This morning we released a number of changes, many of them to support the new BSA rank requirements:
1) Various reports were updated to account for the new ranks
2) The calculation of rank percent complete was corrected
3) We changed the label on the event and attendance form from "Camping Nights" to "Tent Camping Nights". That field was always intended to be for tent camping nights, since we don't know of any award for sleeping in a bed in a cabin! This change is meant to make that more obvious.
4) We added a submit button to the top of the edit profile form to reduce scrolling for minor changes.
5) The CSV export of the requirements report was corrected so that the column names and values are actually aligned.
These changes are deploying as I write this and should be live by 7:40 AM CT.
Dave, As I have convinced my Troop to switch over to TroopTrack I have hit a slightly controversial topic. TroopMaster tracked camping nights and cabin camping night separately. Looking at this post it seems to indicate to me that TroopTrack only views Tent camping nights as trackable. As I have dealt with TroopTrack skeptics (some people just don’t like change) they have made the following arguments… The 2016 rank requirements require overnight events. Some of which require a "night in a tent: while others do not. Here is what I see the 2nd class requirement to be "Since joining, participate in five separate troop/patrol activities, three of which include overnight camping. These five activities do not include troop or patrol meetings. On at least two of the three campouts, spend the night in a tent that you pitch or other structure that you help erect (such as a lean-to, snow cave,or tepee)…The bolded sections would seem to indicate I need to keep track of one type of event versus another. The second bit of pushback is related to OA requirements. It seems that the type of camping is at the discretion of the ScoutMaster. So they want to know how many nights of each type of camping the scouts have participated in…My question is "what is TroopTrack’s response to these differing opinions? How can I use TroopTrack to satisfy those who have a concern about this? Is TroopTrack open to matching the TroopMaster functionality of tracking the two different types of camping? Thanks.
I am okay with adding support for cabin camping nights, I suppose. I was always under the impression that cabin nights didn’t count as overnight camps.
Dave, I thought the same as well. But as I input the data I could see that TroopMaster designated between the two and I really didn’t know what to do. I was worried if, as I input the data, I “reduced” the camping nights by eliminating the cabin nights I would get some scouts (or parents) erroneously thinking they had been “shorted”. So then how would I keep track of what I reduced it by? Then as I look at the rank requirements I can see how there is a way to count overnights against ranks for stays that are not camping. Then one of the people who is not happy about this change pushed back about the flexibility in the OA requirements. It would honestly be much easier on me if I could track the two. If an event had a “tent camping” or “cabin camping” designation and then I could see the amount of each on a report.
If you don’t make such a change, I would probably make the decision to track based on the most restrictive view which would be tent camping only. Then tell the ScoutMaster and ASMs to discuss with the Scout what they have done and signoff if the Scout can prove he met the requirement with additional non-camping nights. My problem is that my biggest naysayer on this change is an ASM and he is just looking for things to not like about TroopTrack. I have so many positives that far out weigh this and a few other minor negatives. It would just be nice to not have this on the negative side of the analysis.