I am in Quick Entry marking off a whole den for a recent meeting, including my own child. All Scouts now show the requirements as complete, except for my child, who shows nothing. He was checked off for the requirements, marked as approved, and a comment added, just like the other Scouts. It worked for all the other Scouts except him. I am logged in under my Pack Admin role, so that’s not it. I’m on a laptop, using Chrome. Other den leaders are seeing this as well and are resorting to marking off their children individually which is not sustainable. Help please!
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@KristenRibe the Approve is a known issue being worked on - simple solution now is to use Legacy Scoutbook Approval Report to approve things for your own scout
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@DonovanMcNeil understood, and I’ve been doing that to date. But as of an hour ago, it’s not even showing up on the Approval Report in legacy SB for me to even approve. His adventure shows “not started”. It’s like he wasn’t included in the Quick Entry at all.
@KristenRibe can you give the leaders BSA #'s where it is failing?
I have someone with the same issue as well
@KristenRibe and the not started at rank level is not always right - what does it say if you go TO the adventure
@DonovanMcNeil #136347220 noticed the issue today and hasn’t marked the child off individually yet to enable this investigating. The adventure is “Team Tiger” if that’s helpful. As of 11am this morning, for the adventure for my child, Req 1, 2, 3 are unchecked but should have been, as that was the Quick Entry for the entire den (I am unable to log in now, I just get spinning dots). #14573625 has had the issue in the past. I can poll others if you need more than two.
@DonovanMcNeil I checked again today, and Team Tiger requirements are all un-checked for my child when I marked off (and approved) Req 1, 2, 3 through Quick Entry yesterday for every Scout in the den. Quick Entry recorded it for the other scouts in the Den, they are showing as Complete/Approved.
@KristenRibe yes this is a re-reported issue - so were the requirements marked completed? were they marked completed but left blank?
@DonovanMcNeil I don’t think this is a re-reported issue as the requirements are marked completed by the leader, but then when checked afterwards, are left blank. It’s only affecting leaders’ children when Quick Entry is used.
re-reported to the developers is what I meant
When migrating to a new platform or functionality you are supposed to test the software to ensure it works. You are supposed to notify the users of any updates or changes. Unfortunately this was not done.
We can assume they want us to migrate to Scoutbook Plus. You can do it there. Did anyone get any instructions? I haven’t seen any.
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We post all changes in the Change Log forum. All updates are tested but because of the different ways people use Scoutbook and how they have their units configured it is impossible to test everything. Even Apple and Microsoft have bugs and they have huge budgets for both development and test.
The BSA does not release bug lists but if someone reports a problem that is a known issue the SUAC volunteers will acknowledge it as a known issue.
As functions move from Legacy Scoutbook to Scoutbook Plus, we announce them in the Change Long. Major functions currently in SB+ are the calendar, profile editing, activity logs and Cub Scout advancement & den management. All troop, crew and ship advancement remains in legacy Scoutbook.
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I am a retired systems engineer. I have serious issues with how software deliveries have been done by National council this year.
The quick entry change was just one example of poor communication. Even our district council knew nothing about it.
The worst example of Councils poor IT software functionality changes was going into our packs Scoutbook accounts and without warning pulling kids out of dens who hadn’t paid their council dues, moving kids who were in our departing scouts dens, and mixing them all in with new kids that joined our pack without warning was probably the worst example of horrible communication with council and packs. How can we ever trust Scoutbook again?!!! This happened at the end of September and we are still trying to reconstruct our roster.
Doing these things at the beginning of the recruitment season when packs are just trying to get working with new leaders is another issue.
I strongly suggest working with packs and troops to beta test your software changes. Maybe even “ask them their opinion”. Work with councils to let them know about changes so they can help the packs and troops deal with the changes. Give councils time so they will be able to give a heads up to packs and troops about changes and give them instructions on how to use the new software.
I did this for a living. If I had delivered software “upgrades “ in such a manner I would have been fired.
I strongly recommend improving the way you are doing these deliveries. Communicate with local councils so that your “Customers “ don’t get shut down.
Please contract this out or at least improve your communication with your customers.
I have never seen such poor communication.
Rob Cowan
Cub Master pack 291
North Florida Council
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Everyone who monitors these forums are volunteers, just like you.
The BSA membership database, Akela, does not know anything about dens. Scouts who did not renew by the end of the lapse period were removed. After they were removed, the BSA decided to increase the lapse period by 30 days so they were placed back into the unit but not into a den because as I said, Akela does not know about dens. If familes had renewed within 60 days of expiration, this issue would not have occurred. Without the additional 30 days, the Scouts that were removed would not have been able to be placed back into the unit in Scoutbook until after the family renewed their membership.
Scoutbook and Scoutbook Plus updates are tested by both BSA QA teams and volunteers that are leaders in packs and troops. The SUAC has put out calls for additional testers but in most cases, those that have volunteered have lasted about a month then quit helping.
Council staff have the same access to the Change Log forum that the volunteers have, however, many of these staff members do not have time to keep track of software updates. Councils are notified of major changes before they happen via monthly Scout Exec communication from National.
I suggest you work with your Council if you have process change ideas as posting them in the forums will not get them to BSA IT staff. Only Councils can open support tickets with BSA IT. Keep in mind, suggestions that cause additional expense will most likely not be accepted as all National budgets have been reduced due to the bankruptcy.
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Our Council blames National whenever I ask. The new rechartering method was a big fail. We were notified it was going to happen but not exactly how or what. I had called and emailed my local council about the new recharter that went unanswered. Finally around August 19th, our council had a zoom meeting where they answered my questions and assured me there would be a 90, 60, 20 and 7 day warning period along with a 7 grace period. That warning period should not have started until we were fully briefed on August 19th. Most packs don’t meet until September or even October. By the end of September while our pack was starting up, our Scoutbook roster was trashed. Who has time to look at these forums. Changes should be announced through councils.
We had over 60 kids join our pack in August and September. Our new leaders take one or two months to get approved. We have over 100 kids in our pack. I have worked from August through September at least 12 hours a day getting our packs feet on the ground.
The end of September, I was getting ready to go to the Scouts shop to buy awards. The quick entry didn’t work. What normally took me less than an hour took all day. Our Council IT person didn’t know about the change. She figured it must have been migrated to Scoutbook plus and figured it out.
Communication with packs and troops is horrible. I go to roundtable every month. The quick entry was never mentioned. The recharter wasn’t explained until our August 19th Zoom meet with Council.
We are being asked to go back to our old rechartering method because the new one wasn’t working and completely screwed up the packs. Anyone who is a pack leader of a large pack knows there are a lot of people who won’t read their emails. It was pretty clear that the new and improved recharter was going to have problems because of this.
Not impressed. There needs to be better communication with the end users.
It sounds like most of your issues are with your Council. Councils were advised what was happening. Councils are responsible for end unit support. If your council decided not to communicate the changes, that is their issue.
If you do not like how your council is being run, you can volunteer to serve on a council committee. Some councils have an IT committee in addition to the normal advancement, training, activities; etc committees.
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Our Council is blaming National Council. Who do I believe?
I am. Cub Master of a large pack. The packs are staffed by volunteers. We are doing the real work of scouting. Councils should be supporting us.
They should be. But if they are not, it is time to get involved. Councils are you, me, and everyone in the council.
