TroopMaster or Other advancment software.

[Basementdweller 608]

In preperation of becoming SM....Been looking at various software packages to help manage the troop.....Current SM has a note book, that I can't make heads nor tails of.

 

Down loaded a copy of troop master to play with....Have some questions for those who are experienced.

 

Nights of camping.......so how does TM record these or does it?

Service hours or projects????

 

For it's reputation as the defacto software package I am completely underwhelmed.

 

Is there something else that anyone would like to recommend taking a look at???

 

(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

[Tampa Turtle 1011]

I think TM is good IF:

 

(1) You have a large Troop.(50+)

(2) You have very active boys.

(3) You can assign ANOTHER person to do the data entry.

 

It is valuable for extracting lists of boys with partials, skills left for advancement. It seems to keep track of the camping days and nights fine. Its seems like a lot of data entry. It does seem to get updated as MB's and Advancement change.

 

I think with a small unit you could get by with paper forms for a while but I would assume you would need to do some data entry to get into an electronic file for Council, etc.

 

Seems to be that TM is built on top of an MS Access DB but I could be wrong.

[Oak Tree 15]

TroopMaster does record nights of camping and hours of service work.

 

It seems to record pretty much everything, and can spit it out in all kinds of formats.

 

It's not a perfect program, and usability isn't the greatest, but it pretty much does everything. I'd suggest looking at some web-based programs as alternatives - but I don't have any actual personal experience.

[Basementdweller 608]

I played with it for an hour or so......

 

I just isn't all that obvious how it is recorded.....

 

Just seems very cumbersome....Reports seemed lacking as well...I was look for a single sheet summary for a scout....we have boys transfer in and out all the time.

[fred8033 1593]

basementdweller: ".I was look for a single sheet summary for a scout...."

 

Troopmaster -> Reports -> Awards/Advancement ->Individual History.

 

- Get used to TroopMaster paging feature for multiple pages. It looks underwhelming if you don't page between pages.

- Play around with the options. I like to include everything and ALSO CHECK "Omit details on completed ranks". That gets really long.

 

Troopmaster is a piece of software that we've used for years. Hasn't changed at all except minor features. I would love for us to switch to something else. But I have not found a good option worth the work of changing.

[Tampa Turtle 1011]

Yeah the reporting is pretty powerful but ya gotta dig in the menu's. I find playing with it helps a lot. I sometimes get a useful report and then come back and forget where I got it.

[skeptic 995]

Guess it depends on how much you want in your available reports and such. I was talking to a leader from another unit Tuesday evening about TM, as I really am not good at developing my own data programs. I used Rank and File for years, but they went out of business due to not having enough influence to keep up with National. Some of the program is still useful, but my computer crashed and I lost my detailed data base and just have not found a real need to try and resuscitate it just for camping or service reports. Advancement is now available through Scoutnet, so that is the most important item.

 

The woman to whom I was talking really likes it, especially since it apparently is able to link to web pages easily, and allows a lot of customization if you really go into it. Have not seen anything better, but worry a bit about it too suddenly going away due to issues with National.

[Oak Tree 15]

I just isn't all that obvious how it is recorded....

 

When you create an activity (camping trip, service project, etc), you indicate how many nights it is, or how many hours it is. Then when you record that a Scout attended the activity, he gets credit for it.

 

 

[fred8033 1593]

Nights of camping - Also if you define the activity as having ## number of nights of camping, you can over-ride that for individual scouts. Very necesasry if the scout did not stay both nights.

 

ScoutNet - We've been using this continually lately. We treat that as the master. Our TroopMaster is just for the lower details. i.e. who was on what camp out. what activities did we do. etc.

[Basementdweller 608]

Obviously I need to spend more time with it...

[WasE61 23]

My wife is the (now departing) AC for Scout's troop.

 

Troopmaster is OK software ... but it has it's quirks...

 

1) Only one user can have the database open at a time, (it is stored in the cloud) so sharing the AC position is really NOT an option.

 

2) If you crash while the database is open, you can have a lockout situation.

 

3) For large troops, it takes a lot of time to maintain all the data...especially for active troops. There are weeks where she would log 40 or more hours.

 

4) It has a few quirks when setting it up...getting the multiple passwords and some firewall issues came up.

[GKlose 24]

We shifted to the web version about a year ago -- the primary data entry is still done through the PC version (on the SM's laptop), but I access and make changes via the web. The SM is able to look up, via a web app on his phone, details at troop meetings.

 

One thing we've noted -- he still does backups, and then generates the "transfer" data file for our SOAR-based website. Troopmaster has a few of the features that our SOAR site has (calendar, email) but we don't use it for that.

 

No complaints so far, except for one annoying one that SOAR is working on fixing. We have two names with apostrophes, and both are treated differently by SOAR (names changed: D'Angelo comes across as "DeAngelo" and O'Hagan comes across as "OHagan"...neither actually use the apostrophe).

 

Guy

[Oak Tree 15]

Troopmaster is OK software ... but it has its quirks...

 

1) Only one user can have the database open at a time, (it is stored in the cloud) so sharing the AC position is really NOT an option.

 

Only one user at a time can lock the database, but we do have lots of different people who make updates. Lock it, make the changes, unlock it. I'd like to see some finer-grained locking, but this one hasn't been a big problem for us, even in a big troop.

 

2) If you crash while the database is open, you can have a lockout situation.

 

True, but it's easy to unlock it.

 

3) For large troops, it takes a lot of time to maintain all the data...especially for active troops. There are weeks where she would log 40 or more hours.

 

True, but I expect this would be true for pretty much any program. There is lots of data to maintain.

 

4) It has a few quirks when setting it up...getting the multiple passwords and some firewall issues came up.

 

Boy, ain't that the truth. The password thing is crazy. We had to create a step-by-step document for how to install TroopMaster. Once you have all the passwords entered into the right places, everything works great, but it is not an immediately intuitive process.

[perdidochas 658]

We've got about 20 active boys (and about 15 others). I'm AC, and I've never spent more than two or three hours outside of the 1 1/2 hr meeting time on entering/maintaining things in Troopmaster. The only exception being before Courts of Honor, when that prep is three or four hours (not including driving time to scoutshop).

 

Also, base, using and entering data into Troopmaster shouldn't be your job. Your Advancement coordinator should be dealing with it.

 

TM is quirky, but it works.

[John-in-KC 311]

Perdidochas said:

 

"Also, base, using and entering data into Troopmaster shouldn't be your job. Your Advancement coordinator should be dealing with it.

 

I second that. Ideally, it should be the Troop scribe, the Advancement coordinator, and (if different from the advancement coord) the Membership coordinator.

 

(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)