ScoutTrack.com

ScoutTrack.com is an internet-based service that makes it easy to manage your Cub Scout pack or Boy Scout troop. It was designed specifically to use the power of the Internet to replace the tracking charts and trail records in the back of the scout books as well as the spreadsheets and paper records typically kept by den leaders.

• You don't have to periodically give your leader your scout book! ScoutTrack.com enables you to go online and mark the activities that your scout has completed (or is planning to complete) and your leader immediately sees everything that scouts have completed at home.
• Den/patrol leaders and scoutmasters can mark which activities will be done (or are done already) in meetings and you see those immediately.
• You can easily send email messages to your den/patrol or leader without having to know all their email addresses — ScoutTrack.com knows them for you!
• Scouts, pack leaders, scoutmasters, achievement/award coordinators and den/patrol leaders have additional capabilities customized for their role in the pack/troop.
• Boy Scouts can even login and plan/mark done activities (certain Boy Scout activities like scoutmaster conferences and board of reviews can only be marked complete by the scoutmaster or adult patrol leader).
• Security and privacy is maintained with your own userid and password.
• Parents can see all the activities for all their Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts in ScoutTrack.com — even boys that are members of different packs/troops (provided those packs/troops are using ScoutTrack.com)!

For a complete list, see ScoutTrack.com features.

The roles for a Cub Scout pack are:

• Pack Leader (i.e. the Cubmaster, committee chairperson, etc): Pack leaders can create dens, add scouts and their parents to those dens and setup which users are achievement coordinators and den leaders. Pack leaders can also send email to everyone in the pack.
• Advancements Coordinator: Advancements coordinatorscan run the "badges earned" report to get a consolidated view of which scouts earned which badges. They can then mark particular badges as ordered and/or distributed.
• Den Leaders: Den leaders can change their den (add scouts & parents to their den only). They can enter activities for their den. They can also enter home activities on behalf of the parents (in case there are some parents who don't have internet access).
• Parents: Parents can mark activities completed at home only. They can see the den plans but can't modify them.

The roles for a Boy Scout troop are:

• Troop Leader (i.e. head Scoutmaster, committee chairperson, etc): Troop leaders can create patrols, add scouts and their parents to those patrols and setup which users are achievement coordinators and scoutmasters. Troop leaders can also send email to everyone in the troop.
• Advancements Coordinator: Advancements coordinators can run the "badges earned" report to get a consolidated view of which scouts earned which badges. They can then mark particular badges as ordered and/or distributed.
• Scoutmaster (includes the Assistant Scoutmasters): ScoutTrack.com needs to have one or more Scoutmasters assigned to each patrol for purposes of being responsible for marking Scoutmaster conferences and Board of Reviews completed. These Scoutmasters can also change their patrol (add scouts & parents). They can mark patrol activities completed. They can also enter home activities on behalf of the parents or scouts (in case there are some parents/scouts who don't have internet access).
• Parents: Parents can mark activities completed at home only. They can see the patrol plans but can't modify them.
• Scouts: Boy scouts can have login accounts in ScoutTrack.com also. The troop leadership has the choice of whether to allow these scouts to mark "unprotected" activities completed. These "unprotected" activities are any badge activity not including Scoutmaster conferences and Board of Reviews (only the Scoutmaster can mark those "protected" activities completed).

Note that a person can (and typically does) have multiple roles in the pack or troop. For instance, den leaders are probably also parents. So in that case ScoutTrack.com will present both the den leader functions as well as the parent functions.

Since each user has their own ID/password, ScoutTrack.com can uniquely identify them and determine their role within the pack or troop. There are extensive checks throughout ScoutTrack.com to prevent unauthorized people from accessing and changing things they shouldn't change.

• ScoutTrack.com is internet-based. ScoutTrack.com was designed from the beginning to be Internet-based so that you can easily share and communicate with your Cub Scout pack or Boy Scout troop. With PC-based pack/troop management packages, it is virtually impossible to effectively share information between leaders of the pack or troop.
• ScoutTrack.com is for everyone in your pack or troop. All of the other pack/troop Management packages are designed to be used by the adult leaders. That completely leaves the parents and scouts on their own for managing their scouting activities and their progress. And the Advancements Coordinator has to to call all the Den Leaders to find out which badges have been earned.
• ScoutTrack.com guides you through the completion of awards & badges. Individual activities are shown and summarized, and the system knows when all the requirements have been met. Other pack/troop Management packages just give you a screen to enter the date a certain badge was earned.

