Length of Service Awards

In August 2017, Length of Service award certificates from the last year (August 2016-August 2017) were sent to Commissioners to be presented locally. The awards for certificates sent out in August 2017 are now published on Compass.

Length of Service certificates are now regularly being sent out every two months to Commissioners and the awards will be published on Compass two months after the awarded date on the certificate.

Length of Service is calculated based on the start and end dates for eligible roles that are recorded on members’ Compass profiles. For details of the roles that accrue length of service please see the last column on the “Who Can Do What” page.

Further information about Length of Service awards can be found on the Reward and Recognition pages at scouts.org.uk.

Historical Training Updates

Work has been taking place to ensure that, wherever possible, the records of training and Wood Badges that were in the old Membership Management System (MMS) are added to members’ profiles on Compass. This week we have deployed this data fix, to add historical training data to members’ Compass profiles, including missing Wood Badges, training from before the modular scheme was introduced and ongoing learning records.

Full details of the data fix that has been completed can be found below along with some frequently asked questions to help provide some additional guidance and support.

Details of the data fix:

  • Wood Badges added to role-specific PLPs

We have tried to ensure that, wherever possible, the Wood Badges that were recorded in MMS have been transferred to the PLP for the corresponding role in Compass. This has been particularly challenging as training information in MMS was not recorded against a role whereas in Compass all Wood Badges and training, except Ongoing Learning, must be associated with a role.

In order for a Wood Badge to be visible on Compass the PLP must contain at least one validated module. If information was not available from MMS about the specific modules or training a member completed to earn their Wood Badge, it was necessary to add a new module called “Wood Badge Pre-2014” to the PLP to ensure that the Wood Badge displays correctly on the member’s record. This module must not be deleted otherwise the Wood Badge information will no longer show on the member’s training record.

  • Wood Badges added to Ongoing Learning

If it was not possible to determine which role a Wood Badge should be recorded against, the details of the Wood Badge have been added into the Ongoing Learning section of the members’ training record. Where additional details about the Wood Badge were recorded in MMS, such as the course it related to or the Wood Badge number, this information has been added to the Ongoing Learning notes.

  • Training courses pre-1985

Training completed before 1985 that could not be linked to a specific role have been added into the Ongoing Learning section of the member’s training record. If additional details were recorded on MMS, such as the course name, the location of the course or the relevant Wood Badge date or Wood Badge number, then this information has been included in the notes of the Ongoing Learning record.

  • Ongoing Learning Modules

Ongoing learning modules that were recorded in MMS have been added to members’ Ongoing Learning section on Compass. If the details of the module were recorded in MMS, such as validation date, validated by, location of the training, etc, then this information has been included in the notes of the Ongoing Learning record.

  • Incorrect Wood Badges

When Compass was first launched, training data held in the previous membership system (MMS) was transferred across to Compass. As part of the data analysis undertaken, it has been identified that some Wood Badges were added to the incorrect role on a member’s Compass record during this initial migration.

Therefore, as part of this data fix, we have added the Wood Badge to the correct role, based on the data held in MMS. Where it was clearly identifiable that this was a duplicate of a Wood Badge recorded against a different role for that member, we have also removed the Wood Badge from the incorrect role.

 

What to do about outstanding issues with training records:

We have ensured that as much of the training data as possible has been transferred from MMS to Compass. However, there may be still be cases where it has not been feasible to transfer all the information about a member’s training due to the quality of data held in MMS.

Where you are aware of training information that is missing from members’ Compass records, this can be added in locally. The following guidance may assist with adding in historical training information.

  • Adding Wood Badges

If a member has previously been awarded a Wood Badge that is not recorded on their Compass profile, this will need to be added in locally. If the role that the Wood Badge relates to is still active, a Wood Badge can be recommended once all modules on the PLP have been validated. Guidance on how to recommend a Wood Badge can be found in the user guide: Recommending a Wood Badge.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to add a Wood Badge to a closed role. Therefore, if the role that the Wood Badge relates to has already been closed, it is recommended that the Wood Badge is recorded in the Ongoing Learning section of the member’s training profile to ensure that it is still recorded somewhere on their record. Any details of the Wood Badge which are known, such as the role, Wood Badge date and Wood Badge number, should be recorded in the notes section of the Ongoing Learning record and the related module should be left blank. Guidance on how to add Ongoing Learning can be found in the user guide: Adding Ongoing Learning to a Single Member.

