Venting About Scoutbook

[InquisitiveScouter]

National has really failed membership on this one.

They abandoned direct member support for Scoutbook issues and pushed all interface through local council registrars, with zero training or warning (our council registrar was and remains livid.)

Our registrar doesn't have the time or expertise to fix any issues.  She just throws work tickets back at national.

With no responses from those, she kicked several issues to me.  I have been able to help some folks, but with most, I have had to post issues in the Scoutbook forums and get Scoutbook User Advisory Council (SUAC) volunteers to work issues because they have permissions.  God bless the SUAC folks, but this is just wrong that we have come to this.

I have been getting really tired of being "a useful idiot" for BSA lately.  I work diligently to put on a good program for our Troop, and our local council and national (over the years) have repeatedly <expletive deleted> on adult volunteers.  They are being paid to support membership, but I am seeing little value-added support.

Perhaps liquidation will provide the "creative destruction" needed to reset the Scouting program (sans BSA) in the US.

Edited June 2, 2021 by InquisitiveScouter

[qwazse]

Sorry for your pain. But, this is what corporate information officers do, eventually. They make a show of squeezing efficiencies from the system by showing how they no longer need their staff to do the tasks that they've just offloaded on users.

Liquidation will only make it worse.

As a general rule, it's always better to perform scouting as if National doesn't exist and be pleasantly surprised when they do something that benefits your scouts.

[CynicalScouter]

21 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

They abandoned direct member support for Scoutbook issues and pushed all interface through local council registrars, with zero training or warning (our council registrar was and remains livid.)

75%+ of BSA IT staff were laid off so part of it was that.

The other thing is that Scoutbook is legacy and being used in ways, frankly, it was never meant to be used for. The long term "solution" (note the quotation marks) is the new Akela system that will replace or integrated Scoutbook, my.scouting.org, Scoutnet, etc.

This is stitching together 3-4 systems, NONE of which were designed to work with one another, and using bubble gum and twine to make it work.

[InquisitiveScouter]

9 minutes ago, qwazse said:

As a general rule, it's always better to perform scouting as if National doesn't exist and be pleasantly surprised when they do something that benefits your scouts.

That's good advice.  We already operate with that attitude towards national, council, and district.  The danger is in going rogue   But then, most other unit leaders around here, that I have observed (and continue to see), don't take the time to read the literature, practice the skills, or put the "true" program into place.  

Scoutbook actually enabled our "departure" from district and council to a great degree.  So much functionality and promise... 

Alas, it doesn't sound like the future "solution" @CynicalScouter relayed holds much to look forward too...

(Lol, just realized I didn't mention regional...what do they do again??)

Edited June 2, 2021 by InquisitiveScouter

[InquisitiveScouter]

Had to make one more post, because I was at 666

[fred8033]

Of everything happening recently with BSA, ScoutBook is my big fear.  I've grown accustomed to it.  I was not in favor initially, but I've gotten used to it.  We only use it for roster mgmt and advancement  / recognition.  But within that context, it does work.  

I really fear national becoming unable to support it.  Councils, units and individual scouts have grown very dependent on it.   That's a large user base for such a small IT organization such as BSA must have.  

Edited June 2, 2021 by fred8033

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 minute ago, fred8033 said:

Of everything happening recently with BSA, ScoutBook is my big fear.  I've grown accustomed to it.  I was not in favor initially, but I've gotten used to it.  We only use it for roster mgmt and advancement  / recognition.  But within that context, it does work.  

I really fear national becoming unable to support it.  Councils, units and individual scouts have grown very dependent on it.   That's a large user base for such a small IT organization such as BSA must have.  

It is our primary platform for event scheduling, communication, advancement tracking, and financial transactions (outings, dues, summer camp payments, etc.)

Whatever comes next must provide similar or enhanced capabilities, along with a seamless transition.

[CynicalScouter]

21 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

That's a large user base for such a small IT organization such as BSA must have.  

And from what I gather when volunteers have offered to help with the IT side/development, they've been told to go away.

[InquisitiveScouter]

1 minute ago, CynicalScouter said:

And from what I gather when volunteers have offered to help with the IT side/development, they've been told to go away.

