Time to think about integrating SB and IA

[MarkWestcott]

[TL/DR] Volunteers spend “10 Volunteer Years” each year duplicating efforts in IA2

I was reading the most recent Advisory Council response to the request to integrate SB and IA2. In short it was, “We haven’t done it because it’s difficult”.

I have a visceral response to that after playing a bunch of catch up on duplicating camp outs after a parent called and said, “Why can’t I find the recent camp out to add little Jimmy?”

Consider these numbers and the math below, and then tell me that ‘it’s difficult’.

272 Councils
100 units/council - purely a guess
10 camp outs - per year per unit
5 minutes - to create a duplicate camp out & add participants that’s already in SB
60 minutes - in an hour
2080 hours - a standard calculation for hours worked in a year

272 * 100 = 27,200 units (again a guess for the purpose of this exercise)

• 10 camp outs = 272,000 camp outs per year
• 5 minutes = 1,366,000 volunteer minutes to create an event and add all participants per year
  /60 minutes = 22,666 volunteer hours per year creating duplicate events
  /2080 hours = 10 Years of volunteer time per year… creating duplicate events

• 10 Years of volunteer time to create duplicate camping events in SB and IA -

This doesn’t include hiking or service events and is prone to error.

[edavignon]

You misread the comments.

Internet Advancement is built on the new programming stack. Scoutbook is moving to that platform, however, it is not a simple task. Functions are being moved as they are ready. This already happened with activity logs. There ongoing development work to move other functions.

The BSA does not have unlimited resources (dollars) to throw at Scoutbook. WIth the limited IT dollars, the BSA must not only support/enhance Scoutbook and Internet Advancement but the tools that Councils use for registration & member tracking, fundraising, HR, etc.

BSA ITis moving as quickly as feasible given the resources available. The SUAC and other volunteers would love for things to move faster, however, in the current environment, it is simply not possible.