Newsletter: 2024 Transformation

Counties / Regions / Areas

Scouts 2024 Transformation

Hi,

In this newsletter, I will outline the changes made to Scouts Online websites for the new Scouting roles and teams. These enhancements are only relevant to District/County Package Level 2 websites and Group Package Level 3 websites.

If you have any great ideas for how the website could further assist with your new teams, I would appreciate it if you would let me know.

Thank you for your continuing support. Have a great 2024.

Yours in Scouting,

Chris

Summary of Changes

New Role Names

New Scout Teams

New Event Types

New Team Pages

New Role Names

As you might be aware, the Scout Association is in the process of replacing the majority of our role titles. To align with these changes, all Scouts Online websites have been updated to allow you to display the new Scouting role names on your site.

The new role names have been added to Scouts Online websites, and matched against the corresponding old role names, where possible.

NB. Certain role names have been condensed to better fit into Team Lists. For instance, "Cub Team Leader" has been used instead of the complete "Section Team Leader of the Cub Team" title.

Direct Role Name Replacements

Direct replacements are available for the roles listed below:

County Commissioner

County Lead Volunteer

District Commissioner

District Lead Volunteer

Group Scout Leader

Group Lead Volunteer

Executive Member

Trustee

Roles Changed to Team Roles

The following District/County roles have been replaced with Team Member roles within one of the new teams:

Appointments and Training roles

Volunteer Develop Team Member

Explorer and Network roles

18-25 Team Member

Media roles

Support Team Member

Advisors and Assessors

Programme Team Member

Scouter and OHs

Programme Team Member

Unchanged Roles - To Update Manually

The roles listed below may not naturally correspond to a new team. Following your discussions with volunteers holding these roles, you can manually update their role on an individual basis. This adjustment can be made within the "Roles & Website Rights" tab in User Management.

Deputy Commissioner

Assistant Group Scout Leader

Assistant Commissioners

Group Contact

Squirrels Cohort Coach

Scout Active Support Leader

Squirrels Adviser

Assistant Scout Active Support Leader

Scout Active Support Manager

Switch On the New Role Names

A new field has been added to Global Settings/Group Details, allowing you to decide whether the website displays the old or new role names. By default, it's ticked to show the old role names.

Disabling the "Pre-2024 Scout Roles" field, will automatically change Team Lists across your website to display the new role titles for all your volunteers. It will also show the new roles in the Scouting Role drop-down-list in User Management.

Regardless of the "Pre-2024 Scout Roles" field, role drop-down lists on contact form will now use the new role names.

Override an Individual's Role Name

Individual user role names displayed in Team Lists can be overridden by entering their precise role description into the Role Description field within User Management. For instance, a "District Volunteer Develop Team Member" title could be altered to "Training Lead".

You may also override volunteer's main role with a title for each team they belong to. E.g. A Lead Volunteer may also be a "Team Member (Hillwalking)" in the Programme Team.

NB. If you have previously overridden role names in this way, these Role Descriptions will still show in the Team Lists on your website. You might want to review and update these accordingly.

Will More Things Change?

Well Probably. It's still early days, so some of the role names may still change in line with what the Scouts do. If you notice a change or correction, please get in touch.

The plan is to remove the old role names and the "Pre-2024 Scout Roles" field as we all progress forward. However, I recognise that some people may prefer to retain the current role names. If this applies to your Group, District or County, please feel free to contact me so that I can take this into consideration.

New Scout Teams

Within your Scouts Online website, you have the ability to assign users to teams. Team Lists, like the one shown below, are shown on various pages throughout your website. Additionally, you have the ability to add Team Lists onto your custom pages.

Team Types have been added for the new Scout teams. We've also populated these teams for you based on your users' current roles.

You can see the new teams below, along with the current roles that we've used to automatically add your volunteers to the teams for your website. It is recommended that you review your teams, move users as necessary, and include users with roles that couldn't be matched. This can be managed within User Management.