  • Adding details of training completed before the introduction of the modular scheme

It is recommended that any details held locally of training completed before the modular scheme was introduced are added to the Ongoing Learning section of members’ training record. This will ensure that the information is recorded on their record for future reference. Any details of the courses completed, such as course dates or modules completed in a particular course, can be included in the notes section of the Ongoing Learning record. Guidance on how to add Ongoing Learning can be found in the user guide: Adding Ongoing Learning to a Single Member.

 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

In the previous membership management system (MMS), Wood Badges were not linked to specific roles on members’ records. For example, a member could complete the training for a Cub Scout Leader Wood Badge without holding a Cub Scout Leader role. There were also no checks in MMS to make sure that the date entered for a Wood Badge matched to a role.

However, in Compass all Wood Badges must be linked to a specific role in order to be recommended. Therefore, when the Wood Badge data was transferred from MMS to Compass, Wood Badges were mapped to the correct role type on a member’s record without looking at the role start and end dates.

This means that some members may find that they have a Wood Badge associated to a particular role that shows a date that is before the role start date or after the role end date. Whilst the dates may be inconsistent the Wood Badge is still correct for that role.

In order for a Wood Badge to be visible on Compass, the PLP must contain at least one validated module. For historical Wood Badges that were transferred from MMS, the details of the specific modules that had been completed to earn the Wood Badge was not always available.

If the module information was not available or the Wood Badge was not completed under the modular scheme, it was necessary to add a new module called “Wood Badge Pre-2014” to the PLP to ensure that the Wood Badge displays correctly on the member’s Compass record.

This module must not be deleted otherwise the Wood Badge information will no longer show on the member’s training record.

In the previous membership management system, MMS, modules and training courses were not recorded against a role whereas in Compass all modules must be associated with a specific role’s PLP. Therefore, if the ongoing learning module was not able to be matched to a PLP then it has been added to ongoing learning to ensure that it is still recorded on the members’ profile.

In the previous membership management system, MMS, Wood Badges were not recorded against a role whereas in Compass all Wood Badges must be associated with a specific role. Therefore, if a Wood Badge was not able to be matched to a role then it has been added to ongoing learning to ensure that it is still recorded on the members’ profile.

As part of the transfer of training data from the previous membership management system (MMS) to Compass, it was identified that there was insufficient data in MMS to be able to associate training courses and Wood Badges to particular roles. Therefore, in order to ensure that this historical training information was recorded on Compass the information was added into the Ongoing Learning section of members’ training records.

If the information that has been added as an Ongoing Learning record is incorrect it may be due to the fact that some of the data recorded in MMS was not accurately entered.

If you are aware that some of the information recorded on your profile is incorrect, you can add a new ongoing learning record to your profile with the correct information. Guidance on how to add a new Ongoing Learning record can be found in the user guide: Adding ongoing learning hours for a single member.

Once you have added the new ongoing learning record you can delete the incorrect one from your record.

Important note: once an Ongoing Learning record has been deleted the information cannot be retrieved so please take extra care when deleting the historical training information.

If you know that you previously had a Wood Badge recorded against a role but it is no longer showing it is likely to be due to there being no validated modules associated with the Wood Badge.

In order to for a Wood Badge to be visible on compass there needs to be at least one module recorded in the PLP for that role. If a role is closed and there were no validated modules recorded in the PLP then the PLP and the Wood Badge are removed from the training page of the members’ profile.

We are aware that there will be some members in this situation and we are looking to make these Wood Badges visible again by adding in a module that will allow the Wood Badge to be shown on Compass. In the meantime, if you have the details of the Wood Badge and would like to ensure that it is recorded somewhere on your record it can be added into the Ongoing Learning section at the bottom of the training record. Once we have made this fix to make the Wood Badge visible we will post information on the Compass Support Website Latest Updates page.