Thank you for your response! Although I have been hesitant to fiddle with the calendar (usually a CC thing) I’ll look into it in the interest of monitoring “active-ness “
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In principle – although it appears to be broken at the moment – scouts can be assigned the Calendar Editor functional role in Scoutbook by a unit admin, so that they can do things like create/edit/maintain events, take attendance, etc. This allows the scouts to take greater direct responsibility for their own program.
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I have had nothing but pure grief from IA 2.0 and I am a CC and have a college degree in information systems management from UMUC. My latest grief is that our unit did a service project, for which I was not able to attend, but the unit provided me the attendance, which is easy to update on the calendar in Scoutbook which I think is a brilliant and intuitive easy way for new leaders to use. IA is slow to log in and crashes, and has long wait times and I only use it for the required service hours reporting, hiking and camping. I added the latest event successfully recorded, then I find out a few days latter that I had two scouts with the same name and added the wrong scout into service hours, but when I go back into edit the event, I am not allowed to remove the scout. If we as units can not edit then IA 2.0 is a failure, and will never be a representation of what is happening in real life. Scouting is tied to service hours reporting and this mess of software of IA 2.0 is never going to be fixed, it needs to be scraped and everything needs to be done on Scoutbook.
YIS
Very Respectfully
I didn’t try it, but it looks like I have the ability to delete scouts from activities. There is an X next to their name which looks like it could be used to delete them.
Edit:
I tried it on myself and this is what came up:
So it looks like you can remove people from an activity. Are you trying to do this from the reports section and not the activities section? This is a unit I am the CC for as well.
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I am trying to delete the scout from the activity section-in IA 2.0. IA 2.0 is so full of holes I dare not go to anyplace that I do not HAVE to go, as sure as anything more stuff will be messed up. Maybe it was yet another quirk over the last 18 months, hence I try and avoid logging into IA 2.0 like the plague. I have had better success using MS Edge, as for a while I could not even log into the account, but I could log into Scoutbook, and my scouting. IA is so bad I do not even tell my parents and leaders that it exists, all documentation must be provided to me so I can log it, as I do trust IA and other member’s of the unit will certainly screw up working and fully functional scoutbook from IA.
On the flip side of the coin I so enjoy scoutbook I log in several times a day just to check on progress of the Pack, and to see if the new scouts I have registered have populated so I can move them into their assigned dens. If is almost fun to see the Pack graphically eventhough it is a simple database. Scoutbook was best when I could monitor Leaders training at a glance through a speedometer icon, and I could log all hike, camping, and service hours seamlessly right after I recorded the attendance for the event. Now a multitude time more difficult as I need to use a different browser and wait for IA to load, then build the event, then populate the event, then sort through all the errors, and keep my fingers crossed that IA 2.0 recorded the event. IA 2.0 is a total Buffalo Chip.
It is too bad that BSA IT has chosen to modernize Scoutbook but has given up on the look, feel, and usability of Scoutbook. That seems to have been a poor choice.
The fact that the look and feel is different, doesn’t mean the system has to have a ton of bugs. It just means that training effort goes up.
The biggest issue, though, is just the number of bugs, stall outs, and browser issues really makes me sad.
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I suspect this largely has to do with the complexity of modern web development. The reality is, to do things well and secure with a small team, you really have to rely on a collection of development libraries. Unfortunately, that often limits the design, UX and functionality you can implement, without a lot of customization and hacking. Again, with a small team, you can only do so much.
As I understand it, Scoutbook is a dated stack (supposedly ASP?), and moving to IA2 (.NET?) likely involved utilizing an entirely different set of development libraries, as well as developers who know how to use them… hence the new “look” and task workflows.
Is it ideal, no. Is it preferred, no. Is it in the best interest of the user base, no. Is it the best a small team of developers can do, given the financial/human constraints and technical/user/stakeholder demands, most likely.
You are so right, I didn’t even think of it. It isn’t that they choose to make it look one way, or the other, but it is based on their libraries. Good point. They can customize it to a point, but they (due to their size) are bound by these “off the shelf” systems.
That is a lot of no’s. Scoutbook was developed by scouters. National and local councils don’t have a problem leveraging volunteers for other things so why not this. It doesn’t make sense to stay on a path that is not good for most people. It is the law of diminishing returns.
