MB Counselor discrepency in Scoutbook

[GregoryMcGill]

My position report does not show me as a MBC even though personal trips to the Council office can generate a report indicating that I am. Also, ScoutBook sends the following email every few months,

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  Hi Gregory,

Merit Badges: American Heritage, Archaeology, Backpacking, Camping, Citizenship in the Community, Citizenship in the Nation, Cooking, Digital Technology, Emergency Preparedness, Exploration, Geology, Hiking, Indian Lore, Programming, Radio, Scouting Heritage, Signaling (2010 Historical), Signs, Signals, and Codes, Space Exploration

Since you already have a Scoutbook account, there is no action that you need to take at this time. Thank you for everything you do for Scouting and for your support of Scoutbook.

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I do see an old expired MBC position in the position report although I have no idea at all why it expired. It seems everyone wants to blame the Council. Perhaps so, but what about the email from Scoutbook?

I have tried all the steps to add a position and it only leads back to tell “someone” at the Council to add me - but the Council did that already. I am extremely aggravated with this since Council personnel have no visibility into SB and the unit SB admin says it is a Council issue.

SO, perhaps someone here has a clue. At least let me know if there is anyone at my local council (position wise) that does have visibility into SB.

Thanks in advance,
GM

[ScouterRob]

Gregory,

Do you know if your council has uploaded their MBC list into Scoutbook??

When our council recently did this, all MBC positions listed in the unit disappeared. Now, all MBC’s in our council can be looked up through the application. We do not have to track things at the unit level anymore…

Scouter Rob

[GregoryMcGill]

This seems the solution everyone suggests. I guess I will have to track down the Council Advancement chair and find out from him when/if he has uploaded MB status.

However, as a retired IT professional, I am surprised that SB does not just indicate this ‘limbo’ state on the Dashboard. It would be simple - just show ‘expired’ on 12/31/yy and update that date to ‘until’ 12/31/yy. After all, SB does KNOW when the last upload occurred.

I guess this falls into a class of expectations regarding software diagnostics and logging. How much visibility do various entities (unit, council) have? My experience is none and I would be delighted to find otherwise.

[JenniferOlinger]

@GregoryMcGill It sounds like your council has uploaded the council MBC list. Your council should have one or more Council Admins for Scoutbook who can upload the list.

[GregoryMcGill]

That is what I keep hearing. It would be terrific if SB had a hyperlink to that person or persons in a users registered council.

I keep coming to the opinion that the roll out of SB nationwide was a bit premature with implementation and administrative gaps that are still being ferreted out, one issue at a time.

[Bill_W]

The MBC is a district, not unit position. I would not expect it to show on unit rosters. You can see your’s in my.scouting.org. Registration errors can include expiration date or multiple ID issues.

SB has two different behaviors, one when the council has uploaded the list and one when it has not. My understanding is that a council does not have to upload a list. The MBC may have to login in to SB is set their availability. Mine is turned off in SB because I am not serving Scouts in units directly but through a special event.

If a council is following the national model the MBC information sheet is resubmitted and reviewed annually and the MBC expiration date is updated. In my council this is not done on the calendar year change, but mid-year. This process (with or without SB) can fail if the district volunteer structure does not have a person to review the information forms or the council does not update the MBC position expiration date.

Renewal of MBC registration later in 2020 may be delayed by the need (and cost) of completing background checks for all MBCs (which usually takes one to four weeks.) Hopefully council membership committee (and council vice-presidents for membership) have begun planning how to do this. MBCs submitting authorization to do the new background check early may help.