As I started working on summer camp paperwork prep 24 days ago I posted this topic: Parent YPT Certificate Printing and was frustrated with the extra steps it would take a Pack Admin, Key 3 delegate, and Pack Trainer to have to send an email and wait for a parent that struggles to navigate my.scouting to send me the PDF of their YPT certificate instead of being able to print it myself.
Today I signed on to use the workaround in the previous post of attaching the PDF in Scoutbook so I could print it later only to see yesterday’s change log has removed that option by removing the edit training link.Further reading shows that soon an update to Scoutbook will break the Feature Extension Report that currently can display the date YPT for parents will expire.
It seems that the functionality and ease of things is going backwards and I can’t find a post or roadmap item that explains where in the future it might improve.
For ease and speed of tracking YPT to confirm we have the coverage needed at all events and to put together a file to send a contingent to camp, admins should be able to see the status of all YPT training, not just registered leaders connected to the Pack. Many of our parents don’t want to be in my.scouting because it is tough to navigate, they use it infrequently maybe only to do YPT every 2 years. I know the system and can do the tasks needed quicker and easier than asking individuals to send me their certificate and constantly send followups and additional requests.
If the Feature Extension YPT report breaks as stated I am back to needing a spreadsheet to manually track YPT for parents all together and cloud or disc space for PDF’s and/or a file for paper copies of the certificates. This is creating more work and time for me, and pack parents and making a process more difficult.
YPT status of all in the pack, registered leader or non registered parent, should be completely transparent to everyone else in the pack as a point of pride in BSA policy to protect the scouts. Creating this transparency and giving admins the ability to generate a leader and parent YPT status report and print individual certificates saves leader’s time and effort on paperwork tasks that technology had improved with older versions.
Thanks to all who work on this system, I know it is a huge task with many issues and so many users wanting so many things. I appreciate the effort and improvements being done, but if my.scouting can’t replicate functionality in Scoutbook, build the functionality in the correct spot before killing features users have come to know and rely on.
