Still cannot access Internet Advancement 2.0

My specific roles in various units are Troop Advancement Chair, Den Leader/Committee Member, District Nova Counselor, and Merit Badge Counselor. My listed roles in my.scouting.org are Troop Committee Member, Pack Committee Member, and District Nova Counselor.

At this time, I cannot even access any youth logs for any of my scouts, much less edit them or create new ones.

@StephenHenley - thank you for providing that info. So not being listed as a Den Leader is issue #1, not being listed with the functional role of Advancement Chair in the troop is issue #2. With the pack committee position are you the advancement chair there as well ? On the parent side of things, are you at least listed and connected as a parent to your children in scoutbook itself ?

Yes, I am listed and connected as a parent to my children.

The biggest problem here is that there was no advanced notice on this. Had we known we could have made such changes rather than then being shut off cold turkey…

…speaking of which, how do we make those changes?

How would a Merit Badge Counselor get access?

@StephenHenley - a key3 in the unit can add the delegate and/or advancement chair in MYST. I go through that at every recharter cycle for the last decade. If you are doing advancement for the pack them tey should add the role.

I might add that I AM listed in Scoutbook appropriately, which is probably the biggest disconnect. If this was a factor, it would probably be best to announce such changes in advance, not merely expect everyone to have these (distinctions without a difference…until now) in place. There was no active need to update this information in MYST prior to this.

Lastly, why are we restricting access to some of the most useful information? This seems like a LOT of effort to protect people from viewing innocuous information, including people who need it and/or could find it useful (Merit Badge Counselors, Den Leaders, Asst Den Leaders, Asst Scoutmasters, other committee members/leaders). What exactly are we trying to protect here?

“Effective May ___, we will be making changes to Scoutbook to increase functionality and tracking. As part of this move, each unit needs to ensure that the following Leadership positions are properly updated in MYST or they will lose access: [list positions]. In order to [list rationale for restricting access to everyone else], no other positions will have access to camping nights, hiking miles, [etc].”

If this had been listed, I’m sure you would have gotten more pushback BEFORE making fundamental changes that alter access for 100,000s of people and, perhaps, this limiting functionality would have been curtailed/adjusted to meet the needs of the units rather than securing what I perceive to be innocuous information from those who need it or could benefit from it.

It actually seems like the restriction of access is due to defects in the rollout. That is, a combination of bugs (issues with access that was expected to have been available), an apparent failure to adequately recognize that there was an immediate need for broader access on first rollout, and IMHO a failure to provide adequate description of what the intended behavior after rollout would be to the folks who needed it.

If you look at what @MichaelaMonson posted in the BSA announcement thread, there’s clear indication that the rollout has not gone as planned, and that broader access is intended. That’s supported by various posts by @edavignon and other members of the SUAC.

It’s no secret that I’m not a fan of this change, but it does not appear to be an attempt to restrict access, per se. More an, IMHO mishandled, attempt to provide a new release of the functionality on the codebase/platform the BSA appears to have anointed as the long-term replacement for Scoutbook.

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Thank you so much. That’s helpful, but I’m not reading the announcement the same way:

“Provide access to activity logs for the following roles: Scoutbook Unit Admin, Scoutbook Unit Advancement Chair, Assistant Scout Master, Assistant Cubmaster, Associate Crew Advisor, Mate.”

Apparently they do intend to restrict even access? Could anyone from the dev team clarify? If I’m misreading this or I’m reading into what was stated, I’ll happily eat crow. As frustrated as I am, my intent is only to ensure that this frustration is understood as a very real hindrance to our scouting work and work toward a solution/clarification for all. I’m available 24/7 for testing/assistance

I seem to recall that Ed mentioned that access was supposed to be given for den leaders. I am not certain the further extent. It is also interesting to note that there are a number of folks that have requested numerous time as more granular rights structure and those who have advocated for more restrictive access, as in no scouts or parents having any kind of access. I know with the SSO and addition structure that the new stack provides there should be no problem in providing access controls that better suit the needs of the units.But this is only my thought.

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No, they are working to expand access to the activity logs. Right now, the activity logs look to my.scouting.org (my.Scouting Tools or MYST) and at the registered / functional roles there. If you are registered as a unit Key 3 or designated as a Key 3 Delegate or Unit Advancement Chair in MYST, then you should have access to the IA activity logs.

