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January 2019 Enhancements

Scouts BSA™ is gearing up to support girl troops starting February 1, and so are we!  We offer two ways to support organizations who plan to charter a troop for girls:


Two Troops Share One Site

This approach is best for troops that plan to be tightly integrated, with the boy troop and girl troop sharing most events, with common fundraising activities and shared financials.

With this approach, both troops will share one TroopWebHost subscription, with one Home page and one database containing the information for both troops.

Of course, each troop can create their own custom pages to tell their own story.  We can help you create links to these pages from your Home page.

Girls will be separated from boys by patrol.  We support this by allowing you to designate a gender for each patrol, as shown here:

This, in turn, allows you to create dynamic subgroups for the girl troop and the boy troop, simply by specifying their patrols in the subgroup definition.

Once you've created these dynamic subgroups, you can set up events that are just for one or the other troop by limiting participation to that subgroup.

Some adult leaders will serve both troops, while others may be designated for one or the other.  To identify these relationships, we added a new table to store the name of each troop.

This function is now available at Site Configuration → Boy & Girl Troops.

Once you've created entries for both troops, you can then indicate which troop each adult leader serves in each of their positions.

This approach comes with these constraints:


Link Two Sites, One For Each Troop

We recommend this approach for troops that will operate independently, with some shared leadership and events.

With this approach, each troop will acquire its own TroopWebHost subscription, which will give them their own web presence and control of their own Home page and other public pages.  When the second site is purchased, you should immediately contact TroopwebHost customer support to request that the two sites be linked.

When two sites are linked we will synchronize certain types of information between the two sites:

Adult Membership Records

Some adults will be involved with both troops, either as adult leaders or because they are parents of scouts in each troop.  When the two sites are linked, we will provide the ability to copy their membership information from one site to the other.  From that point forward, the two records will be "linked", meaning that updates to the record on one site will be automatically applied to the corresponding record in the other.

Adult leaders may be copied to the new troop using a button on the Active Adults page which is only visible on linked sites.

Adults from the first troop who are parents of scouts in the second troop can be added when the scout is added via the New Scout Registration page.

Outside merit badge counselors who are registered on the first troop's site can be copied to the second troop using a new button on the Counselors Not In Our Troop tab of the Merit Badge Counselors page.

In each case, the adult may be selected from a drop down list of the adults in the other troop who have not yet been linked.

Once they have been linked, most of the fields in the membership record will be automatically synchronized between the two sites, with some exceptions that are outlined in the User Guide.

Adult training history will also be synchronized between the two sites for linked members, as will the list of merit badges supported by merit badge counselors.

Event Locations

When two sites are linked, all of the event locations in the first troop's site will be copied to the second site.  From that point forward, all changes made to locations in either site will be automatically applied to the corresponding location in the other site.

The one exception is location photos, which will not be shared between the sites.

Event Types

When two sites are linked, all of the event types in the original site will be copied to the new site.  From that point forward, many of the attributes of each event will be synchronized between the two sites.

While the User Guide spells out specifically which values will be synchronized, in general any attribute that enables fields on the event record itself - like camping nights or hiking miles - will be synchronized;  other attributes, such as those that affect participation records (sign up and attendance), presence on the calendar or newsletter, or the rules for reminders, can be maintained independently by each troop.

Events

When two sites are linked, all of the events from the first site will be copied to the second, where they will be flagged as being for the other troop only.

If some of these events will be joint events that the second troop plans to participate in, they can add it to their calendar using the button shown here.

The other troop's events will not show up on the main troop calendar - or in their member's iCalendar subscriptions - but they will appear when you click the Show All Calendar Items button.


The "linked sites" approach also comes with some constraints:


Color Coding Events On Calendar

All troops have a Show All Calendar Items button on their calendar.  This allows members to see events that they are not allowed to participate in, due to the event being limited to a dynamic subgroup to which they do not belong.

This calendar now features color coding so you can tell which events are which:

For linked sites, the color coding also allows you to see which events belong to which troop:


Venturing in Order of the Arrow

Effective Feburary 1, youth in Venturing units may qualify for Order of the Arrow if they've earned the Discovery award or higher, assuming that they also meet the camping requirements.  The TroopWebHost Order of the Arrow Scout Eligibility Report has been updated to reflect this new rule.


Send Us Your Questions and Suggestions

Send us a ticket from the My Support Tickets page on your site's Help menu.   This is absolutely the best way to communicate with us!

Or simply contact us at CustomerSupport@TroopWebHost.com.  If you do, please include your troop number and city in your message so we can identify your site.