ScoutSoft Version 4.0
Youth Advancement & CERT Software for LDS Stakes & Wards Worldwide
BSA Software That You Can Trust!
ScoutSoft Allows You to run Standalone or in the Clouds!
ScoutSoft is the only scouting program that creates PDF and JPEG reports for viewing on all compatible handheld devices like Ipad, Ibooks, eReader, Kindle, Nook & most cell phones so you can stay informed all the time! And ScoutSoft also creates Excel compatible requirement spreadsheets which can be used on compatible mobile devices and on Google's free internet spreadsheets which all your leaders can access for free!
"This is the functionality (Sponsor Only FTP Internet Data Sharing) that we have been waiting for!!! I set mine up today, and it appears to be working great." LDS YM Leader - Nevada
ScoutSoft's sponsor locally controlled FTP Internet multi-leader sharing allows leaders to view & update a 'single Ward ONLY database' with automatic backups stored 'locally' on your ward leader's computers. If your internet server goes down your Ward leaders can still get critical reports out because the database is also on their local computers! If you were using an 'internet only database' your data would be lost along with all of their other users. However, with ScoutSoft's use of your local internet provider's FTP server that contains ONLY your sponsor's ScoutSoft data your leader's can still access the last data files as they are automatically duplicated on the leader's computer's hard drive!
"Thanks - this is exactly why I am driving so hard to get us back on track. I am frankly amazed at how we have appear[ed] to have digressed over the past few years. Not to worry though, I am committed to have us back on track within a couple of months as far as having the critical right information in front of the right folks at the right time to facilitate the right decisions & understanding. Thanks for your assistance." Ward PEC Leader - Utah
The LDS Church specifically prohibits its leaders from using third party copyrighted materials without the specific written permission of the copyright holder including within computer programs! (See LDS.org - Administering the Church) The Boy Scouts of America National office has stated that they have not granted permission to any scouting software provider to display, print or distribute in ANY form their copyrighted symbols & rank and/or award descriptions and requirements, etc. LDS leaders that use any of the 'non-BSA certified' scouting internet software vendors that display the BSA copyrighted symbols and award requirement descriptions are in violation of stated LDS church policy (see below) and in violation of the BSA's copyrights. See comparison chart below for BSA copyright violation status of current available non-BSA Certified internet scouting software applications all of which violate the LDS Church's copyright policy of the last update of the comparison chart!
Below is the LDS copyright policy per the Handbook 2 - Administering the Church on LDS.org
Copyright is protection given by law to the creators of original works of authorship that are expressed in a tangible form, including:
1. Literary, musical, dramatic, and choreographic works.
2. Works of art, photography, and sculpture.
3. Audio and audiovisual works (such as movies and videos, CDs, and DVDs).
4. Computer programs or games.
5. Internet and other databases.
Church members should strictly observe all copyright laws. Generally, only copyright owners may authorize duplication (copying), distribution, public performance, public display, or derivatives of their work. Using a work in any of these ways without authorization from the copyright owner is contrary to Church policy and may also subject the Church or the user to legal liability.
Scouting Software Comparison The results shown are based upon limited review of the software packages shown and the user will need to test the software themselves if they have questions concerning the various features of each software package shown. ScoutSoft and Troopmaster are the ONLY scouting programs certified by the BSA which means their advancement routines were reviewed by the BSA National office and their advancement routines results are EXACTLY the same! Read the following Alerts & Updates before viewing the Scouting Software Comparison report - None as of October 2010.
None of the current internet ONLY based scouting websites are certified. Most are only 'fill in the box' applications with no actual advancement monitoring and all were found to be in violation of the BSA's copyrights which is prohibited by the LDS Church! Those that try to do advancement monitoring do not do it properly resulting in their users scouts' advancement toward their Eagle rank to be significantly delayed or even improperly terminated. None of these internet uncertified scout advancement program's advancement reports were found to agree with ScoutSoft's BSA certified advancement reports! When a leader switches to BSA certified software most of the 'critical' advancement to Eagle problems are found immediately giving you the time to resolve them with your council's advancement offices to get your scouts back onto the proper trail to Eagle. Do not wait to change until its too late! More importantly don't wait to get them resolved before the scout's mother finds out! Now that could get ugly!
It is better to catch the noncertified internet scouting application's errors NOW by upgrading to ScoutSoft BSA Certified software before the scout's Eagle application is rejected by your council offices or even worse at the scout's Eagle Board of Review! It even gets worse - one of the 'uncertified' internet advancement scouting websites actually reassigns merit badges improperly each time the next rank is earned so the merit badge's dates no longer align properly with the Council's rank earned record dates creating a Board of Review nightmare!
