relapse 10 Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Why is the new hazardous weather course referred to 3 different names depending where you look? E-Learning = Weather Hazards Tour Permit Training section = Hazardous Weather Tour Permit autoresponder = Planning and Preparing for Hazardous Weather Training Why can't the Tour Permit and E-Learning be linked. Seems like a BSA ID should just about do everything needed here. Ask for the BSA ID of an adult on this tour permit. Then link to their online training. The only one I needed for a permit that you can't do online is BALOO. Which brings up the next part of this rant.. when is BSA going to do away with asking for names when doing training and ask for IDs and maintain national training records? And if this tour permit comes back one more time asking for Hazardous Weather and YP, both of which are on the printout of it..... poor DE. Link to post Share on other sites
Scouter&mom 10 Posted April 21, 2009 Share Posted April 21, 2009 Relapse, Get used to giving the same information, over and over and over re: training and dates. Scout-net, where the training records and boy's advancement records are kept, is notorious for not being accurate. Just today, I was on the phone with office, trying to come up with an adult who was going on trip that had done hazardous weather. Every adult that was going did not show having had hazardous weather. Some had done it a year ago, and some more recently. As pack trainer and keeper of BS troop adult training records, I have sent in training information to council again and again. When I give it to council office they have claimed to put it in. Don't know if it is getting lost or just not getting put in. Today, I was told that my scouting is not talking to ScoutNet and that if a leader does on-line training, ScoutNet and therefore the council doesn't know. I feel your pain... I don't think anyone likes ScoutNet.. volunteers and professionals all dislike.. To make things easier I keep a simple spreadsheet with leaders and dates they have various training. It makes it simpler, when I fill out tour permits. It also allows me to remind leaders when training is coming up that they might be interested in. Link to post Share on other sites
Eagle92 110 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Yep you will have to resend info and they will have to reenter it. I turn in copies of all forms, and request a copy of your scoutnet redords after they fix it. that way you cna send copies of the Scoutnet record. Yep pros and vols both don't like SCOUTNET. WHEN it was introduced in my council in 1998, it drove us nuts! I remember waiting at the office all day to hear the final membership tally for my district 2 days before Christmas. My then fiance actually fell asleep in a chair waiting to get a tally so I could take her home for Christmas and introduce her to my family. I believe part of the problem is that the person who was in charge of the project at the time had NO computer experience whatsoever. basically he was a SE who got bumped to national before retirement. I was told by a coworker, who left the programming industry to be a DE, that the company the BSA hired had a reputation for extremely low bids, producing very shoddy programming, and then makign hteir money with "upgrades" and fixing bugs. So BSA may have spent so much at one point, that it would be cheaper to continue paying a service fee than to cancelt the system and start from scratch.(This message has been edited by eagle92) Link to post Share on other sites
Twocubdad 665 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I think they're finally going in that direction. The advances they've made with interconectivity in the past year are amazing, at least in relation to where BSA has been. Our training folks have struggled for years just to get folks to list their name consistently on training registrations. I might be Two Cub Dad, Two C. Dad, Two Dad, T.C. Dad and maybe "Duce" -- none of whom are trained to position. We tried to get folks to provide their ID number when registering for a little over a year now. When you ask for the number and explain that it's on their membership cards, everyone just rolls their eyes. Until now, unless their was a possibility of a Scout discount at the local camping shop, no one kept up with the cards at all. Slowly, folks are catching on an using the IDs. We've only recently gotten to where ScoutNet talks to Troopmaster. Now that you can link advancement reports electronically, there is a reason for troops to track Scout ID#s. Now that using the IDs is finally catching on at the grassroots level, I bet you will see more applications such as what you're talking about. I think it's a bit of a chicken and egg issue. Heck, I'm amazed that I can take Safe Swim online and it automatically shows up on my ScoutNet record. Our troop is doing its part. This year we laminated all the membership cards before distributing them. We also attached a note explaining the expanded use of the member numbers and the importance of keeping up with the card. By the way, here's a hint: laminating cards individually is about $.50 a card. If you go to Staples and ask for a 11x17 sheet, you can laminate about 30 cards on a page for $2.00 It takes a little time to space them just right and then cut them apart, but at least the cards will make it through the first time it get washed along with the shirt. Link to post Share on other sites
