Welcome to the home stretch!  In less than two months, your Scout will be marking the end of their Cub Scout journey and starting a new adventure in our Troop.  While you've been preparing for Crossover, the Troop has been focused two major events in January:

• Completing advancement requirements as our Scouts prepare for our January 31 Court of Honor.  
• Getting ready for the Troop Ski Trip on January 28 at Peak 'n Peak resort.

Today, I'd like to share some additional information about upcoming events in February and March as well as introduce you to our equivalent of Scoutbook: TroopTrack.  (You'll receive access to TroopTrack this week so you can see our calendar for the year.)

Next month, I'll share more about how to prepare for the Crossover Ceremony and what to expect in the first month of your Scout being a part of our Troop.

Yours in Scouting,

Mr. Maloney

Scoutmaster, Troop 457

There are four important events that you should be aware of in the upcoming months:

The Troop uses an online application called TroopTrack to manage all aspects of our Troop including events, communications, advancement, and more.  (TroopTrack is similar to Scoutbook with additional functionality and ease of use.)

TroopTrack account credentials are also used to access restricted sections of the Troop457Zelie.org website.  

On Monday (January 23), the Troop will add your household to our TroopTrack instance.  When we do this, we will setup two different types of accounts:

• A Scout Account
• One or more Adult Accounts

Scout and Adult accounts are joined to one another to form a household.  Both types of accounts have the ability to:

• View and update advancement, including ranks and merit badges
• View and update contact information for the Troop roster
• View parent and leader contact information
• View account balances
• View the Troop calendar of events and RSVP to event

Additional permissions may be added to accounts if the individual has a leadership role within the Troop.

The primary difference between these accounts is the level of access.  Scout accounts can only view and edit their own information while parent accounts can view and edit information for any member of their household.

Why Create Scout Accounts?

A TroopTrack account is created for every youth member of our Troop.  This allows us to track each Scout's achievements (rank advancement, merit badges, other awards), participation, leadership,  medical information, and money accounts.

Scout accounts are not initially associated with an email account so they cannot login to TroopTrack directly or receive Troop emails.

As a youth led organization, Scouts should get in the habit of reading all troop communications directly.  We encourage parents to provide the Troop with an email address for their Scout different from a parent's email address. Instructions on how to provide this information can be found HERE.

Adult Accounts

The Troop will create adult accounts based on the adults marked as the Scout's parent/guardian in Scoutbook.  Additional adult accounts can be requested by following these instruction.

TroopTrack Communications

TroopTrack automatically copies parents on any communication sent to your Scout as required by BSA policy.

Learn More

You can learn more about how to use TroopTrack in our New Member Boot Camp Training Course.  (This course is a work-in-progress, so please bear with us as we add additional content.)