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.
I suspect it depends on the “frequency” as much as the “quantity”. Lots of reminders in short succession could easily be viewed as spam. Longer gaps between reminders, even for larger numbers of reminders, likely mitigates that effect to some extent. For example, major events (like an OA section conclave that only happens once a year) might want more total advertising than the upcoming troop meeting.
I think that being able to set more reminders after the first ones go out likely mitigates the “3 in advance” reminders. The biggest issue I’ve seen has been when a reminder comes out, and a well-meaning leader (or scout) piles on and emails the entire unit about how much they support people participating in the event. I’ve observed the same sort of effect in that case as all of us “piling on” when a new bug pops up here. :^)
When setting up a calendar event in IA2, you are asked to specify the type of event: Campout, Committee Meeting, etc. Would it be possible to add “Service Project” to the type of events? Most units in our area do service projects that are stand alone events that don’t involve a campout.
@Stephen_Hornak It’s probably just an oddity of how this forum works, but that link just takes me to an empty section.
But I did browse to that subforum and I’m scanning thru threads and not finding anything that answers either of the two questions I just posted.
I agree that there needs to be a way to have multiple units able to be selected for the calendar. We have both a Boys and a Girls unit. Typically all events we create are for both units. We really only want to send it out once for the whole troop. That way we don’t accidently have information that differs.
Thanks, edvignon. Maybe I just am not doing something correctly, as I am only able to select 1 of the 2 units. I have full permissions for both units, though.
I am trying with the individual who controls the rights to figure out which role we need to be able to create events for both troops. We have tried a few combinations and can’t figure it out.
When creating a new event, I see that I can invite all the leaders, all the parents, or everybody with one click. I’d rather not invite all the parents - not because I don’t want them there, it’s just that they’re either typically also a leader, or they’re just transportation for the Scouts and then they leave. It’s easier to do attendance when I don’t have 50-some parents to sort through to find the leaders that attended. Okay, sometimes they get talking loudly if they stay and that can be distracting during a meeting, so maybe I don’t really want them there… But mostly, this is about marking attendance.
Yes, in the sub-groups, I can invite the Scouts through their patrol, but that also adds their parents to the invite list, putting me right back at square one. Can we just get a “Select All Scouts” button too?
