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.
Since threads get shut down after 7 days, and Scoutbook Support can take longer than that, here is part 3 to the below two threads (can we get the 7 days to be longer?)
Thank you for contacting Scoutbook! I’m happy to assist you. Unfortunately, a change was made to the app that now requires users to have a My.Scouting account in order to login. If a user doesn’t have a My.Scouting account or SSO set up, then the app won’t allow them to log in.
Your wife will need to create a My.Scouting account at www.my.scouting.org.
Once that is done, it should give her a BSA number. She can then log into Scoutbook and click My Dashboard > Administration > My Account > Switch SSO Profile > Enter the BSA number and her My.Scouting login credentials. Then she can log into the app using those credentials.
So, from now on, anyone who wants to use the mobile app will need a my.scouting ID. It just got a little harder to have parent involvement. I have a hard enough time getting parents to log into Scoutbook in the first place, never mind having them actually use the app… now they also need to create a my.scouting account and then turn on SSO.
The SUAC’s understanding is SSO IDs are supposed to be created automatically for parents. I have asked BSA IT about the response you received and the correct process going forward.
I know that IDs are created automatically for Lion and Tiger Adult Partners. However, that would only cover one of the two parents, and it wouldn’t cover any of the parents for the other Cubs or Scouts BSA folks.
If this is the case, BSA needs to issue a simple 1-page document (with screenshots) that shows exactly how to create a my.scouting account and subsequently turn on the SSO feature within Scoutbook. I have a good number of parents that either aren’t tech-savvy, or aren’t interested in Scoutbook enough to be bothered with this… If we are to get maximum participation, then we need to make it as easy as possible.
Well any parent that used online registration has a BSA # also. If they follow these steps they will get a second BSA #. Like Ed said - the system has changed and we are trying to understand why if the membercare response is correct.
I completely understand that if they took YPT they have an ID. Keep in mind, this isn’t a “New parents moving forward” policy, this is an ALL parents, regardless of how much they’ve already been using both Scoutbook and the Scouting app.
I could easily hand the directions that @SteveCagigas provided out to everyone. However, we’re talking about people that aren’t particularly comfortable with computers or technology, and people that aren’t completely sold on the system. I hate to say it, but we need to hold hands with some parents to get them in the system.
Side note, if they already have a Scoutbook account, then they will need to sign in with their current email/password and then turn on SSO. It won’t be a matter of just signing in with their user name and password from my.scouting
Do what we did this year with the Trails End app. Have a “sign-up night” at one of the Troop meetings – while the Scouts are doing their thing, have a couple of committee members with laptops available to step any uncomfortable parents through the process.
I did this last year at the Pinewood Derby. We will probably do it again at the Pinewood in January. At the Pack level, it’s tough because most of the leadership is busy during Pack meetings. The Pinewood Derby is one of the few times where leaders have time where they don’t have to be actively engaged with their dens.
