Scoutbook
Troop 82 uses the Scouting America-operated website Scoutbook to track each boy’s activity and advancement through his scouting career.
Scoutbook is the back-office platform that accounts for a scout’s activity including rank advancement, merit badges, service hours, camping nights, and hiking activity. It is also the location for family contact information, troop-wide emails, and other scouting information. The website is intuitive and works quite well on your mobile phone or desktop computer.
When parents register their son for Scouting, they create a login and account within Scoutbook that includes information about their son. We highly recommend that parents use personal email address instead of a work address and enter their mobile phone number. The Troop IT team will send links to one or both parents to ensure that their parent Scoutbook account is connected to their son’s information. Individual scouts usually do not have a Scoutbook login of their own and can access their advancement information through one of their parents’ accounts.
Parent’s should use the newest version of Scoutbook, referred to as “Scoutbook Plus,” at this link: advancements.scouting.org. This version of Scoutbook is the most up-to-date and easiest to navigate. Prior versions of Scoutbook — my.scouting.org and scoutbook.scouting.org — are still active but are generally for administrative purposes for Troop leadership.
We highly recommend that parents login to Scoutbook early in their Troop 82 career to confirm that they can review their son’s information!
For fifth and sixth graders in the Scouting ranks of First Class or below, rank advancement milestones are managed by the scout and his company scoutmaster in his physical Scout Handbook (different than the online Scoutbook!) that he brings to each Monday meeting and Campout. At the end of each semester, the scout will bring his Scout Handbook rank advancement checklist to the IT/Merit Badge Desk outside Elliott Hall at Monday night meetings. The Troop IT Team will enter the advancement milestones into the Scoutbook.
Scouts that complete merit badges or service hours can bring their completed paperwork to the IT/Merit Badge Desk on Monday nights. The Merit Badge team will review the information with the scout and enter the information into Scoutbook. The purpose of the Merit Badge Desk is to collect and enter scout activity information into Scoutbook. Scouts shouldn’t go to the Merit Badge Desk to check their progress or see what merit badges they are missing; they should do that themselves within Scoutbook!
While we understand that parents can be helpful to scouts in achieving milestones, the purpose of the Scouting experience is to encourage scouts to learn to speak to adults, advocate for himself, and follow-through on his responsibilities. Scouts – not parents! – should interact with the Merit Badge Team to communicate his scouting progress.
Troop 82 policy is for troop leadership to enter all rank, merit badges, and other advancement information within Scoutbook.
Parents, do not update any advancement information for your son within Scoutbook!
Scoutbook can be confusing! If you have trouble, please email troop82@hptroop82.org with any questions.