SOAR

A new option has been added to the Repeating Events feature – last weekday of the month.

This will assist in easier creation of a series of events where the 4th weekday of a month is not the same as the last weekday of the month

The SOAR EBlast feature is now available on your unit websites ! This feature is available to all customers with the Advanced package.

We have been working on this feature for quite some time - MUCH longer that we originally anticipated. We appreciate your patience while we took the time to create a quality feature for you to use. We believe this feature is going to radically change and simplify how you communicate with your unit members.

EBlast Overview

Communicating with scouts/parents is one of the most important and time consuming tasks unit leaders have.

A typical scout/parent will receive multiple emails each week with reminders, information on new events, final details on upcoming events, changes in meeting schedules, volunteer requests, etc. For each of these, a unit leader will post content to the unit website AND send an email to the appropriate group.

Since the release of the TroopMaster 2008 Import feature, a couple of bugs have been identified and fixed. We are communicating these to you because you may need to take action to correct any errors in your Troop Roster – most likely through a simple re-import.

If you have questions on any of this, just give us a call and we can walk you through it.

TroopMaster Mic-O-Say

Mic-O-Say is an honor society used in a number of Councils. It is not an official BSA program.

TroopMaster has an option to perform Mic-O-Say record keeping. If you have Mic-O-Say turned off in TroopMaster Preferences, an invalid SOAR export file will be created.

This upgrade primarily pertains to Boy Scout Troops. Cub Scout Packs will obtain the same features when PackMaster 2008 is released in a few months.

Thanks to our friends at Troopmaster Software Inc. we have a number of great additions to the SOAR TroopMaster Import features.

These include:

• Single click export of a single file from TroopMaster 2008
• Date file encryption
• Short website account usernames
• Individual Progress Report is now available on your website. Yes, it is finally here !!
• Scouts Roster report without parents

We are pleased to announce immediate availability of the following upgrades and new features.

If you have previously used the TroopMaster ME/2005 Import functions, you member accounts will have "long" usernames. i.e. their usernames will contain their full first name.

When using the TroopMaster 2008 Import function this naming convention will continue so as not to unexpectedly change login information and potentially confuse your members.

You can convert from "long" to "short" usernames by using the following steps.

1. Upgrade to TroopMaster 2008 (www.troopmaster.com)
2. Make sure you have the latest TroopMaster 2008 patches (V4.00f or newer)
3. Run an export from TroopMaster 2008
   

To import TroopMaster 2008+ data into your SOAR myTroop website, do the following

1. Navigate to the TroopMaster 2008-2011 Import function on your website
2. Select the options you would like to use
3. Select the export file from TroopMaster
4. Click the Import button

Import options include

• Activate Adults?
  • Active = members can login to the website using their individual username & password.
  • Blocked = members will need to use shared account
  • Either way, account information will be available for the Roster and Email Lists.
    

The export of TroopMaster 2008+ data has been greatly simplified thanks to the folks at Troopmaster Software, Inc. In addition, the resulting single data file is encrypted to protect your senstive information.

Instructions

Use the following process to export data from TroopMaster.

1. Open TroopMaster
2. Click File/Export/SOAR.
3. Select a location to save the file
4. Remember where you saved the file

How easy is that???

Here are some guidelines for data that resides in your TroopMaster database.

Scouts & Adults

• All names (scout, parent, and adult) should be unique. Use middle names and suffixes if necessary to ensure all names are unique.
• The website account username will be automatically generated in the format
  • <first initial><middle initial><last name><suffix>
• Do not use co-leaders for patrols. Pick one as primary and one as assistant.
• Only current leadership (both scout and adult) should be recorded. If older positions are recorded, they may come through to the Troop Website.
  

The TroopMaster 2008+ Import will save alot of typing time by pulling account, roster, and achievement data directly from your TroopMaster database to populate your website automatically.

Upon initial import this feature will

• Create a website account for each scout, parent, and adult
• Group scouts together into Patrols
• Link scouts and parents in child/parent relationships
• Assign leadership positions to both scouts and parents/adults
• Associate achievement information with individual scouts

When importing you can control

• If website accounts are Active or Blocked
  

You will need to export two seperate files from PackMaster to import into your Unit website. The first one contains Scout data and the second one contains Adult Leader data.

Use the following process to export and save each file.

1. Open PackMaster.
2. Click File/Export/ASCII Delimited.
3. Click "Include field names as first line of export".
4. Select the "Comma Delimited" Format.
5. Select Area "Scout Data" the first time through the process, "Adult Data" the second time.
6. Select the date format "MM/DD/YYYY".
7. Click the "Add All" button.
8. Click the "Export" button.