Youth Attendance in Scoutbook

[AdvancementMom]

We have been using the Scoutbook calendar feature for a couple of years now and are just trying to move to having the youth Scribe take attendance. I understand this capability should also be available to the SPL, ASPL, Troop Guide, and Webmaster.

I am a troop admin/Advancement Chair, and my son is ASPL, so I am trialing the system so I can provide good instructions to the scouts. Earlier today, I was able to take attendance and it went pretty smoothly. However, just now, I logged in as my son on our Scouting app, and I couldn’t even see the events, so I am wondering if I may have been logged in as myself by mistake.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to try? There are dozens if not hundreds of events in our troop calendar. Nearly all list invitees, and he certainly was invited to the campout I used earlier as a test case.

Also, we are trying to track adult participation as well. Does anyone know if adults need to have accepted their Scoutbook invitations to show up in the list to be marked as present?

Last, can someone suggest where to make two related feature requests? First, it would be helpful if adults and scouts were not intermingled. And second, many of our scouts go by nicknames, so it would make more sense for them to be listed by the nicknames they regularly use rather than their given names.

Thanks!

[SteveCagigas]

@AdvancementMom

We have been using the Scoutbook calendar feature for a couple of years now and are just trying to move to having the youth Scribe take attendance. I understand this capability should also be available to the SPL, ASPL, Troop Guide, and Webmaster.

The Scribe can also take attendance. We’ve used this in the past in our Troop without problems.

@AdvancementMom

I am a troop admin/Advancement Chair, and my son is ASPL, so I am trialing the system so I can provide good instructions to the scouts. Earlier today, I was able to take attendance and it went pretty smoothly. However, just now, I logged in as my son on our Scouting app, and I couldn’t even see the events, so I am wondering if I may have been logged in as myself by mistake.

Taking attendance in the Scouting app is time-limited; if I remember correctly you can only take attendance with the app during the event and immediately afterwards (maybe an hour? after the event ends). Adults with appropriate access can always edit attendance directly in the Scoutbook calendar from a web browser.

@AdvancementMom

Does anyone have any suggestions on what to try? There are dozens if not hundreds of events in our troop calendar. Nearly all list invitees, and he certainly was invited to the campout I used earlier as a test case.

We have an “Troop Webmaster” account for the PLC to use so they can access Scoutbook via browser to do things they should be able to do in the app, but cannot (like add events, revise attendance, send messages, etc.). It’s set up with View Profile and View Advancement for all Scouts, and has the “Committee Secretary” position assigned to it. It’s been working pretty well for a couple of years now.

@AdvancementMom

Also, we are trying to track adult participation as well. Does anyone know if adults need to have accepted their Scoutbook invitations to show up in the list to be marked as present?

No, adults do not have to have their account activated to show up in the list for attendance. I’m not sure, though, if adults will show up in the Scouting app for attendance or only Scouts.

@AdvancementMom

Last, can someone suggest where to make two related feature requests? First, it would be helpful if adults and scouts were not intermingled. And second, many of our scouts go by nicknames, so it would make more sense for them to be listed by the nicknames they regularly use rather than their given names.

When I look at the attendance results in the app, I see it split by youth and adults. I don’t know (and cannot check right this moment) if that’s the case when taking attendance. I agree about the nicknames – they’re inconsistently implemented throughout Scoutbook and the Scouting app, making it pretty confusing.

[AngelaKoch]

@AdvancementMom

And second, many of our scouts go by nicknames, so it would make more sense for them to be listed by the nicknames they regularly use rather than their given names.

For this part, I went into each Scout’s profile who uses a nickname and entered their nickname in the correct line. They now show up by the nickname instead of their given name.

[AdvancementMom]

Thanks for the suggestion. However all of our scouts already have their nickname fields populated in Scoutbook. They show up correctly in Scoutbook and in Scoutbook reports, but not in the Take Attendance or View Attendance lists in the Scouting (Scoutbook) app. I did not see a setting that allows me to choose which names to display in the app. Did I miss it?

[AngelaKoch]

oh weird. sorry! I hadn’t noticed that - I have only been using the desktop, I didn’t realize the app was missing that functionality

[SteveCagigas]

Scoutbook is really inconsistent about using nicknames. It’s really frustrating – we have an Scout in the Troop named after his dad (who’s an ASM) but goes by his middle name. Always have to double check with “William” is getting signed off for attendance.

[AdvancementMom]

Edited because I can see I’m not using the quote feature right yet. Replying to @SteveGagigas’s suggestions…

The Scribe can also take attendance. We’ve used this in the past in our Troop without problems.

Taking attendance in the Scouting app is time-limited; if I remember correctly you can only take attendance with the app during the event and immediately afterwards (maybe an hour? after the event ends). Adults with appropriate access can always edit attendance directly in the Scoutbook calendar from a web browser.

So two questions - how do you know this? Is this documented somewhere? I have been entering the attendance and really want to delegate to the scouts since they’re perfectly capable of doing this!

We have an “Troop Webmaster” account for the PLC to use so they can access Scoutbook via browser to do things they should be able to do in the app, but cannot (like add events, revise attendance, send messages, etc.). It’s set up with View Profile and View Advancement for all Scouts, and has the “Committee Secretary” position assigned to it. It’s been working pretty well for a couple of years now.

No, adults do not have to have their account activated to show up in the list for attendance. I’m not sure, though, if adults will show up in the Scouting app for attendance or only Scouts.

I’ve considered this, but how do you keep this account alive? I had created a “Test Scout” account so I could create documentation for our troop. But once the rechartering sync happened, it disappeared from our troop roster.

When I look at the attendance results in the app, I see it split by youth and adults. I don’t know (and cannot check right this moment) if that’s the case when taking attendance. I agree about the nicknames – they’re inconsistently implemented throughout Scoutbook and the Scouting app, making it pretty confusing.

Under Take Attendance, the adults and scouts were mixed. Under View Attendance it separates the scouts and adults.

This gives me some ideas (the timeout might be an issue), but the fact that my son’s Scouting app shows no events (while mine shows them all) is concerning. Also, I see that the attendance that I took yesterday is wonky. If I choose View Attendance it shows my son and myself as checked off. But for both of us, the event shows “Missed Out” when I view it logged on as me. When logged on as him, I can’t even see the events.

If this is a Scoutbook support ticket, just LMK.

Thanks again everyone!

[SteveCagigas]

1. I know about the time limit on Scouts taking attendance because it was discussed in the forums a while back – probably around when the Scouting app was released. I don’t know why it isn’t mentioned in the app info.

2. I haven’t had any problems keeping the webmaster account alive – I created it in Scoutbook with the “add leader” button in the roster screen, and it’s been working fine for a year and a half now, through at lest one recharter.

[JenniferOlinger]

1. There is a time limit for taking attendance in the Scouting mobile app, but I think it is 9 months. I don’t know the reason why, but it’s some kind of limitation in the app.

2. I believe the Webmaster account @SteveCagigas’s troop uses is set up as an adult account – not a youth account, so that is why it doesn’t get removed from the unit roster after 90 days.

[SteveCagigas]

@JenniferOlinger that’s correct, our webmaster is set up as an adult account with pretty restricted access for PLC members use.