Inviting Merit Badge Counselor to Connect With Scout in Scoutbook

Scoutbook Feature Assistant Extension
1

I am my unit’s advancement chair.

  1. Why will Scoutbook no longer allow me to connect a merit badge counselor with a Scout?
  2. What is this “feature assistant,” and why should I have to download something extra to get Scoutbook to work the way that it should, and was until a short while ago?
2

  1. Some capability was recently removed because of a security issue. I’m not sure if it will be restored once they figure out the issue or if this impacts your exact situation. Are a troop admin? Can you explain what you clicked and what happened? Was there an error message?

  2. The feature assistant extension is a volunteer written tool that speeds up tasks that native scoutbook would take a lot of clicks to do. It only reduces the number of clicks. It cannot do anything that native scoutbook couldn’t do (less efficiently). Everything in the feature assistant extension is in the backlog to add to native scoutbook, but with limited resources, IT has not gotten to them yet.

3

I have run into the same issue. When I try to invite a counselor outside of my scouts already approved connections, I am unable to to select “merit badge counselor” after entering the counselors info to send them an email. Only “parent/guardian” or “other family member” are available.

Even if I designate the counselor as one of these, I get the message: “We found at least one user with the same first and last name. Please review the search results above to see if the user already exists.” However, no results are even visible. Not sure if this is a glitch in the system, but it makes connecting with new counselors impossible.

4

As a test i as a unit admin and CC was able to locate a counselor and in the connection type list it showed parent, other family member and merit badge counselor. Please note that the counselor can not already be on the unit roster and not already connected to the scout.

5

I’m assuming the search bar is missing for you. That’s part of what they shut down as a security hole. You need to be a troop admin to see it.

6

So won’t that make it super annoying for a troop because then each scout will have to have an adult leader add those for each scout? With all the online merit badges and classes from various councils, it seems like it will be a lot more added work for the adult leader who has been doing advancements in Scoutbook already.

7

The developers are working on a fix to restore access.

8

Well, before starting any merit badge, a scout should have a conversation with the SM. At this time, our SM makes the connection. If not SM, then it should be a particular ASM (not just any ASM).