Troopwebhost vs Scoutbook

[Col. Flagg]

18 minutes ago, krikkitbot said:

Out of curiosity, where did you get the information about their disaster recovery model. I would think that because of HIPAA and PCI compliance most small service providers would outsource their hosting to companies that have redundancy and meet the security requirements whether they need to meet them or not. 

I know you can't read tone into typed word. My tone is curiosity and not snark

Yeah, I didn't take it as snarky.

I have friends that work in the IT group for them. Also, a bit of easy sleuthing and you can find who they use for hosting. You can also run a few traceroutes and pings (and a few other easy tool tests) and test the reaction and I/O of their servers. And that's just the physical side.

Regarding PCI, I don't think SB uses payment processing. At least I have yet to find it on the site. I don't think PCI or HIPAA apply to SB.

On the application side, anyone working with the software knows how slow and temperamental it is. It is good for some things, lousy at others.  

[fred johnson]

On 1/30/2018 at 2:56 PM, Hawkwin said:

The book is not necessarily the best utility for documenting or tracking progress. It is a good reference but not as good of a tracking tool. My son's is already starting to have damaged pages. It works fairly well for rank tracking but IMO it doesn't do a good job at all as it pertains to merit badges - and it really can't since there are so many. If we tried to print and list all the requirements for all merit badges on paper, it would easily run 1000 pages.

He already has to use the computer every time he wants to research a merit badge and print off the requirements. The book simply can't help with that. They book also cannot be updated as rules and requirements change as they have in recent years.

 

On 1/30/2018 at 2:58 PM, Thunderbird said:

@fred johnson  Scoutbook isn't intended to replace the Handbooks or the blue cards.  But it can serve as a backup, and also a great place to keep notes or pics.  For example, Scout visits a historic site as part of Citizenship in the Nation mb.  He can make a note of the date, take a pic(s), add some notes.  We still do most everything face-to-face, but it's nice to have a backup.  In addition, it's nice that everybody has access to the same information (assuming that it's kept up to date).

I agree paperbook is not a good backup.  But he has a zippered cover with zippered pockets on the cover where he stores his incomplete MB cards.  

For backup, sure let an adult enter in the data.  Or use the online system to show the complete list of MBs.  

It's just that I want to encourage my son to be accustomed to working off line.  Even at 10 years old, these scouts are very comfortable online and using online systems.  I want him to benefit in scouting from using the paper copy and learning to stay organized and to work interactively with people.  the last thing I want his him to mark something completed on a web site and then wait until someone mysteriously in the cloud checks it off as "approved".  IMHO, that the process you want a parent to do, but not the scout.  

[VAD]

Scoutbook was in beta and has been a continuous improvement model.   It is now the official record of BSA, so if your scout looses his blue cards  he's not in jeopardy of loosing everything, it's now tracked virtually online and doesn't rely on the organizational and record keeping ability of a teenager.   We changed troops from one which used scoutbook to one which uses troopwebhost and 5 months later we still haven't been able to get everything over.  To give you the an idea of import issues my son completed 21 merit badges, TWH only had 14 import over successfully, so a success of around 66%. In addition he had several partially completed records which didn't come over.   Please be forward thinking, use the free web service that is your son's official record, otherwise anyone coming into the troop will not be able to move his accomplishments over, he will be in danger of loosing all of his progress because the other troops are going to ask for blue cards which troops using the official system aren't even doing any more or he simply lost them, and it will be a nightmare.   BSA has made a decision, we should abide by that, convert over to the one and only standard and move on.

 

 

 

 

Edited January 20, 2019 by VAD

[RememberSchiff]

@VAD welcome to scouter.com

[fred8033]

5 hours ago, VAD said:

Scoutbook was in beta and has been a continuous improvement model.   It is now the official record of BSA, so if your scout looses his blue cards  he's not in jeopardy of loosing everything, it's now tracked virtually online and doesn't rely on the organizational and record keeping ability of a teenager.   We changed troops from one which used scoutbook to one which uses troopwebhost and 5 months later we still haven't been able to get everything over.  To give you the an idea of import issues my son completed 21 merit badges, TWH only had 14 import over successfully, so a success of around 66%. In addition he had several partially completed records which didn't come over.   Please be forward thinking, use the free web service that is your son's official record, otherwise anyone coming into the troop will not be able to move his accomplishments over, he will be in danger of loosing all of his progress because the other troops are going to ask for blue cards which troops using the official system aren't even doing any more or he simply lost them, and it will be a nightmare.   BSA has made a decision, we should abide by that, convert over to the one and only standard and move on.

I'm not at all against ScoutBook.  I used BSA online advancement for years, and ScoutBook is a good replacement.  I'm glad adult leaders can use ScoutBook to directly enter into BSA's official records.  I'm glad parents to can see reports from it. I use the Individual Advancement Report all the time.  

I am against my son using it as a regular tool for his advancement.  I want his experience to be a face-to-face, social interaction.  Learning how to interact and accomplish goals when dealing with people and their quirks.  

ScoutBook has turned out fine for adult leaders and parents.  I question it's use with the scouts though.  With them, I'd strongly encourage the book and paper and a pencil and a pen.

[Treflienne]

If you use Scoutbook for advancement records,  do you still use something else for calendar and communications?

[BobWhiteVA]

4 minutes ago, Treflienne said:

If you use Scoutbook for advancement records,  do you still use something else for calendar and communications?

we use Troopwebhost for calendar and communications, it looks like with the new scoutbook, we can export from Scoutbook into TWH so scouts can see advancements as well.

[Hawkwin]

30 minutes ago, BobWhiteVA said:

we use Troopwebhost for calendar and communications, it looks like with the new scoutbook, we can export from Scoutbook into TWH so scouts can see advancements as well.

Unless something has changed, scouts should be able to see their advancement in Scoutbook too - no need to export to TWH.

[nchg2]

5 hours ago, Treflienne said:

If you use Scoutbook for advancement records,  do you still use something else for calendar and communications?

Our troop uses Troopkit for event signups, calendar and communications.

[mashmaster]

We use Scoutbook for for advancement.  It is nice because we can do Scouts,USA and Sea Scout advancement tracking in one place.

For calendar we use Google calendar.

For communication : youth use Discord, adults use Slack.  Email for long info.

Youth do not read email.....ever