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I guess I have a different take on it. I just do whatever I need to do and if it breaks I contact somebody until it is fixed. They don’t really know the issues exist if we the users don’t find them and report them. With Scoutbook and now IA I just go in with confidence and try not to screw stuff up too bad. Best way to get acclimated is to get yourself lost a few times.
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It really comes down to leverage of current programming language. Obviously scoutnet has to be sunset as that has long passed support. The programming language of IA2 is current and more modular than classic ASP which is the language of scoutbook programming core. While classic ASP may be in use, it too will face sunset.
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Well, they are using volunteers to id and vet bugs! That is better than some companies!
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John,
I am CC of an near all military unit. I am retired, so I am the glue that keeps the whole operation afloat. Last year 85% of our pack exited stage left, but I was able to save the Pack for another year. Summer is when all the families leave, and OPSEC or what ever they do not share with me often that they are gone. When school starts in the fall then I have to like the PHOENIX raise the the Pack from the ashes once again. I do nearly all the data entry for the Pack, so when I have to spend 30 minutes to log a hike, it is not efficient use of my time, when knowing how easily and seamlessly it was done in Scoutbook or the mobile app previously. National is making units less efficient under the premise of using a new stack or upgrade, but are actually hurting units by taking the most important thing Volunteers have; TIME. I really do not care what ASP is making it work, I get frustrated when something is working great, and we are forced to use something that does not work. It seems to me with budget cuts, that the logical solution would be if it is not broke do not fix it. Again who in their right mind would want to volunteer to fix crappy software at council level even if it was their profession, as there is no reward just pain?
PS I am a retired 26 year Veteran and I am trying to be a COURTEOUS as possible on this topic, yet hopefully I can convey my deep down feelings on IA 2.0.
YIS
V/R
Scott
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Scott,
As I said it’s a matter of perspective. I am regarded as the “tech” guy for our district and have not had any issues brought to me about people having these kinds of issues with IA. I’ve added events and service into IA and have not had any issues. Our scoutmaster had some issues at the very beginning, but has since worked them out.
I’m not sure what problems you’re having that cause it to take so long to log outings into IA, but whatever they are need to be reported so that the IT group can fix them.
It has amazed me over the years the lengths that volunteers are willing to go to for scouting to be successful. I feel like that is being stretched to the limit these days. Maybe they have asked for help from volunteers and didn’t get any takers. I’m not privy to any particulars.
I appreciate you being courteous.
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John,
I am in Okinawa, Japan and part of FEC, and we are about 1/3 of the way around the world, would this be the cause for the latency, and the crashes? Again I never had Scoutbook crash nor had issues with latency. Maybe at the end of a small pipe the increased stack size and ASP are actually a bad thing?
YIS
V/R
Scott
@ScottMarbut - you may want to run this on the device you are using for IA
Additionally you could run a tracert to the IP of advancements.scouting.org and see where your drops are.
I am between 18 and 31mps it seems to be very inconsistent.when running the test a multiple times, I am running WIFI with a booster near my desktop in my house, but it is dual band.
YIS
V/R
Scott
@ScottMarbut - so you are hovering around the base speed of 25mbps. A test of my phone at the location od one of my AP is at 200mbps and the pc hardwired to the router is at 440mbps. The more rendering a site must do the more challenging it can be at speeds below 25. Things like the scoutnet IA module remained a flat representation and an sftp upload of the end user entry so bandwidth could have been excellent for even dial up. Does you wifi point have a lan port that you could plug into or is int strictly an AP.
Stephen,
I think we have discovered the crux of the issue. I would think it is safe to say that most the world does not enjoy a fast internet connection. I hail from Montana, know that the internet is still slow or too expensive for many people, and cell coverage is not full either. I would go on to say that scouts generally would come more from rural communities versus urban communities, and ideally scout should be able to log their information soon after their accomplishment. I cut wired connections running though my house about 20 years ago. I first started 1993 with Windows for Workgroups networking a IBM PS1 Consultant 2mb of RAM with base 10 line running down the hall, and we played DOOM II using IPX/ NetBeui protocol.
If I can do a zoom call sitting on an Eagle Board of Review and the Scout is in Florida, and I am in Okinawa, Japan then bandwidth is not the issue, but rather buggy software once again. I still rent, yet our landlord provides internet for the building from the modem I plug into the WIFI router for the house, and I have a booster near my desk.