gcnphkr 11 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 I can't figure out why we can access and update the advancement information of the scouts in ScoutNet but we are not allowed to even view the training information for scouters. I also can't figure out why my DE insists on having updates for adults handwritten on a form and will not just take the printout from TroopMaster. At least the online tour permit saves the vehicle information so you don't have to reenter it. Now if they could just get the approval process down to the same amount of time it takes when I fax it in. The last time we tried doing it on line we got the approval two weeks after the activity. Link to post Share on other sites
prof 58 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 side rant I turned in a tour permit yesterday (paper copy) and was told that in the future, online submissions would be required. Using a paper copy would require a fee of $5.00. Kinda rubbed me the wrong way. Sorry to hijack the thread. Steve Link to post Share on other sites
relapse 10 Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 $5 fee? *checks watch* are you sure this isn't a sub off of the April 1st joke? Link to post Share on other sites
imasoonerfan 10 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 Are you using the online Tour Permit in My Scouting? If so mine does not work. Or are you referring to the Tour Permit that is in PDF format now? Edumacate me!! Link to post Share on other sites
relapse 10 Posted April 22, 2009 Author Share Posted April 22, 2009 Online in My Scouting. I know it has gotten to at least the point where the council can deny it, cause they've done that twice. Define not working for you. I did have to go to a Windows machine, it had issue with Firefox on Linux. Link to post Share on other sites
imasoonerfan 10 Posted April 22, 2009 Share Posted April 22, 2009 The link on Myscouting is dead. There is no link. It might depend on the Council. Link to post Share on other sites
prof 58 Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Relapse, I hope the threat of the $5.00 fee was just a nudge to get me to go online and won't actually happen.I'm not sure. This was the first time it was brought up to me. Has anyone else encountered it? I am in hoosier trails council. Imasooner fan, I encountered the same thing. The link lloked dead. I had to go in to my profile and add my membership number. After that, there was a way to get to the tour permits. The link is on the left with my scouting, my profile, elearning..... Might work for you. Prof. Link to post Share on other sites
imasoonerfan 10 Posted April 23, 2009 Share Posted April 23, 2009 Actually you have to go into 'Edit My Profile' and there is a check box that you must check in order to add the Tour permits to your profile. The good news is it only took our local office 30 minutes to process it. The bad news is that it was missing stuff and rejected! Try #2 has been submitted. I actually like the process. No rounding up signatures and driving to the Scout office. Link to post Share on other sites
Daddy_O 10 Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Continuing the rant: My son's CM is a real IT guy. Can't the organization get a volunteer (not some novice, who is on the payroll) to make this thing work? Surely there are informatics superstars out there that could design and launch a very good, user friendly system, gratis. Also the membership cards. We washed every one, year after year! It's sort of sad; these would be nice for the archives. That laminating idea is ok, but why not issue a little more robust durable card to start with? Maybe more like a credit card (with raised letters) or state / military ID type of design? This should be easy. It might start out a little expensive, but after the first 100,000 they will be affordable! Junk mail comes with better cards. D_O Link to post Share on other sites
prof 58 Posted April 24, 2009 Share Posted April 24, 2009 Imasoonerfan, I am curious as I haven't done one of these online yet. What kinds of things caused it to be kicked back? Missing dates? Incorrect dates for training?... Just curious, as I haven't done one yet? Steve Link to post Share on other sites
relapse 10 Posted April 24, 2009 Author Share Posted April 24, 2009 So far my 2 kickback errors were: WARNING: Local tours require at least ONE ADULT who has completed the Youth Protection Training. WARNING: Effective for tours on 1/1/2009 at least one adult must have completed Planning and Preparing for Hazardous Weather Training. However, the permit did have hazardous weather on it. Still waiting on council to approve or kick back again. Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now