Absolutely! You can get started right now with a 30 day free trial. Click here to get started!

No. ScoutTrack.com is independent of the BSA. It supports the programs of the BSA and changes as the BSA program changes. Our mission is to make it easier for the volunteers and parents to provide and experience the scouting program.

To use ScoutTrack.com, you will need a browser such as Firefox, Chrome, Netscape, Safari, Internet Explorer or AOL, a connection to the internet (via your own Internet Service Provider) and your own userid & password (which will be given to you when you sign up)

No, ScoutTrack.com does not replace or provide a general web site for your pack.

Just add a navigation button to your existing web site with ScoutTrack.com's system URL. When you register your pack or troop with ScoutTrack.com, you can specify your pack's or troop's web site address and ScoutTrack.com will direct people back to your site when they logout. To see an example of this, check out Pack 61's web site or Troop 35's website.

Send all inquiries to info@ScoutTrack.com.

The cost of a 12-month license to use ScoutTrack.com is $45 for a Cub Scout pack or a Boy Scout troop — regardless of the number of scouts. But the first 30 days is free so you can try it out risk free!

Sure! Just click here to start your 30-day free trial.

Only people within your pack/troop will see your full address and phone number. Note: ScoutTrack.com technical support personnel can also see this information. See our Privacy policy for more information.

If you don't want people within your pack/troop to have your full address and phone number, then you have two options:

1. ScoutTrack.com has an option you can check to keep your information private to other parents in your pack/troop. The leaders of your pack/troop will still be able to see your full address and phone number information. Note: Pack leaders can not keep their address or phone number information from the parents of the pack/troop.
2. If you don't want anyone (include the leaders) in your pack/troop to have your full address and phone number, you can leave the fields empty. The only required fields are your city and state.

ScoutTrack.com keeps two different sorts of data:

• Membership information — the scouts, parents, leaders and their personal information like address, phone number, email address, etc
• Achievement completion data for each scout

When considering safety of that data, there are two aspects:

1. Can an unauthorized person gain access to the data? This is most important for the personal information. ScoutTrack.com has extensive security checks to prevent unauthorized access. See the discussion on the roles defined within ScoutTrack.com for more information. Also, see the Privacy Policy for details on personal information.
2. Is the data protected against system failures? The ScoutTrack.com database is backed up automatically every night and copied to various tapes in a prescribed full/incremental backup schedule. There has been one instance of a network hardware failure that resulted in the need to take the backup to a new host machine to get ScoutTrack.com back up and running quickly. So the backups do work!

ScoutTrack.com was developed by Tom Hjellming, the father of three scouts including his oldest son who is an Eagle scout. Tom is a professional sofware developer with a M.S. degree in Computer Science and over 27 years of experience developing commercial software for companies such as Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, Platinum Technologies, Full Tilt Solutions and RiverGlass. For the last fourteen years, Tom has concentrated on Internet-based applications using JavaEE, Dynamic HTML technology, AJAX, jQuery and Google Web Toolkit.

It came to our attention that many ScoutTrack.com users had very weak passwords. In fact there were 420 users in ScoutTrack.com whose password was the same as their userid — 58 of them were pack or troop leaders. One pack leader on the east coast had an unauthorized user guess their userid/password — the impersonator wreaked some havoc that caused embarrasment to the pack leader and it took several hours for technical support to repair the changes and track down who did it and how. This incident prompted the implementation of the stronger password requirements. Click here for an article discussing password issues.

While it is a hassle having to remember complicated passwords, there are two solutions: 1) if you have a private computer, click the "remember me" box on the login screen to use a "cookie" within your browser so you don't have to type in your userid/password every time you use ScoutTrack.com; or 2) use a Password manager like LastPass, KeePass or KeePassX.

If you still have questions about ScoutTrack.com, please send email to Technical Support.