We have moved our blog to a new location. Please update your bookmarks as needed:

New Location:
http://connect.etrailtoeagle.com/blogs/etrail
New RSS Feed:
http://connect.etrailtoeagle.com/blogs/etrail/rss.aspx

We are launching a new website called eTrail Connect.  This new site will be a great location where you can find and share information related to Scouting and the LDS Duty to God program.  That’s right, we want you to contribute.  If you have helpful ideas, activities, games, camping locations etc.  We want to hear about it.  We will be providing blogs, forums, wikis and downloads that everyone can benefit from.

If you are interested is helping us with this site, please let us know.

Thanks,

eTrail Connect Team
support@etrailtoeagle.com

We have just released a new update to the Report Subscriptions feature in our Scout tracking module.  The Report Subscriptions feature automatically sends reports based on a schedule you select.  We have modified this feature to allow you to easily pick the e-mail addresses of leaders and parents you have in the system.  This will save you time and also allow you to be more accurate.

Automate the delivery of reports to parents and leaders.

We also fixed a problem where our report delivery system was having troubles sending some reports. We completely redesigned our report engine and now you will see that each report is delivered on the schedule you select. We are sending out thousands of reports to our users each week. If you aren’t taking advantage of this feature, you should start today.  To start using this feature, do the following:

1. Login to eTrailToEagle.com
2. Click on Scout Tracking
3. Click on Report Subscriptions
4. Click Create to start a new subscription

Tip: Double check and make sure that you have the correct e-mail address for each parent and leader.  Many reports do not get delivered because the e-mail address was entered into the system incorrectly.

Feedback: We know that many of you use this feature.  We would like to get your feedback on how the report subscriptions feature has helped you in your efforts to track the progress in your unit.  Also, do you find that the parents would prefer a report e-mailed to them, or do they prefer to login and view the progress at any time?

Many of you have commented that reports didn’t get delivered this morning.  We have looked into this problem and found the root cause.  Our server is getting too overloaded.  This week we will be upgrading to a new dedicated server with a well established hosting provider.  This new server will give us room to grow and handle the load as we continue to grow.

The good news is that we are growing at a very rapid rate.  We appreciate everyone that uses the site.  Please know that we are committed to supporting and enhancing the site.  Please look for a lot of changes coming over the next few weeks.

Many of you have asked how you can help.  The best way to help is to continue to use the site, refer others to the site, and provide ideas on ways to enhance and make the site easier to use.

Thanks for your support and your patience!

One of our goals here at eTrailToEagle.com is to make tracking easy.  In an effort to make things easier, we have modified how permissions are assigned.  For our Scout tracking module, you have 4 options for permissions when you are creating an adult account.  These options include:

• Scout Leader – full access to make changes and create accounts
• Scout Leader Read Only – can view information, but can’t make changes
• Scout Parent – full access to make changes to son(s) record
• Scout Parent Read Only – can view son(s) information, but can’t make changes

The same permissions are available for our Duty to God tracking module.

A new change is that an account can only be a member of one role at a time.  Before, we allowed an account to be a member of a leader role and a parent role.  This was causing a lot of confusion so we decided to simplify.  We have also updated the pages that list all leaders and parents and made it easier to work with.  You will now see a complete list of all leaders and parents.  If a leader or parent doesn’t have a role, they will show up red in the list.  Please note that a leader will not be able to access anything if they do not belong to a role.

We are interested in your feedback on these changes.  Let us know if you think it makes it easier to create and manage leader and parent accounts.

We have made a change to our Quorum Detail report.  We have added short descriptions to the report so you can easily see what the requirements are.  See the sample report below:

New Quorum Detail Report

To run this report, click on Duty to God tracking.  Then click on Reports.  Then run the Quorum Detail report.

When you create an account for a Parent, do not forget to assign the parent to a son. If you forget this step, the parent will not see the records for their son(s).

To link a parent to their son(s) please do the following:

From Duty to God Module

1. Click on Ward Leaders link
2. Click on Assign YM to Parent
3. Click on Parent’s name and then select Young Man’s name from the list
4. Click on Assign to Selected Parent

From Scout Tracking Module

1. Click on Parents and Leaders link
2. Click on Assign Scout to Parent
3. Click on Parent’s name and then select Scout’s name from the list
4. Click on Assign to Selected Parent

We want to give our website a facelift. However, we are not web design professionals.

Is there anyone out there that is expert at web design? If so, would you be willing to donate some of your time and talent to our cause?

What are we looking for? Contact us at support@etrailtoeagle.com

Thanks,

The eTrailToEagle.com Team

We receive a lot of requests each day.  Most of them are ideas on how we could improve the site.  Because we receive so many requests, it is hard to determine which ones we should implement first.  To help us with this process, we have setup a new website that allows you to submit your ideas and also let’s you vote on the ideas you feel are most important.

We will use this information to determine which items we will implement next.  To visit this site, click on the Feedback button the right-hand side of the page.  You can also go directly to the site at http://etrailtoeagle.uservoice.com.

Please feel free to contribute your ideas today so the voting can begin.

Thanks,

The eTrailToEagle.com Team

As questions arise about the use of our site, we will post both the question and the answer here.  

The following questions were asked:

1. How do I add start and ending times into the activities?
2. How do I change an activity type?  I would like to edit the activity type to add words such as cycling or merit badge.

We continue to grow rapidly.  Our Duty to God module is now supporting over 4100 Wards.  We are excited about the growth and popularity of our site.

Each day we receive a lot of e-mail from many of you.  We are trying to answer each one and address the questions you have.  Many of you are submitting ideas for improvements and we are gathering all of those ideas together and trying to implement a roadmap with timelines for these changes.

Coming soon we will be rolling out a new design of our website.  The site design will have a more professional look with easier navigation.

We will also be rolling out a new Calendar feature with the Scout module.  Your activities will show up in the calendar.  You will be able to easily edit and make changes to your activities directly from the calendar.  The calendar will also support the iCal format so you can see the calendar events from your favorite calendar application.

We appreciate your support of eTrailToEagle.com and look forward to working with you on improving the site.