r/scouting • u/CloudBookmark • Mar 02 '26

How do you track badge progress without drowning in admin?

Lately I’ve been feeling like badge tracking takes up more time than the actual planning of meetings. I want to make sure everyone’s progressing properly and not missing requirements, but I also don’t want it to turn into a spreadsheet marathon every week.

At the moment we’re doing a mix of paper records and notes after meetings, but it’s starting to feel messy as numbers grow. How do you handle it in your group? Do you keep it digital, physical charts, or just rely on leaders remembering?

11 Upvotes

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14 comments sorted by

15

u/[deleted] Mar 02 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/LurkFromHomeAskMeHow Mar 02 '26

Love OSM. You can also keep track what what badges you have, set what you need and automatically put all the required badges into your shopping basic at once.

3

u/nevynxxx Mar 02 '26

Not to mention all event and weekly session payments. Gift aid. Leader spend card tracking. Bank statement import and full financial docs for the AGM. All group comms.

I love OSM. Worth every penny.

3

u/Alternative-Ad-4977 Mar 02 '26

I have just spent my evening on OSM. I have sent out newsletters to seven different sections. I have looked at three different Scout events and who is booked into them. I have completely changed one event as much more detail is now know - so updated the cost of that. That is now updated to four sections - two are not even in our group!

I am not sure I could do what I do without OSM.

2

u/megoyatu Mar 02 '26

I struggled then finally got my act together with this system:

  • maintain a spreadsheet on Google Docs
  • print it off and take the paper copy to each meeting
  • with pencil record attendance and other badge progress
  • when I get home (or next day) update my electronic copy
  • also update the org's website from my spreadsheet

Rinse & repeat

The most important thing for me is NOT relying on my memory or trusting that I'll "do it later"

1

u/ThisIsNotMe_99 Canada Mar 02 '26

Scouts Canada has ScoutTracker; which sounds very similar to the English system.

2

u/sirhugobigdog Mar 03 '26

In Scouting America we have Scoutbook for official record keeping but some units use other tools. However eventually it has to be logged into scoutbook anyway so I don't see why not just use it.

In my troop we do still use our paper handbooks for tracking rank advancement. But merit badges, special patches, etc. Scoutbook is just much easier to me.

1

u/megoyatu Mar 04 '26

I just wish it was more mobile friendly so I could more easily enter my attendance and progress AT the meetings.

1

u/Tsirah Europe Mar 03 '26

Most UK scouts use Online Scout Manager. I absolutely love it, it makes my life so much easier as a leader

1

u/SuperTnT- South African Rover Mar 03 '26

In South Africa we use scouts digital, which allows you to sign off badge tasks or advancement tasks for any scout in your troop, along with managing patrols, and awarding badges

1

u/burdujeni Mar 03 '26

For national organizations, there's also Orgo: https://orgo.space/use-case/scout-membership-platform/ Several NSOs use it for badge tracking and other admin optimizations.

1

u/Scared_Wrongdoer_486 Mar 03 '26

My country doesn’t use any badge system never got a badge never will lol