Things that make you go ..."Hmmmm"

[qwazse]

3 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

And from what I gather when volunteers have offered to help with the IT side/development, they've been told to go away.

Not so much that as this ....

Quote

I am going to be getting us better organized in our approach as to best integrate volunteer resources over the next few weeks.  I plan to reach out to you and bring you into the fold when we have a plan in place.  Thank you again for your willingness to help!

 ....

Debra Kendrew

Member Applications Manager

Dated September 2, 2016

[Eagle94-A1]

3 hours ago, CynicalScouter said:

And from what I gather when volunteers have offered to help with the IT side/development, they've been told to go away.

Yes.  I know a council who had a volunteer who worked on creating business webpages create theirs and the OA lodge's webpages. They were outstanding, easy to navigate, fantastic resources. When National mandated everyone using a standard format,  he was told to buzz off when he offered to help with some of the work. 

I deal with search engines all day. Andy by far BSA's search engine is horrible. It is easier, faster, and more accurate to use Google than BSA's search engine.

4 hours ago, fred8033 said:

Of everything happening recently with BSA, ScoutBook is my big fear.  I've grown accustomed to it.  I was not in favor initially, but I've gotten used to it.  We only use it for roster mgmt and advancement  / recognition.  But within that context, it does work.  

I really fear national becoming unable to support it.  Councils, units and individual scouts have grown very dependent on it.   That's a large user base for such a small IT organization such as BSA must have.  

Thankfully my troop has not made the migration from Troopmaster to Scoutbook. It works. I have heard of so many issues with Scoutbook, I am afraid to use it. Plus BSA owns it now. I am still waiting for BSA National to keep their SCOUTNET 2000 promises they made in 1998.

[fred8033]

16 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Yes.  I know a council who had a volunteer who worked on creating business webpages create theirs and the OA lodge's webpages. They were outstanding, easy to navigate, fantastic resources. When National mandated everyone using a standard format,  he was told to buzz off when he offered to help with some of the work. 

I deal with search engines all day. Andy by far BSA's search engine is horrible. It is easier, faster, and more accurate to use Google than BSA's search engine.

Thankfully my troop has not made the migration from Troopmaster to Scoutbook. It works. I have heard of so many issues with Scoutbook, I am afraid to use it. Plus BSA owns it now. I am still waiting for BSA National to keep their SCOUTNET 2000 promises they made in 1998.

Scoutbook works good for advancement.  Roster mgmt too.  But that might be our troop.  Our troop only records what must be sent to BSA to record advancement.  Ranks.  MBs.  Awards.  We do record time in position (because it looks pretty in ScoutBook).  And hikes, campouts ... for bragging rights.  ... But it's up to the scout to manage the individual line-item advancement and we encourage the scout to use the paper book for that.  It's an intentional choice.  We don't want our adults tightly overseeing the scout's advancement.  It's their path to navigate and not ours to pull them thru.  If I had to record each of 50 entries for each rank and another 20+ entries for each MB, I might think again about TroopMaster.  ... But we stopped using TroopMaster a long time ago and never regretted it.  

As for calendar, etc, we use different tools over time.  Its moved a few times.  TroopMaster never worked well for that ... "for us".  Ultimately, it's about good communication with the parents.

 

[AMRC18]

If you're having issues with Scoutbook, you can try Trooptrack. Your troop would have to pay for its service, but it can serve BSA groups and is independent of National.

www.trooptrack.com

[CynicalScouter]

2 minutes ago, AMRC18 said:

If you're having issues with Scoutbook, you can try Trooptrack. Your troop would have to pay for its service, but it can serve BSA groups and is independent of National.

www.trooptrack.com

Yes, and the concern I have with the "independents" is that there is no verification off of National's data.

I cannot tell you the number of times I found scouts being sent to MBC who were "unit registered" (whatever that means) and never bothered to take YPT.

We use an "independent" for calendaring and email purposes, plus document storage, but otherwise rely on Scoutbook.

[MikeS72]

On 6/2/2021 at 11:28 AM, InquisitiveScouter said:

(Lol, just realized I didn't mention regional...what do they do again??

Nothing.  Replaced by 16 National Service Territories