ScoutSoft is the only BSA Certified software that does all this!
ScoutSoft is the ONLY BSA Certified software that has NO LIMITATIONS on data exchanging between leaders! ScoutSoft is the ONLY program that lets you run your FULL LDS youth program on a standalone basis or on an internet shared FTP database that contains only your Ward's data and is only accessed by your own leaders instead of being on an unknown third party controlled internet single master database being accessed by thousands of people from anywhere in the world! ScoutSoft has more flexible database options and is more secure with a separate database controlled by the local leaders.
ScoutSoft's low annual license fits easily within your Stake's or Ward's budget!
ScoutSoft's 4.0 Java version runs on the major platforms - Windows, Linux and Mac! Plus with ScoutSoft's Print to File feature all reports can be saved to a PDF, JPEG or PNG format for storing on leader's mobile phones (if compatible). Phone List, Unit Rosters, Advancement Status, Requirements Completed reports, etc. can all be saved and loaded onto compatible leader's mobile phones for viewing by all youth leaders.
Upload your BSA Advancement Reports and Charters to your Council with ScoutSoft!
ScoutSoft controls the LDS Ward's complete CERT emergency services program!
ScoutSoft allows leaders the choice to use a shareable data file controlled by the local leader on the local leader's internet provider instead of on some other businesses' internet site!
Alert for LDS Scout Leaders - The BSA Council's internet advancement files for ranks and merit badges is not the official data base of the BSA for approval of Eagle applications since the data is inputed by the unit leaders and may be changed by unit leaders. Eagle applications will continue to be checked against the printed BSA Advancememt Reports submitted to your council. You should always check your rank and merit badges dates earned against the printed BSA Advancement Reports. Also, the BSA internet advancement webpage only provides a check of months between ranks beginning with Tenderfoot. It does not track the 30 days physical fitness requirement between Scout and Tenderfoot! The BSA's Council's internet advancement is only a historical record of merit badges and ranks. It does not provide any Trail to Eagle Scout advancement progress information for the Scout leaders, the scouts, their parents or for the Bishopric. ScoutSoft, BSA Certified software, provides the progress reports and summaries of what a boy needs to do to complete his next rank and of his complete Trail to Eagle!
The Stake version also allows for many stake wide reports for Stake leaders and multi-ward reports like merit badge counselors by meetinghouse or for the whole stake. If the stake has more than 4 wards then the Stake saves budget funds with the Stake annual license. Plus we reward our users with a 6 month free license extension for 'every' similar referral of a new Stake or a new Ward outside of their Stake that signs up within 6 months of the user's referral! Since nearly 50% of ScoutSoft new users come from current users telling their friends, family and work associates across the nation think of how many years of free usage your Stake or Ward could get! ScoutSoft really is the least expensive BSA certified software package for tracking Duty to God, Boy Scouting and Cub Scouting advancement!
LDS Region Pricing - If all Stakes in a region license ScoutSoft 'together' for the first time or based upon a referral from a current Stake licensed user of ScoutSoft and all of the 'other' Stakes in the Region license ScoutSoft together then all of the Stakes can license the software for the initial year at 50% of the single year license costs. (Does not apply to multiple year licenses.) If all Stakes in a Region are current licensed users of ScoutSoft then the Region officers can use ScoutSoft at no cost.
Importing Members from your BSA Council or from your Sponsor - ScoutSoft is licensed to the LDS Ward and not to a BSA unit. All ScoutSoft data files are under the control of the Bishop as are the Ward's membership records. You can import BSA leaders and boy's information from your Council's created Charter file or from any import file created by your sponsor in CSV format. LDS wards with MLS versions that still allow creation of export files can, with Bishop's permission, import the membership using the Sponsor Membership File option or the Miscellaneous CSV file option. The BSA required information consists of names, birth dates, addresses & phone numbers. All birth dates and ages over 21 are fully protected by ScoutSoft except where the LDS Church has agreed to provide the information to the BSA such as on tour permits and charters. ScoutSoft provides encryption and password protection to allow the leaders to safeguard confidential member data. See the tutorials on Importing on the ScoutSoft Tutorial webpage.
Solves Home & Visiting Teaching Tracking Problems - The multiple different types of Home Teaching & Visiting Teaching lists being kept within a Ward is solved! All leaders simply install ScoutSoft on their personal computers and monitor all activity for their district(s). They can transfer the data to other leaders or to the Bishop by diskette or by e-mail. ScoutSoft tracks monthly family contacts and other revelant information. Detail family reports containing family member names, birthdays and talents or interest can be printed for the assigned home/visiting teachers.
