Sharing Calendar across units in same Charter Org

Is there a way to easily share calendars across units in the same Charter Org? For example the linked Boy and Girl Troops frequently share meeting dates, campout weekends, and service opportunities; the Pack and Troops and Crew and Troops have occasional overlap events - particularly with the Webelos from the Pack and the older Scouts with the Troops and Crew.

They are separate units according to BSA guidelines. So that is not supported in Scoutbook

Appreciate the response - may be a feature to consider adding as we try to make transitions more seamless within the Charter Organization and promote Family Scouting.

@MichaelFrost1 - family scouting is still at this point on the cub scout level as far as I recall. And if the nation proceeds as I think it will you can forget that idea ever existed.

@MichaelFrost1

Scoutbook must follow BSA policy thus separate units must have separate calendars. Unless the BSA changes its policies, there is nothing that can be done to implement the changes you have suggested.

If you wish to pursue this further, you will need to work through your Council professional staff to convince the BSA to make the necessary policy changes.

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Thank you for the input and will followup with council on the separate units therefore no cross over on calendars issue as this seems inconsistent with the discussions on membership retention and family Scouting as well as avoidance of cross programming I’ve previously had with them. The statement that it is a policy decision is at odds with the presentation that linked Troops share a committee was in the Scouts BSA roll out including specific reference to meetings at the same time and place, and the push for Packs and Troops and Crews to inrease member progression through cooperation throughout the program and thus reduce member attrition at ages 11 and 15 is as old as Cub Scouting and the “older boy problem” discussed in the literature as far back as the 1930s that led to Explorer Scouts and then again in the 1980s that led to Venturing as a program. It seems odd that the inability to share a calendar within a single committee or within a charter organization is a policy decision as opposed to the abscence of a feature that is a barrier to full adoption and integration. The unintended consequence is difficulty coordinating crossover and high adventure activities with the Troop and difficulty coordinating linked Troop activities all of which result in membership attrition as familes juggle three or four Scout calendars from the same charter organization instead of one unified calendar or the continued work around of Google calendar and non-use of Scoutbook. I will follow-up with council on my end and ask that Scoutbook follow-up with National on their end to overcome this barrier to adoption of the Scoutbook platform.

Seems like an internally inconsistent policy - i wrote out and explanation in a separate response so i will not repeat it here but I’ll follow-up with council and ask that Scoutbook does the same with national.

Conceptually, Family Scouting was presented as a way for families with multipe kids in Scouting to be able to more easily participate in the program with a vision of the Pack and Troops and Crew meeting at a single time and place in different rooms but with a shared schedule and facility. This has started to roll out with integrated family dens and was presented in the FAQ of the Scouts BSA roll out with linked Troops. Seems odd that Scoutbook is on the reaction side instead of the proactive side with what should be an easy fix - link calendar edit capabilities to a permission setting so a unified calendar can be created and then printed, emailed, or shared on the monthlynewsletter (newsletter is next feature I’m trying to figure out as it wasn’tobvious on my quicvk review and data entry this weekend)

You can share, to a point. If one is an admin in all units, you can check multiple units when making an entry. Scout calendar editors can’t do this.

So, we have a pack and boy troop and girl troop joint campout. You can, again if admin in all units, add them all.

It isn’t a single calendar, but works for us when we have shared activities such as the campout mentioned, scouting for food, a joint service project, etc.

Have you tried this?

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Will trial this solution, thank you for a simple fix to a simple feature question. I’ll askk for admin in linked Troop that my daughter is in first and go from there for Pack and Crew as we continue to decide whether or not to adopt Scoutbook (the Pack pulled the trigger and uses it but the Troops are on Troopmaster and the Crew is on Google Calendar). I was tasked with evaluating Scoutbook for adoption and this was the first hurdle. Do you know if calendars can be puished through Scoutbook (for example the way they are published through Troopmaster for the Troops)?

Note that to edit an event with multiple calendars selected, the user must have permissions to do so in all units selected. So, be careful that you have a couple people with the appropriate permissions in all units otherwise you could get stuck with an event and no one who can edit it.

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Yes. Published via iCal or what ever.

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I would recommend taking a look through the various getting started help docs for Scoutbook. I posted a short list of some in this thread: Caution ⚠️ tags on everyone - #15 by CharleyHamilton

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Thank you, I started looking through these and found answers to several questions. I appreciate the link. YIS Mike Frost, SM Troop 6

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Hi Michael,

Please private message me. I am in the same situation as you and received similar responses on this forum on this topic. I wonder if we send a unified message from linked troops, we may have better traction.

