Scouting Community News

Scouting Community News

October 1, 2009. Be a Scouting Alumni.

BSAalumni.org is up and running and Scouting's alumni are signing on. Even if you are a registered, active, or inactive Scouter, we would love to have you listed as a Scouting alumni. Soon there will be a Scrapbook feature at our Web site where you can post your favorite Scouting story and photo. During Scouting Anniversary week in February 2010, we plan to send out e-mail invitations to all reconnected alumni, inviting them to Alumni Day at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree. We also have plans to launch a monthly electronic newsletter in 2010, spreading the good news of Scouting, with only the best, heart-warming stories--those you'll want to repeat.

If you are an Eagle Scout, then hopefully you are already a member of the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA). NESA recently launched its new online member services at www.nesa.org, which have extensive social networking features, including a permanent @nesa.org e-mail address, resume posting, etc. If you are an Eagle Scout and not a member of NESA, it's a good time to join. The dues may increase next year.

Good Scouting,

Bill Steele

Director of Alumni Relations and the National Eagle Scout Association

National Council, Boy Scouts of America

July 23, 2009. Issues Corrected.

  • When you receive an e-mail post update, clicking the link will now correctly direct you to the post rather than your home page.
  • When you receive an invitation to join a group, clicking the link will now correctly direct you to the group rather than your home page.
  • The footer image is now appearing correctly on each page.

July 20, 2009. ProSpeak Online

The first digital edition of ProSpeak is now available on www.scouting.org/prospeak. The July issue's main feature focuses on fall membership with insight into developing successful relationships for membership growth. Other feature articles include a look at partnering with the Hispanic community to develop a yearly recruiting strategy and A Year of Celebration, which kicks off in September as part of the BSA's 100th Anniversary Celebration program. And no ProSpeak would be complete without Trailblazers for updates on staff assignments, Retirees, and In Fond Remembrance.

July 17, 2009. Issue Corrected.

Downloading media files from your profile page (Your Files) or someone else’s profile page (My Files) is now working correctly.

July 10, 2009. Issue Corrected.

We have corrected the "User Not Found" issue, where viewing certain profiles and navigating in groups with those profiles was resulting in the error. Continue to check this spot for more updates, and please post your issues to the Users Group for the Scouting Community or e-mail myscouting@scouting.org.

July 9, 2009. System Availability.

The Scouting Community will be unavailable from 3:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. Central Time on Friday, July 10, for system maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

July 1, 2009. Issue Corrected.

Downloading media files from Groups is now working properly.

Holiday Hours.

The National Council office and the National Service Desk will be closed on Thursday, July 2, and Friday, July 3, in observance of Independence Day. All regional offices will also be closed. The National Distribution Center will have normal business hours on July 2, but will be closed on July 3.

While the National Service Desk will not be staffed on July 2-3, we encourage you to e-mail myscouting@scouting.org if you have an issue to report.

High-adventure bases will be open during this time.

June 25, 2009.

When you begin working again after 20 minutes of inactivity on MyScouting, you no longer receive an error message. Instead the system returns you to the login page.

June 23, 2009.

These items were corrected in the Scouting Community:

  • The Join Date on the Members page now shows the date when you created a MyScouting account rather than today’s date. Before June 1, this date was the date you joined the Scouting Community. Now, because members are automatically given access to the Community when they create a MyScouting account, the two dates are not distinct, but the same.
  • Also on the Members page, you can now use the navigation at the bottom to advance or return through the pages of members; only the “Last” option is still an issue.
  • In Forums, selecting Personalize now gives you the personalized view of your Forum posts with the option to display or hide a particular forum topic.

    June 19, 2009.

    Watch It! Boy Scouts of America’s Official YouTube Channel. The Boy Scouts of America is now officially on YouTube! It’s a great way for the BSA to share video content with the world and engage visitors who may want to join, give, volunteer or find out more about Scouting. To find BSA’s official YouTube channel, and other YouTube channels managed by BSA, look for the Follow links located on each and every page of Scouting.org and click YouTube, or visit (http://scouting.org/follow/youtube.aspx).

    Help spread the word on Scouting! Share this link on your council web pages and through other council communications.

    June 18, 2009.

    The avatar issue is resolved. You can now add or change your avatar from your Profile page. Select Edit Profile, browse for an image, then upload the file, and save changes to your profile.

    June 11, 2009.

    Today we have restored avatars to those profiles that had avatars prior to June 1. We are still working on editing your profile to add or change an avatar.

    Additionally, the links that were mis-directing to the profile page are now directed to the correct page. These links are:

    Groups, Media page: Most Recent, Most Downloads, Most Popular, Most Comments; Discussions; Blogs.

    Friends: Requests to Review, Your Requests.

    Blogs: Most Recent, Most Viewed, Most Commented.

    Forums: Personalize, Write a New Post.

    Continue to check this spot for more updates, and please post your issues to the Users Group for the Scouting Community or e-mail myscouting@scouting.org.

    June 10, 2009.

    Several days ago we reported some issues that we are working to resolve on the Scouting Community. Developers have made great progress toward solving these.

    Anyone whose posts became disconnected from their profile after June 1 can now be re-associated with their posts. To resolve your posts, please send an e-mail to myscouting@scouting.org including your old user name (prior to June 1) and new user name so we can link your posts to your new profile.