Jennifer, I appreciate your defense, but unless the intent is to do it for all leaders, they are indeed restricting access from its previous version. Many other people need access to at least view the information (Den Leaders, Asst Den Leaders, ASMs, MBCs, etc). What is the rationale?

Prior to the change: All leaders had access
After the change: Only Key 3 and specific personnel
Future: Expanding access to some other positions (but not all?)

I wasn’t trying to provide a defense - I was trying to explain what is happening.

Prior to the change, units could use Scoutbook to designate which adults could view or edit Scout logs.

Internet Advancement 2.0 was originally set up so that only Key 3, Key 3 Delegates, and Unit Advancement Chairs had access. They are working to update the permissions to allow other leaders in the unit to also be able to access the activity logs.

Then I apologize. I misunderstood your intent.

I concur that “Prior to the change, units could use Scoutbook to designate which adults could view or edit Scout logs”. What doesn’t make sense to me is why they would change it? And why such a drastic restriction?

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Here is my theory based upon some practical first hand experience.

The first iteration of Internet Advancement within scoutnet had a single individual designated as processor.

My.scouting was set up as key 3 and their delegates as that had unit rosters, training entry, person editing for addresses, email and the like.

Internet Advancement was brought over to my.scouting with process rights limited to those individuals as noted above particularly for units that did not use scoutbook.

Advancement processing was linked in scoutbook using the rights within scoutbook to sync that data. Keeping in mind that the national database will only record the final complete and not sundry requirements.

The logs were ported over but inherited the rights as previously configured. It would now be a matter of the rights to the appropriate modules to the appropriate person.

I would not expect to have a parent or scout be able to mark advancement or awards complete in internet advancement. As far as the log entries, based on input from leaders, the come in from scout or parent entry as pending approval.

Not sure if this proves helpful but it is my understanding of the chain of progression.

Stephen (great name by the way) I appreciate the candor. Thank you for the information and background.

“I would not expect to have a parent or scout be able to mark advancement or awards complete in internet advancement. As far as the log entries, based on input from leaders, [they] come in from scout or parent entry as pending approval.”

Excluding those who are leaders, no parent or scout SHOULD be able to mark advancement or awards (or camping nights) as APPROVED, but there’s no reason they can’t mark them as COMPLETE, if they’ve completed them. This is a key feature of Scoutbook, not a flaw. Now if we’re only dealing with semantics, that’s not really a big deal (pending approval/approval vs complete/approved).

It’s all good info, but doesn’t really answer the question: ACCESS. What on earth would be the problem with ANY registered unit leader viewing someone’s camping nights or hiking miles? Why restrict even VIEWING it (not approving anything)?

And, lastly, why would we do major changes like this unannounced and RIGHT before most Cub Scout units do rank advancement?

I’ve made my point. I’m not going to continue to reply unless there’s new info.

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Still having access issues, our Pack to my knowledge never really used IA, unless it was a behind the scenes system, so I really hope we get access as den leaders.

That said, it seems like major changes like this draw a lot of emotion, myself included, and I just want to say thank you to the SUAC members that volunteer their time, answer our questions, and take the brunt of our commentary. Deep down, I’m confident that we all appreciate your dedication and service to Scouting.

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@MarkHughes - well said. Personally though I am not sure how many really appreciate the efforts that volunteer peers put into this.

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I’ll echo MarkHughes. I don’t think anyone thinks ill of the individuals implementing the change; to the contrary, you have our sincere appreciation.

Most of our remaining questions are “Why is this being chosen as the solution?” Most mature adults realize some things need to change. If there is a system limitation, perhaps it can be altered? It seems to me that there should be at least 5 levels of permissions to access information:

  1. Denied
  2. View
  3. Submit
  4. Approve
  5. Dev-level access

I’m concerned that 2-4 are being lumped into the same group (or at least 2-3).

@StephenHenley - here we are not intending to restrict access, but broaden the access which we’ve discovered was inadvertently restricted.

Feedback from you and others is important to us and heard. We are working quickly and tirelessly to resolve issues and pain points being felt across the Scouting community. Your patience and understanding is sincerely appreciated.

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THAT’S what I wanted to hear. Thank you so much and we look for resolution soon!

Question: is there a legacy database capturing/storing all the activity logs previously entered for the Scout and for the Adult leader somewhere waiting to be ported over to the new version of Scoutbook/Internet Advancement?

Question: Is May 22 the anticipated roll out now?

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