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Linked Troops sharing a website, unit number


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We're trying to determine if it makes more sense to have 2 websites with 2 webmasters, or 1 site where we designate which activities belong to which Troop.  Both have their benefits and challenges.   What are your thoughts once a Female Troop comes on-line?  New Website for them, or share with existing linked Troop?

Edited by RememberSchiff
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@EdCornflake, welcome to the forums!

My gut says linked troops would benefit from a shared website, even if they don't share much else in resources. It should make it easier to see who is doing what, and it may be a great way for each of them to "raise the bar" in terms of activities, advancement, patrol bragging rights, etc ...

Nothing wrong with two webmasters if you need them. Or it could be best with one webmaster and the one troop communicates to the other to keep everything posted. Depends on the youth who are available to do the work.

This is definitely a "your mileage may vary" thing.

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Yeah, just for the debate, I'd say separate sites.

Linked troops are separate troops and should be encouraged to create their own identity.  If you're going to have websites for the units then you should have youth webmasters.  While you could have a webmaster from each unit managing the same site, I think that model would take away autonomy from the new webmaster.  Consider this question.  If your CO was spinning up a new boys unit in parallel with the existing unit, would you want them sharing the same website?

Linked troops are only linked at the adult level and that's where it should stay.  You should give all the same rights, privileges, and responsibilities to the girls unit youth as the boys currently exercise.

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My biggest concern with sharing a website between 2 units is the confusion that may occur when parents do not take the time to differentiate between the boy troop and girl troop information.  I can also be confusing to people who are just looking for information before choosing a troop who do not realize that they are showing up with their son on the girl troop meeting night.

Free web services abound; I would opt for keeping them separate.

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The answer depends on how the linked troops work.  Is the intention to share committee and most of the leader?  Share resource?  Share activities and schedules?   How deeply linked ?

My gut says

  • "linked" troops use one web site to coordinate.  Still your choice how deeply to link. 
  • "Independent" troops use separate web sites.

But, it's your troops and your vision.

Edited by fred johnson
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I think a lot depends on how much sense linking your troops on the web makes.  You still want your website to be good outreach.  Sharing information within the troop is good but can be accomplished without a website.  It may benefit you to make sure anyone who sees your website also sees you have a girls unit (and a pack or crew if applicable).  Let's say that your troops are sponsored by the St. Mark's Church.  You could register StMarksScouts.org or ScoutsStMarks.org or something similar.  The landing page for your home page could give general information and then offer links to each unit.  This way it will point people who need it to your linked troop and allows you to share resources more easily.  If your CO also sponsors a pack and crew then it would be easy to link them in the same place.  Each unit is responsible for their own subdomain or subpages (StMarksScouts.org/Troop100 and StMarksScouts.org/Troop101 and even StMarksScouts/Crew102).  

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23 minutes ago, mds3d said:

... Each unit is responsible for their own subdomain or subpages (StMarksScouts.org/Troop100 and StMarksScouts.org/Troop101 and even StMarksScouts/Crew102).  

Fine point: linked troops share the same number. So ... /Troop100/Boys and ... /Troop100/Girls?

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1 minute ago, qwazse said:

Fine point: linked troops share the same number. So ... /Troop100/Boys and ... /Troop100/Girls?

or /GirlsTroop /BoysTroop or /Troop-Girls or just /Boys /Girls.

If they share a number could easy do Troop100(someidentifertodistinguishyoufromalletheothers).org/boys  and /girls or boys.troop100.org

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  • 1 month later...

I believe (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, folks) that linked troops may share a unit number if they wish, but it isn't required. It seems girl units and boy units will be numbered separately, so hypothetically, if an all-boy Troop 555 doesn't have a linked girl's troop tethered to them, any random all-girl troop could also register as Troop 555, even if they aren't linked to that original boy's unit. I would imagine a council could simply reserve all existing boy's troop numbers in case they decide to add a linked girl's unit to their program, but I predict many of them will not consider this possibility until some mix-up has already happened.

Oh, the tangled webs we weave ...

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Our council has all 3 digit troop numbers and uses a system where a district or two share the same first numeral.  I.e. all packs and troops in district Something are in the range of 100-199.  I suppose a mix up could happen - but it doesn't seem terribly likely.  If you had a conflict, someone would catch it quickly.

I haven't heard of a rule about not sharing numbers in our council - but I doubt we'd see that rule.  Our council doesn't seem to make a lot of rules like that.

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There many ways to do this, I would suggest a landing page with the CO name /Scouts then in the menu have choices Troop 100 click here Troop 100G click here. These pages would have their own menu choices. Use google calendars for each troop and link both troops to a calendar that you display on the website.

Mostly likely the girl troop wont have someone ready to be webmaster yet so the adults could support that part of the websits and if the boys do have a webmaster he can work on the boys part of the website (or visa versa).

We use Scoutbook and use their calendar but we have a google calendar synched to the Scoutbook calendar so we can display on our website. If each troop has thier instance of Scoutbook you can easliy create a single google calendar to share directly and via website.

 

 

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