List of Main Features - Tracks LDS religious awards, all scouting ranks, requirements & all badges and badge requirements, primary activity days, prints court of honor\pack meeting awards earned, tracks all scouting & church youth leadership positions for all members,
tracks patrol activities & camps & service hours (LDS YM/YW service projects & talks), member notes, prints requirements to be completed for next rank, warns of nonqualifying leadership positions, warns of inadequate time between ranks, counts down months to 18th birthday, Stake & Ward merit badge counselor lists, maintains unlimited number of monetary (Friends of Scouting, Ward Magazine) drives and non-monetary (Fast Offering Routes, Ward Paper, Home Teaching, Visiting Teaching, CERT-Emergency Preparedness), rosters, form letters, help menu, spreadsheets style batch requirement input screen, group requirement batch input, Scout and LDS checkoff sheets, blood type, talents, etc., password control included, dues set up & fees collected features, prints donation slips, tracks member balances due on dues, fees, registration, boys' life fees. Back up features and importing and exporting features and creates council transmittal disks for advancement & rechartering reporting.
There are many non-BSA certified internet software programs popping up on the web which have not been tested for advancement compliance by the BSA, do NOT adhere to BSA copyright rules and do NOT meet the minimum Eagle trail advancement monitoring required for BSA Certified software packages which may result in your young men's Eagle applications being rejected for not being in conformity with the BSA advancement rules.
ScoutSoft as one of ONLY two BSA Certified software programs allows your leaders to quickly upload your BSA four unit's Charters and to upload your Advancement report to your Council. And ScoutSoft was the first BSA certified software to allow leaders to download their scouts ranks and badges from their Council's internet advancement webpage! Other non-BSA certified computer and the many internet only based applications shown on the comparison charts CANNOT interface with your BSA's council's data files doubling your LDS leaders time to perform their calling as they have to 'double' track all of the BSA ranks and badges and the LDS leader must manually prepare every year all four of their Ward's BSA unit's charters! ONLY BSA ScoutNET Certified software eliminates the LDS leaders wasted time of double tracking their Scout's awards and manually preparing all of the Ward's BSA unit charters!
The comparisons of various software and internet applications included on the comparison webpage were selected based upon LDS leaders request for comparison with ScoutSoft. Information shown on the comparison webpage is based only upon the vendors' website descriptions and/or limited review of trial versions of their software if available. LDS leaders should carefully review and test any software package for compliance with LDS and BSA policies and youth advancement procedures. Some non-certified scouting applications, since they have not gone through the extensive certification testing by the BSA National office, are or may not be in compliance with BSA rank advancement policies which may cause your scouts to not advance between ranks in a timely manner or to become discouraged and cease working on their trail to Eagle. ScoutSoft also was the first program to allow you to download their youth's ranks and badges from your Council's Internet Advancement database making automating your scout records with ScoutSoft a breeze!
is the only software that intergrates all of the LDS youth programs together. ScoutSoft not only tracks the Boy Scouts & Cub Scouts records but also includes the Duty to God, Young Women, YW Camping, Faith in God-Boys and Faith in God-Girls and CERT-Emergency Preparedness programs for all Stakes and Wards worldwide. Bishops - ScoutSoft reduces the time required by your leaders working directly with your youth by allowing the delegation of the 'administration' of your youth programs including advancement tracking to other leaders while providing you with timely and revelant information about each youth's progress! ScoutSoft also helps your Young Men, Young Women and Primary leaders design weekly activities and outdoor activities that build testimonies along with fellowshipping the youth with very little effort! Youth LDS and Scouting advancement progress reports can be automatically emailed to parents and leaders. ScoutSoft advancement reports keeps the youth's parents involved in the LDS youth program's faith promoting activities every month instead of the usual year end cramming to complete requirements.
No other software provides the full LDS Youth programs while freeing up more time for adult leaders to spend with their youth and with their families!
- ScoutSoft, as a certified BSA ScoutNet program in the U.S.A., is BSA advancement software you can trust! ScoutSoft uploads and downloads members and selected advancement data with your BSA council. LDS Scouters in the U.S.A. can upload their advancement reports and the Ward's BSA annual charters directly into the BSA's internet program reducing leaders time required for preparation of advancement data and the Ward's BSA charters. Leaders can also import members' names and addresses from their BSA council's data base. ScoutSoft creates a Ward split BSA membership transfer file making it easy to set up the new Ward's BSA units. ScoutSoft can exchange data not only between leaders within the Ward but with new Wards. Only BSA CERTIFIED SCOUTNET software can upload your Unit Charters and Internet Advancement Reports to your Council's internet website so your leaders do NOT have to double track the boys advancement data. (Cub Leaders - currently the BSA only automatically uploads Cub Scout ranks. Arrow points and Webelos Activity Badges must be entered manually on the BSA Internet Advancement website.) See below for ScoutSoft's downloading of advancement records from your Council's webpage.
