If a parent is also an adult leader in the troop, is there a way to keep them from doing a complete signing off on rank advancement requirements for their son.
You can remove Edit Advancement permission from that parent if it becomes a problem. In my troop, I set all of the registered leaders to the View Profile permission by default. Only the SM, ASM, and advancement chair have Edit Advancement permissions.
Parents always have full control connections to their Scouts. Parents who are also leaders need to be instructed not to click the Leader Approved check box unless their position includes approving advancement. I have never had an issue with Parents approving things once the expectations were explained.
1 Like
thank you. we are just starting to get into using this. was aware of what the parents could do. my advancement chair has concern about adult leaders that have sons in the troop being able to just sign their youth off and not do the work. unfortunately there are some like that. I was hoping there was a way to “keep them honest” and that they couldn’t sign off their youth. Looking for things I could show my advancement chair to make him more comfortable that the process is secure. I think it is a matter of limiting who can and monitor.
thank you. we are just starting to get into using this. was aware of what the parents could do. my advancement chair has concern about adult leaders that have sons in the troop being able to just sign their youth off and not do the work. unfortunately there are some like that. I was hoping there was a way to “keep them honest” and that they couldn’t sign off their youth. Looking for things I could show my advancement chair to make him more comfortable that the process is secure. I think it is a matter of limiting who can and monitor. we have multiple ASM’s.
I think Ed’s advice was good. It’s really a matter of building trust with those parents and your advancement chair. If you don’t trust them to follow the Scout Law, then they probably shouldn’t have been registered as leaders, but it sounds like your case is more of a “what if” scenario that can be solved by communication.
All advancements can be “audited” by looking to see who signed them off.
You can do this in bulk by exporting a portion of the database file, but I haven’t had to do that since I was trying to make sure we had consistent data quite some time back. If you wanted to get really fancy, you could require that all Scoutbook “Completions” be accompanied by a photo of the signed handbook page. I’m not that concerned, personally, but it could be done through policy.
One way to address this, given the structure of Scoutbook, is a unit-level policy from the committee that specifies that unit leaders/assistant leaders may not sign-off on advancement requirements for their own child, and get the SM to buy-off on implementing the policy. However, the Guide to Advancement makes it clear that any MBC may counsel badges for their own scout, although it’s somewhat discouraged, depending on how you read the language.
There can be drawbacks to a hard-and-fast policy, however. For example, situations where the adult leader might have been the only nominal unit leader/assistant unit leader on an outing (e.g. one committee member + SM/ASM still meets 2-deep), and is the one who observed the work being credited. If the scout waits long enough to get a sign-off, other leaders may no longer recall.
Although we generally apply a similar policy in our troop, it’s not formalized, allowing the SM leeway to operate the program efficiently. The SM and ASMs just make it a habit of passing our scouts off to one another for reviews/conferences, assuming there isn’t a senior scout available to do the review or the SM to do the conference.
Usually you can scare parents enough to say “this could effect Eagle” if you do not wan them approving own Scouts
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
