It is Saturday morning, 5/31/2025 and I logged into Scoutbook to copy all of the records of the Nova and Supernova awards that are underway, so that we can continue work with the Scouts outside of the record keeping of the Scoutbook system. I can not explain the shock of seeing that only the completed Nova & Supernova awards are showing, and all of the incomplete / partial ones are missing from Scoutbook. Knowing that National will be dropping support on 6/1/2025 and turning over that responsibility to the local councils, the situation has urgency with the expectation that all of these awards may be either locked or removed at sometime tomorrow. I came here to the discussion and bug reporting forum to see if a system outage was underway or if anyone else was having this issue, and was horrified to find the post here from AaronDearth and the change log showing that Nova was closed out of Scoutbook several days early on 5/29/2025: Cant find or add awards
- We have Scouts who need records entered for work done in the last week that I was going to do today (before the deadline).
- We have Scouts who are finishing both Nova and Supernova awards today with me later this morning. (deadlines get things done, and this was the kick in the pants to get it all completed, logged, and finished)
- I no longer have access to the records that I need to do my job as a Nova Counselor and Supernova Mentor.
- Yes, I understand that National is dropping support for this program, and I suspect my request to have the AOL problem in Scoutbook addressed in 2024 was the catalyst that lead to this decision, but someone set a plan in motion, and someone else executed the closure ahead of schedule.
- I have no idea how many other Nova Counselors in Scouting America are attempting to log in today to do the same tasks as I came to do, only to find out they are locked out of their online record keeping and can neither complete the data entry, or copy out the progress of the Scouts that they mentor. However, I suspect that the number is fairly high.
- How many Scouts will miss out on awards that they have earned because of this action? I can’t speak for the entire program, but in our council alone, there were 109 Scouts that attended a Nova Wild overnight camporee earlier this month (all of them completed it, thanks to incredible volunteers and staff from the local Zoo) and I hope and pray that the event leaders and Cub leaders got all of their data entry done before 5/29/25. -but maybe some of them are logging in this morning and finding the same problem?
I understand that this action, and the consequences of it, are not within the span of control of the people in the Scoutbook User Advisory Council. However, this needs to be documented and shared to those in authority, who are making the changes, who are making the decisions, and who do have responsibility for this. We are teaching the 12 points of the Scout Law in this program, and what has happened in the last few days is a serious breech of trust. I hope this event can be used as a learning experience and improve the Scouting program going forward and changes can be made to make sure this doesn’t happen again. We would never turn away an Eagle Scout candidate who showed up the day before his 18th birthday, and say that we closed out his opportunity to submit the paperwork three days early, but this is exactly what we just did to all the Scouts trying to finish their Nova awards today and the leaders who were going to enter them. -especially for those who are in a Council that is not supporting a Nova program in-house past June 1st.
As much as I want to refine my post here further, I need to sit down with the Cub Scouts who are waiting for me right now, for me to finish their discussions with their Nova Counselor, and try to complete their awards that they have been working on. I have partial records in a spreadsheet, and will do my best, …but it is not complete and this hurts. Should my takeaway from this event be that the Scoutbook system can not be trusted for record keeping? I hope not. I’m not asking for any particular issue to be fixed for me. I am asking for this issue, and any underlying issues that caused it, to be fixed for all of the Scouts and all of the Scouting Leaders everywhere. -and to the best of our abilities, going forward.
As this is likely my last Nova related post with a national audience, I’d like to say that this was a great program with a lot of opportunity for Scouts to experience STEM engagement, outside of their classrooms, with us as we mentor them through this stage of their life. I hope the local councils continue to use it and encourage their Scouts and leaders as much as they can, as time allows.
For everyone reading this, God bless you and your leadership teams, and the Scouts that you mentor, as we train and guide them in their personal development & ethical decision making, and may this Scouting program and it’s components be a blessing to both their and our development.