    Most recently, the message “Sorry there was a problem with your last request...” has also been resolved. If you see this message again, please report it to the User’s Group on Scouting Community or e-mail myscouting@scouting.org.

    Because the Community is now using a higher level of security, you may see a message indicating that there are both secure and unsecure items on the page and asking if you want the unsecured items to display. This appears whenever you load a page that includes a link to an http address, which may be less secure than the new https access we now have on the Community. You can disable this message by selecting Internet Options, Security tab, Custom level; scroll to Miscellaneous, Display Mixed Content, and click Enable.

    Developers continue to work on other issues, including avatars and images, friend requests, and links mis-directing to the profile page. Please check this page for progress, and feel free to post any other concerns in the User Group for Scouting Community listed under the National groups. Additionally, you may e-mail myscouting@scouting.org.

    June 4, 2009.

    Last weekend, an upgrade was completed that changed our Web site.

    Scouting.org, MyScouting, and Scouting Community were re-branded as the first step toward personalized content delivery based on your Scouting role or position.

    Beyond the branding, this upgrade did not add any additional functionality to the Community. Instead, it is a new instance of Scouting Community, which is intended to strengthen security requirements.

    About 5 percent of users in the Scouting Community had corrupted data in their account profiles. The upgrade team attempted to salvage legitimate member profiles by matching the MyScouting account to the member database; however, in some cases it was not possible. As a result, and with the enforcement of stronger security policies, it became necessary to remove these users from the system. The posts and discussions were merged into another account, so the data remains in the Scouting Community; however, it is attributed to someone other than the original author. While this is regrettable, it's important that this problem was discovered now while we are still in beta. This only affected the Scouting Community; it did not affect any training or membership records.

    Please see the group called Users Group for the Scouting Community (in the National category) for more discussion. Also, check this News from National spot for updates daily. We want to keep you informed of the issues and the status toward correcting them. These are three top issues:

      Finally, the National Service Desk is fully supporting the rollout of Scouting.org and MyScouting. If you need assistance or to report concerns or problems, please send an e-mail to myscouting@scouting.org.

      May 31, 2009

      Scouting.org and Scouting Community Changes. As announced at the National Annual Meeting, www.scouting.org and Scouting Community have been re-branded to better meet the needs of all audiences. The site’s new look allows visitors to identify themselves and receive information specific to their interests.

      Member login to MyScouting also recognizes individuals and provides tools based on who they are. A new profile page provides links to systems, including Scouting Community, and other information based on the login. The consistent branding of all digital tools accessed from one location is the BSA’s ultimate digital strategy. The redesigned scouting.org site will be the gateway to these tools.

      To ensure seamless access to all tools, members with MyScouting accounts must update their login name the first time they log in. E-mail logins must be changed to user name to maintain a consistent entry point to other Scouting applications.

      May 11, 2009.

      Important! The Scouting Community upgrade has been postponed. Scouting Community WILL BE AVAILABLE this week. Keep checking this area for news on the new upgrade date.

      May 8, 2009.

      In mid-May, Scouting Community will go through an upgrade, and the “beta” label will be taken off. To prepare for this, Scouting Community will NOT BE AVAILABLE from 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, until 5 p.m. Tuesday, May 19, Central Time. The site will undergo some changes, both visible and behind the scenes. Look for details later in the month. Meanwhile, we apologize for the inconvenience, and we look forward to providing more enhancements to the Community in the future.

      April 28, 2009.

      Yesterday we reached 16,000 members!

      Some members have requested that we re-organize Groups using different Categories to facilitate the process of finding a specific group. The current organization does not always make it easy to find the group you want. We have posted a suggestion for new group categories. Please visit the group called “About Scouting Community” currently found in the National category. Join the group and vote on the suggested changes. An Excel spreadsheet in the Media area shows the proposed categories. We appreciate your feedback to this poll.

      April 21, 2009

      Our Scouting Community membership continues to grow. This past weekend, we reached 15,000 members!

      Today we are enabling the Chat functionality. Chat is instant dialog in short bursts with anyone from within a group or forum. From a group, select the Chat link on the right side options. From Forums, select the coffee cup icon next to a forum. You’ll be directed to a chat room. In Forums, anyone can join the chat. In Groups, only the members of the group can chat.

      Messenger becomes active today as well. Messenger is on your Profile page just below your avatar. Messenger is useful for one-on-one, private instant conversation with someone who is your friend.

      Look for updated instructions from the Help tab soon.

      Chat Guidelines

      • Missing avatars: Avatars previously uploaded to your profile or groups are not appearing and attempting to upload an avatar is unsuccessful.
      • Friend Requests: Friend requests are not being delivered, and when you attempt to check your friend requests from your profile page, it simply returns you to the profile page.
      • Lost Posts: Some people no longer have any posts made prior to June 1 associated with their profile record.
      • Behave like a Scout and obey the Scout Law.
      • Know how to report abuse.
      • Think before you type; everyone in the chat room can see what you post.
      • To limit your comment to one person, select that person and select Whisper.
      • Keep messages short.
      • Take turns posting messages as much as possible.
      • Stay on topic.
      • Avoid posting images or documents; they take up a large portion of the chat window.
      • Don’t use ALL CAPITAL LETTERS - it’s considered shouting and is hard on the eyes.
      • There is Help in the control panel (gear icon).
      • Sign out using the Disconnect button or sign out icon.