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Could the Scouting.org site get any more confusing?


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Am I the only one who finds the Scouting.org site to be worse and worse every time I visit?  I just got a BeAScout contact from a parent who is confused because her son will be in the 1st grade in the fall, but will only be six years old at the time.  Not understanding why this should be a problem, I checked the FAQ on Scouting.org and found this:

 

 
How old (or young) can a boy be to join Cub Scouting?

Cub Scouting is for boys in the first through fifth grades, or 7 to 10 years of age. Boys who are older than 10, or who have completed the fifth grade, can no longer join Cub Scouting, but they may be eligible to join the Boy Scouting or Venturing program.

 

 

Now I can see why she was confused, because when I read that, it seems to me like they are saying that Scouting is for 7 to 10 year olds.  I'm sure that the official policy (which I couldn't find on the site) is something like "Boys who are seven years old, or at least six years old and have started first grade"... but in my opinion an FAQ should be there to provide clarity, not confusion, and this one had me confused and I've been a Cubmaster now for three years.

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Gee, I don't know - it makes sense to me.  Boys can join when they're in first grade (and most boys who start first grade at age 6 are likely to be turning age 7 at some point in the school year) OR at 7 years of age (I take this to mean boys not being educated in a standard grade style school, including homeschooled children).

 

Now if this rule were in place when I was a Cub Scout, I would have been joining at age 5.

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How old (or young) can a boy be to join Cub Scouting?

Cub Scouting is for boys in the first through fifth grades, or 7 to 10 years of age. Boys who are older than 10, or who have completed the fifth grade, can no longer join Cub Scouting, but they may be eligible to join the Boy Scouting or Venturing program.

 

 

Sounds like once one finishes 5th grade they can join Venturing..... but they may not be eligible to join Boy Scouts..... Or maybe not either,..... or maybe both......

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It's been a learning experience tracking training on it for our Pack leaders as well as doing my own training.  It ate a lot of my homework when I did the Committee member training.

 

I use a lot of online resources at work and I'm pretty good with them, but it took a long time to get the hang of myscouting, then figure out the multiple offshoots of that. 

 

You definitely need a good computer otherwise the site crashes easily.  When trying to use my Chromebook at home vs. my modern work computer I see a big difference.  Anyone accessing it from an old machine must get really frustrated.

 

I think the part of the problem is it's too complicated for whatever platform they are working off of and an upgrade would probably be expensive.

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I think the part of the problem is it's too complicated for whatever platform they are working off of and an upgrade would probably be expensive.

 

There are a few problems.

 

The site is horribly laid out. They violate many of the early rules of web site development in limiting the "click layers" one has to go through to find information. Their nomenclature is mixed and does not translate well for the uninitiated. Just try to find your training on my.scouting, or a tour plan.

 

The platform for the applications are very "heavy". They are old or poorly written/developed. Should not take that long to render reports or navigate around.

 

The infrastructure back end and network are suspect and not very good. For example, the scouting.org site runs fairly fast and is hosted by Akama Technologies. It's location on their infrastructure is pretty fast, returns pings pretty well, so we know it is not the network or servers there, so any slowness on the base scouting.org site is application-based, not server or network based.

 

The my.scouting.org and myscouting.org stuff is hosted an L3 Communications in Dallas. When you try to reach the IPs for those domains it is S-L-O-W. That can mean a number of things from the servers being over burdened, the network link being heavily traffic (or not properly sized), etc.

 

For a large organization with a sizable IT systems they should be a lot leaner and meaner in their IT systems. I've worked on systems for federal agencies that get tens of millions of interactions this time a year and handle much more data that don't run this slow. Heck Minecraft, before Microsoft, was in the Amazon cloud and ran like a Swiss clock. Surely BSA can do better.

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I find it very confusing. I'm not a computer guy, and am still pretty new to cub scouts, so that's probably some of the issue. But completing the online training was pretty frustrating.

 

I am a computer guy, and I also find it very confusing.  This morning, from two different browsers the navigation menu for "I am a... Youth, Parent, Volunteer, Alumni, Visitor" isn't working for me.  Who knows if it is my computer or the site.  I don't even want to take the time to figure it out, because I can just use Google to find what I need faster.

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I don't understand why it's so difficult. I also coach a little tykes lacrosse team. US Lacrosse is doing it much better IMO. The online training is easy to access. Signing up for clinics is simple. Maintaining my certifications, checks, membership, etc. is all done on the same site. My league has visibility as does USLax. Parents can sign up their kids online through our league website, check my credentials while doing so, and I can make sure everyone on the field is registered and insured at the USLax site or our team site. And if I ever get an assistant coach, I an even share my practice plans on the mobile coaching app. Easy peasy.

 

I hope the BSA figures it out. I dont think any of us has gobs of time to waste on glitchy, confusing sites.

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The thing that amazes me, and this applies at the Council level as well as National, is that non-profits such as the BSA seem to be oblivious to their volunteers' day jobs.  I am sure there are top notch web designers, database admins, programmers, graphic designers, etc. who volunteer large portions of their lives to the BSA.  Yet how often do organizations such as the BSA allow their volunteers to share their professional skills?

 

If you are a carpenter, electrician, or plumber the BSA is happy to have you come and fix up their camps... but outside of those trades I don't think I've ever seen a request for other professions to share their skills and expertise.

 

I have an artist and graphic designer in my Pack who cringes at some of the material that our Council puts out, but getting the Council to let him help them is nearly impossible.  I'm on our District Camping Committee and we were able to sneak through a camp flyer that we comissioned at the District Camping Committee level, and we had him do the work on that.  Everyone who sees it can't believe how great it looks, and I'm thinking to myself, that's what happens when you have an expert do the work.  Too bad they rarely let him help although he's offered his skills and expertise.  How many other experts are wearing a Scout shirt but have never been asked what they do or if they'd like to help?

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The thing that amazes me, and this applies at the Council level as well as National, is that non-profits such as the BSA seem to be oblivious to their volunteers' day jobs.  I am sure there are top notch web designers, database admins, programmers, graphic designers, etc. who volunteer large portions of their lives to the BSA.  Yet how often do organizations such as the BSA allow their volunteers to share their professional skills?

 

 

Far be it from me to argue the BSA side of things, but the NCAC and national itself *has* done just that in their strategic planning. I love our volunteers, but BSA does not have a good track record using volunteer committees to affect real, successful and cost-effective change...especially when it comes to IT road maps and technology implementation. For that, yes you need experts, but not volunteer experts. You need a professional, high-level company that can help.

 

The annual report for 2014 does not spell out what is spent on IT but from what I know much is spent poorly. For example, why have hosted servers at L3 when you could have cloud-based servers on Amazon or elsewhere? It is cheaper by far to do the latter.

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Today was 2016 Philmont trek selection day. I will say this loud and clear:

 

The website was simply BRILLIANT!!!

 

They allowed you to log on early. 15 minutes before the opening of registration you could pre-select your treks. At the exact time the registration opened you could hit "Save" and your registration was completed.

 

Using some simple re-routing over a faster backbone to their site allowed me to complete my registration in MILLISECONDS!!!! Exactly 3ms to be exact.

 

If I were the BSA staff I would hire the guys who built that system to redesign and manage the ENTIRE BSA constellation of technology. They have it right.

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