SOAR

SOAR now supports automated event mailing lists. When you create an event where you accept signups, the system can manage a mailing list for that event. Behind the scenes, SOAR keeps the list continuously updated as members register for events.

To use this capability, first enable the Signup feature for the event. Then fill out the "Automated Email List" section in the Signup Administration panel by checking the box and providing a mailing list name, such as "camporee2025". Once you've done that, authorized senders can send an email to camporee2025@yourdomain.mytroop.us (for example) and it will get routed to all registered attendees for the event.

Roster Import takes a CSV file in a particular format. If that CSV file was generated by Excel for MacOS, the user would see an error reported during the Verify or Import steps that the first row is missing from the CSV file.

This has been resolved, and Roster Import now works with CSV files from any source.

All MyGroup sites have been out of service since the 3/25/23 system-wide SOAR crash. Though we were able to bring MyTroop and MyPack sites online as quickly as possible, MyGroup has continued to remain offline until today.

We are now happy to announce that MyGroup is back online! Previous MyGroup sites have been restored and site owners have been notified via email.

As always, thank you for your patience as we worked through the myriad issues to bring MyGroup back to life. We are grateful for your ongoing support.

When the user clicked on the Scoutbook menu item to bring up Scoutbook, an error appeared due to an inability to connect to the Scoutbook server.

We've resolved that now, and clicking on the menu item brings up Scoutbook in a separate browser tab.

You can add or remove the Scoutbook menu item at any time by navigating to Administration > Control Panel > Features and checking the "Scoutbook Page" box.

Following the server crash on 3/25/23, Meridian Computing took ownership of SOAR and transitioned the system to completely new infrastructure. Today we completed beta testing and began the process of restoring all troop and pack websites in batches.

Thank you for your patience during the recent site outage. The transition of company ownership and service restoration took some time, and we are grateful to those who stuck with us. Don’t hesitate to get in touch if you see issues related to your website or have suggestions for future improvements.

And now... Welcome back, and enjoy your website!

SOAR Customers,

SSL server for vanity domains was restored at 6pm ET last night!

To fix the issue we ended up having to rework the whole creation process for all Vanity SSL certificates and recreate all Vanity SSL certificates. The provider has rate limits on number of certificates that can be created and with thousands of customers using Vanity domains that process took a long time to complete.

We have a number of items we will be double checking this weekend.

We apologize for the inconvenience and confusion this caused with a security warning showing up. There was never a security issue. Email also was not affected during this time.

SOAR Customers,

We are having an issue creating new SSL certificates for vanity domains (e.g. troopXXX.com). We thought we had the issue figured out last night. This morning it is clear that is not the case though.

Our provider that we use for SSL certificates made a change in their protocol and requirements last week. This is the root of the issue. We need to update our side and re-create all SSL certificates for vanity domains.

While we work that, we have forwarded all vanity domains to your SOAR .mytroop. or .mypack.us URLs to help alleviate the issue. Once at the SOAR .us domain everything will work as expected.

SOAR Customers,

Some of your members may be seeing a Security Warning (SSL) when accessing your SOAR scouting website. We wanted to provide you details on why it is occurring and options for them to address it.

This message DOES NOT affect the security of your SOAR website. It is just a warning message. Your SOAR website is still secured with SSL certificates even though a member might be getting a warning. This does not affect email features of your website.

When you access a website, your browser encrypts the data being sent and returned using a protocol called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). This is done to prevent eavesdropping on the information and stealing things like passwords and sensitive information.

In a recent update to Scoutbook they changed some of the fields in the Export format. For data privacy reasons they removed Gender, Middle Name, and Date of Birth fields from all Exports.

The DOB field disabled the SOAR Scoutbook Import feature because it is one of the primary fields used to verify matching upon import.

The good news is that Scoutbook added a new field to all Export formats - User ID. This is a unique identifier for each person in Scoutbook and will make matching members on future SOAR Scoutbook Imports much more exact.

We have updated the SOAR Scoutbook Import feature to work around the removal of Date of Birth and to add matching for User ID. The feature is now available again for customer use after a period of successful customer testing.

Adobe Flash technology is being discontinued. That technology powered a few of our Site Themes that provided custom fonts for use beyond standard web safe fonts.

We have upgrade those Site Themes to standard CSS fonts.

The one thing we couldn't do is a 1-1 matching on past font choices and new fonts.

If you are using one of the following Site Themes, you should go to Admin/Site Themes sections and select new choices for "SIFR" fonts for your site. They will default to a common font until then.

• Three Column Fixed SIFR
• Two Column Rounded SIFR
• Fun Logo (Packs only)