Our new digital membership system for adult volunteers
In spring 2023, we’re launching a new self-service adult membership system. The aim is to make managing adult data easier and reduce admin, so that volunteers have more time to focus on delivering skills for life for young people.
We’ve been working hard over the last few months developing the new system and testing it with volunteers so that it’s as helpful and useful as possible.
We started with the following requirements in mind:
- Provide (and where possible improve) the current functionality in Compass
- Work in partnership with volunteers to explore new functionality that will benefit adult volunteers
- And provide a platform to meet our future requirements.
At Basecamp22 – an event attended by more than 500 of our local leadership volunteers, including Youth Commissioners, District and County/Area/Region(Scotland) Commissioners – we shared our progress and some of the exciting new features.
Login to all your Scouts tools through scouts.org.uk
Most attendees were relieved to learn that our approach is to create a future-proof platform based on Microsoft Dynamics 365 with easy log-on through scouts.org.uk, so that you only need to log in once to access all our new digital tools.
A modern look and feel
The exciting part of Basecamp was that we were able to share examples of functionality already developed with our new look and feel. For example, the new home page has a more intuitive design making it easier to find exactly what you might be looking for, it’s mobile friendly and importantly it brings everything into one place with most of the things you need one click away.
'It's just how you'd expect a system to work and look’.
A volunteer at Basecamp22
Easily find people and control your profile visibility
Having listened to lots of volunteers the new system will provide increased opportunities for you to decide who can see your details and adust your profile visibility in our new member directory. There’s also the ability to search using whatever information you have to find contacts in other groups or teams.
All permit information in one place
Delegates at Basecamp got very excited when we shared details of the new permit functionality to help leaders apply for permits and line managers to authorise permit applications. All permit information will be in one place, on one screen, accessible on your new home page. As a leader with permits you’ll see your own permits with expiry dates, along with links to information about any permit you might want to acquire in the future. The new system will help guide you through the application process and allow you to check progress through the approval process. There’s an intuitive, online application form to renew a permit or request a new permit and the ability to search for assessors to help gain a permit.
Assessors, District and County Team Leaders who authorise permits will have all the information in one place. The aim is that the process will be on one screen with the system checking mandatory training for you, to reduce the time it takes to process permit applications.
It was great to be able to share where we’re heading with our new membership system and receive feedback from volunteers.
Volunteers who attended our workshop told us, ‘I think it's fair to say there was understandable scepticism toward the new system, considering feelings toward Compass, but this has now changed and there is an eagerness to see what's coming next.’
And ‘I spoke to a colleague who was very cynical before coming to your workshop on the membership system – she has just told me that your workshop has restored her faith in the future of Scouting.’
Thank you to everyone who joined us and thank you to the 150+ volunteers who are actively helping us to get the functionality right. This is just the start – we’ll keep you updated on our progress.