there are, unfortunately, a lot of questions with this system - that is evolving weekly. - Not in this thread, but in others.
People will point you to where to find them because they are as busy as you are.
As to your process to invite a Scout, I personally will hold off on any Scouts being connected. It is too complicated. It is a known issue that I would expected to be fixed in weeks, not months. It could last long, and then I would resort to the complicated process. I won’t go that route unless I have to.
Snarky comments are par for the course with the internet. That is true for snarky comments is real life as well.
But in general, is the path I laid out the path to connecting scouts? We are starting our year using two systems, creating a great deal of confusion and frustration. even if it’s a more complicated process, I need to go through it, because we have calendars in two locations and emails in two locations.
We are trying to get into scoutbook 100% so that we can stop paying for troop track and ease confusion and frustration. I am also our council’s scoutbook trainer, and we have a lot of demand from all the collective units to migrate and get started.
I also understand the internet and the prevalence of snarky comments. I’m simply pointing out that it’s not helpful, we are all volunteers, and this is scouting. We operate at a higher standard. We instill that idea into our scouts - to be helpful, to perform good deeds; nowhere in the oath or law does it say be condescending. I’m just pointing it out. If there were one place on the internet where integrity in communication should exist, I would think this would be it.
Hopefully the SUAC folks can clarify the questions you asked, because I’m no longer sure exactly what the best approach is for a lot of the situations you outlined. Like Matt, I’m holding off on testing out the “workaround” process as long as possible, in hopes that the developers get the intended process working sooner rather than later.
I think that Matt hit the nail on the head about all of us frequently being busier than is reasonable. One way that I (try) to stay vaguely on top of the changes that are happening is to subscribe to the change logs for:
- Scoutbook (Scoutbook Change Log - Scouting Forums)
- IA2 (Internet Advancement and Recharter Change Log - Scouting Forums)
- my.scouting (My Scouting Change Log - Scouting Forums), and
- the Scouting app (Scouting App Change Log - Scouting Forums)
on these forums. I get an email whenever they post a new update, and I take a look at it when I have a chance between work, family, scouts and sleep. I “cheat” and use Google’s filters to automatically flag them so they’re easier to find among the noise of my email
I do agree that it can get pretty snarky on the forums, even among those of us who are trying to be helpful and not just barking at folks for not already knowing something. I agree that we collectively should be doing better. I think a large part of the snark arises in part from seeing the same questions coming in that aren’t actually bugs, and could be resolved by application of the “read the fine manual” method. With all of the recent changes, though, the help wiki has become a lot less reliable, because the folks who otherwise update it are juggling responding to questions and trying to get the user concerns back to the developers. Thus, RTFM isn’t as valuable a response as it used to be, at least until the “manual” catches up with the state of development. However, there’s still just enough RTFM-related questions coming in that it irritates the same receptors, as it were. Nevertheless, as you pointed out, we should collectively be doing better. Sadly, even a 1/100 rate of occurrence from one person can be a several snarky responses a day, and there are lots of folks on the forums. The “flag reply” tool is unfortunately a blunt instrument, and without direct messaging, makes it hard to reinforce to an individual (except through public posts) exactly what the issue is.
For this reason alone, I would suggest you subscribe to the update emails they go out when an update is done (1-2 times a week). It does change and to stay a relevant trainer, I stay on top of the updates/fixes/changes.
The plan is to add the invite Scout button to the new Edit Profile page in Internet Advancement.
You can do the workaround for right now, but it increases the likelihood of a duplicate BSA member number and Scoutbook userID being created if the Scout’s name and date of birth do not match exactly.
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I’ll also echo what Matt said. Subscribing to the change log emails is invaluable and I will oftentimes forward these nice Pre-packaged emails and share with my District commissioners and Unit Commissioners to disseminate among units (especially for big changes). Some change log emails even find their way into our Council e-newsletter. Saves me time in trying to write the message myself.
The easiest way to make sure the data matches is to look it up before creating a My.Scouting account for the scout. The key part is you are matching the data in the system, not matching what someone says.
Look up the data on the unit roster at My.Scouting. It will show the name of the scout and the birth month and day. Also check the scout’s BSA ID number (MID).
Then, look up the data in Scoutbook. On the scout’s page, check their MID. Then click Edit Profile to check name and birth date (includes year), and the nickname field (labelled preferred name).
If it all matches, proceed to create an account for the scout at My.Scouting. Check for typo’s in every entry. And now the scout can use their My.Scouting login and password to log into Scoutbook.
If the data sets don’t match each other, work with your registrar to correct the My.Scouting roster data as needed. Scoutbook fields for birth date & first and last name are pushed from My.Scouting. Looks like middle name in Scoutbook is editable.
If the data matches, but contains a factual error, you have two choices. Fix the data first, with your council registrar; or create the account and then fix the error. Which way to go is a question for your council registrar and for how long it takes to get things done through your registrar.
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Thanks all,
To be clear, I am not insinuating that this particular thread was snarky, I just got hit with a comment in another one that rubbed me the wrong way. Thought I would say something.
So I get this workaround is rife with potential errors. We could theoretically run a SB report with the exact info needed to create the account. with BSA# email, exact name, etc. hand that info off to parents with instructions to copy exactly what is in the report (pertaining to their scout) and hope for the best, clean up as we need to.
I am running out of time, and need to get the kids in before we really kick off the year in earnest. Might be worth the risk.
I’d probably also include the caveat that, if the system doesn’t find a “matching” record for their scout at the appropriate point during the process, cancel out and ask a unit scouter for help.
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thats a good point, thanks!
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