Whats New With InsaneScouter 2021

Greetings InsaneScouter’s,

Over the last few weeks I have been working on this in-depth update regarding InsaneScouters path forward and explaining why you have not been receiving our newsletters for a few weeks. To go along with this, is a verily in-depth survey to the right (or below the post on mobile). It would help us immensely if you would fill it out after reading this post which explains many of the items in the survey.

Let’s start off with the newsletters. A few weeks ago our Amazon SES credentials were compromised again, yes again – sigh. This resulted in our SES account being locked again. I decided rather then trying to figure out how its happening AGAIN and fighting with Amazon AWS to get things reinstated again, to instead change things up.

This lead to a rabbit hole of projects including deciding to move our server to a new provider. I decided to switch mailing lists software and change who we use for sending out the emails. Anyway the who migration process and getting everything back up and working is taking longer then I thought it would. Please bare with us, soon the newsletters will be going out again, including the “Wacky Knots and Lashings” issue of Treasure Chest.

We are currently working on improving the menu bar across top of the site and restoring the “resource” menu which will allow you to dig into the site by categories. Along with this we are also making some url changes that we hope will improve our search engines rankings.

To go along with the Treasure Chest newsletter, we have started creating content related to the same monthly theme. Not only will this help tie things together but will provide you fresh ideas related to that theme. We would also like to create an archive of the treasure chest newsletters, to make it easy to return to older issues.

One benefit of the new mailing list software is its technically possible to have it generate custom newsletters for everyone. For example I could have you fill out a survey and use those answers to send you a newsletter that only includes what you want such as crafts for cubs scouts. Like so many things in this post, I need time to figure out how to do this and master it, but am wondering if this is of interest to you?

I am toying with the idea of creating a “trading post” section on InsaneScouter which would be kind of like the last few pages of the, previously printed, Scouting magazine. One big difference is you will be able to search and filter the ads, such as by category & keyword.

Another idea I have been thinking about, is offering free hosting to packs, troops, crews, districts, scout museums, etc in trade for including ads on their site. I would limit how many are accepted each month, to prevent overloading my server or growing too fast. My biggest concern is will those sites generate enough traffic & exposure to justify the costs of providing the hosting.

Next up, crowd generate content, essentially these will be short blog posts, often asking a question like tips for leaders, or discounts they get as a scouter. The page will have a comment area for you to share your input, ideas, experiences, knowledge, etc. Kind of like a wiki you dont have to login to edit.

This is a big one! Lessons, think of this kind of like lesson plans. The idea is on a single page the subject will get broken down into sections, such as by requirement, meeting, or activity it relates to. The first section will be an introduction and the last section instructor notes, with the rest of the sections generally being the lesson itself. Each section will collapse down, but a share link will be available to jump to any section. For example maybe it is for a merit badge and has all the info, video, links to articles, text, etc that walks a scout through that badge. So the counselor could share the link and ask the scout to review something they missed or to study it to prepare. Other lessons may be for the presenter only, such as my Webelos three month program I call “Eagle Island” that resolves around communicator, outdoorsman, and readyman. The Eagle Island lesson, would be more like 3 months of pre-planned den meetings. To make this a viable option, we will need your help in creating lessons too!

We are considering updates to the weekly newsletter, where the email will only contain 3 – 5 articles and a link to a post for the full version. This is mainly because with so many links in the newsletter, they are more prone to be automatically flagged by the email spam services.

In a survey we ran a few years ago, many of you requested we provide training. However, no one specifically mentioned what kind of training. We are not BSA or any other scouting organization and thus can not provide training specific to their policies and way of doing things. But, we could provide skill training such as outdoor skills, I have an advanced wood tools course that I might be able to digitize, maybe something related to working with special need scouts, etc. Lessons, mentioned earlier could also fall into the realm of training.

Would you be interested in a InsaneScouter Health Journey group, which would be a community based around losing weight, staying at a healthy weight, offering each other guidance but also a understanding ear?

We are considering making a summer camp database, that not only will tell you about the camp program and costs but also include photos, video, comments, and maybe even allow those who have been to the camp to rate it. Beyond that, we could use API’s to include references such as things do around the camp, where the nearest bank, hospital, store, gas station, etc are.

Lastly, creation of a new section for “events” which would allow you to tell us about activities that scouts / leaders from other councils can attend. This could be: camporee, day camp, merit badge sessions, training’s, virtual events, and so forth. Kind of like a master calendar that is crowd sourced & is searchable by various categories and even x miles of your location. This, is another feature that will only work with your help.

There is a whole array of amazing ideas above, but our resources are limited and we could really use technical help from php coders, front end designers & linux sys admins, not to mention data entry, too. If interested please add yourself to this google form and help us stay organized. The front end is bootstrap and jquery based. The backend is mostly core-php & mysql. We use subversion for the code repo, asana (currently) for managing tasks and a bunch of other open source software.

Just as a reminder, we do not receive funds from any scouting organization, no grants, no nothing. We receive a tiny bit of funding through sponsors who’s ads you see on our site. As such, if you would like to support our efforts & help us bring these ideas to life. We would very much appreciate it! Our goal is to raise $1,500 a month, which would support our ongoing efforts and allow us to add everything mentioned above. (Just click on the red button below to safely & securely donate via card, paypal, or e-check.)

Your input, good or bad, will help us determine where to put our efforts & how to set our priorities. Please dont forget to complete the survey to right on desktop or below on mobile.

Thank You for taking the time to go through this long update post & providing us with you thoughts. I snap to attention and salute you. Again, Thank You!

Yours In Wacky Scouting

Scott Robertson
InsaneScouter

P.S. If you or anyone you know might need help with creating, running or marketing a website please have them reach out. I have over 22 years experience as a freelance web developer and website manager.