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.
I have two issues that I cannot solve on my own. As always, details omitted in the public forum.
1 I have a father of a recent AoL scout now in SBSA. I have his Scout ID, e-mail, etc. but when I search him in Scoutbook to add a connection to his son, Scoutbook says no such person exists.
2 National pulled another “create a new account” instead of “convert an account” for one of our aged out scouts to adult leader transitions and I need to get his accounts merged.
You have the MIDs backwards. The Scout is connected to his mother. There are 2 ways to get the father and Scout connected.
a) Contact your Council and ask them to use the Relationships tab of Registrar Tools to add MID 141112556 as Father to MID 140602153. This is the preferred way as the father will then receive membership renewal messages for the Scout.
b) Have the father log in to Scoutbook using the Google Login button. Go to his My Connections page then click on Connect to your Scout as Parent/Guardian. This is a Scoutbook only change and will not update the official membership database.
This individual received a 2nd Member ID and Scoutbook account because in one case he included his middle name and the other he did not.
I have merged the Scoutbook accounts and changed the primary MID on his my.scouting.org ID from 14073150 to 128246374. I recommend you contact your Council registrar and ask them to move his current Unit College Scouter Reserve registration from 14073150 to 128246374.
Thanks very much, Ed! Regarding Issue 1: Does this mean a scout can only have a connection to a single parent? This seems very odd to me. Also, how does such a change happen? The father had no problems in Packbook, only when the scout was promoted to SBSA.
No, a Scout can be connected to multiple parents. The paper application only has space for 1 parent. Chances are his mother filled out his original application. Currently the only way to get a 2nd parent into the membership database is to contact the Council and have the parent added. 24 hours after the Council adds the parent, the connection will be pushed to Scoutbook.
I see no evidence that the father was ever connected to the Scout. Could he have been using the mother’s account?
It’s a fair question. The father just told me he had been connected at the Pack level, not how that came about. However, his having a MID and SBID lead me to believe he used his own account, but that is an assumption. I will check with him, but doubt I will hear back within 7 days due to Summer delays.
