How the Latest Scoutbook Update Connects Councils & Units

Looking for merit badge counselors? Then the newest Scoutbook feature has the answer!

At the National Annual Meeting in May, Scoutbook announced the creation of the Scoutbook Council Administrator position and three initial features connecting councils with Scoutbook units:

• A Messaging feature for Scoutbook units, available for leaders, parents, and youth (with youth accounts)
• Sharing council and district calendars (for councils with subscription-based calendars)
• The addition of council-approved merit badge counselor lists

The messaging function has been available for some time, but now, council administrators will be able to share council-approved merit badge counselor lists with Scoutbook units! For Scoutbook users, this will:

• Bring Scoutbook merit badge counselors into compliance with the Guide to Advancement and your council’s standards for merit badge counselor approval.
• Provide Boy Scouts in Scoutbook units access to only those counselors which the council has already approved.

How it works

When a council uploads their approved list in the Scoutbook format, Scoutbook will compare the profile information provided on the merit badge counselor list, coming from ScoutNet/Akela, to the profile information in Scoutbook, to determine if there is a “person match”.

For matched persons, Scoutbook will then compare whether merit badge counselors in Scoutbook are on the council-approved merit badge counselor list and take one of the following actions:

1. If a person is in Scoutbook and on the council MBC list, the user will receive a welcome email and a “Council Approved” designation will appear next to the user’s name in the merit badge counselor list in Scoutbook.
2. If a person is on the council MBC list but does not have a Scoutbook account, the user will receive an invitation to join Scoutbook and establish a user account.  After the account is established, the user will appear on the merit badge counselor list in Scoutbook
3. If a person is NOT on the council’s merit badge counselor list but is currently listed as a merit badge counselor in Scoutbook, the user’s profile will be changed to delete the role in Scoutbook and the user will not appear on the Scoutbook merit badge counselor list. The user will receive a notification to contact their local council to resolve the situation.

Each time the local service center uploads their file, the process repeats.  So, in the event of situation 3 above, once the council has approved a person and uploads the file a second time, situation 1, will be in place and the user will be reinstated as “Council Approved” in Scoutbook.

Don’t forget!

Make sure your data syncs over to Akela properly by checking your your unique member ID in your Scoutbook profile. Learn how to do it here.

Scoutbook ensures that not a moment of the Scouting journey is missed. If you aren’t already using this game-changing tool, head to Scoutbook.com and start your unit’s free 30 day trial. You can access all the features the web app offers to fully experience how Scoutbook can help your unit. There are currently 36 councils signed up as “connected councils”.  Contact your local council to learn more and find out if they are a Scoutbook connected council.

Have you started using Scoutbook’s council administrator tool? Let us know what you think in the comments!