This document shows the functionality of the Awards Shopping List and Court of Honor Report within the Advancement section of Trail Life Connect, and how both can be used for successful Awards ceremonies.

 

 

Leaders who have roles with permissions to track Advancement in Trail Life Connect will also find two helpful reports under the Advancement link on the left menu:  the “Awards Shopping List” and “Court of Honor Report.”  These two reports work in conjunction with tracking Advancement progress/completion and will help to ensure a well planned and successful Court of Honor.

 

Awards Shopping List

The “Awards Shopping List” is designed to be a comprehensive list of every award that needs to be purchased for the next scheduled Court of Honor.  When tracking Advancement within Trail Life Connect, as soon as a Trailman completes all of the requirements for a particular award, badge, or rank advancement, that item will populate to the “Awards Shopping List.”  

 

 

Each item will be listed with its corresponding name, the quantity needed, who completed the item, and what date it was completed on.  For the column of “Quantity Needed,” the items appear in one of two ways:  either with a shopping cart icon beneath the quantity (example below,) or a message directing to “see summary” (example above.)

 

  • Items with a shopping cart icon
    For the items that display a shopping cart beneath the quantity, you can click the shopping cart icon. This action will open a new browser tab, linking you directly to the Trail Life USA online store and adding the quantity needed for that particular item directly into the store shopping cart. As you continue to click additional shopping cart icons, they will be added to the overall cart as you build the full list of what needs to be purchased.*


     
  • Items with the message “(see summary)”
     The individually listed items directing you to see the summary are items that are sold in bulk quantities in the store (typically quantities of 10 or 25, etc.)  The summary of these items appears at the bottom of the Shopping List page.  Next to the quantity summary is a link icon that can also be clicked, which will open a new browser tab, linking you directly to that item in the Trail Life USA online store.*  At this point, you will make the decision regarding which bulk option to add to your cart that will provide you with the total quantity needed in order to deliver the awards to each of your Trailmen.


 

*Note:  On the “Awards Shopping List” page, each click of either a shopping cart icon or summary link icon will open a new tab for the Trail Life USA online store.  Without managing the open tabs as you click through, this could eventually result in 20-50 open tabs in your browser window, which may be difficult to navigate.  As a best practice, it is helpful to keep only one extra tab open at a time.  Upon clicking your first item, you will see the first new tab open.  When clicking the second item you will see an additional tab open.  At this point, click to close the first tab that had opened and repeat the process with successive clicks.  The cart will continue to save your progress and grow with the items you add as you progress through the list.

 

After purchasing all of the needed awards, be sure to click the corresponding check box in the “Purchased” column, then scroll to the bottom and click the blue button to “Mark Selected as Purchased.”  For faster results, if you have ordered/purchased everything from the list, you can click the “Check All” box at the top of the column to mark every item as purchased.

 

 

Performing this important task will result in three actions:

 

  1. The item(s) will be cleared from the “Awards Shopping List.”  The purpose, then, is to indicate that you no longer need to purchase the item(s).  If you are purchasing all awards, then your “Awards Shopping List” will be blank after marking all items as purchased and clicking the button to submit.
  2. The corresponding Trailmen’s records under Track Advancement will be updated, with the “Purchased” box now checked for the award items you purchased.
  3. The “Court of Honor Report” will also reflect a check mark in the “Purchased” column as another visual indication that the item has been purchased.

 

*A caution regarding the various “Purchased” check boxes:  when you check the “Purchased” box in any of the above 3 locations (“Awards Shopping List,” Advancement Tracking item, “Court of Honor Report”) it will be updated in all 3 locations.  The caution would be this:  if “Purchased” was inadvertently checked on the Advancement Tracking record, then the item would not appear on the shopping list and the actual purchase of that item could be missed.

 

The “Awards Shopping List” page can also be printed, if you wish, by clicking the printer icon in the upper right above the list.  Printing the list would provide you with a paper copy to potentially use instead as you visit the online Store and add the various items into your shopping cart.

 

 

Court of Honor Report

The “Court of Honor Report” is designed to be a guide as you recognize your various Trailmen for their accomplishments at your upcoming Court of Honor, or Awards ceremony.  Different from the “Awards Shopping List,” this report is organized by Trailman – listing each by name and level, and then including all of the badges or awards he has earned since the last Court of Honor.  The ‘Completed On’ and ‘Purchased’ columns are provided primarily for informational purposes.  (As a reminder, if an item displays as not purchased, marking it here and submitting the change will also mark it as purchased on the Trailman’s Advancement Tracking record as well as the “Awards Shopping List.”)

 

The “Court of Honor Report” can display everyone (default) or be filtered to only show Woodlands Trail, or Navigators & Adventurers.  The report can also be printed using the print icon in the upper right of the screen so you can have a physical copy to use during the Court of Honor ceremony.

 

 

 

 

After your Court of Honor is completed (or during the ceremony by someone with a device,) you should check the ‘Awarded’ box next to each Badge/Award that has been awarded to the Trailman.  Within the report and the Trail Life Connect system, “awarded” means they were recognized and physically given their earned award(s.)  The current date will always display by default in the ‘Awarded Date’ column.  If the report is being updated after the ceremony, be sure the correct dates are displayed for when the Trailmen were provided with their respective awards prior to submitting.  Each ‘Awarded’ column item can be checked individually, or the check box at the top of the column can be clicked to mark all check boxes for that particular Trailman.  When all of the relevant items are checked as ‘Awarded,’ navigate to the bottom of the page to click the button titled “Mark Selected as Purchased/Awarded.”  This will submit the changes and result in two actions:

 

  1. The items will be cleared from the “Court of Honor Report.”  The purpose, then, is to indicate that the corresponding Trailmen have been recognized and received their awards.  (If all Trailmen are present at your Court of Honor, and everyone is recognized and given their awards, the “Court of Honor Report” will be blank after submitting the changes.)
  2. The corresponding Trailmen’s records under Track Advancement will be updated, with the “Awarded On” field now containing the date when the award was given to the Trailman.

 

*A caution regarding the awarded dates:  when you enter and submit an awarded date in any of the above 2 locations (“Court of Honor Report,” Advancement Tracking record) it will be updated in both locations.  The caution would be this:  if an “Awarded On” date was inadvertently entered on the Advancement Tracking record, then the item would not appear on the “Court of Honor Report” and the recognition and delivery of that item could be missed.

 

For any Trailmen who were not present for the scheduled Court of Honor, this report can serve as a reminder list of the individual Trailmen who still need to be recognized and given their earned awards.  Once all of the items have been awarded, the report is cleared and will be blank.  As Trailmen continue to progress through their respective programs, the report will begin populating again as they earn further badges and awards; preparing the Troop for the next Court of Honor.

 

 

 

Also mentioned in the Help Menu document for “Tracking and Recording Advancement Progress,” the best order of operations to use when approaching a Court of Honor would be:

  1. Make sure any/all Advancement Tracking completion information has been entered and is up-to-date.
  2. Use the “Awards Shopping List” to order all the completed awards you’ll need; on the Shopping List page, mark items as ‘Purchased’ after you’ve purchased them (clearing out the Shopping List.)  The Trailman’s Advancement Tracking record and the “Court of Honor Report” will reflect the check mark in the “Purchased” box.
  3. Use the “Court of Honor Report” as your script/guide for the evening (it is printable.)  After the ceremony, mark the ‘Awarded On’ date on the “Court of Honor Report” for all awards that were recognized and delivered.  This will also populate, and be reflected on, the Trailman’s Advancement Tracking record.