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I tried searching the forums and the FAQs and didn’t seem to find the answers I need.
We’ve had a couple of MB counselors approved by the council and our troop to counsel MBs but who have been unable to sign the blue cards on Scoutbook. In one case, the counselor is also an ASM for his son’s patrol and can only see the Scout ID’s for those scouts in his patrol. In the other case, I think the counselor simply couldn’t approve the MBs.
I’m the committee chair for our troop and apparently a unit admin on Scoutbook, and when I ran another MB, I was able to set up the rosters and sign all blue cards myself. Is there something I can or should do to get the other counselors proper access?
@AllanLabrador what do you mean Sign the Blue Card? If an MBC is assigned to a Scout and Assigned a MB - when the Bluecard is printed for a complete MB the MBC name appears in signature area
In the case of the most recent counselor, he didn’t have the Scout IDs for any scout other than those in his son’s patrol. He recently got the scout IDs from our registrar for the other scouts, so that seems to be covered now, but it would have been nice had he been able to get the other IDs for the other scouts in the class.
Similarly, when I did a merit badge class for my unit and included two scouts from another unit, I had to connect to the other scouts, but I couldn’t without their scout IDs. I think I sent a message to the scoutmaster of the other troop, either directly by e-mail or through Scoutbook (don’t recall which), but I never got connected to those scouts. I wound up filling out a physical blue card and snail-mailing it to their parents.
By “Sign the Blue Card”, I’ve fallen into shorthand from back when we were (and, mostly, still are) using physical blue cards. What I meant was to do the Quick Entry for MB Counselors on the Scoutbook page. We’re trying to do move online.
When I recently counseled a MB, I was able to do everything quickly and easily – set up my class, connecting with the scouts with Scout IDs for all the scouts in my unit (but not two outside my unit), and approve MBs either by the individual requirements or by approving completion. I’m thinking it was easy for me because I’m also committee chair, but I get the feeling that our other MB counselors are hitting a roadblock somewhere.
We do seem to be getting the most recent counselor connected to the scouts, but I had thought, since all the scouts are in the same unit as the counselor (and me), that connecting the counselor to the scouts would be more automatic.
Edit: So, I’m guessing that Scoutbook is acting as gatekeeper in terms of MB counselors getting the Scout IDs, so that counselors have to get them from Troop admins. Is that right? And maybe it’s not committee chair but being troop admin that gave me access.
Connecting as a MBC in Scoutbook isn’t really automatic under any circumstances. It always requires a certain amount of action by someone to initiate the connection. The process is largely as described in the links that @SageLichtenwalnerposted above. I’m not sure if Invite Merit Badge Counselor works within the same unit currently or not. I know at one point it did not work reliably if there was already a connection between the scout and the counselor (even if not a MBC connection).
For both the MBC and scout within the same unit, a Unit Admin (or a Key 3/Key 3 Delegate) can create a MBC connection between the scout and the counselor by first creating a Leader connection between the scout and counselor (of it doesn’t already exist), then adding the MBC role to that connection. Make sure to assign the MB that the counselor is counseling when you set that connection.
As you noted, the counselor can initiate that connection as well with all of the relevant information for the scout. That works from inside or outside a unit, I believe.
Thanks @CharleyHamilton (and everyone else)! That seems to be what we’re seeing, i.e. that the MB counselor has to get the scout IDs from one of the admins.
I assumed it didn’t need the step of being connected by an admin or getting the scout ID from an admin when I counseled a MB, because it was seemingly easy for me, but now that I’m aware of that step, it should be straightforward for us from now on.
If an MBC is already connected to scout an admin can simple go to connection > click the MBC box > then choose MB - Extension MIGHT have a feature to facilitate that
