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.
It would be very helpful to have a specific role in Scoutbook for non-registered volunteers who assist with Pack activities and need the ability to send messages. This role would allow us to better utilize these volunteers by enabling them to communicate on behalf of the Pack without requiring full registration, which includes incurring costs and undergoing a background check necessary for roles that access youth data.
This would help us effectively engage our volunteers, improve communication within our Pack, maintain data privacy, and minimize costs.
Thank you for the response, @Stephen_Hornak. To clarify, the proposed role wouldn’t be a youth leadership position but rather an administrative role limited to sending messages on behalf of the Pack. I understand that only registered adults can hold leadership roles within the SA due to access to youth and youth data. However, the proposed role would not involve any leadership duties.
The purpose of this request is to enable trusted, non-registered parent volunteers to help with Pack communications without needing full registration, which involves background checks and costs. The role, along with the necessary changes in Scoutbook, would be strictly for administrative support, limited to messaging only, and would not grant any access to youth data.
If this request is beyond the scope of a Scoutbook feature request and needs to be directed to another body within Scouting America, please let me know.
@DonovanMcNeil Perhaps an alternative solution could be for Scouting America to consider covering the costs associated with registration and background checks for parent volunteers who only need messaging capabilities for administrative support. The cost of dues is already growing out of hand for many families, and adding more fees can drive away valuable volunteers who are simply helping with non-leadership, administrative tasks
Policies are set by people and can be adjusted as needed. I understand that this might not be the direction you want to pursue right now. I’ll explore alternative options. Thank you for your time, and have a great day!
@Deborah - the policy is based on the what is required of the organization post lawsuit. No adult can be in ANY position without being properly registered. Beyond that we are all volunteers here and as such must adhere to policy as set by National.
Adults in Scoutbook can already send messages. They don’t need any particular role in Scoutbook to do that. As long as they have at least View Profile for Scouts
Keep in mind that the folks on the discussion groups here are pretty much all volunteers, @DonovanMcNeil included. As such, we follow policy, but we don’t set it.
As @DonovanMcNeil suggested, the only way forward if you want to pursue this suggestion is via your council professional staff. They would have to buy in to the idea, and either provide funding (for example) to cover registrations, or convince SA national that there should be such a non-registered role. I personally find both highly unlikely to occur, but I’ve certainly been surprised in the past by decisions made by nationals so being wrong wouldn’t be precedent-setting for me. :^)
ETA: Also be mindful that many jurisdictions have what can sometimes appear to be arcane rules about training and background check requirements for youth contact adults, and this might also flow into the digital sphere, even if the contact is all strictly digital. Your local council can probably provide the best guidance on this aspect as well.
I suspect we will see MORE restrictions in the future, not less. I would not be surprised if the ability for non-registered individuals to send messages via SB is completely removed.
