Activities Replace Shifts

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

No, we're not getting rid of shifts!  But many of the things you may have used shifts for should now be handled as activities (aka "Meal Plans and Scheduled Activities").

Shifts were originally developed for fundraising events - like Christmas tree sales - where you needed to staff a location over multiple days or weeks.  Rather than create a separate event for each time slot, you would create an event with lots of shifts.

The fundraiser sales campaign could then be linked to the event that contained all of these shifts, which allows you to group all of the transactions for that fundraiser under one event.

Shifts could also be used for Eagle service projects, which also may need to be staffed at different times over multiple days.  This is another case where having one event allows you to consolidate all of the associated income and expenses.

But, over time, our customers began finding lots of other uses for shifts, which we didn't expect, like signing up for merit badges at summer camp, or special activities on a weekend campout.  Many of these activities were occurring on events for which scouts had to sign up.  And this got messy, since we never intended you to sign up for an event AND sign up for shifts on that same event.

Our solution:  expand the role of "Meal Plans and Scheduled Activities" and allow members to sign up for these activities on an event.

We'll spend most of this newsletter explaining the details, so keep reading!

We plan to lock down event types so you can no longer sign up for an event and sign up for shifts on the same event.  We encourage you to convert upcoming shifts to activities as appropriate before that happens.

No More Type "Other" Shifts

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

The Shifts tab gave you the option of creating shifts of type "Other".

This was intended for things like pot luck dinners, where you wanted members to sign up for things to bring.  Shifts of type "Other" could be created for various categories of food, like "Salad", or "Casserole", or "Dessert", which participants could then sign up to bring.

Unlike regular shifts, "Other" shifts did not have a scheduled start date/time.

Going forward, we think that activities will be a better way of handling these situations.

We have not deleted any existing shifts of type "Other", but you will not be able to change the shift type to "Other" on any new events.   If you change the shift type on an event from "Other" to "Specific Dates and Times", you will not be able to change it back.

You may want to convert upcoming "Other" shifts to activities as part of this transition.

Activity Type Options

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

As before, you can maintain the choice list for activity type by going to Site Configuration → Activity Types.  When you add a new item, or change an existing one, the detail page now looks like this:

As shown above, there are now many options that you can configure on each activity type.  Most of them control which fields will be available on activities of that type:

• Activity Title.  A short description of this activity.
• Long Description.  A longer description (this enables the original "description" field on activities.)
• Start Time.  The starting date and time for this activity.
• End Time.  The ending date and time for this activity.  (Note: this is not used to compute the duration of the activity.)
• Patrol.  Activities of this type will be limited to the members of a selected patrol.
• Rank for Board of Review.  Scouts signing up for an event of this type can select the rank for which they want a Board of Review.
• Attachment.  You can attach a file or document to this activity.

Scout Signup Allowed determines whether scouts will be allowed to sign up for activities of this type.  It also controls whether you can set a scout sign-up limit for this type of activity.

Adult Signup Allowed determines wheter adults will be allowed to sign up for activities of this type.  It also controls whether you can set an adult sign-up limit for this type of activity.

Service Credit Available allows you to designate whether an activity of this type is a community service or conservation service.  Participants will earn credit by participating in this activity.

Disable An Activity Type

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

The last field on the Activity Type page is a Disable This Activity check box.  This allows you to remove an activity type from the choice list for new activities.

You may decide you want to disable some of your old activity types in light of all the new attributes available.  For example, if you had separate activity types for "Breakfast", "Lunch", and "Dinner", you might disable those and create one activity type for "Meal", with the Title enabled to specify the meal type.

New Tab For Activities

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

When you update an event from the Maintain Events page, you'll see that the "Schedule & Advancement" tab has been replaced by two new tabs:

• "Activities" has the Meal Plans and Scheduled Activities grid
• "Advancement" has the Opportunities For Advancement grid

The Activities tab will not appear if this event allows shifts.  This is intended to prevent you from creating events where a user can sign up for both shifts and activities.

When you add an activity, you will first be prompted for the Activity Type.

Similar to when you select an event type for an event, or a transaction type for a transaction, your choice of activity type will determine what other fields will be available for this activity.

We created the "Patrol Service Project" activity type on our demo site to enable most of the available fields on an activity, as shown above.

The sign-up limits will determine whether a user will be able to sign up for an activity from the calendar.  If left blank or set to zero, that type of sign-up is unlimited.

The sign-up limits will not prevent an administrator from signing up more members for the activity, which they can do on the lower part of this page.

The sign-up list shown to the administrator may be limited as follows:

• If this is an event for which members can sign-up, then only members who have already signed up for the event can sign up for an activity on the event.
• If this event is limited to a patrol, then only members of that patrol can sign up for the event.

Convert Shifts To Activities

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

There is no need to convert any shifts that occurred in the past.  They can stay that way forever.

