Announcements and notifications

This guide is for parents and guardians. It covers reading announcements from your pack's leaders, confirming you've read the ones that ask, and choosing how ScoutKeep reaches you outside the portal.

Announcements appear only if your pack uses them.

Find your announcements

Open Announcements in the sidebar, under Communication. Each card shows who sent it, when, the subject, and a short preview. Unread announcements are marked Unread, and the list is split into This week and Earlier.

Small tags on each card tell you what's waiting:

• Acknowledgment requested or Acknowledge by a date means the sender wants you to confirm you've read it. Once you have, the tag changes to Acknowledged.
• Survey means a survey goes with the announcement. It changes to Survey complete when you've finished it.
• A file count, such as 2 files, means there are attachments.
• A den name, such as To Wolf den, means it went to that den rather than the whole pack.

Use the chips at the top to narrow the list: All, Needs action (still waiting on an acknowledgment or a survey from you), or Unread. You can also search by title, message, or sender.

New unread announcements also appear at the top of your family home page. There, Got it marks an announcement as read without opening it, and Read more opens it. See Your family home.

Read an announcement

Select an announcement to open it. Opening it marks it as read. You'll see the full message, any pictures, and any attached documents you can download.

If the sender changed the message after it went out, you'll see Edited with a date next to the time it was sent. Select it to see the earlier versions.

Acknowledge an announcement

Some announcements ask you to confirm you've read them. When one does, you'll see a note near the bottom saying the sender asked you to confirm, sometimes with a date to do it by.

1. Open the announcement and read it.
2. Select I've read this.

The note changes to You acknowledged this announcement. On your home page, an announcement that needs acknowledging shows Read and acknowledge instead of Got it, so you open it and confirm.

When an announcement goes to your whole family, one adult's acknowledgment counts for the family. If it was sent to you by name, you acknowledge it yourself. If the sender makes an important change later, they can ask everyone to acknowledge again.

Take a survey that goes with an announcement

If an announcement includes a survey, you'll see A survey goes with this announcement below the message. Select Take survey to answer it. See Answering surveys.

Reminders from your leaders

If you haven't acknowledged an announcement or finished its survey, the sender can send you a reminder. It arrives as a copy of the announcement with "Reminder:" before the subject, by email or Slack. A sender can remind people at most once a day.

Your notifications list

Open Notifications in the sidebar, also under Communication, to see everything ScoutKeep has sent you in one place. Depending on what your pack uses, this includes announcements, event reminders, notices that an event your family planned to attend moved or was canceled, event feedback surveys, task assignments and due-date reminders, and new charges or recorded payments.

Each row links to the item, shows when it arrived, and says Read or Unread. Select Mark as read to clear one without opening it. When there's nothing new, you'll see You're all caught up.

Choose how ScoutKeep reaches you

Everything shows up in the portal. To decide where else it goes, open Settings and then Notifications.

• Delivery channels controls announcements and every other notice, including task updates, charges and payments, new families and follow-ups, and equipment requests. Email is the only choice unless your pack has connected Slack; then you can pick Email, Slack, or both, and notices arrive as Slack direct messages when Slack is on. At least one must stay on. For notices other than announcements, if ScoutKeep can't reach you in Slack (it doesn't know your Slack account, your pack disconnected Slack, or Slack won't deliver the message), it emails you that notice instead, so you never miss one. If you chose both, you still get just one email.
• Event reminders controls the reminders before an event your family is going to and the feedback survey afterward. Under When to remind you, keep the option that uses your pack's reminder times (the page shows them), or select Choose my own times and pick up to three, such as 1 week and 3 hours. Your times apply only to you. Uncheck Remind me about events to stop both for you; nothing is sent and nothing appears in your notifications list. Other adults in your family keep their own setting. While it's on, you can choose Email and, if your pack uses Slack, Slack direct message. If ScoutKeep can't reach you in Slack, it emails the reminder instead. If you turn both off, reminders appear only in your notifications list. These choices also decide how you hear that an event your family planned to attend moved or was canceled. Those notices come even when Remind me about events is off.

Announcements come by email or Slack only when the sender chose to send them that way and that channel is on in your settings. Slack messages also need ScoutKeep to know which Slack account is yours; see Your account and sign-in.

Tip: Your pack can also post announcements in a Slack channel. Those posts appear for everyone in the channel, whatever your notification settings.