Parent & Leader Communication
Troop Updates That Send Themselves
Signup approvals, trip changes, new charges, overdue-balance reminders — Sites for Scouts emails the right families automatically the moment something happens. No announcement to draft, no list to maintain, and no wondering whether anyone hit send.
Free 30-day trial · No credit card required
You've Become the Troop's Human Reminder Service
Every trip change means drafting another announcement, and every overdue balance means writing another awkward reminder — then wondering who actually read it. Details get re-typed into announcements, sign-up sheets, and reply-all threads, and the one family who missed the message shows up at the wrong trailhead. You volunteered to mentor scouts, not to spend your evenings doing all the reminding.
Trip & Signup Emails
Approvals and Alerts, Sent the Moment They Happen
Every important moment in the troop already triggers the right email — you never draft a thing. A parent requests a trip signup and the trip managers hear about it. A leader approves it and the family hears about it. The notification is wired into the action itself, so nothing depends on a volunteer remembering to hit send.
- Parents get an email the moment their scout's trip signup is approved, with a link to the trip
- Trip managers are alerted when a new signup request comes in — participant names included
- Cancellation requests go straight to the assigned trip managers
- Refund notices go to troop admins, keeping a clean paper trail
- New members get an activation email, then a welcome email with their login and dashboard links
- More than 40 built-in email templates cover account and trip events — nothing to write or configure
- Every email arrives from your troop's name, so families recognize it instantly
Trip Change Notices
Edit a Trip Five Times, Families Get One Email
Trip details never come out right on the first save — the departure time shifts, then the packing list, then the meeting spot. Sites for Scouts waits 15 minutes after your last edit and sends one consolidated heads-up instead of an email per keystroke. Families stay informed without learning to ignore your emails.
- Editing trip details automatically queues a 'trip updated' notice to enrolled families
- A built-in 15-minute batching window resets with each new edit, so one editing session means one email
- The newest edit always supersedes older pending notices — nobody gets stale information
- Each notice links straight to the trip page, so families always see the current details
- Only families with approved signups are notified — no noise for anyone else
Money Emails
Overdue-Balance Reminders That Don't Quit
Chasing money is the volunteer job nobody signed up for. Once a week, the system checks every scout account and emails the guardians of any account that owes — and it keeps reminding, week after week, until the balance is cleared. Your troop's payment instructions ride along inside every financial email, so parents always know exactly how to pay.
- Weekly reminders go to every guardian on a scout account with a balance owed
- Reminders repeat until the balance clears, then stop on their own — no list for the treasurer to maintain
- A built-in cooldown prevents duplicate reminders, even if the schedule fires early
- Your payment instructions — Venmo, Zelle, check, whatever your troop uses — are embedded in every financial email
- Charge and credit emails show the amount and the account's new balance, with a note explaining why
- Posting, transferring, or bulk-importing transactions notifies the affected families automatically
The Right People
Every Update Reaches the Right People — and Only Them
Emails are targeted by role and by family connection. Admins get admin notices, trip managers get their trips, and parents only ever hear about their own scouts. Both guardians on an account receive each notice, and recipient lists are de-duplicated so nobody gets two copies of the same email.
- Notices target exactly who's involved: troop admins, leaders, trip managers, or the guardians connected to one specific scout
- Every guardian connected to a scout's account gets the email — both parents stay in the loop
- Recipient lists are de-duplicated, so no one receives the same notice twice
- New-signup and cancellation alerts go to that trip’s managers, not every leader
- Password and email-change confirmations go to the member, so account changes never happen silently
- Role changes, new members, and family connections each trigger their own notice to the right audience
Incoming Questions
Contact Form Questions, All in One Place
Your troop website includes a contact form, so prospective families and current parents can always reach the troop. Every submission is emailed to your troop's admins and collected on a Messages page in the dashboard — name, email, phone, and the full message together — so a question never dies in one volunteer's personal inbox.
- Built-in contact form on every troop website
- Submissions collect on a Messages page inside the troop dashboard
- Each message shows the sender's name, email, and phone — with click-to-email and click-to-call links
- Mark messages read or delete them once handled; unread messages stand out
- Form notifications route to your troop's admin emails automatically
- Access is permission-gated: admins see messages by default and can grant access to a trusted leader
Who It Helps
What Everyone Gets
For Scoutmasters & Trip Leaders
- Approve a signup and the family is emailed instantly — you never send a confirmation by hand
- New signup and cancellation requests land in your email with participant names attached
- Edit trip details freely — families get one batched notice, not one email per save
- Nothing to configure: notifications are on from day one, wired to the actions themselves
For Parents
- An email the moment your scout's trip signup is approved
- A heads-up whenever trip details change, with a link to the current plan
- A notice for every charge or credit on your scout's account, showing the new balance
- Both guardians receive every notice — no relaying between parents
- A welcome email with your login link the day you're added to the troop
For the Treasurer
- Weekly overdue-balance reminders chase money for you until the balance clears
- Your payment instructions appear in every financial email, so parents always know how to pay
- Posting or importing transactions notifies families automatically — no follow-up email to write
- Refund notices go to admins, so the money story keeps a paper trail
Coming Soon: In-App Messaging & Forums
Today, Sites for Scouts communication is automatic email — on purpose, because email is the one channel every family already checks. Next, we're building in-app messaging and forums: communication between leaders, parents, and scouts right inside the platform, so you can ditch the group texts and email chains for good. It's not here yet — but you can help shape it by telling us what your troop needs.
Frequently Asked Questions
No — and that's the point. Every notification is wired to the event that triggers it: approve a signup and the family is emailed, post a charge and the guardians are notified. There are no notification settings screens to manage. You can watch it work during the free 30-day trial — everything here is included in the one plan.
No. Trip-detail edits are batched: the system waits 15 minutes after your last save before emailing families, and every new edit resets the timer. Tweak the departure time, the packing list, and the meeting spot in one sitting, and enrolled families get a single 'trip updated' email linking to the current details.
Not yet — online payments aren't live. What the reminder does include is your troop's own payment instructions (Venmo, Zelle, check — whatever you configure in Site Settings), so parents know exactly how to pay, and your treasurer records the payment when it arrives. Online parent payments by card or bank transfer are in active development and releasing soon.
Not today — there are no per-user notification preferences yet. In practice the volume stays low and relevant because every email is tied to something that directly involves that family: their scout's signup, their account's balance, a trip they're actually on. Parents never receive notices about other families' scouts.
Not yet. There's no in-app messaging today — that's a Coming Soon feature we're actively planning. Right now, communication flows two ways: the system emails families automatically when things happen, and anyone can reach the troop through the website's contact form, with submissions collected on the admins' Messages page.
Every guardian connected to that scout's account. Connect both parents — or a grandparent who handles payments — and each of them gets every approval, charge, and reminder for that scout, no relaying required. Recipient lists are de-duplicated, so nobody ever gets two copies of the same notice.
Keep Exploring
It All Works Together
Ready to Simplify Your Troop Management?
Trade the spreadsheets and email chains for one simple platform. Set up in under 5 minutes.