The advancement chair for our troop has told me that she believes we need to continue to use Troop Master for advancement tracking because she cannot get the same information logged via Scoutbook. Is this true? It seems silly to have to use multiple platforms…
Scoutbook and Troop Master
It would be helpful to know what information she is concerned about.
This is the email she sent to me, regarding Scoutbook concerns…
Here is the list of items that I have identified as shortcomings of the Scoutbook software. It is my opinion that until these are resolved, we will need to retain our licenses for TroopMaster and in one case need to continue to
enter advancement information into Scout Web.
Reporting
No advancement reporting. These are currently generated out of Scout Web for merit badge and rank advancement. They are required by the council when achievements are earned.
No court of honor report, or advancement reporting by date. This allows Advancement Coordinators to run a report for a given period of time to ensure that all awards are accounted for at a COH.
Activities
No Adult entry for camping, service or hiking. This is needed for OA analysis
No way to check conservation project on service activities. In Troopmaster, this automatically flags when that requirement is completed for star and life rank
No way to differentiate between indoor and outdoor camping.
Leadership
Cannot enter Leave No Trace position until it is ended - get error message.
Cannot have duplicate positions entered for a scout. For example, if a scout was a patrol leader from 1/24/2018-7/28/2018 and then again beginning 2/1/2019 the system won’t let you enter it because the scout has held this position
already
Scoutbook generates an approved advancement report. This is done from the Purchase Order. The Purchase Order is generated from the Needs Purchasing report.
Scoutbook has reports called the Cub Scouts Recognition Report and the Scouts BSA Recognition Report. They have various sort options and allows a date range. They are intended to be used when putting together a Pack Meeting, Court of Honor or other awards ceremony.
In Scoutbook adults are responsible for entering their own log data. The data is contained in the Export/Backup Activity Log CSV file.
The logs are just electronic versions of what is in the handbook. We recommend using the word Conservation (or an abbreviation) in the title of the service project. Scoutbook does not automatically credit service projects to ranks. Because of restrictions between awards prohibiting using the same project for multiple awards while others allow it, this is an extremely difficult problem to solve in a computer. We feel it is better for a human to make the decision as to which projects are valid for which awards. Also, we believe it is the Scout’s responsibility to know when a service project qualifies for an award and properly credit it to that award instead of relying a a leader or computer to do so on the Scout’s behalf.
As with service, the camping log currently does not differentiate between indoor and outdoor camping. We recommend putting this information in the title field for easy identification.
There are discussions about enhancing the logs. There are plans to improve the logs. At this time we do not know when that work will be completed.
Scoutbook will not allow a Scout to have duplicate active positions. In your example, enter the historical position first then enter the current position. Alternately you can put an end date on the current position, enter the historic position then remove the end date from the current position.
I don’t understand this statement. Can you please clarify?
Scoutbook will never have the same reports as Troopmaster or any other 3rd party tool. These are copyrighted products. If the BSA were to copy their reports in Scoutbook, they would be stealing the intellectual property of others and risk a law suit.
The Scout “Leave No Trace Trainer” position of responsibility (POR) was discontinued effective January 1, 2016 and replaced with the new “Outdoor Ethics Guide” POR. “Leave No Trace Trainer” can be added as a past POR, but cannot be added as a current POR, because it has been discontinued. This is why you get the pop-up message.
http://outdoorethics-bsa.org/troopTrainer.shtml
The problem with a tent vs. cabin flag for camping is that it doesn’t cover all of the camping requirements for Second Class / First Class requirement 1a.