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 am finding that Scoutbook has defaulted to allow the parents to have “Full Control” of their Scout’s entire SB profile. The issue I have is that a parent can enter (and one parent has done this already) that their Scout has completed a merit badge at their leisure or update other rank requirements without ever going through the SM or Advancement Chairman.
I have tried to disable this feature, but if a parent has “Full Control” over the entire profile, I am unable to change the privileges the parent has already set. I contacted my Council office about it, but they too were unable to find a solution to the problem.
The BSA many years ago made this change. The argument essentially boils down to “marking something completed is the equivalent of marking a check in the left column of the handbook”. I don’t agree with this interpretation, but that’s more-or-less the party line. I do wonder if it was originally an unintended side-effect of assigning parents Full Control of the scout’s account. The permissions structure does not appear to be particularly granular in Scoutbook, so it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
Thanks Charley. The problem I have is that this one Scout has not completed the merit badge, but mom has entered it in as being completed. (When I look at this particular merit badge, I can see who entered it as being complete and the date it was entered. I guess that she thought we wouldn’t notice it and just slip it into the system). I guess the only way to make sure this does not happen is to closely review the reports before each COH.
Policy that only the advancement chair marks MBs Leader Approved, based either on a signed physical blue card or a Counselor Approved merit badge status in Scoutbook.
Reinforcement that this is the *scout’s advancement journey, not the parent’s, and that Scouts BSA advancement is not like Cub Scouts, where the parent is the primary Akela.
Careful review before Leader Approving anything, and strict avoidance of the Approve All button.
Yes. I have had that exact conversation multiple times with this parent that this is her Scout’s journey. We (parents, leaders, etc.) are only there to provide the support for the Scout.
What we have been doing is that I have received the signed Blue Card and then I take a picture of it and send it to my Advancement Chair if he is not present at the meeting. He will then enter the completed MB into TroopMaster to be collected for our next COH.
I will pass onto my Advancement Chair that he and I need to go through the report and not do just a general Approve All. In the past, we have used TroopMaster and then the Advancement Chairman has entered everything into SB. It is double work, but TM provides so much more in reports that our Troop likes.
