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 have read there is no plan to add the Nova and SuperNova to AOLs, this feels wrong. Why are we creating a whole new process for one rank?
Yes our Council supports Nova - I am STEM Chair.
My son is working on Nova now. He completed SuperNova last year but Council did not get it signed off until after June 1st - which means I can see it or add it.
When removing it from the awards - did the Scoubook plus team write instructions on how the registrar should be adding it in their system. If not, the loop is still broken.
Best solution is to add it to Scoutbook Plus. One system
@MarnieHam simple (hard) answer is all NOVAs are no longer national awards and therefore not recorded in National System. The AOL one is a head scratcher as it is not directly addressed, just shadows of it talking about AOL scouts before true AOL dens existed. This is a pure Council issue moving forward - if they wish they can track in their own systems.
Then how do I find them?
I am volunteer - so no access to Staff at National
This is the forum I have to get to anyone!
This was a miss - until the volunteers have the knowledge to make things happen
I expect it to come up over and over again on the forum.
Until there is a solution - work instructions that are published on the website may be that solution.
If Council doesn’t have instruction and the advancement platforms at National - its a National problem.
I can understand you may not have the answer but unless each Council develops their own Internet Advancement/ Scoutbook Plus - it does go up to that level.
@MarnieHam Nation’s statement was very clear to councils - If you want to support NOVA do it on your own that would have gone to Staff communications not volunteer communications. That was the message and all I can report on, going forward it will not be supported in the various Scoutbook systems, just like Council Polar Bear Camping awards are not supported as they are Council awards.
It your council professional staff wants to try advocating for national to update SB/SB+ to add AoL for NOVA/Supernova (and then to maintain it), then they will have to use their internal staff contacts to push it up the chain. Nobody on these boards has the access to be able to advocate for it to happen. We’re just volunteers, not staff.
ETA: That said, given the fairly affirmative statement made by nationals when they discontinued national support for the program, I suspect it’s more likely to end up with them removing existing support for the earlier ranks, rather than adding support for the AoL level.
You will need to work with your Council staff advisor for the STEM program to develop the process your council will use going forward. As has been said previously, there is no longer any national support for the STEM NOVA awards. Your council professional staff has ways to reach out to other councils to find out what they may be doing to support the STEM programs.
What I did to get NOVAs onto AOLs was I submitted a paper advancement report to council. The hard part is that there appears to be no way to get Pi pins any longer. You can get Nova patches from Class B all day, but no one seems to have the pins.
Once again - AOL does not truly exist for AOL - if you think this is wrong talk to council - National states it does not exist and that NOVA is a Council program not a national program.