But there may be some upcoming shifts that would work better as activities.

To convert the shifts for an upcoming event to activities, go to the "Shifts" tab for that event, as shown here:

Click the button Convert Shifts To Activities to see the confirmation page, as shown below.

There is no "Undo" function, so once you click Convert Shifts To Activities on this page, there is no going back.

The conversion procedure will create an activity type of "Converted From Shift" or "Converted From Service Shift" or "Converted From Other Shift", as appropriate for the shifts being converted.

After you convert shifts to activities, this page will redisplay - but all of the shifts will be gone.

You won't be able to see the activities until you change the event type to one that doesn't allow shifts.  Go to the "Event Details" tab and change the event type.  You may need to save that page twice to see the "Activities" tab.

Sign Up For Activities

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

Scouts and adults can sign up for activities on an event by selecting that event from the Calendar.

You may need to sign up for the event before you are allowed to sign up for that event's activities.  If so, sign up for the event, then click Save, and you should see the Activity sign-up section directly below.

Parents will be able to sign up their scouts for activities, but scouts will only be able to sign up themselves.

The comment field will be available once you sign up for that activity.

Take Attendance At Activities

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

If you select an event from the calendar that is currently in progress or is in the past, you won't be able to sign up for activities on that event.  But leaders will be able to update each activity to take attendance.  This is particularly important for activities that give credit for community service or conservation service hours.

Authorized users (who are authorized for the Maintain Events task) will see an Update button on the list of activities for that event.

Press that button to go to the Activity detail page, where you can modify the participant list, override the hours worked, and indicate that attendance is finalized.

Click one of the "Save" buttons to save your changes.

Board Of Review Activity

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

We added a "Board of Review" activity type to each troop's list of available activity types.  This type of activity can be added to meetings at which you plan to offer a board of review.

Adults can sign up to serve on the board, and scouts can sign up to request a review for a specific rank.

Upcoming Changes

The features announced above are just a beginning.  We expect to receive many suggestions for improving this new aspect of TroopWebHost, and we will use your input to refine these capabilities.

One immediate area of focus will be updating the TroopWebHost Mobile App to allow users to sign up for activities on an event.  For Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts, this should allow users to sign up for "Stuff To Bring".

Also upcoming for Cub Scouts:  support for revisions to the BSA Cub Scout program that reorganizes all adventures, effective June 1.

Please submit an Enhancement Request if you have any ideas for making this work better for your unit.

Sign Up For Shifts On Calendar

This feature does not apply to Cub Scout and Girl Scout sites.

Signing up for a shift from the website calendar has always been a little more trouble than signing up for an event.  You had to select the event from the calendar, then search for the Sign Up For Shifts button, then go to that page to sign up for the shifts.

No longer!  Now, when you select an upcoming event from the calendar, if it has shifts you will be able to sign up for it on the main calendar detail page, as shown below.

Be sure to click one of the "Save" buttons to complete the sign-up.

Black Pug CSV File

Many councils use a service called Black Pug to manage registration for summer camp and other events.

We recently learned that Black Pug allows scouting units to upload a CSV file to register a group of members for an event.  This file contains the name and contact information for each participant, along with an emergency contact and a parent.

You can now create this file for any event by opening it from the calendar and clicking the Black Pug CSV button, as shown below.

Save this file to the local storage on your device, then log on to your council's Black Pug portal to upload the file to the corresponding event.

Disable Funds

Have you created a fund, perhaps as an experiment, that you no longer need?  Only to find that you cannot delete it because it has been linked to transactions?

Now you can make that fund "disappear" by disabling it.

Update the fund, and put a checkmark in the Disabled box, as shown below.

That fund will no longer show up on the choice list for new transactions.

Password Email Confirmation

In January we added the ability to automatically send an email with a new user's ID and temporary password.

But how were you supposed to know if it was actually working?

Now you can find out by going to Administration → Users & Passwords and updating that person's user ID.  As shown below, you now see the date and time at which the password was sent.

But what if it hasn't been sent?  Most likely, it is because you did not enter an email address on this person's membership record.  But if that's not the case, and you've waited a few minutes and checked again, please open a support ticket and we will be glad to look into it.

Cub Scout/Girl Scout Uncompleted Requirements Report

This feature does not apply to Scouts BSA sites.

You may now produce the Uncompleted Requirements report for an individual cub scout or girl scout.

This report shows all of the requirements that have not yet been completed at that age level.

That's it!  You've reached the end of this month's enhancement page!

We're sorry it took so long, but we had a lot to tell you about this month!   Whew!

Send Us Your Questions and Suggestions

Send us a ticket from the My Support Tickets page on your site's Help menu.   This is absolutely the best way to communicate with us!

Or simply contact us at CustomerSupport@TroopWebHost.com.  If you do, please include your troop number and city in your message so we can identify your site.