Leader approval by administrator

Ive noticed that a scoutbook admin has been “leader approving” certain rank requirements and merit badges that were marked completed by the scout or another leader within the troop. We tend to have a one leader mark the requirement complete in scoutbook then we have our advancement chair mark it as leader approved. What is this Scoutbook admin approval?

I’ve seen “BSA Administrator” approvals appear in our records. Generally, that occurs if the advancement is submitted to council before a unit-level leader marks it Leader Approved. Historically, that occurred for us with advancement and merit badges that were already in the system. I don’t recall seeing any recently, except maybe on merit badges, where the council wants to see the blue card.

1 Like

I find it interesting that this happens. I would think that we would get some sort of notification or something that says that an admin did this. my biggest concern with this is that when the scouts finish the 6 badges needed for star and it populates the rank requirement and it marks it as approved before they get it signed in their books. with scouts working with multiple mb counselors the counselor can mark the badge as completed and it populates rank requirements that they might not be able to see if theyre not part of their troop. To me this seems a bit off for checks and balances in record keeping.

@JeremyPenner - as the advancement system of IA only looks at completed ranks, awards and merit badges it would seem odd that individual requirements are being touched by BSA Administrator. Perhaps some screen shots and a check of the audit log are in order.

1 Like

@JeremyPenner Are you referring to Star / Life / Eagle requirement #3? There was a recent change where requirement 3 will automatically complete / approve if all of the required merit badges for that rank are completed / approved. If the merit badge counselor is outside of your unit, then they can only mark merit badges as completed, so requirement 3 will auto-complete, but not auto-approve in that case. The date for requirement 3 can be changed to match the Handbook, if desired.

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.