Taking attendance for dummies

[kathleenMichaud]

How do you take attendance with scoutbook? If there is an app, which one? I am an adult leader sorta.

[CharleyHamilton]

So, you’re either a registered scouter or you aren’t, as far as BSA is concerned. :⁠^⁠)

Registered scouters with calendar access in Scoutbook, or registered youth with the Calendar Editor Position of Responsibility assigned, can mark attendance on the calendar in Scoutbook.

There’s a help wiki for Scoutbook here:

https://help.scoutbook.scouting.org

and there’s a help article on the Scoutbook Calendar here:

https://help.scoutbook.scouting.org/knowledge-base/using-scoutbook-calendars/

[JenniferOlinger]

@kathleenMichaud Also here:

Using Internet Advancement Calendar (IA) - Scoutbook Knowledge Base

[kathleenMichaud]

Thank you. I am an adult. The treasurer. I do attend meetings so I did all of the requirements.

[jacobfetzer]

To take attendance, you either need to be a unit admin or committee secretary, or outdoor/activities chair. If you are also the treasurer, I’d ask to be made a unit admin so you automatically have full control of all scouts.

[DavidRahmel]

I believe that there is a lot of confusing information in the Scoutbook documentation about this that should be written to be more clear.

Does ‘Unit Admin’ exist as a Scoutbook Admin Role that can be assigned in the same way ‘Troop Admin’ or ‘Patrol Admin’ can be? I do not believe so. The way it is described in all of the documentation it seems like it is like on this page (Granting Roles and Permissions in Scoutbook (SB) - Scoutbook Knowledge Base) where it says ‘We recommend that you give at least three adults the role of unit Admin.’

Are ‘Unit Admins’ Key 3 and Key 3 Delegates only?

When you add a leader in Scoutbook, is a ‘Unit Admin’ anyone with a ‘Unit’ in the beginning of the Title? For example, is ‘Unit Scouter Reserve’ a ‘Unit Admin’?

Are there Limited ‘Unit Admins’ like ‘Unit Outdoors/Activities Chair’? For example, on this page it shows, the Unit Activities Chair (of all roles) is not allowed to Approve Activities??? (Recording Activities in Internet Advancement and Scoutbook - Scoutbook Knowledge Base)

The definitions and descriptions for Roles and Permissions need to be written much more clearly.

[Stephen_Hornak]

@DavidRahmel - first thing to think of is the term “unit” most often you will see the term unit leader… well that is the Scoutmaster, Crew Advisor, CubMaster… etc. Likewise the term unit admin would and should point someone to the type of unit so Pack, Crew, Troop. Any registered leader in the unit can be made a unit admin if desired. The default Unit admins are the unit key 3. As far as the Unit activities Chair I would suggest the a read of the responsibilities would be needed.

[JenniferOlinger]

A “unit” is:

• pack - Cub Scouting
• troop - Scouts BSA
• crew - Venturing
• ship - Sea Scouting
• club / post - Explorer

A unit Admin is an Admin for any of the above units, so a unit Admin is the same as:

• Pack Admin
• Troop Admin
• Crew Admin
• Ship Admin
• Club Admin
• Post Admin
  It gets to be a bit cumbersome to write that every time, so Unit Admin is used as shorthand.

Some positions / functional roles are automatically unit Admins in Scoutbook:

• unit Key 3 (Unit Leader, Committee Chair, and Chartered Org. Rep. / Council Unit Rep.)
• Key 3 Delegates [functional role designated at my.Scouting]
• Unit Advancement Chairs [functional role designated at my.Scouting]

In addition to the positions / functional roles listed above, you can designate other registered adult leaders in your unit to be unit Admins in Scoutbook.

[DavidRahmel]

And this is where it gets confusing because you are talking about unit Admins in Scoutbook but Activities were removed from Scoutbook. So Scoutbook Admin Roles assign rights in Internet Advancement?

I haven’t dealt with Scoutbook outside at a Pack or Crew level in a while so I do not know what the equivalents are. However, for a Troop you have the Admin Role options of Troop Admin or Patrol Admin. Troop Admins could approve for anyone in the Troop and Patrol Admins could approve anything for scouts in their Patrol. This included Camping nights, Hiking miles, and Service hours. After that stuff was removed from Scoutbook, it seemed that only K3 and K3D were able to approve camping nights, etc… Was this just because the Troop Admins also happened to be K3Ds? If so, does that mean I need to get rid of all Patrol Admin positions and make all ASMs Troop Admins (unit Admins) so the K3 do not have to approve every hiking mile?

Lastly, if a Unit Activities Chair is not a valid ‘unit Admin’ to approve Activities, does that mean they need to be given a Troop Admin role as well to fix that? So, then they can approve Activities and Rank Advancements as well?

When I was a scout, our Troop Scribe was in charge of all attendance tracking. I do not understand the shift that not even ASM Patrol Admins are allowed to approve camping nights and things now. We are smaller now post-lockdowns, but at our peak we had 128 scouts. Being able to allow ASM Patrol Admins to approve advancements, camping nights, etc… was important to split the workload. If we just need to make them all Troop Admins so they a ‘unit Admins’, I guess that is what we need to do.

I think a simple FAQ page added to the documentation would help a lot ‘What is considered a ‘Unit Admin’?’ Unit Admins are adults with (Pack, Troop, Crew, etc…) Admin roles. (Den, Patrol, etc…) Admin roles are not considered Unit Admins. Key 3, Key 3 Delegates, and UACs also are considered Unit Admins…