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.
Our Troop likes to make sure all scouts and parents know about all events, so in order to do that when making the calendar event we list everyone as invitees. A couple of examples are Troop meetings we invite Parents as invitees because we want them to feel like they can and should attend, but then the report shows low attendance. Also we put everyone on the PLC meeting invite incase they want to attend to talk to the PLC. In this case not only is attendance low but it counts against the non PLC scouts lowering their attendance percentage. When I export it I have a spreadsheet that I can merge it with and it takes me some time but I can get actual percentages but Scoutbook and online tracking is off.
So the question is how can we invite Scouts or parents but not have them as a mandatory person to the event?
When creating the event, invite all the folks you want.
Shortly after the event, edit the event to change the invitee list to only those mandatory to attend plus any extras that showed up.
You can take attendance either before or after the edit.
WARNING - When you edit invitees, any scouts that have dropped off your roster or have an unapproved membership will automatically drop off your invitee list with no way to repopulate them within the calendar system. So don’t edit historical calendar items.
Remember, there’s nothing wrong with having a low calculated attendance in Scoutbook – you’re not gonna have a Commissioner come complaining at you for having 25% attendance.
Use the calendar the way it works best for you, and don’t worry about the attendance score.
Not worried about the district at all. Our main goal of it is to track participation for a scout being “active”. Our PLC decided a scout that shows up for elections and then does not show up for 6 months and wants to rank up but did nothing and did not earn it is not “active”.
I can agree that having a meaningful percentage can be important. Said another way, if it’s not meaningful, why show it at all. This is likely something that will have to wait on the calendar rewrite that IT plans to provide at some point.
Regarding active, you are probably aware that the guide to advancement basically says any other activity that prevents the scout from attending counts toward active participation. If you aren’t aware, I’d suggest taking a look at it.
It is very clearly stand on page 21. If you have read it over and over, I am not sure why this part didn’t stand out.
Page 21
“We must also recognize the many worthwhile
opportunities beyond Scouting. Taking advantage of these
opportunities and participating in them may be used to
explain why unit participation falls short. Examples might
include involvement in religious activities, school, sports, or
clubs that also develop character, citizenship, leadership,
or mental and physical fitness. The additional learning and
growth experiences these provide can reinforce the lessons
of Scouting and also give young people the opportunity to
put them into practice in a different setting.
It is reasonable to accept that competition for a Scout’s
time will become intense, especially as the Scout grows
older and wants to take advantage of positive “outside”
opportunities. This can make full-time dedication to the unit
difficult to balance. A fair leader, therefore, will seek ways
to empower the Scout to plan personal growth
opportunities both inside and outside Scouting, and
consider them part of the overall positive life experience
for which the Boy Scouts of America is a driving force.
A board of review can accept an explanation if it can be
reasonably sure there have been sufficient influences in the
Scout’s life that the Scout is meeting our aims. The board
members must satisfy themselves that the Scout is the sort
of person who, based on present behavior, will contribute
to the Boy Scouts of America’s mission. Consequently, the
board can grant the rank regardless of the Scout’s current
or most recent level of activity in Scouting. Note that it may
be more difficult, though not impossible, for a younger
member to pass through the third-test alternative than for
one more experienced in our lessons.”
I am not trying to get in an argument about this I agree with you and I wrote a big message but changed it to my short message because I did not want to start an argument. Sorry if I came off as exact attendance is the only thing we look at. I am glad others get as involved and pay attention to the rules.
If my mood is off I apologize, I am heading to my Committee Chair’s funeral now.
Thanks for the engagement. To put the request differently, maybe, a percentage would help supply data to the overall assume that of a scour being active. While we know that isn’t the ONLY measure, if a scout shows in the handful of percentages of activity, say 2%, if there isn’t some other mitigating reasons, they pretty clearly aren’t active. Having Scoutbook show an accurate percentage, then, would be a pice of data in the overall assessment. With it not being accurate, it doesn’t help at all.
