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.
The new Connection Cleaner will have an unintended consequence in my Troop. Each summer we have Scouts from other Troops who attend summer camp and go on high adventure treks with our unit. We also regularly have our Scouts go on activities in our Troop. When this happens, we have been adding a connection between the Scout and the leader of our Troop who is in charge of the event or the leader of the other Troop that is hosting our Scout. It sounds like this will no longer be possible?
The purpose of the Connections Cleaner is to clear out old connections to a Scout that are no longer needed. For example, when a Scout transfers from a pack to a troop, there can be a lot of old connections between adults leaders in the pack and the Scout. The Connections Cleaner will not do anything unless you click on it.
For your situations, you could also add a temporary membership for the Scout in your troop for summer camp or the high adventure trek. This would allow the Scout and the Scout’s parents to be included on troop messaging and the calendar.
Thank you. In the change log, it sounded like the connections were being automatically stripped away.
We have had Scouts that travel to other countries and other parts of the US for up to a year for school during which time we connect them with a Scout leader or merit badge counselor who is located where they are. It sounded like Scoutbook would automatically cut those connections.
A parent or leader needs to run the Connection Cleaner by going to the Scout’s page or to the unit’s Connection Manager. If you have Scouts that are not in your unit connected to your leaders and the Connection Cleaner is run for that Scout, the connection will be broken. It only removes Adult Leader connections, not Parent/Guardian, Other Family Member or Merit Badge Counselor connections.
I agree with Jennifer, if you have Scouts you need to communicate with, you are better off putting them in your unit temporarily. If you do this, keep in mind any Scout not on your official roster will be removed after 60 days so you will need to update the start date before the 60 day timeout.
