SCOUTBOOK to be free as of 1 Jan 19

[John-in-KC]

Just received this on the Commissioners Facebook Group

https://m.facebook.com/notes/commissioners-of-the-boy-scouts-of-america/scoutbook-to-be-free/2043027079095625/

[fred johnson]

Are BSA annual dues changing ?

[Chadamus]

Thanks for sharing, @John-in-KC. 

[mashmaster]

And They will support Venturing and Sea Scouting in January too

[FireStone]

Kind of makes sense, right? If ScoutBook is supposed to be come the official record for every scout, units shouldn't be paying to use it. 

[Thunderbird]

Venturing is already supported in Scoutbook, although there are a few items that still need to be added.  Hopefully, Sea Scouting will be added before January.

[mashmaster]

1 minute ago, Thunderbird said:

Venturing is already supported in Scoutbook, although there are a few items that still need to be added.  Hopefully, Sea Scouting will be added before January.

They told me Sea Scouting is being tested internally and will be released when Scoutbook goes free.

[scotteg83]

28 minutes ago, FireStone said:

Kind of makes sense, right? If ScoutBook is supposed to be come the official record for every scout, units shouldn't be paying to use it. 

They are releasing a "Scoutbook Lite" version to replace the old internet advancement, which was planned to be free.

 

This is a big move for them, since this was a source of income to keep the Scoutbook program running.  Now those cost must come from elsewhere.

[qwazse]

I suspect costs will be recouped from the administrative overhead needed to maintain the old, proprietary, internet advancement.

[ham_solo]

What I don't get is why are they still talking about releasing the Scoutbook Lite version as well later this year, which was supposed to originally be the free replacement for Internet Advancement, but you would still have to pay for the full Scoutbook. 

Now that the full Scoutbook will be free for all, why in the world is BSA still going to waste money on "Scoutbook Lite" version also, and have to maintain a totally separate software product, with a "different user interface" from now until forever that will only be used by a small percentage of units? That sort of thinking is just wasting resources to me and just someone not willing to admit their project is not needed anymore. 

The only reason for Scoutbook Lite to exist in the first place, was because of the original scheme that the regular Scoutbook was going to continue to be a paid product, and they needed something free to replace internet advancement, because they could not force everyone to pay for the full version.  

But, now that the full scoutbook is going to be free, what in the world are they thinking?

/Still plan to continue to use TroopTrack for our troop because it has every feature that people have been asking for years in their forums to be added to Scoutbook(and little if any progress has been made apparently over the years).

Edited September 2, 2018 by ham_solo

[cgail]

As you said,  many units will just use it for advancement.  The UI isn't the easiest thing in the world to navigate as it's pretty heavy for many users.

Lite is also basically the test-bed for completely rewriting the code base.  Scoutbook (heavy) will be transitioned to the new code eventually.  Look at it like the Scouting iOS and Android apps.  They work great for parent/Scout advancement use, but not so much for running the unit.

[scotteg83]

On 09/02/2018 at 3:06 PM, ham_solo said:

/Still plan to continue to use TroopTrack for our troop because it has every feature that people have been asking for years in their forums to be added to Scoutbook(and little if any progress has been made apparently over the years).

What feature?

 

Our troop still uses Troopmaster, and until Scoutbook has the ability to do it offline and then sync later, we will never swap.

My Pack does Scoutbook, so that will help with not having to pay the $70 we've been paying

[cgail]

You can use the Scouting app to record advancement, camping, hiking, and service logs offline - but only for your Scout at this time.   Unit management is on the future list, but I believe it's all tied into the SB Lite codebase change I spoke of.

[FireStone]

On 9/2/2018 at 3:06 PM, ham_solo said:

/Still plan to continue to use TroopTrack for our troop because it has every feature that people have been asking for years in their forums to be added to Scoutbook (and little if any progress has been made apparently over the years).

I could be wrong about this, but the word in my council is that we are going to be required to use Scoutbook. It is supposed to become the official record for all scouts. So if we wanted to hypothetically use something else on our own, we'd still have to port that data over to Scoutbook for official records. 

[cgail]

Scoutbook Lite is replacing IA.  The BSA IT team has said there will be ways to get data from other applications into it, just as it exists today with IA.