BACKGROUND:

Scoutbook gives the ability for users to connect to youth as parents with very little verification. As a result, since the Scoutbook Mobile App is ONLY available to youth and parents, we saw leaders setting themselves up as “parents” within Scoutbook so they could mark advancement complete in the Scoutbook App.
So, parent connections within Scoutbook are not very trustworthy.

We also found that in most cases, youth only have one parent relationship set up in Akela. This is problematic as that parent may not be the person who works most directly with the youth on Scouting activities, but may have completed the sign-up at registration. With this in mind, when online renewals are sent, there is a possibility that they are sent to the least involved Scouting parent.

To remedy this, when a parent enters Scoutbook Plus, the UI logic will check if their access is based on a Scoutbook Connect and whether an Akela relationship has been established. If not, we are sharing with the parent that their parent relationship is not verified and giving instructions on how to verify (attached).
We plan to give until the end of the year for parents to verify the relationship, which hopefully will both clean up dubious connections and also add what may be the most vested parent relationship for Scouting to the youth.

An added benefit will be more parents who may see the renewal notice.

Questions? Contact support@michiganscouting.org