New District and County Website Teams

Team

Roles used to populate it

Leadership Team

Regional Commissioner
County/District Commissioner
TM: Deputy Commissioner
TM: Assistant Commissioner...
TM: Squirrels Adviser
TM: Assistant District Commissioner...
TM: Explorer Scout Commissioner
TM: Scout Network Commissioner
TM: Scout Active Support Manager
TM: Youth Commissioner

Trustee Board

Chair
President
Treasurer
Secretary
Executive Member

Volunteering Development Team

TM: Appointments Chair
TM: Appointments Secretary
TM: Appointments Committee Member
TM: Training Manager
TM: Training Administrator
TM: Trainer
TM: Training Adviser

Support Team

TM: Media Development Manager
TM: Media Development Member
TM: Scouter
TM: Occasional Helper

Programme Team

TM: Advisor
TM: Nights Away Adviser
TM: Assessor

14-25 Team

TM: Explorer Scout Commissioner
TM: Scout Network Commissioner
TM: Explorer Scout Leader
TM: Scout Network Leader

New Group Website Teams

Team

Roles used to populate it

Leadership Team

Group Scout Leader
TM: Assistant Group Scout Leader
TM: Squirrel Scout Leader
TM: Beaver Scout Leader
TM: Cub Scout Leader
TM: Scout Leader
TM: Explorer Scout Leader
TM: Scout Network Leader

Trustee Board

Chair
Group Scout Leader
Treasurer
Secretary
Executive Member

Key:

TL=Team Leader

TM=Team Member

New Event Types

District and County websites have new event types for the new teams, allowing you to setup events and team meetings associated with the team's responsibilities. These events will be visible on the new team-specific members' pages.

New Event Types

Leadership Team
Trustee Board
Volunt Dev Team
Support Team
Programme Team
14 to 25 Team

How it looks in Event Management

New Team Pages

New Team pages have been developed to help your teams in outline their objectives, provide support to volunteers, promote events, and facilitate collaboration among team members. Once activated, these pages will appear on the Members menu.

These pages have been populated with a blend of revised Scout verbiage, useful links, your team members and event details.

Each page includes a team introduction explaining the teams' responsibilities. Additionally, there's a list of team members to help your volunteers contact the appropriate individual to help them. District and County websites also show a list of team meetings and events, to help team management and promote events. Resource links are provided to support your team and volunteers seeking assistance. Most pages also include a contact form for volunteers to reach out to the team. You may want to change each contact form so that the form emails are sent to the team leader.

New District & County Team Pages

Leadership Team
Trustee Board
Section Teams
Volunteering Development
Support Team
Programme Team
14 to 25 Team

The new members' pages serve as replacements for the Adult Resources, Adult Appointments, Adult Training, Adult Training Diary, Adult Awards, and Media & Communications pages within the Members menu.

The Volunteering Development page contains links to new pages that mirror the content shown on the existing Adult Training, Adult Training Diary and Adult Awards pages. This allows the removal of the older pages from the menu without compromising any functionality. However, the old pages will still be available if you prefer to retain them on your Members menu.

New Group Team Pages

Leadership Team
Trustee Board
Section Teams

To add all your section teams to the Section Teams page:

Login as a Site Admin user
Open the Members/Section Teams page
Click the settings cog below the "Our Section Teams" text bar
Change the Use/Edit field to "Your Scout Group Default"
Tick all your youth sections and set the right-hand column to "Small Table" for each section
Click [Save] at the bottom of the screen
NB. If you'd like us to do this for you, please get in touch

Switch On The New Pages

You can activate the new pages and deactivate the old ones in Page Management. Additionally, you have the option to set the Privacy level individually for each page, allowing you to limit visibility to "Logged in users only" or show them to "Any website visitor".

As with other website pages, you may personalise the default text, links, forms, etc. on these pages with your own.

If you have suggestions for enhancing these pages, adding extra links, etc. and you believe they could benefit others in our community, please let me know your ideas.

Executive Committee

Trustee Board

The term "Executive Committee" across the Scouts Online platform and default page content has been replaced with "Trustee Board."

If you've customised the default content, or added your own pages, it's recommended to review your pages and manually update these instances as needed.

See How The New Changes Work in Practice

District/County Websites

Click to see Demo Website

Check out the following new pages:

Members / Leadership Team
Members / Trustee Board
Members / Volunteering Development
- Links - Training Information
- Links - Training Diary
- Links - Award Information
Members / Support Team
Members / Programme Team
Members / 14-25 Team

Group Websites

Click to see Demo Website

Check out the following new pages:

Members / Leadership Team
Members / Trustee Board
Members / Section Teams

Do you send out a District/County Newsletter?

If you distribute newsletters or annual reports to fellow Scout volunteers, we kindly request your assistance in including an advertisement encouraging other Groups, Districts, or Counties to explore their own Scouts Online FREE-TRIAL website.

Download Group Website Advert Here

The Scouts Online platform benefits from an expanding website community base, and we believe that the platform will evolve with ideas from a wide range of website users. Your support in recommending Scouts Online to neighbouring Groups, your DC, other Districts, and your County/Area/Region would be much appreciated. Thank you to all those who have already done so.

Thank you in advance for your support.

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