Track More Activities

You can now configure event types to track:

• Conservation Hours
• Cabin Camping Nights
• Backpacking Miles
• Horseback Riding Miles
• Motorboating Miles
• On The Water Hours
• Skating Miles

The Event Type configuration page has been reorganized into separate groups of parameters.  These groups include:

• Where These Events Will Be Seen
• What Fields Will Be Available
• Sign-Ups and Shifts
• Participation Credit
• Reminders
• Disable This Event Type

Scroll down to the Participation Credit section to see the fields that control these new types of activities.

Once you've configured an event type to support one of these new types of activities, any event of that type will allow you to track that activity.

For example, if you enable Horseback Riding Miles on an event type, then all events of that type will have a new field where you can enter the Horseback Riding Miles for that event.  And when you Take Attendance for that event, you will be able to override this number for individual participants.

The total credit for each type of activity will be shown on a scout's Rank Summary tab, as shown below.

The total credit for each type of activity will also be shown on a scout's Scouting History report.

Several reports now have a second section to show all of the new activities:

• Event Participation Annual Summary
• Event Participation Cumulative Summary
• Event Participation For Date Range

Conservation Service Applied To Star and Life

Now that we can track conservation service hours separate from community service, this information can be used to determine completion of requirement 4 for the Star and Life ranks.

For either Star or Life, conservation hours can be used to complete all or a portion of requirement 4.

If you have enabled the automated assignment of service requirements, the system will now require at least three hours of conservation service to award the Life service requirement (2016 requirements only).

In addition, conservation service hours are now featured on the Rank Status reports:

• Rank Status By Age of Scout
• Rank Status By Date of Current Rank
• Rank Status By Patrol

Finalize Attendance For Shifts

When you Take Attendance For Shifts you can now check a box that indicates this attendance has been finalizxed.

You can also enter the name of the person who took attendance for this shift.

Control When Shifts Add To Service Hours

If you create time-based shifts under an event whose event type enables community service, the system has always given the shift participants community service credit for those shifts.

You can now control this feature when you create a shift with the new Participants Earn Service Hours checkbox, as shown below.

Please note that this feature applies to conservation service hours as well.  If you create a shift for an event whose event type includes conservation service, participation in that shift will add to that scout's conservation service hours when you check this box.

Finalize Attendance To Award Credits

Last month we updated the Take Attendance  page to let you indicate that this is the final attendance for this event.  As we mentioned above, we've extended this capability to cover shifts.

This month we added an option that allows you to specify that credit will not be given for an event or shift until attendance has been finalized.  This affects all of the new credits described above, as well as credit for camping nights, service hours, hiking miles, cycling miles, and paddling miles.

You can control this option from the Advancement Settings page.  This page used to be called Automated Requirements when it was on the Maintain Advancements submenu;  it has moved to the Site Configuration menu.

If you check the checkbox circled below, scouts will not receive credit for participating in an event (or shift) until attendance has been finalized for the event (or shift).

If you leave this box unchecked, scouts will continue to get credit for attending an event as soon as it was in the past, as long as they signed up for it.

To make the transition easier, we will still give scouts credit for participating in past events for which the Attendance Taken value has not been set, even if you require attendance to be finalized on events going forward.

National Outdoor Awards Reports

Six new reports show each scout's progress on the six segments of the National Outdoor Awards:

• Camping
• Hiking
• Aquatics
• Conservation
• Riding
• Adventure

Each report includes all scouts, and has columns that indicates their status on items that could be used to satisfy a requirement for that segment.

The second column of each report indicates whether the scout has achieved First Class rank or higher, which is a requirement for all of the National Outdoor Awards.

Other columns indicate completion of a merit badge or special award with an "X"; an asterisk (*) will appear for merit badges in progress.

Here is a sample of the Riding segment.

Send Us Your Questions and Suggestions

Please send your questions and suggestions to us at CustomerSupport@TroopWebHost.com.  We appreciate your input, and we will respond as quickly as possible.

When you write to us, please include your unit number and city so we can help you more effectively.