ScoutSoft Users can Download Advancement Records Already Entered on the Council's Internet Advancement Website - ScoutSoft was the first ScoutNET Certified Software to offer this feature! Scouters that have been entering their ranks and badges on their council's BSA Internet Advancement website can download from the council's website all of the ranks and badges directly into ScoutSoft. Because ScoutSoft has this download feature the BSA Internet Advancement website also serves as an offsite back up of your advancement data. If your computer corrupts your data base you can download the ranks and badges from the council if you do not have back up of your advancement records!
ScoutSoft's low Ward & Stake-wide annual licenses saves budget funds and is 40% less than other ScoutNet certified software which savings adds up year after year! ScoutSoft licenses ALL of the Ward's BSA Units for the same price that other ScoutNET Certified software license just one of the Ward's BSA four units! The Stake-wide & Ward-wide licenses apply to all Stake or Ward owned computers and to all Stake or Ward leader's personal computers at home or at work. An individual Ward annual license currently is only $59.00 per year for the whole LDS Youth program! However, the better value is the Stake Annual License that currently only costs $199.00 per year and covers all Stake leaders and all Ward leaders in the Stake. ScoutSoft also offers large multiple year license discounts with current discounts as high as $38 off of a single Ward 3 year license and a $140 off of a Stake 3 year annual license! The Stake 3 Year Annual License is the Best Value! Operating System and Transferring Data - ScoutSoft Version 4.0 and above is a Java based program and ScoutSoft is the ONLY BSA certified software package that runs on all three major PC operating systems - Windows XP & Vista, MAC & Linux! You do not need to select your adult leaders based upon what type of PC operating system they have! The speed of the software is solely dependent on the user's computer's amount of RAM memory and the speed of their hard disk drive. ScoutSoft, as a java based program, will also run on Linux and Apple's Mac. ScoutSoft data files can be transferred between leaders on a data field by data field basis. Multiple leaders can be tracking the same requirements and update each other. When a leader is released they simply transfer the data files to the new leader and the new leader continues on with no interruption. ScoutSoft has eliminated the hassle of updating your software as it will automatically check for new program updates, download them and install them for you. LDS Stakes and Wards can also set up 'combined youth units' like Cub Packs or YW classes between wards and the wards can import just their youth's data into their own Ward data files.
ScoutSoft allows the Stake and Wards to set up the full U.S. CERT or any other Emergency Preparedness program worldwide. ScoutSoft CERT program includes district leaders, route coordinators/runners, route family assignment, family members in household with approximate age under 21 or Adult or Senior, GPS location, out-of-state contact, family-owned and church-owned emergency equipment, family emergency status reporting of OK-Green, Need Non-Emergency Help-Yellow and Emergency Help Needed-Red. Full district family status reporting provided. ScoutSoft ensures continuity of information when CERT leaders change!
ScoutSoft has NO LIMITATIONS on data exchanging between leaders - ScoutSoft is the ONLY BSA certified software that allows its users to update each other with all or any part of another leader's data files. NO other BSA Certified Software has this flexability! Leaders simply create an export file and email the file to the other leader! ScoutSoft is the ONLY BSA Certified software that has NO data sharing limitations! Its only with ScoutSoft! Plus ScoutSoft has the most powerful import/export member and data selection criteria among all scouting software packages. The receiving leader has complete control over what data is or is not updated to his data base. Fast, easy, safe and secure with full user controlled data importing!
ScoutSoft limits your organization's exposure to member's identity theft by providing multiple user password levels controlled by the sponsoring organization. Leaders can share all data between each other by emailing data files to each other or by setting up on a ward leader's internet provider's site a shareable email or FTP SPONSOR ONLY database instead of on some other third party company's internet site located somewhere in the world with a common database being accessed by 1000s of unknown users nationwide! With ScoutSoft your Sponsor chooses the type of data file sharing they want between leaders and ScoutSoft data files are always under the control of the local leaders and provides greater security by a database that is not being accessed by 1000s of other user's.
Ordering ScoutSoft:
Call 1-801-292-5787 to sign up for ScoutSoft or download software on trial basis from our Download page.
See How to Order for mail, e-mail & fax orders.
