BSA has a New CIO

[Eagle92]

I hope this is good news. you folks in the IT field tell me your thoughts.

 

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2010/12/14/boy-scouts-name-new-cio.html

 

Boy Scouts names new CIO

 

rving-based Boy Scouts of America on Tuesday named Ron Tozzie as Chief Information Officer. Tozzie is charged with developing a new technology vision for the organization.

 

We are excited to have Ron join us as CIO and we look forward to his insight and direction in putting technology best practices in place to help shape the future of the BSA, said Wayne Brock, deputy chief scout executive and COO. Its an exciting time as we continue to innovate and bring more value for our Scouts, parents, volunteers and local councils across America, and Ron will play a key role in that mission.

 

Tozzie had held leadership roles in start-ups, global tech firms, national services firms, and global business-services firms. Most recently, he worked at Dell, where he specialized in business and IT strategy development. He has worked in several industries, including retail and defense research.

 

 

Read more: Boy Scouts names new CIO | Dallas Business Journal

[shortridge]

I hope he has some experience in content management and website organization. Scouting.org is so counter-intuitive it hurts my brain.

[evmori]

Ron has a lot of IT experience. Just hope it's the kind National needs.

[moosetracker]

We can hope. We can dream.. The way I see it is he has a 50/50 shot, either things stay the same or improve.. He can't make things worse, that's an impossibility unless he choose to do away with all computers and go back to paper & pencil.

 

... On second thought that might even be an improvement.

[emb021]

"I hope he has some experience in content management and website organization."

 

And social networking and the like.

 

"Scouting.org is so counter-intuitive it hurts my brain."

 

I actually prefer the prior version. Was fairly easy to find things, even compared to similiar org. Today?? Yesh, hard to find stuff.

 

[airborneveteran]

I'm in the "we can always hope" camp. This should be good for web layout.

 

Maybe he can have things fixed so that when an *adult* logs in to myscouting **print a YPT certificate** is the most prominent tab. Sorry it this doesn't apply to all but having just finished recharter this is very much on my mind. Varying levels of computer skills with our adult leaders but one thing they all have in common is someone telling them, "BSA can't recharter you if we can't verify YPT". The *print certificate tab* can't be buried like it is for a *must have* item. /rant

 

[NJCubScouter]

I agree about the web site. Hopefully this guy can do something about it. I especially love the "search" feature where the results are virtually guaranteed to have nothing to do with what you are looking for, especially when you KNOW there must be a document right on-point somewhere on the site. My suspicion is that the search feature does not actually look at the entire site, though what parts it does and doesn't look at is a mystery.

[Proud Eagle]

There are work arounds on the search problem. Use your favorite search engine and search within the domain.

 

However, that only works to a point, because the documetns and pages have not been tagged with the key words you are likely to be searching for. This is a problem with lots of council sites, too. Those key word tags are very important both on each individual page of the web site and for all documetns posted. Why BSA insists on using numbers for its PDF files boggles the mind. Even when you download them you still can't figure out which one is which unless you rename them all to something logical.

[Eagle92]

You are going to love what I do to find things on the BSA's website. I type in my topic "and scouting.org" in google.

 

For example

 

 

NALYE and Scouting.org

 

 

[AlamanceScouter]

Anybody else do this......you are feeling good about getting ready for the next Scout meeting or just want to get a Scouting fix so you go to Scouting.org and instantly feel deflated.

 

I can't tell you exactly what I want from the BSA website but I know I am not getting it.

[sailingpj]

Be glad you aren't Sea Scouts, at least scouting.org looks kinda pleasing to the eyes.

[Nike]

How about letting CM/SM and advancement chairs be able to see a boy's entire ScoutNet record, but not edit it?

 

That and I'd like to be able to print the Pack's ScoutNet roster myself every three months.

 

Here's hopin'.

 

[moosetracker]

Those who have done council rechartering since YPT.. How did that go in your councils... Yeah, not so good here.

 

The Recharter is produced by BSA.org so the paperwork stating the missing YPT is by their on-line records. Many missing due to membership ID not put in or not put in right. So the paperwork was printed so our registrar could enter it. All well and good except 75% show the membership ID correctly on the printed certificate, so what is the mis-connect at BSA.org..

 

Then there are those that BSA has correctly entered, but on-line didn't know about because people take in in-person still, not on-line and they never set up an account so the council entry to connect to the on-line for the person. So council doesn't need to enter, but on-line will never know about them.

 

Then there are the ones that on-line knew about told unit they were ok, so no paperwork needed, but council doesn't have that entry so they are still missing the YPT on the council records..

 

Recharter was alway a nightmare for councils, YPT and our wonderful software made it extra special for them this year..

 

[Eagle92]

Sailing,

While Seascout.org may not be as pleasing to the eyes, it is 110% easier to use. Info is very easy to find and the search engine works very well over there.

 

 

[shortridge]

Eagle92 and Proud Eagle,

 

Yep, I do the same thing. Google is your friend ...

 

Lots of websites turn their internal search functions over to Google. I'm not sure how it's done, if there's a fee, etc., but they seem to function just fine.

 

The other main issue I have is with the overall organization via the top tabs - Parent, Youth, Volunteer, Visitor, Alumni. If I click on "Volunteer," all I get are a few links to training and the like. I should be able to click on that tab and get instant access to the G2SS, Insignia Guide, program materials, new leader apps, etc., all organized by specific program level. Those tabs ought to be portals to a wealth of information tailored to the audience.(This message has been edited by shortridge)