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I recently received an email from our Scoutmaster that was signed as being sent by one of our Scouts. When I questioned why that happened, I was advised that our Scouts (Samoset Troop 660) are unable to send any emails to any Leaders in our Troop, and apparently this has been going on for quite some time without anyone making you folks aware of this issue.
I’m not sure what’s broken, or whether it’s broken for anyone else, but it seems like this is something that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.
Is any other Troop having this or a similar problem?
Unfortunately, I have no idea. I only heard about this for the very first time this morning. However, from the little bit of information I received, it appears to have been going on for over 6 months.
Our last SPL was sending emails from his father’s email account. I was unaware that this was being done because the Scout’s own emails sent through Scoutbook weren’t going to all the Leaders. So he started using his father’s email address to make sure the Leaders saw the messages he was sending out.
It was only when our newest SPL sent out a message through the Scoutmaster’s account (they’re not related) that I became aware there was a problem.
Thanks for running that test, Donovan McNeil. My son aged out so I had no way to test the problem, but I’m still on the Troop Committee, so I need to find out where the problem lies.
I just sent an email out to all parents and leaders to see if it’s only these two individuals who are having this problem or if it’s more widespread.
When you go to send messages, do you see those scouts on the list under the scouts section? (I understand that’s not the issue you are reporting, but it will help me diagnose it.)
I wish I had an answer for that question. So far, I’ve only heard about this issue from Leaders. I just got an email from.our Scoutmaster saying he’s spoken about this with Scott Domino from Samoset. I don’t know any details about their discussions yet, though.
@MichelleBennett - if you see a scout listed in the message section under the scout column then they have logged into scoutbook. Now if they are not listed then they will not have access to anything. The parents must invite them. Circling back, if the scout logs into scoutbook and clicks on message they should see the list of leaders and parents which is what I see if I use my son’s account.
I just sent out several emails to try and get further clarification of the problem, thanks to all the questions and information I’ve gotten on here.
One Scout who was having problems is listed as a Scout and I know from his father the Scout has his own email address.
Another Scout is not showing, so I asked his mother to send me a test message to confirm she can do so. I’ve been told her son can’t send messages, so I’m assuming he can’t send them through her account.and want to confirm that.
The third Scout was able to send emails through his father’s account. However his father is a Leader, so that situation is different from the two above.
I’m coming at this from a difficult position, because I only just this morning found out there was any problem at all when a message from a Scout through the Scoutmaster’s email account. I’m trying to piece together the specific problem while emailing people in the Troop to get the specifics.
It’s a bit confusing from my end, so my apologies if my responses seem confused, that’s why. My thanks and my apologies to everyone trying to help with this issue.
@MichelleBennett - thanks for the update and let us know exactly what the issue is. My personal thought is that there is no bug. This seems like some unfamiliarity with how scoutbook works. The only folks who can message are those who are in scoutbook. If a parent, leader or scout are not listed then they can not do anything in scoutbook. It is just that simple.
So I heard back from one parent. Her son isn’t set up with his own email account on Scoutbook, however she had no problem sending me a test message. So at least I know what’s going on with that particular Scout. There must have been some kind of communication issue with the Scoutmaster, and that’s easily resolved.
I’m still waiting to hear from the other parent regarding the issue his Scout was having. It may all turn out to be a series of confusion with using the system and miscommunication.
Keep your fingers crossed! That’s what I’m doing right now.
And once again, thanks for all the suggestions and questions for me to pose to these parents to get this issue clarified and (hopefully) resolved quickly.
One issue that seems to be prevalent with parents is that either their kids don’t have email addresses (other than school email) or that parents simply aren’t signing their kids up for Scoutbook email access. Sometimes, trying to convince parents that this is a good idea is difficult. We’re working on it…
I would agree that the percentage of parents that invite their scouts will be underwhelming. I would not pin any expectations on that changing. Just move forward with what you have. But in all honesty your bug report is not a bug but a statement of operational reality in your unit. Just keep plugging away but do not get obsessed with it.
