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.
Council is not on board with migrating to do online applications for roundups. It’s my understanding DE goals etc are based on application #s specifically collected at the physical roundups so online apps don’t factor into it. However, we only have 1 person processing paper applications for the whole council that covers 26 counties in my state. 6 week turnaround is conservative since I start pitching a fit at that point. I have been sounding the alarm over this whole process with no real change/improvement in the process of processing time.
The pitfall of the current process is I spend most of the fall unsure of my actual pack numbers and unable to award anything.
I’m not generating pocket certificates for every loop earned. Thats a waste of time and effort in lieu of a function report that can spit out similar info. With around 100 scouts that an avg of 600-700 loops awarded. I am not creating 600-700 pocket cards. Hard stop.
I doubt the BSA will entertain changing the needs awarding report in Scoutbook since the plan is to move all functions to the Internet Advancement user interface.
If parents want to know what loop is, they could log in to Scoutbook, navigate to their child’s page and hover the mouse pointer over the loop in question. The name of the loop and date it was completed should pop-up as a tool tip.
@RachelVirden - I will restate that the need awarding report was built without a print or csv option and the original owner/developer never got around to adding those features before it was bought by the BSA
That is surprising. I have my thoughts on this, but they are outside of the scope we are allowed for this forum.
That’s why I asked. Are you planning on cutting the report up, one per scout? Or something else?
As others have mentioned, it’s unlikely we can get a print button added to needs awarding. It’s more likely that we can get an option to display the images on the Cub Scout recognition report. I don’t know for sure that we can, but would that meet your needs?
Yes this would be welcomed! At the end of the day I don’t really care what report I pull as long as it’s printable, includes the name of the award, and a thumbnail of that award.
There is one more use case for a printed “needs awarding” report. I have Scouts (cubs) that don’t attend every meeting. (sometimes for months due to sports). I don’t actualy mark them as awarded in the needs awarding until they are handed to a Scout. So each month I go in and see what “needs to be awarded”. I want to print that report out so that I can prepare my awards table at the Pack meeting. Idealy it would have images, but primarily, it must have each scout listed and what hasn’t been presented to them. It also would be what I announce the individual awards from.
At the end of the meeting, everything is collected back into a bag to try to award at the next meeting. I have a small unit and don’t have the luxury of having others managing the advancement and keeping each Scouts stuff in individual bags.
Digging into it, I guess that it does. Just not intuitive to look deep into an obscure report (& knowing to hit specific parameters) when there is a button marked “Needs Awarding Report” on the first list. If the needs awading report is not intended to be a report, it should be called something else (such as “Mark as awarded tool”). That would make the system much easier to understand for users
@JasonKracht - do remember that the needs awarding report is legacy and never had the print and csv added by the original owner/developer. The cub scout/scouts BSA recognition reports are recent and are listed above the needs awarding report
A new cub leader doesnt care (or know) about legacy vs newer reports. They just care that something works and is easy to use.
BSA has owned this for many years now. The time for excuses is over & the push to put pathes out that are newer, but harder to use tels me that none of the developers actualy use the tools.
Why are you holding awards for the next pack meeting if a scout is not present. They should be given to the Scout at the next available opportunity which should be a den meeting.
@JasonKracht - they are immediate recognition so holding onto them is not a good plan. I hand then to the den leaders to hand out.
From the Guide to Advancement:
A Cub Scout who has completed advancement should be
congratulated immediately and publicly. And though badges
of rank should be reserved for the next pack meeting, it is
best to present items such as belt loops and pins soon after
they have been earned. If it is possible for the pack to report
and purchase these awards quickly, they could be presented
at a den meeting, rather than waiting for a pack meeting. If
presented at den meetings, the accompanying pocket
certificates can be used in a ceremony at a subsequent pack
meeting—or vice versa with the pocket certificates at a den
meeting. However this is done, it is important to note that
advancement is an individual process, not dependent on the
work or progress of others. Awards should not be withheld
for group recognition. Likewise, a youth should not be
presented with recognition that was not earned simply to
avoid anyone “feeling left out.
As Jacob’s questions allude, this was my general approach…
I would go to the “Needs Awarding” report after a pack meeting to clear out all the awards that had been bought and packaged for awarding at the meeting. The assumption being, any scouts not there would get their bag from their DL whenever they saw them next.
I would use the “Recognition Report” to generate a list of awards for each Cub Scout. I would then cut up the report into individual strips and place each in a snack baggie with the appropriate awards. This made it far easier to pass out the correct awards to each Scout, especially when a Den had more than one loop being awarded and/or different scouts had different awards.
