Troopmaster has a ton of options and features for events, but it can be overwhelming. Here's a guide to setting up your event so everything runs and is recorded smoothly
This records WHO the event is for - pick a level that represents the people that will most likely attend the event and stay the whole time. This helps people decide what to plan to attend.
- Unit - The scouts and adult leaders, typically regular troop meetings and campouts
- Guides and New Scouts - Trailhead Tuesday and similar early-scout events
- PLC and Staff - Youth leaders in positions of responsibility and Adult leaders/Mentors
- Committee/Parents - Committee Meetings, Adult meetings for troop business, scouts not attending
- Everyone Including Parents - Courts of Honor, Troop Parties or other events parents should attend along with scouts/adult leaders
- High Adventure Crew - only scouts and adult leaders registered for upcoming high adventure trip
- Seabase - See "High Adventure Crew"
- Individual - used for recording attendance and participation for a single scout (e.g., service hours outside of the troop)
- O/A - Members of the Order of the Arrow
- Prior Total - used to record scout or adult participation or credit (camping nights, hiking miles, service hours) from before the scout/adult joined the troop
This records WHAT KIND of credit attendees should receive.
- Meeting - counts attendance at meetings. Does not count for the 2nd class or 1st class number of non-meeting events. Also used for Trailhead Tuesday.
- Special Meeting - counts meetings that would be tracked for 2nd Class or 1st Class rank advancement. Courts of Honor are a good example
- Camping - counts nights spent in a tent in the outdoors. This is normally what you want for trips
- Cabin Camping - counts nights spent in a structure, doesn't count toward OA or Camping Merit Badge
- Summer Camp - counts long-term campouts of 4 nights or greater for OA or Camping MB purposes
- Serv Proj - counts hours of service projects for rank advancement. Use the Conservation-related flag to allow it to count toward Life required hours. If there's a service project at a campout, create the campout first, take attendance, and then afterwards duplicate the event to record service hours.
- Hiking - counts hiking miles for credit toward the Hiking merit badge and/or National Outdoor Award. If there was a hike on a campout, create the camping event first and take attendance, then create a duplicate event to track the hiking
- Training - counts hours spent in training. Used for Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops, National Youth Leader Training, or Adult leader training events like IOLS or Woodbadge
- Special Note - non-attendance calendar notes like holidays, non-troop activities, etc. Use this to specify when there is no meeting that week, or when "Attending" the event doesn't make sense
- Adventure - counts "Adventure Points" toward the National Outdoor Award. This is not usually what you want. What counts for adventure points
- Aquatics - counts hours spent in aquatics activities toward the National Outdoor Award.
- Conservation - counts hours spent on conservation toward the National Outdoor Award. Normally what you want is a Serv Project with the "Conservation" flag set.
- Riding - counts miles spent riding (Bike, Horse, Skate) for the National Outdoor Award
A short title for the event. This gets put on people's shared family Google or iCalendar, so make it descriptive. "Meeting" is not helpful. "Weekly Troop 162 Meeting" is.
The amount of credit a person who attends will get, by default. This would be hiking miles, camping nights, service hours, riding miles, etc. This can be adjusted on a person-by-person basis, so record the normal amount and then make adjustments if people leave early or participate differently.
The location where the event will take place. For a campout, this is the campsite or location where we camp. Put the location where people arrive for transportation and the return location in the description. This can also be "Web Conference" for meetings online.
Additional text that can show up in lists and reports - a good place to state what advancement or activities take place. A great place to record if an event counts for a Camping Merit Badge 9B requirement
A long-format text field. For campouts it is good to note the lead scout, lead ASM, and outdoor coordinator so people know who to ask for help. Also you can link the week-ahead info sheet. For meetings, you can put who is responsible for portions of the event, or what activities we will do.
¶ Start Date/Time and End Date/Time
Record when to arrive at the event, and the expected pick-up time.
Used when the event does not have a start or end time
Uncheck this box if the event is not intended for everyone to see (Individual, Prior Total levels, for example)
These help Troopmaster assign the proper credit or are useful for filtering in reports
- 2nd/1st Class - Put this on anything that isn't a normal troop or patrol meeting or Trailhead Tuesday. Counts items for 2nd or 1st Class ranks
- Camping - Put this on events where scouts sleep outside in a tent or under the open sky. Counts toward Tenderfoot/2nd Class/1st Class Requirement, Camping MB, Order of Arrow Eligibility
- Cabin Camp - Put this on events where scouts sleep in a permanent structure, three walls or more. Can optionally exclude these campouts from the O/A Eligibility report
- Pitch Tent - Put this on campouts where the scout will pitch the tent they sleep in. Second/First Class Activity Requirement
- Outdoor - Put this on events held in the outdoors. Don't count the church parking lot. That's lame.
- Service Project - Counts service hours for Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life Ranks
- Conservation Related - Put this on service projects that are considered conservation (Scoutmaster decides). Life Rank Service Hours, National Outdoor Conservation Award
- Summer Camp - Put this on long-term camps 4 nights or more, for reference only
Use these if you think they will help inform people what the event is about, or it will help us find events for reports
- Hiking - National Outdoor Hiking Award
- Backpacking - Can optionally include backpacking activities on specific reports
- Adventure - National Outdoor Adventure
- Aquatics - National Outdoor Aquatics
- Riding - National Outdoor Riding Award
- Cycling - National Outdoor Riding Award
- Horseback - National Outdoor Riding Award
- Motorboat - National Outdoor Riding Award
- Skating - National Outdoor Riding Award
- Leave No Trace - Reference Only
- Schedule Email Reminder - Use this to send this event to the troop, including a registration link if registration is open. You can schedule the email days or weeks in advance, and send to certain groups of scouts, parents, and/or adults.
- Duplicate/Combine - use this to create an exact copy of an event. Sometimes this is to take a campout event and create a duplicate event to record hiking miles or service hours for participants, other times this would be used to create many identical events such as Trailhead Tuesday or Patrol Leader's Councils.
- Delete/Archive - remove this from the troop calendar. If the event never happened, it's ok to delete. Otherwise, archive the event so scouts and adults continue to have their attendance counted in their record.
- Save - self explanatory