scoutmaster

[m-mckai1]

our troop leadership has discussed the possibility of starting a facebook account for the troop. any concerns or problems with improper photos posted. how to control the content

[IM_Kathy]

son's troop uses google groups - it's more of an email deal and doesn't do anything for pictures that I have seen.

 

my daughter's girl scout unit which I'm Service Unit Manager for (basically the scout master and cub master) does use a FB site. we use it for sending out announcements for unit events, post pictures, and sending out just general info.

 

the pro's to the google group is that you just signup and select what method you want to get their information (only on web, through email daily, or through email individually) It allows 1 person to send out a post/email to everyone and then others can reply just to that person or to everyone. We don't have rules about conduct - it's known by all to follow the BSA Law with it.

 

the pro's to the facebook site is that you can share pictures and organize them easily. in fact each troop in our unit has their own photo album so they can share pictures from troop activities.

 

the con's to the facebook site is that everyone needs to have own FB account to recieve the info for events etc.

 

with our FB account we give the log in info only to to leaders (though with BSA you can have the webmaster have it as well) This limits who posts info to be sent out as being from our unit.

 

so with FB - scout A and parent of scout A have their own FB account(s) - they add our FB site as a friend. then when we create an event we send it out to all our "friends" and they get the announcements. when we add photos they get published and are sent to all our "friends" so they can then see them. We do keep our site private so that all info can only be seen by "friends" so we don't have to worry about some looney getting a hold of pictures of the kids.

[shortridge]

What exactly is the concern about "improper photos"? That the Scouts will post photos of themselves drinking/smoking/skinny dipping to a public FB site?

 

IM Kathy wrote: "We do keep our site private so that all info can only be seen by "friends" so we don't have to worry about some looney getting a hold of pictures of the kids."

 

Actually, those privacy measures don't count for squat. You could still have a member who downloads the photos and then reposts them to a public area or site, and then they spread to who-knows-where. There really is no control over anything online any more. Bottom line is that if you don't want photos spread over the Internet, don't put them on the Internet.

[nugent725]

m-mckai1,

 

In our Troop, we use Scoutlander. When I was toying with the idea of a Troop website, I did think about FB for a second...but realized its a bit too hard to monitor and regulate. I found scoutlander.com, which offers free web-hosting to packs, troops, and crews. It is set up with a public site and a private site (which requires login). By default, the photo gallery is in the private domain...and you can change who can/can't post photos. I also make sure that anything on the public site doesn't contain full names (for example I will use Johnny S., instead of Johnny Scout). It's worth looking into.

 

http://www.scoutlander.com

 

and here's our Troop's public site, so you have an example of what it would look like:

 

http://www.troop246.scoutlander.com

 

The private domain also has an event calendar (which can send a mass email about event reminders such as meetings, trips, COHs, etc.) as well as the "Knowledge Base", which is sort of a forum/bulletin board. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to ask.

 

Yours in Scouting,

 

Ryan

[evmori]

Improper photos? Of what?

[Scoutfish]

Improper photos.

 

It's not that hard to figure out.

Sure we are adults here. Most of us have a well developed sense of tact and what is appropriate for various websites including Face Book, Myspace, and Scouter.com , and our own troop/ pack websites.

 

But then you have the boys who aretrying to fit in and be one of the boys..by which,I mean adults. They are at an awkward stage where they may not get that the pollack joke would offend a Polish person or possibly Jewish person.

They might not get that some cartoon pictures are a bit too risque' or inapproprate for the site or youinger scouts.

 

Ever seen a scout wear a shirt that had a woman in a thong and her bikini top was "too thin" for the temperature and that that picture also had a witty saying such as( for example) "Big Johnson Totem Poles- Our totems stay up longer and are thicker"

 

Or something stupid like that.

 

Yes, it happens. Some boys se a narrow view of things and do not always see the bigger wider scope of what can poytentially happen.

 

My pacj has a rule that our cub scouts cannot waer shirts that advertise tobacco or alcohol products on them.

 

You wouldn't think we'd have to worry about that huh?

 

WEll, we didn't just make that rule up just in case. We had a shirt that had to be turned inside out because of the picture on it. The kid didn't even realize ...he liked the shirt because the product was an endorser of his favorite NASCAR driver. He didn't even really ever pay attention to the woman on his shirt.

 

Granted, 99 percent of the time, I don't think you would have to worry, but that 1 percent time can create a big mess.

[BartHumphries]

Make sure you get signed permission to post the boy's photos and information online. The thing about Facebook, like about any online content, is that there really isn't a way to control the content. Whatever is shown, whatever images you see, whatever music you hear, there is always a way to rip that onto your hard drive and do whatever you want with it.

 

So make sure the parents are ok with that. I know I've seen permission forms somewhere -- a quick Google search turned this up:

http://www.bsatroop137.us/upldDocuments/Unit123/PublicityPermission.pdf

[evmori]

I hear ya Scoutfish, I just don't see how those are improper photos.

[structuralrik]

I think it depends on what you want the site for.

 

I set up a site via Shutterfly for my Den. It has a calender, automatic e-mail notification of events, an area for journal posts, works great for photo sharing & has an area for boy/parent contact info. I can add links to other BSA websites & post documents that parent can donwload.