Krista Holmes
Committee Chair Pack 468
Committee Chair Linked Troops 498 & 8498
Alpine District Merit Badge Coordinator
Alpine District Program Chair
Chief Seattle Council
krista@holmesbox.com

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Just to be clear. Multiple units can share calendar events. For example our pack, boy troop, and girl troop have multiple single entry events. These can be created and edited only by admins that are admins in all 3 units. Since Scouts can’t be in all 3 units, this feature only is available to adults. This works well for our linked troop and associated pack. It really drives family scouting well, while staying within the program design.

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I appreciate your assistance and am waiting to try out the solutions that you offered until the SM of our linked troop logs on to changemy permissions. I was pretty disenchanted by the reponse to my first request for assistance and am still planning to follow-up with the professional staff given the contradictory presentation from council and the Scoutbook advisory group. As a volunteer in the trenches, actionable advice is much more helpful, friendly, and kind than the initial responses. If we get get that to work, we’ll move forward with the Crew for implementation as well. The export and pint worked well also, although unfortunate there is no direct print capability. Still trying to find a newsletter module. As the last inquiry was two years ago on the forum search i was hoping that a fix was in place but that may be against policy somehow as well but i don’t know what policy it would be inconsistent with. If you have a newsletter work around easier tgat a stand alone word document, pleae let me know

I am surprised the print doesn’t work as well. I am also exporting to CSV and massaging it a bit to get a working calendar to print.

What are you looking for in a newsletter? You could basically type one up and send it out via Scoutbook. Are you looking for one auto generated?

One can make Scoutbook work for all needs. It ends up ranging from adequate to awesome depending. We augment it with a GoDaddy webpage since that is the one missing feature we need. It works well for us.

Functionality needs as I evaluate pros and cons of transition from Troopmaster to Scoutbook to present to committee and Charter Org:
(1) Tracking advancement, awards, and activities of Scouts (Bonus for tracking adult awards) with easy integration with internet advancement and recharter and transition into and out of the unit for Cubs, Venturers, and transfers (this is the one feature that Scoutbook clearly beats Troopmaster on)
(2) Tracking funds in and out of unit account by participant, activity (camping/activity fee, food, patches/awards, and transportation), and payee - currently tracked through Troopmaster (Bonus if it can interface with PayPal and/or Square to allow for easier accounting entry - currently entered by hand into Troopmaster) - From what I can tell, Scoutbook has a system for this but seems cumbersome at first glance and I can’t tell if it is strictly individual based or if that data flows into a unit ledger that I haven’t found yet)
(3) Calendar across units - frequently with Linked Troops, occasionally with Bridging and High Adventure overlap with Cubs and Crew - currently entered by hand into Troopmaster for each Troop, Scoutbook for Pack, and Google Calendar for Crew (Bonus if calendar can easily publish and have real-time / near real-time update to the Charter Organization shared scheduling calendar for facility use color codes - currently entered by hand four times by COR) - Troopmaster does this poorly, this may be another win for Scoutbook
(4) Periodic Newsletter publication that includes: upcoming events (autogenerated through Troopmaster) with payment link (currently embedded hyperlink to Square where the events are listed as purchase items) and RSVP link (autogenerated from Troopmaster), free text area for each SM and CC to enter information as well as meeting plans entered by the SPLs, and capable of supporting graphics of troop logos, merit badge gif, photos, etc that blasts out once a month (ie current functionality of Troopmaster) - Troopmaster does this well and apparently this function is ignored in Scoutbook requiring a work around
(5) Form storage - Able to store and retrieve completed forms attached to individuals and can be printed if needed, ie Parent interest forms, medical A,B, & C w/ immunization records, permission slips, special activity waivers (Bonus if they can be generated and pre-populated with system data such as permission slips) as well as event based roster generation with Name, status (adult or youth), emergency contact information, and event registration status (paid / not paid) that we currently use via Troopmaster. Can’t tell if this is a function Scoutbook has as I can’t seem to locate an upload function and the require permission slip toggle exists but not sure if it produces a permission slip yet. Reports appear to be able to create a roster but somewhat cumbersome
(6) Integration with other systems - link for parent / Scout log-in from troop website and social media page. Troopmaster does this well with a hyperlink

The BSA prohibits electronic storage of completed Annual Health & Medical Records by units. Units may only retain paper copies of these forms. Scoutbook will track the dates of Parts A/B and Part C but not the forms themselves.

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