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Online cub scout tracking program


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We use Scouttrack as well. It's not bad, for what it does. It does have all the advancements for the dens right there. Here are my gripes about it:

 

- Can't add Den Chief's to Den rosters for email traffic

 

- Email is OK for messages, but if I want to reply to a sent message, it only replies to the person who sent it. Not like google groups, where I can reply to the whole group or 1 person if I need to.

 

- Noticed a glitch in advancement. My son earned his religious award as a Tiger. His Badges Earned report shows that in there. This year as a Bear, one of the requirements is to earn the religious award. Scouttrack does not auto-populate that award in current year, when you go to enter it, it only gives you last year and this year to add dates. Adding the RA this year, caused it to show up on Advancement reports, which means we bought an extra one.

 

- No archive system available. If I need reports from 2 or 3 yrs ago, I'd better have a printout of it. Or it's gone for good.

 

Pro's of it

 

- It is online based, so you don't have to deal with software on 1 computer and having one person take care of all the data entering.

 

- Some good options for printing reports

 

- Can limit parents to a view only mode to prevent advancements entered falsely or incorrectly

 

 

We're contemplating moving to packmaster, but the add on features for what we do start getting pricey. It would be easier to transfer Scout data to a troop that uses troopmaster, though.

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Packmaster (www.troopmaster.com) is the only BSA approved Cub Scout advancement program. The software + the web add on is over double SoutTracker & ScoutManage but they have phone support with people that actually answer the phone. Many different reports and you can upload all of your advancements to BSA's Scoutnet site. No need to manually enter them in. You can also work offline and then sync up your database when you get a connection. This makes it perfect to input advancements when at Pack or Den meetings.

 

My Pack has been on ScoutTracker for over 5 yrs but I'm working on moving us over to Packmaster.

 

The biggest negative of Packmaster over ScoutTracker is that all the requirements for the Belt Loops, Pins, Achievements are presented to you in ScoutTracker. Makes it easy to know what to do. In Packmaster it assumes you already know the requirements and doesn't display them for you. We are going to get around this by having easy access to Scouting.org where it does list these out. Technically you are supposed to be using the Book to get your info....I get that, but still it would be nice to have it listed out on their site.

 

 

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ScoutManage is unreliable and not user-friendly.

 

I had a complaint because they've removed the ability to credit duplicate belt loops/pins. I sent an email to this address and received a reply from Lee Atchison who made up some new rules, "Each award can only be earned once. Even belt loops, you are required as a Webelos to redo the requirements for some belt loops, but thats not the same as earning the belt loop again (there are some units that allow the belt loop to actually be earned more than once, but this is not common)." Of course, this is baloney. Webelos must earn some belt loops again and it is clearly stated so in the handbook.

 

So I replied and respectfully gave Mr. Atchison the correct information from various BSA collateral, and I am now being ignored. I tried the Facebook suggestion as someone else said, but I have not heard anything on their wall. I think I am going to have to create custom awards to make sure these are all recorded.

 

I hate this because ScoutManage is not a good system; however, it's a tremendous undertaking to switch software and we all know how much spare time there is for something like that. My only saving grace is my son is about to cross over and I hope to God his Troop uses a better system.

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In the interest of full disclosure, I am the creator of an online system for tracking cub scouts, so my opinion should be considered with that in mind.

 

Cubtrails.com is the system I created for my wife and I when we worked in cub scouts (as wolf leader and Cubmaster). She helped me develop it over the course of three years to make certain that it was drop dead simple for non techies to use.

 

Of course it does all the standard things: achievement tracking, awards purchasing, parent login, email communication, etc... But it's also fully compatible with iPhone, android, iPad, and other tablets.

 

You can get a 90-day free trial by visiting www.cubtrails.com

 

Thanks,

Eric

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